photo by: Submitted

A concept design plan for Stone Hawk Square near Clinton Parkway and Inverness.

News and notes from around town:

• It almost wouldn’t be fair to the wallets of Lawrence parents to put an ice cream shop virtually within sight distance of four schools. But that indeed may be one plan for a developing commercial center in west Lawrence.

Construction work is well underway on Stone Hawk Square, a new retail center near Clinton Parkway and Inverness Drive. If you are having a hard time picturing the location, it is about one mile west of the Hy-Vee grocery store at Clinton Parkway and Kasold.

But I know many of you are having no difficulty picturing the location because you spend half your life driving by the location to pick up kids, drop off kids, watch kids, and of course the ever-popular deliver forgotten items to kids.

That’s because there’s a multitude of schools around the Clinton Parkway and Inverness intersection. There’s Bishop Seabury Academy, which is basically across the street from the site. There’s Raintree Montessori about a block to the west, and there’s Southwest Middle School and Sunflower Elementary just a couple of blocks to the south.

With all that, why not have an ice cream shop in the new retail center? Or how about a coffee shop? (Is it parents or caffeine that gets kids to school? Depends on the day.) Both options, along with some neighborhood-style restaurants, are likely tenants for the center, said J. Taylor, the commercial real estate agent with Colliers International who is the lead leasing agent for the project.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Construction work is underway on a new multi-tenant retail building near Clinton Parkway and Inverness, shown on Aug. 8, 2024.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Construction work is underway on a second multi-tenant retail building near Clinton Parkway and Inverness, shown on Aug. 8, 2024.

Taylor said the development has a couple of letters of intent from businesses to locate in the center, but is still in the process of finalizing the first leases for the center.

“We are really trying to identify high quality neighborhood businesses,” Taylor said.

In addition to the above-mentioned business types, Taylor said breakfast and bakery businesses are definite tenant targets. He also said the right type of “neighborhood tavern” could be a good fit, along with a long list of service businesses.

Businesses that would appeal to an apartment crowd also would make sense. In addition to lots of schools, the site is surrounded by lots of apartments. Within a radius of a couple of blocks, there are approximately 1,000 apartment units, according to data compiled by the developer, which is led by local businessman Glenn Lemesany.

Two multitenant buildings — one with a drive-thru — are under construction, and Taylor said he expects them to be completed by the end of the year. There’s a vacant lot in between those two buildings, and it is being marketed to businesses that want to build their own space. Two other build-to-suit lots are located behind those buildings, closer to Clinton Parkway.

When the project is entirely built, it could easily house 10 or more businesses, depending on how the future buildings are configured.

“There is a void of some services in that area, and it is pretty densely populated,” Taylor said. “It is kind of a tiered density. You have college students right around there, and you have higher value homes around there too. It casts a really nice net for a lot of different people who are basically within walking distance.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The future site of Los Guapos Latin Food, 1500 W. Sixth, is shown on Aug. 8, 2024.

• There’s a certain type of density along Sixth Street these days too: armies of orange traffic cones. A new restaurant is trying to sprout up behind one set of those cones. Signs have gone up recently for Los Guapos Latin Food in the vacant building that years ago housed Panda Garden at 1500 W. Sixth St.

The business is not yet open, and I haven’t yet talked to the operators of it. But I’ve got a tip that it is connected to another Latin food type of restaurant in town, and indeed will strive to serve some Central American and South American dishes, in addition to Mexican cuisine. I’ll let you know once I get more information.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Taco Zone in downtown Lawrence has announced it is closing its dining operations.

• I also must report the closing of a longtime Mexican restaurant in downtown. Taco Zone, 13 E. Eighth St., closed a few weeks ago. The business had sold to Bates Co. — owner of the Burger Stand and other establishments — and that group made the decision to close the bulk of the Taco Zone operations, according to a sign on the door.

I say the bulk of the operations because the sign, and social media posts, say that Taco Zone will continue to offer catering and also will host some pop-up locations. However, the days of going to the downtown location to sit down (and then maybe lie down) for a dozen tacos or so appear to be over.