photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall, background, and the former Journal-World printing facility, foreground, are pictured Thursday, May 28, 2026, in downtown Lawrence.

To solve its space crunch at City Hall, the City of Lawrence is now planning to purchase the former Journal-World printing facility just across the street.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider authorizing Acting City Manager Casey Toomay to purchase the building at 609 New Hampshire and 603 Massachusetts streets for use as a City Hall annex. According to the commission’s meeting agenda, staff has already negotiated and signed a purchase agreement; the commission’s approval is just the final step.

The agreement would offer $2.1 million for the facility in “as-is” condition, and would provide a 60-day “due diligence period” to engage with employees and prepare the title and closing paperwork. If the commission approves, the goal is to close the purchase by June 20.

(Note: The Journal-World no longer owns or has any financial interest in the building.)

If the city purchases the 57,000-square-foot building, it will take millions more to convert it into an annex for City Hall. The city is currently estimating it will cost $21 million to renovate the building, and that the plans for the renovation, which could take place in stages, would be shared at a future date.

A presentation attached to the agenda does say parts of the building are in disrepair, including the roof, which would need to be “fully replaced down to the roof deck.” Most of the windows and the HVAC system would also need to be replaced, and the building would need all new interior finishes, as it is currently a shell.

The conversation about space at City Hall has been going on for years. According to the City Commission’s meeting agenda, City Hall is currently about 35,500 square feet, but the city ideally needs 53,000 square feet to accommodate all of its employees and functions.

In 2024 the City Commission rejected a proposal to purchase a building on Bluffs Drive for a new city hall. Commissioners at the time said City Hall should stay downtown rather than move to the Bluffs site near Sixth and Iowa streets.

After the commission rejected that, the agenda materials say, staff started looking for locations in downtown that could provide more space. The city and architecture firm Multistudio put together a shortlist of properties, and they found that the printing plant site would have “the best combination of size, condition, and location while supporting the City Commission’s direction to remain downtown.”

Other buildings examined were the Reuter building on New Hampshire Street, the former Borders building and the former Riverfront Mall building, according to the presentation. The city is slated to take control of the latter building in 2027 as part of a lawsuit settlement, but the presentation says it would require significant foundation repairs and electrical and mechanical work. It also says Riverfront has much more space than the city actually needs, and using it “would limit alternative public uses” for the site.

There is enough money to purchase the printing plant building in the 2026 budget, and the money has already been set aside for City Hall reconfiguration, the agenda materials said.

As the Journal-World reported, several attempts have been made to redevelop the long-vacant building in recent years. Most recently, tech firm Alarm.com decided it no longer wanted to use the printing plant building as its new headquarters in February and chose to pursue the project at a different downtown building instead.

In other business, the commission will:

• Receive a report from human resources consulting firm McGrath on the city’s employee compensation and consider implementing salary adjustments for 2027. The commission’s meeting agenda says McGrath is recommending a 2.5% increase to the employee pay schedule for 2027 after studying how the city’s pay compares to other municipalities in the region. The report from McGrath was not attached to the commission’s meeting agenda as of Thursday evening, but the agenda materials say the 2.5% recommended increase to the pay scale is estimated to be $2.7 million.

“This item is not in the 2027 budget, as the 2027 budget is currently under development,” the agenda materials read.

• Receive a presentation on the city’s Affordable Housing Study and provide feedback.

• Hear additional information from staff on the 2027 budget. The agenda materials released Thursday did not specify what the additional information was.

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