photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

Construction workers at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.

The University of Kansas is advancing a roughly $300 million redevelopment project centered around its football stadium, and Douglas County commissioners will hear about its progress along with next steps on Wednesday.

County commissioners will hear a presentation on the KU Gateway Project – a redevelopment project at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, located at 11th and Mississippi Streets. In August, KU will be wrapping up phase one of the project, which included a rebuilding of the west and north ends of the football stadium and the addition of a conference/convention center to the site. The cost to complete this part of the project is $448 million.

KU is preparing to launch the second phase of the project, which is estimated to cost $325.9 million. This phase involves the university partnering with a private developer to construct a 162-room hotel, 443 beds of student housing, 43,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space and around 1,000 parking spaces located in a mix of underground parking garages and new surface parking lots.

Last week, city commissioners voted to create two key taxing districts — a STAR Bond district and a tax increment financing district for phase two of the project. This is the first time a STAR bond has been used in Lawrence, and it allows new sales taxes that are collected at the stadium — and also at nearly all Lawrence campus locations — to be directed toward the costs of building infrastructure for the Gateway project. The votes led to the two parties signing a memorandum of understanding, outlining KU’s contributions to city projects.

To garner city support, KU and its development partners have offered to pay nearly $20 million to additional city projects. This includes at least $4 million in land, potentially for affordable housing, offered by KU or the KU Endowment Association, and $14.5 million from a private developer to fund improvements to the Ninth Street corridor and nearby stormwater systems.

KU officials say that the project will not use general university funds, and the proposed contributions to city projects align with a broader vision to deliver community-wide economic benefits.

In addition, a third taxing district — a Community Improvement District — that would create a new 2% special sales tax for all purchases made at the stadium and on the KU campus still must be agreed to. That item also is expected to come to the City Commission in July and August.

In other business, county commissioners will:

* Consider approving a comprehensive plan amendment to Plan 2040 – a joint plan with the county and City of Lawrence outlining a vision for the future of the community. The amendment revises the future land use designation for 909 and 913 Tennessee St. to high-density residential.

* Hold a work session with the Public Works department. In the first quarter of 2025, county departments have been providing an overview of their operations and services to the county commissioners.

The County Commission’s work session will begin at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Douglas County Commission meeting room at 1100 Massachusetts St. The business meeting will follow at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will also be available via Zoom.