photo by: MultiStudio/University of Kansas

A rendering shows how a $300 million development project on the east side of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium could look from the intersection of 11th and Mississippi streets.

At a combined $759 million, the proposed conference center, hotel and student housing development around the University of Kansas’ football stadium might be the largest single commercial development in the city’s history.

But it might be better if it were just a bit bigger.

Several downtown Lawrence merchants and stakeholders on Friday morning told KU leaders that figuring out how to get the project to cover a new connection — trolley, anyone — between the stadium and downtown would be important.

The first phase of the project, scheduled to open in August, includes a renovated west side of the football stadium, and a convention center that KU says will host upward of 200 events per year.

Figuring out how to get those convention-goers to downtown Lawrence was a prime topic for members of Downtown Lawrence Inc., who hosted KU leaders for a special informational meeting about the topic on Friday morning.

“I don’t have a proposal for this, but people have said, ‘what about a trolley?'” Jeff DeWitt, chief financial officer for KU, told the crowd. “OK, let’s talk about a trolley. But people are going to come to downtown. I’m absolutely sure they will come downtown.”

photo by: MultiStudio

A rendering shows a ground level view of the proposed Gateway project at 11th and Mississippi streets.

But the stadium and the development surrounding it — $311 million of construction that features a 162-room Marriott hotel, about 40,000 square feet of restaurants, retail and office space, 400-plus bedrooms of student housing, east side renovations to the stadium and a 1,000-space underground parking garage — will be at 11th and Mississippi streets. No matter how you cut it, that’s about 10 blocks away from downtown, and more like a dozen or more from the most entertainment-oriented areas of Massachusetts Street.

Lawrence City Commissioner Brad Finkeldei was among the meeting attendees who were openly wondering whether the KU project could include improvements to connect the stadium area to downtown.

“I’m really interested in looking at Mississippi Street, Ninth Street, 14th Street,” Finkeldei said of routes that may need enhancements or new transportation options to move people efficiently between downtown and the convention site.

Finkeldei said his understanding is that the $759 million price tag for the stadium development doesn’t include any money set aside for such off-site improvements. Finkeldei predicted city officials would want that part of the plan to change.

City commissioners likely will have the ear of KU leaders on the matter, too. KU and private development partners — Virginia-based Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate and Kansas City-based Sunflower Development Group — are seeking about $85 million in financial incentives and tax breaks to help the project. City commissioners play a role in approving all of those incentive requests, which largely involve the city, county and state allowing taxes generated by the project to be used for infrastructure development like the parking garage, utilities and other such infrastructure on the stadium site.

Finkeldei said proceeds from those tax rebate programs also could be used to help build infrastructure that connects downtown to the stadium site.

“We need to use those tools to make that happen,” Finkeldei said.

photo by: MultiStudio

A ground level view of the proposed Gateway project at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium is shown in this rendering.

Finkeldei said he’s also interested in exploring whether the housing component of the project can grow. Even if the site at the stadium can’t accommodate more housing, might there be other areas of the university that could add more bedrooms? The city is battling affordable housing issues currently, and a lack of supply is thought to be one of the problems. If more student housing becomes available on campus, that may open up more housing in other parts of the community.

DeWitt did say that university leaders believe KU will need 1,000 beds of student housing in the next two to three years as KU has seen record-high freshman class sizes recently. He also said the final two towers of the Jayhawker Towers dorm complex likely have only three to five years of useful life left.

Other people at the meeting on Friday morning were thinking about restaurants and stores more than housing. The membership of Downtown Lawrence Inc. is full of merchants, and some were wondering whether the approximately 40,000 square feet of restaurants, retail shops and other commercial space would be a competitive threat to such businesses in downtown.

Several noted that downtown vacancy rates are higher than people would like. Plus, vacancy rates near the university itself are sizable. The HERE apartment complex across the street from the football stadium has seen much of its ground floor commercial space sit empty since its construction in 2016.

KU is clearly betting the new stadium development will create a large increase in visitors to the site, which will help fill commercial space at and near the stadium. In addition to conferences and conventions, the stadium will be able to host soccer matches and other sporting events and concerts, DeWitt has said. A 20,000-square-foot-plaza also would be designed to accommodate a range of outdoor events.

DeWitt also said a fair amount of the 40,000 square feet of commercial space could be used by office users instead of retailers or restaurants. He said developers think health care companies that want to be next to the university community and student-athletes might be prime tenants for the space.

But DeWitt also told the crowd that the biggest way to prevent competitive problems is for downtown and KU to become partners early on so that they can anticipate and then avoid those issues that would cause problems for downtown merchants.

“We want this to be the economic center that complements Mass. Street, not compete with it,” DeWitt said.

That idea of partnership also might be the key idea to protect the existing residential neighborhood that is across the street from the stadium, Finkeldei said. The city commissioner said outreach to the existing residents of that neighborhood will be important to ensure the project fits well with residences.

The project — since it is on state-owned property — won’t go through the normal City Hall planning process, which gives the City Commission the ability to approve or deny projects through its zoning, platting and other powers that state law gives to cities.

But Finkeldei said he thought Lawrence City Hall still would have plenty of opportunity to have a say in how the development unfolds at the stadium. That is because the university has said that the $85 million in incentives is critical to the project, and the city must ultimately give approval to all those incentive packages in order for them to move forward.

“The one advantage to having this project tied to financing is that we do get to have a say in what those things look like — down to how many parking spaces there are and traffic flow,” Finkeldei said. “We can make those conditions of the financing in ways that the law doesn’t allow us to do with zoning. I think we will look at that.”

As for a timeline for the project, the first phase — estimated at $448 million — is under construction now and is expected to open in August in time for the start of KU’s football season. The second phase, under the most optimistic of timelines, could begin after the football season ends in late 2025. DeWitt said the project would take probably two years to build.

And yes, KU football games would be played at the stadium during the construction, DeWitt said, echoing a statement Chancellor Douglas Girod told the Journal-World earlier this fall.

Lawrence city commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday may take the first formal step on the project. They are expected to approve a resolution that will accept KU’s application for financial incentives, and refer KU’s proposal to a third-party consultant who will evaluate its feasibility. The Kansas Department of Commerce also will be following a similar process, hiring its own third-party consultant to evaluate the proposal, as the state also must grant approval for some of the financial incentives.

photo by: MultiStudio/University of Kansas

A rendering provides an overview of how a $300 million development project on the east side of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium could take shape. The silver multistory building nearest the stadium is a Marriott hotel. The two red buildings along Mississippi Street would be home to student apartments, with restaurants, retail and office space on the ground floor. An outdoor plaza area is located between the three buildings.