A rendering of a planned expansion of the Eldridge Hotel in the 700 block of Massachusetts.

It looks like one of downtown’s major expansion projects won’t be happening after all — at least not anytime soon. Plans to expand the historic Eldridge Hotel at Seventh and Massachusetts streets have been scrapped for the time being.

I had heard recently that the hotel ownership group had notified some city officials that plans for an approximately 50-room expansion of the hotel, and the addition of new banquet and restaurant space had been put on hold. Nancy Longhurst, general manager of the hotel, now has confirmed as much.

“At this point, the owners of The Eldridge have made the decision not to proceed currently on the expansion project,” she told me via e-mail. “We look forward to investing in this project in the future.”

A rendering of a planned expansion of the Eldridge Hotel in the 700 block of Massachusetts.

That means a vacant lot on Massachusetts Street will continue to exist for awhile. Plans called for the hotel to expand into a gravel lot just south of the hotel.

Longhurst didn’t provide any comments on why the ownership group — which is led by the Lawrence Fritzel family — decided to cancel the expansion plans. She also didn’t provide a timeline for when the group may once again consider an expansion project.

photo by: Nick Gerik

A backhoe digs small holes in the vacant lot between 715 Restaurant and The Eldridge Hotel, Monday, Aug. 24, 2015.

This is at least the second time that the hotel has scrapped expansion plans. In fact, it is proving to be easier to rebuild the hotel than to expand it. If you recall, many people consider The Eldridge to be the most historic hotel in Kansas because it — technically it was called the Free State Hotel at that time — was burned down by William Quantrill during the Civil War, but was rebuilt and became a bit of a symbol of Lawrence’s undying Free State spirit.

The ownership group in 2010 filed plans to build an expansion into the lot south of the hotel. But the ownership group ultimately decided not to proceed with that project.

It is a bit surprising, though, that this latest project is not moving forward. The project had won major city approvals, including a close vote of the City Commission to issue industrial revenue bonds, which would allow the project to receive about $400,000 in rebates on sales taxes paid on construction materials. During that IRB debate in October, the development group told the city it already had contracted for $3 million to $3.5 million worth of construction materials for the project. So, based on that statement, it seemed that the project was pretty well committed.

Certainly, though, the project may move forward at some point. Unlike in previous years, the hotel development group now owns the vacant lot south of the hotel. So, a project likely could be restarted fairly quickly. Previous plans approved by the city, however, do have an expiration date. So it would be likely that any new project would have to go through the entire city approval process again. I’ll have to do some more checking on what happens to the industrial revenue bond approval. Those bonds were only to be used as a method to get the sales tax rebate, so it would seem to be moot at this point. If I find out differently, I’ll let you know.

In other news and notes from around town:

Douglas County is once again a leader when it comes to population growth in Kansas.

The Census Bureau recently released its population estimates for 2015, and they show that during the prior 12-month period, Douglas County grew faster than the other urban counties in the state. All figures are from July 1, 2014 to July 1, 2015. Here’s a look:

• Douglas County: 118,053 up 1.3 percent

• Johnson County: 580,159 up 1.0 percent

• Riley County: 75,247 up 0.7 percent

• Shawnee County: 178,725 up 0.1 percent

• Sedgwick County: 511,574 up 0.4 percent

• Wyandotte County: 163,369 up 0.7 percent

The more interesting numbers, though, are the growth rates since the 2010 Census. Douglas County’s population growth struggled during the last decade. Those struggles continued in the early part of this decade. But the county’s population growth has picked up over the last couple of years, and now Douglas County is right there with Johnson County as the fastest growing urban county in the state. Here’s a look at the growth since the 2010 Census:

• Douglas County: up 7,227 people, up 6.5 percent

• Johnson County: up 35,980 people, up 6.6 percent

• Riley County: up 4,132 people, up 5.8 percent

• Sedgwick County: up 13,209 people, up 2.6 percent

• Shawnee County: up 791 people, up 0.4 percent

• Wyandotte County: up 5,864 people, up 3.7 percent

Looking ahead, Douglas County is on pace to add about 15,000 people during the decade, and to post a growth rate of 13 percent. If that pace holds true for the rest of the decade, it would be a nice bounce-back for the county. In the decade of the 2000s, Douglas County grew by just 10.9 percent. That was the slowest growth rate for the county since the 1930s.

Now, a growth rate of 13 percent would not be fantastic in historic terms. During the 1990s, the county grew by 22.2 percent and during the 1980s by 20.9 percent. But I think community leaders — especially those in real estate — would be pleased by any type of rebound. The fact that Douglas County is near the top of the list in terms of growth also is important. Kansas as a whole is not growing well. There is little that Douglas County by itself can do to reverse those statewide issues. But what growth does happen in Kansas, I think community leaders want to see a good portion of it happen here. These latest numbers indicate the county is faring well in that regard.

Smaller counties surrounding Douglas County are not doing as well. Here’s a look at growth rates over the last year:

• Franklin County: 25,609, down by less than 0.1 percent

• Jefferson County: 18,930, up 0.4 percent

• Leavenworth County: 79,315, up 0.6 percent

• Osage County: 15,847, down by 0.6 percent

If you are wondering how much Lawrence itself grew, or other cities, we’ll have to wait a bit longer to get that information. The Census Bureau will release population estimates for the cities this summer.

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