photo by: Rochelle Valverde

The Santa Fe train station, at Seventh and New Jersey streets, is pictured Jan. 4, 2019.

Story updated at 4:49 p.m. Wednesday:

The recently restored Santa Fe train depot could soon have an additional use, though city leaders acknowledged the potential tenant is not exactly what they had imagined.

The City of Lawrence put out a request for proposals last spring for a currently unused space in the depot, which the city restored last year, and received two tenant proposals. The city had been hoping for a tenant that would complement the depot’s ongoing use as a train station or potentially serve passengers, but the proposals submitted were for a local museum exhibit and an office space.

As part of their meeting Tuesday, commissioners expressed interest in the office space proposal from Kern Marketing Group, which includes a financial commitment to help finish the unrestored area that would house the office. Though commissioners voiced some disappointment that the office use did not complement the station use as they’d hoped, they said getting a tenant for the station was important.

“I think that we had fantasized around ideas of a bike shop, some kind of hub for the (Lawrence Loop) trail, or a coffee shop or something like that, but (this proposal) is what we have,” Mayor Jennifer Ananda said. “And I think that if we think about the cost of finishing out that space, it could be really prohibitive for some of those more funky locations that we were thinking about.”

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway owns the land the station sits on but donated the building, at Seventh and New Jersey streets, to the city. The unfinished area of the station is about 1,500 square feet and was previously an office for the railway. Kern Marketing Group proposes funding 80% of the cost to improve the space, according to the proposal. The company would occupy the space during regular office hours.

photo by: City of Lawrence

The 687-square-foot freight office at the Santa Fe train station is seen in these photos from a City of Lawrence report.

Other commissioners agreed that it was important that the proposal would finish out the space and meet the city’s goal of establishing a secondary use for the building, which is only used twice per day as a train station. The Amtrak train stops in Lawrence at 11:49 p.m. and 5:09 a.m. The station is also near the proposed route of the Lawrence Loop, and Commissioner Stuart Boley said he would also like to ensure the station’s bathroom and water fountain were open to people using the trail.

“Providing amenities along the loop could be very important to how people are able to use it,” Boley said.

The other proposal was for the space to house the Kansas Riverkings Museum, an exhibit for river-related artifacts and history. Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard said the museum’s proposal did not include funds to enhance the former office space and that city staff had concerns because the proposal didn’t offer any staffing for the space. Stoddard also noted that the museum also recently expressed interest in using space in the former Union Pacific Depot in North Lawrence to house the museum.

A city-commissioned appraisal of the space established a market lease rate of $1,250 per month or $15,000 per year, according to a city staff memo to the commission. The city notes that a market-rate lease would require a change in the taxable status of the station, and the new rate would require the city to pay about $8,000 per year.

Commissioners directed city staff to begin negotiating a lease with Kern Marketing Group. Though details aren’t yet worked out, Stoddard said the idea is that Kern would be responsible for the property taxes. She also said a portion of the money Kern pays toward the improvements to the space could potentially defray the monthly rent charged. Stoddard said those details would be determined as part of the proposed lease, which would come back to the commission for review at a later date.

In other business, the commission voted unanimously to authorize City Manager Craig Owens to start interviewing for a senior-level manager to serve as the city’s director of equity and inclusion. The position’s salary would likely range from $100,000 to $125,000 a year, as the Journal-World previously reported.