photo by: Capitol Federal

The rendering shows the design for a new Capitol Federal branch slated for the intersection of Sixth Street and Folks Road.

Let’s take a look at some news and notes from around town:

• Motorists soon should notice large amounts of construction work at the northwest corner of Sixth Street and Folks Road. Capitol Federal Savings has started work on a new branch bank at the site.

We reported in March that Capitol Federal had filed plans to build on the vacant lot. But work did not begin over the summer. Now it has, and Capitol Federal has released a rendering, pictured above, of what the new facility will look like upon completion.

Plans call for the new 3,000-square foot building to have four teller stations, two drive-thru lanes and a 24-hour ATM. The location will be a full service branch, housing offices for its retail banking, mortgage, commercial banking and insurance departments, according to information provided by the company. The branch is expected to open in 2024, although the company didn’t provide a more definitive date.

Some of you may be doubting yourself at the moment. Isn’t there already a Capitol Federal branch at Sixth and Folks Road? There is. But as we reported in March, that location is in leased space. The new project will allow Capitol Federal to own its property.

If you remember, our article in March also reported that plans called for a Seven Brew drive-thru coffee business to locate next to the Capitol Federal facility. Officials with Capitol Federal didn’t provide any additional information about that portion of the project, but my understanding is those plans are still active. The Seven Brew location is only slated to be about 500 square feet, and I suspect the coffee shop couldn’t feasibly move ahead with construction until the larger bank project was ready to proceed.

You may recall that Seven Brew, based in Arkansas, also has filed plans to build a drive-thru coffee shop at 25th and Iowa Streets in the parking lot that is home to Planet Fitness, Office Depot, HuHot Mongolian Grill and others. The two locations will be the first for the coffee company in Lawrence, but it already has seven locations operating in Olathe, Topeka, Overland Park and Wichita.

• Look for a vacant piece of ground near the Kansas Turnpike to soon become home to a storage unit business. Actually, look for it to become a larger home for storage units. The intersection of North Iowa Street and the Kansas Turnpike already has two storage unit businesses, and one of them is expanding, according to plans filed at City Hall.

Plans have been filed to locate 104 storage units on vacant property just north of 412 N. Iowa Street, which houses an existing self-storage business. The new storage units will be an extension of that business, according to the plans filed at City Hall. The plans list Blue Sky Self Storage out of Lufkin, Texas, as the developer of the project.

The map below shows the proposed site.

photo by: Google Maps

The property marked by a blue star is the proposed site for approximately 100 new storage units.