photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Chantel Heinen, a co-owner of Heinen Outdoor Power Equipment, stands next to a Mahindra tractor at the business' new North Lawrence location in this March 2022 photo.

Grass in my neighborhood can be a two-way frustration. At one point in the season, my neighbors wonder whether I will ever grow it. At another point, they wonder if I will ever cut it. (You just can’t please some neighbors.) But a pair of north-side businesses that can help on both ends are opening, as North Lawrence makes a bid to become the grass capital of Lawrence.

Both Heinen Outdoor Power Equipment and the Sod Shop recently have completed major building projects in North Lawrence.

I’ll start with Heinen, in part, because its acronym that it uses as a brand name — H.O.P.E. — is about all I can offer my neighbors this time of year.

We reported back in April that plans had been filed for Heinen to locate a new equipment dealership at 1795 East 1500 Road, which was the site of the old Airport Motel property. Since that time, the old 1950s-era motel buildings — which were a bit southwest of the Lawrence Municipal Airport — have been demolished, and a new shop and showroom building has been constructed and stocked.

“It has felt like I’m planning my wedding all over again,” Chantel Heinen, a co-owner of the family-owned business, said of getting the new store organized and ready to open.

While it is a lot to organize, it is not new territory for the Heinens. The family has operated an outdoor equipment business in Valley Falls since 1984.

“My husband has been in it since he was 3,” she said. “He’s grown up in it.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Hustler lawn mowers are lined up outside Heinen Outdoor Power Equipment’s new location at 1795 E. 1500 Road in North Lawrence in this March 2022 photo.

The Lawrence location has been able to secure dealership agreements with most of the same brands the Valley Falls location sells. That includes the zero-turn lawn mower brands Ferris, Hustler and Country Clipper. It has a four-wheeler and ATV agreement with Arctic Cat, and it sells chainsaws, leaf blowers, string trimmers and a host of other hand-held equipment from Stihl. It also has a line of more commercial, specialty products — think lawn vacuums, for instance — from Billy Goat.

Its biggest line of equipment, in terms of heft and size, is the Mahindra tractor brand. While Mahindra tractors aren’t the big machines that farmers traditionally use in their fields, they are the type of tractors that are popular with rural homeowners who have several acres to mow or other land-related chores to undertake.

“We have a product for anybody who has an in-town lot or a rural location,” Heinen said. “We can help anyone who has the desire to take care of their own land.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Heinen Outdoor Power Equipment, pictured in March 2022, has located at the former site of the Airport Motel near the US Highway 24/40 and US. Highway 24/59 intersection, also known as the Tee Pee Junction in North Lawrence.

Heinen said the family decided to expand to Lawrence after it was presented with an opportunity too good to pass up. The family long has been friends with the Pine family, which operates Pine Landscape Center just south of the old Airport Motel site. The Pines had recently purchased the motel site, and pitched the idea to the Heinens of opening an equipment dealership at the location.

The idea of having a dealership within sight distance of Interstate 70 and easily accessible to both Lawrence and Kansas City made a lot of sense.

“Being so close to I-70 and Highway 24/40 makes accessibility really good,” Heinen said.

That accessibility, combined with a couple of brands that largely weren’t available in the Lawrence market, seemed to be a good potential combination, she said. Both the Ferris brand of mower and the Mahindra tractors don’t have other dealerships near Lawrence. Some customers from Lawrence already had found their way to Valley Falls to do business, but the family bet that more would once they had a presence in Lawrence.

In fact, just a couple of days after the April article in the Journal-World announcing plans for the dealership, a Lawrence resident drove up to Valley Falls to buy a several-thousand-dollar tractor after learning of the business’ plans. And although Heinen’s Lawrence location doesn’t officially open until Friday, it already has had customers come in to buy as passersby have seen employees setting up the store.

“We think that is a good sign,” Heinen said.

The store is planning a two-day grand opening beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday and continuing on Saturday. Friday, near 10 a.m., will be when the store has a food truck and other attractions on site.

•••

The Sod Shop is further along in its North Lawrence venture. We reported in July of 2020 that the Sod Shop had filed plans to build a new headquarters building at 1453 North 1900 Road, which is along U.S. Highway 24/59, near the Shuck Implement Company.

The company had previously shared space with Pine Landscape Center, and it primarily was focused on selling sod to large commercial customers.

That is still a big part of the business — it has about 12 miles of sod fields on both sides of Interstate 70 in the Lawrence area — Sod Shop Inc. President Wade Wilbur told me.

But now the new location, which has been open for a few months, is getting into selling to homeowners. The Sod Shop will sell quantities of sod one roll at a time, which is equal to 1 square yard, Wilbur said.

The new location also is selling bags of seed featuring the same mixture the Sod Shop uses to grow its own grass. At one point the company had planned on selling fertilizer and other such products that it recommends for its seed. But Wilbur said county regulations made it unclear whether he could sell the fertilizer at the location.

“That might be a gray area with the county, so we are treading lightly,” Wilbur said.

Wilbur was unable to win approval from the county to have the zoning of the property designated as anything other than agriculture, which means that it can only sell products that are produced on site.

That also means there is no showroom or other traditional retail area at the new building. Wilbur, though, said customers can drop by during normal business hours to buy the bags of seed. However, customers who want a roll of sod need to call a day ahead of time so that it can be cut.

“We sell fresh cut sod because it is perishable,” he said.

The bulk of the large new building is an equipment shop that houses tractors, sod cutting equipment and other machinery needed to run the extensive commercial sod operation. Wilbur said the company’s commercial sales now stretch from Manhattan to Kansas City.