photo by: Courtesy: Kansas Board of Regents

I remember years ago when I covered the news that Garmin — the highly successful, publicly traded GPS company headquartered in Johnson County — had opened an office in the business incubator space on KU’s West Campus.

Garmin may need a few things (like a less judgmental voice when I very, very rarely make a wrong turn), but it certainly doesn’t need to be incubated. Instead, the technology company was willing to locate jobs in KU’s incubator center because it wanted to be close to KU students and researchers.

I remember walking away from the interview thinking: “So, this is what it feels like to pedal downhill.” No one had to make a hard sell to Garmin to locate in Lawrence. Instead, it basically came asking because being close to young talent is really important to a company like Garmin.

Now, years later, there are signs KU is seriously interested in building a bigger hill.

Chancellor Douglas Girod and other KU leaders have been publicly talking about early-stage plans to build new office buildings on KU Endowment-owned land near 23rd and Iowa streets. Plus, KU Endowment is expressing strong interest in adding small-scale retail and some housing to the property to make a “work, live, play” type of environment. The bet is that those amenities will help the KU project — dubbed the KU Innovation Park — stand out from other locations looking to attract valuable companies and job-producers.

“I think it really puts you on a different level of playing field that you can attract not only regional companies, but national industry partners too,” Dale Seuferling, president of KU Endowment, told me.

Think of the Garmin project, which resulted in a fairly small office locating on KU’s west campus. With a project designed to attract those types of companies, the results may be bigger.

“Some of them would take a bigger space or a bigger piece of the pie,” Seuferling said. “Maybe they would lease an entire floor of a building. Maybe instead of four or five employees, it would be 40 or 50 employees.”

In fact, Girod recently told members of the Kansas Board of Regents that he thinks the KU Innovation Park could be home to about 2,500 employees, based on what other communities like Ames, Iowa, and the cities in North Carolina’s Research Triangle have done with similar projects.

“It is getting a lot of traction and a lot of interest,” Girod said.

The basics

The area to focus on right away is the 21st and Iowa intersection. Today it is not a major intersection, but it does lead into the area that KU often calls its Research Circle. Those are the buildings along Becker Drive that include the KU School of Pharmacy, the Multidisciplinary Research Building, the Structural Biology Center and several other laboratory buildings.

There is a fair amount of vacant space along Iowa Street, just south of 21st Street. There are also still two or three undeveloped lots inside the Research Circle, which is bounded by Becker Drive and Constant Avenue.

Seuferling said both of those areas could be suited for new office and research buildings that could be used to attract private companies, as well as used by KU researchers and students.

photo by: Google Maps

This screenshot from Google Maps shows the area near 23rd and Iowa streets where KU Endowment could use vacant ground to build a new business and research park with housing, retail and other amenities.

Then there is the large park and ride lot that is just south of the KU Research Circle. Seuferling said a master plan that KU Endowment has commissioned for the area shows some of the park and ride lot could be removed to make way for new development. The study found that a significant number of parking spots in that complex are rarely used, Seuferling said.

That area could be used for additional office/research buildings, but also could be used for some multilevel housing, such as condos or apartment-style buildings. The area also might be the right spot for some restaurant or light retail uses, like a drugstore, dry cleaner, bank or other such businesses that office park users might need to frequent during the workday. Some of those commercial uses also might locate along some of the Iowa Street frontage as well, Seuferling said.

There would be one other important commercial component — a child care center.

“A child care facility is really high on the list,” Seuferling said. “It is a need that employees and workers really have. And it fits in with what we envision as a live, work, play environment that is designed to support additional jobs in the area.”

Seuferling said some additional housing could be built along the west edge of the KU property. Those might be more traditional homes that would back up to the existing neighborhood that is near Clinton Parkway and Lawrence Avenue or Marvonne Road, if you are familiar with that area.

Seuferling said planners think the housing would be attractive to more than just the workers in the new research buildings. The area would be served by the KU bus system, which might make it attractive to a variety of KU employees who work elsewhere on campus.

One of the more prominent features in the area is the Shenk Recreational Sports Complex — large, grassy soccer fields that are on the northwest corner of 23rd and Iowa streets. Seuferling said the master plan calls for those fields to remain in the near to intermediate term. He said they could see some improvements as part of the plan to make them desirable open space for the neighborhood but also the type of facility that could attract some soccer, rugby or other similar types of sporting tournaments to town.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World photo

The intersection of 21st and Iowa streets is shown on July 1, 2021.

Current construction

The area already is home to the Bioscience and Technology Business Center, and its success has been a big reason why this idea has taken root. The BTBC is the incubator facility that Garmin ended up moving into.

The center has expanded since then, and as we’ve reported, construction is underway on its third phase. That is a 70,000-square-foot addition. Girod estimates the building is about 85% leased already, even though it is about a year away from being completed. He estimates that it will house about 250 employees once it is completed.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World photo

Construction work is underway on an expansion of the Bioscience and Technology Business Center in KU’s West District. The two pillars in the background is the primary site for the expansion, which is expected to house 250 employees from various technology companies upon completion.

The project received $7.8 million in federal economic development grant money, which is another reason KU leaders are excited about it. The area has attracted the interest of outside partners.

David Cook, KU’s vice chancellor of public affairs and economic development, said in a recent video town hall that projects like this one go a long way in building value with state legislators, industry leaders and others who can be valuable partners for KU.

“Certainly this vision aligns with our key stakeholders and where they want us to go,” Cook said. “There’s a lot of interest in how universities can be more active partners in the economic development space.”

Next steps

Look for one thing to change fairly soon in the area — the BTBC is in the process of phasing out its name.

“Nobody could ever keep those letters straight,” Girod told the Regents.

The center will be rebranding itself as KU Innovation Park. Look for sign changes and other branding efforts to be launched in the near future.

But the biggest sign that the project is getting serious will be when KU Endowment files development plans with the City of Lawrence. That may not be too far off, Seuferling said. He said such filings could happen in the next two or three months, and almost certainly before the end of the year.

Those plans could involve the realignment of the 21st Street intersection and would show where buildable lots could be located.

Seuferling made it clear that KU Endowment would continue to own the land. It has no interest in selling it to a private developer to lead the project.

“Our view is in perpetuity,” Seuferling said. “KU Endowment, in interest of the university, always will be the owner of all the land and will control the quality of what will be there.”

Cost estimates for the project haven’t been released yet, but Seuferling said KU Endowment is prepared to put significant funds into the venture.

“KU Endowment would need to make direct investments to kind of seed it and start it, but we also would be identifying potential tenants to develop an income stream to start paying for it,” Seuferling said.

Seuferling said KU Endowment has been thinking about the idea since it commissioned a 2019 study to identify ways that the endowment association could further help KU.

“We kept asking if this space was needed for academic buildings, or student housing, or some public performance space or museum space, and there really were none of those needs,” he said.

KU Endowment at that time already had been a major partner in the creation of the BTBC, providing it both land and financial help. Seuferling said its success — BTBC’s website lists 58 companies with 417 employees and $25 million in payroll located at the center — caused many to think about what could be next.

“It really has been a neat story,” Seuferling said of BTBC’s success. “At first, it was just take those first couple of steps and walk before you start to jog. I think that is the point where we are at now … We’ve seen that this seed has borne some fruit, and now we think there may be a way to accelerate that success.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World photo

Part of the largely empty KU Park & Ride lot is shown on July 1, 2021. In the background are buildings in the KU Research Circle that could be neighbors to new office and research buildings constructed as part of KU Innovation Park.