photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Demolition work at 543 Michigan Street in Lawrence is pictured on Feb. 5, 2025.

News and notes from around town:

Before you get your hopes up, no, the long johns aren’t getting longer at the Dunkin on Sixth Street, nor is anything else there getting bigger. But you can be forgiven for being confused because the house next door to the doughnut shop is certainly being demolished as part of a new project.

But rather than a doughnut shop expansion, look for a “garage condo” development to take shape there. Plans have been filed at City Hall for the old home at 543 Michigan St. to be replace with a new commercial building that will include two garages with small offices.

Matt Herynk, the owner of the local FastSigns franchise, is the developer of the project. Herynk told me that FastSigns will use one of the two garage units to do overflow work for his sign business, which is located a couple of blocks west on Sixth Street. Herynk plans to rent the other unit to a business that finds itself in need of just a little bit of extra space. Each garage and office is a little more than 1,000 square feet in size. He can envision a contractor, for example, who has been running a business out their home but now needs the space.

“Maybe their wife said you need to get your (stuff) out of the garage,” Herynk said.

Although the property has had a house on it, the land has long been zoned commercial. So the project won’t require a complete rezoning, but it will require a special use permit because the idea of garage-condo development isn’t automatically allowed in the CS commercial zoning district.

Demolition work has begun on the property, and Herynk hopes construction on the new building will be done in late summer, pending the special use permit approval.

As for the demolition work, that is a bit unique. A local company, 19th Century Restorations, has been hired to tear down the home. It is tearing down the 125-year-old house in such a manner to save many of the beams, lumber, hardware and other items for use in other restoration projects, Herynk said.

Lawrence-based Hoke Ley architects is designing the new garage condo project. Here’s a look at that design, as submitted to Lawrence City Hall.

photo by: City of Lawrence/Hoke Ley architects

A rendering shows the proposed designed of a garage-condo development at 543 Michigan Street

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There are several things that professional electricians do differently than us amateurs: They don’t forget the difference between white and black wires; they don’t cross their fingers and their heart before turning on a switch; and they don’t normally buy their electrical supplies at the local big box store.

Instead, they normally buy supplies at large wholesale houses, and it appears a big player in that market is interested in coming to Lawrence. Plans have been filed at Lawrence City Hall for Elliott Electric Supply to take over a vacant warehouse building in eastern Lawrence.

Plans call for a complete refurbishment of the building at 600 E. 22nd Terrace, which is in the industrial area between 19th and 23rd streets and across the road from Haskell Indian Nations University.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The building at 600 E. 22nd Terrace is pictured on Feb. 5, 2025.

Elliott Electric Supply is a Texas-based company that has about 180 stores in 13 states. It has a regional hub in Lenexa and also has Kansas stores in Wichita, Salina, Hutchinson and Dodge City, in addition to a few on the Missouri side of the KC metro.

The company has filed plans to replace the old gravel parking lot with a new parking lot and outdoor storage yard, and to make other improvements to the existing building. The property already is zoned for industrial use, so the project won’t have to go through many extensive approvals at City Hall. Thus far, it doesn’t look like any work has begun at the site.

Look for the store, which will cater to contractors, to carry a host of heating and air conditioning supplies, wires, outlets, tools and other such items.

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File this one under the category of an item to learn more about: A rezoning request has been filed to convert a rural piece of agricultural property along the Farmers Turnpike in northwest Douglas County into an industrial piece of land.

A rezoning request has been filed with the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Department to zone 40 acres of agricultural ground to a light industrial zoning category. The property didn’t have an address attached to it, but generally is near the southeast corner of East 900 Road and North 1800 Road. If you are trying to picture the location, it is about a quarter-mile north of the Kansas Turnpike and about a half-mile east of the Lecompton interchange on the turnpike.

At one time that general area was a prime focus for economic development leaders who were looking for a new location for an industrial park, given that area has very easy access to the turnpike. But neighbors objected to the idea in a big way. Many of those plans fell by the wayside, although a proposal to allow a warehouse for Berry Plastics was allowed. That facility is located west of the interchange.

What I have seen of the filed plans doesn’t identify a potential user for the site. Instead, a generic concept plan is attached to the rezoning request. It shows an approximately 11,000 square foot “shop” building with an attached office of about 2,000 square feet, and a parking lot for about 30 vehicles.

I’m doing some more checking to see if I can find other details about the rezoning request.

photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County planning office

A concept plan shows a possible use for property near the intersection of E 900 Road and N 1800 Road northwest of Lawrence.