This aerial view taken Thursday, April 2, 2015, shows the construction work being done on a large apartment complex just east of Kansas University's Memorial Stadium. The 5 million complex being built by Chicago-based HERE, LLC will include more than 600 bedrooms.

The idea of fancy and 935 Massachusetts Street long have gone together in my book. If you remember, 935 Mass is the former home of Jayhawk Spirit, and my wife once got a bedazzled Jayhawk T-shirt there that is so fancy I still have to wear a welding helmet to look at it. Well, soon, the location will be all about selling fancy apartments. The company that is building the $75 million multi-story luxury apartment building across from Kansas University’s Memorial Stadium has signed a deal to locate its rental office at 935 Mass.

HERE Kansas, LLC has filed plans at Lawrence City Hall to remodel the former T-shirt shop into a rental office for its apartment project. Jim Heffernan, a partner on the HERE project, said he expects to have the rental office open in the next few months. Heffernan said the amount of construction underway at the apartment site, just north of the Kansas Union and across the street from the football stadium, made it impossible to have a leasing office on location. So, downtown Lawrence seemed like the logical choice, he said.

This aerial view taken Thursday, April 2, 2015, shows the construction work being done on a large apartment complex just east of Kansas University's Memorial Stadium. The 5 million complex being built by Chicago-based HERE, LLC will include more than 600 bedrooms.

Heffernan said the project is proceeding well. Plans call for the apartments to be ready to lease by July 2016. Heffernan said the project is a little more than halfway done with its pier work. He expects to start building vertically in the next month or so. If you haven’t driven by the site lately, go take a look. Heffernan said it shows how challenging the site is to redevelop. The site has about six stories of fall from its peak to its base. The project received significant financial incentives from the city, in part because of the difficulty of redeveloping the site.

As a reminder, the project will include 239 apartments. They’ll be a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units, with a total of 624 new bedrooms. At it highest point, the project will be seven stories tall. Heffernan previously has described the project as an upscale apartment project that will include a lot of high-grade finishes, pools, garden areas and other amenities. The project will be the first in the area to use an automated parking garage. Residents will pull into the parking garage on site, deposit their vehicle in an elevator-like structure, and then exit the car. The automated garage then will lift the vehicle to the appropriate level and use a system of tracks and other devices to place the vehicle in the appropriate spot.

In addition, the project will include about 13,000 square feet of commercial space. Some restaurant uses certainly are anticipated for the project, but Heffernan said the project also is looking for some other uses that will benefit both students and the general neighborhood.

“We’re in some very preliminary discussion with people interested in the commercial space now that they can see the site a little better,” Heffernan said.

A view from 11th and Indiana streets.

A view looking down Mississippi Street and down 11th Street. A portion of The Oread hotel is in the background.

In other news and notes from around town:

• The latest ridership numbers are in for Lawrence’s public transit system. A little more than 1.1 million rides were provided on the city-funded T bus system in 2014, according to a new report from City Hall. That’s an increase of 4.5 percent from 2013. It also continues a trend of increasing ridership since 2008, when the city began coordinating bus routes with the KU bus system. Since 2008, ridership has grown from about 400,000 rides.

The new numbers show the city’s NightLine bus service also is growing. The city in 2013 started a system where people could call ahead during daytime hours to schedule a bus to pick them up between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday. The system was designed to serve third shift workers and others who had regular needs for late-night bus service. The report found that the service provided 14,462 rides in its first full year of operation. Month-over-month numbers showed steady increases in ridership. For example, when the program began in June 2013, ridership for the month was about 600. In June 2014 it had grown to about 1,200.

The new report also highlights a couple of new programs that were launched in 2014. The system rolled out a new GPS program that allows transit passengers to send a text message to the system and find out exactly when their bus will arrive at a specific location. The city also in 2014 reached deals with Dillons and Hy-Vee stores to begin selling bus passes.

It will be interesting to watch the transit system in 2015. The big project facing the system is a new transit hub. Bus system leaders have proposed moving the transit hub — the place where buses congregate and transfers are often made — from downtown to a spot near 21st and Iowa streets.

But the political environment may be shifting. Incoming commissioners Stuart Boley and Matthew Herbert both expressed concerns during the campaign about that proposed location, saying they thought a hub should be at more of a destination location. That could mean other locations downtown would be considered, or perhaps some other commercial areas in other parts of the city. Currently, the hub is across the street from the library, but transit leaders have expressed concern about that location being cramped. They’ve liked the 21st and Iowa area because it is on ground already owned by the Kansas University Endowment Association, and it would allow the hub to be near the KU campus.