photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The east edge of the privately-owned Borders parking lot is shown on Jan. 24, 2025. The site is proposed to house row houses, across the street from existing homes along Rhode Island Street, which are pictured in the background.

There’s a new plan for the long-vacant Borders bookstore building in downtown Lawrence — and with this one, the most interesting details aren’t what would happen inside the building, but rather in its parking lot.

Row houses.

Lawrence businessman Adam Williams has filed plans at City Hall to build 15 row houses along the eastern edge of the Borders parking lot. The Borders building is near Seventh and New Hampshire streets, but its privately owned parking lot stretches all the way to Rhode Island street on the east, and that is where the new homes would be.

Williams’ plan calls for three-story homes to line Rhode Island Street. Each home would have three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a one-car garage. The homes would be oriented to face Rhode Island Street, but the access to the garages would be on the backside of the house, meaning the vehicle traffic for the homes would go through the Borders parking lot, using either the existing Seventh Street or New Hampshire Street driveways.

We think the neighborhood will appreciate the fact that they will be facing other residential homes rather than a vacant, blighted Borders building,” Williams said of the early 1900s homes that line the east side of Rhode Island Street.

Plus, neighbors likely will take note of another detail about the development: The homes will be built to be sold to individual owners rather being operated like an apartment complex or a rental community.

Williams said what he has seen in the downtown market recently convinced him that there is a strong desire for people to not only live in downtown but also to own residential property in downtown.

As I reported earlier this month, the owners of the 800 Lofts building — located one block down the street from this project — successfully converted that five-story, 55-unit apartment building into a condominium project. As of earlier this month, all but three of the units had been sold. In many cases, individuals were buying one-bedroom units for more than $200,000 apiece.

The 800 Lofts project didn’t come with any parking space for the owners — rather, they must rely on public parking spaces near the building and elsewhere in downtown. Each row house in Williams’ project will come with a ground-level garage with the two stories of living space above it.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The eastern edge of the privately-owned Borders parking lot is shown on Jan. 24, 2025, with the vacant Borders building in the background.

Williams is betting that type of arrangement will draw similar interest as the 800 Lofts building did — even though the price of the homes will be significantly higher, given that they are brand new construction and come with parking. Williams hasn’t set prices for all the units yet, but said he’s certain they’ll go on the market for more than $300 per square foot. Plans call for about 1,800 square feet of living space, meaning the houses will be over the $500,000 mark.

Early signs are positive for the development. Williams said he’s pre-sold three homes, even though final design work isn’t yet done.

The project’s location will mean the living units are some of the closest single-family homes to Massachusetts Street, which is two blocks away. The project also will be unique for another reason: It will have a vacant 20,000-square-foot building in its backyard.

That, of course, is the former Borders bookstore building at Seventh and New Hampshire streets. The building has been vacant for more than a decade after the national chain closed its lone Lawrence store in 2011.

It is fair to say that coming up with a plan to put the building back to use has been difficult. For years, the building was proposed as the site of a downtown grocery store, but each of those projects failed to materialize. Other plans called for building multiple stories atop the building for apartments. The most recent was one for Lawrence businessman Doug Compton to use the building for the corporate headquarters of his First Management and First Construction businesses. But as we reported in March, that deal fell through after interest rates soared and changed the financial feasibility of the project.

As for what Williams plans to do with the building, he’s not entirely sure. What he is certain of is that it will take some time to figure out. Phase 1 of the redevelopment will include only the row house development. Work on the row houses could begin this summer, Williams said. While work is underway on the row houses, Williams said he’ll further assess the possibilities for the Borders building itself.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The former Borders bookstore building at Seventh and New Hampshire streets is pictured on Jan. 24, 2025.

A mixed-use development of retail, office and residential uses is possible, he said. Williams said he’ll approach the project with the idea of keeping the existing building rather than tearing it down.

But he said none of the potential solutions is easy. The building is designed for retail uses, but Williams — who has done multiple developments around town, including some in and near the Warehouse Arts District — said it is doubtful that a 20,000-square-foot retail user will emerge for the property.

“Retail off of Massachusetts Street is difficult,” he said. “It has been proven time and again that one block off of Mass. makes a real difference.”

Finding an office user, though, also is not a slam dunk. Lawrence has a significant amount of available office space, and finding an office user who needs all 20,000 square feet of the building would be a rarity in Lawrence.

Residential could be a possibility given the amount of demand for people wanting to live downtown, but the design of the building does not lend itself to an easy renovation to create apartments or living units, he said.

All of that is probably a good summary of why the building has sat vacant for a decade. But Williams is the first to propose the row house idea for the parking lot. He said that idea is what has given him confidence to finalize a deal to purchase the property.

“It really was the idea of these row houses,” Williams said. “If we get them sold, it will mitigate the costs of buying the site and give us time to figure out what to do with the actual Borders building.”

Williams hopes the row house project moves quickly through the city’s approval process. He said he’s not asking for any city incentives — such as tax rebates — to build the row houses, thus city commissioners won’t be asked to vote on any such package. The property also doesn’t need to be rezoned to accommodate the row houses. Downtown zoning automatically allows a wide range of uses.

However, the project will have to meet the downtown design guidelines, which means the project will need to win approval from the city’s Historic Resources Commission. A large part of that review will hinge on what the project actually looks like. Renderings haven’t yet been completed, but I’ll plan to pass them along once they become available.

“The property has been acquired. We’re moving forward with this,” Williams said of his commitment to the project. “We don’t see any reason why the city wouldn’t approve it. There is a big push to bring more people downtown and create more activity downtown. That is exactly what this project will do.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The former Borders bookstore building is pictured on Jan. 24, 2025.