photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The building at 714 Vermont St. is pictured on Friday, June 5, 2026.

Tech firm Alarm.com is seeking incentives from the City of Lawrence to redevelop a building on Vermont Street into its new office space, and the City Commission will consider the request next week.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the commission will consider two incentives requested by Alarm.com for its project at 714 Vermont St.: a Neighborhood Revitalization Area property tax rebate, and Industrial Revenue Bonds for a sales tax exemption on construction materials.

Alarm.com, which employs almost 40 people in Lawrence right now, is planning to expand its workforce by about 30 employees in the future, and it’s investing about $2.5 million to renovate the Vermont Street building to accommodate this growth. The building, which most recently housed the Climb Lawrence rock climbing gym, will provide about 13,000 square feet of space.

The property tax rebate would only apply to the increase in assessed property value from the redevelopment, and the city says the existing tax base would remain in place. Alarm.com had originally requested a 95% property tax rebate for a period of 15 years. But city staff, after evaluating the request, is instead recommending an 80% property tax rebate for 10 years.

Staff estimates that the city’s portion of the rebate would total approximately $162,000 over a 10-year period, but the actual amount would depend on the property’s future assessed valuation and the city’s property tax rate.

The Industrial Revenue Bonds for a sales tax exemption on construction materials, meanwhile, are estimated to have an impact of $4,100 on the city’s sales taxes.

Alarm.com is a publicly traded company that specializes in “smart home” technology. As the Journal-World has reported, the company had its first presence in Lawrence in 2019 with just three employees, and then opened an office in 2021 in the second-floor space above the Sylas and Maddy’s Ice Cream shop at 11th and Massachusetts streets.

Before it decided on the Vermont Street site, the company was considering the former Journal-World printing facility at the north end of Massachusetts Street as a potential headquarters site. It was even in talks with the City of Lawrence at one point about possibly sharing that building, but after it decided to switch locations, the city moved to purchase the printing plant building as a possible City Hall annex.

A report to the commission from city staff notes that the Vermont Street property has historic significance. The building was constructed around 1948, it says, and was once the University Ford sales building; it “remains one of the few surviving examples of its building type within the downtown area, as other automobile dealership buildings from the same period have either been demolished or substantially altered.”

When Alarm.com does add its new positions, expect them to be high-paying tech jobs. A report to the commission from city staff says average salaries are expected at $90,000.

The Lawrence City Commission meets at 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.