photo by: Google Maps

The red dot shows the location of the 12th and Haskell Recycling Center in eastern Lawrence.

News and notes from around town:

• When it comes to the age-old question of ‘what’s in a name,” sometimes the answer is confusing directions that cause you to get in a shouting match with your GPS. That’s been the case with the 12th and Haskell Recycling Center in eastern Lawrence for years. Despite the name, the business actually is located north of 11th and Haskell.

Well, no more. No, the business isn’t moving, but it has been sold to a large Kansas City, Mo.-based scrap metal company, and it is changing its name.

Scrap Management Industries has purchased the Lawrence business and is changing its name to Scrap Management Industries — Lawrence, the new owners announced. What else may change with the business — which has long been a place to take everything from aluminum cans to old appliances to pieces of iron that you have accumulated for very good reasons, I am sure — isn’t clear.

I suspect the company will keep taking everything it always has, but the question may be whether it will add some new categories. SMI is one of the 20 largest scrap metal recycling companies in the U.S., and operates large automobile shredders at some of of its locations. Some of the sites use rail service. The Lawrence site is located along a rail line, but I don’t think the business has used it, but perhaps that will change. The company has locations in St. Joseph, Mo., KCMO, Park City, Hutchinson, Topeka and Oklahoma City.

I’ve got a call into a company official about the purchase, but haven’t yet heard back on what the company’s specific plans are for the Lawrence location. In a press release, the company said the purchase is part of a plan to “better serve our industrial partners, small businesses and individual recyclers while expanding our presence and impact in the region.”

SMI also announced it bought East Wilson Recycle in Ottawa, which was a sister company of the 12th and Haskell Recycling Center — which years ago was located at 11th and Haskell and never changed its name when it moved. (So, perhaps you owe an apology to your GPS.)

• There are times I wish I had an automobile shredder when looking for a parking spot in downtown Lawrence, so I took notice when a business filed plans to build a new parking lot at a busy intersection in downtown.

Plans have been filed at City Hall for a new private parking lot to be constructed at the northwest corner of 11th and New Hampshire streets. The 49-space parking lot would serve the customers of Maceli’s Banquet Hall & Catering, which is next door to the site.

The site previously housed old buildings from Allen Press, but the vacant structures were demolished earlier this year by the site’s new owner, Tony Krsnich. Ownership of the site hasn’t changed. Rather, Maceli’s would lease the parking lot from Krsnich’s company.

I talked briefly with Krsnich about the project. He said the parking lot plans aren’t a sign that he’s forever given up on building a new structure on the site. He’s previously floated the idea of a multi-use affordable housing project, similar to the project that he’s currently building across the street from that site. Krsnich is an expert in acquiring affordable housing tax credits from the state, but that program is facing uncertainty in Topeka.

I believe it is fair to say that Krsnich is focusing more of his attention on developing the other half of the property he purchased from Allen Press. That’s the part of the lot that is west of the alley and basically sits at the northeast corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets. I believe Krsnich is seriously studying the idea of a hotel and retail building for that corner, as the site is just a few blocks away from the conference/convention center that is being built as part of KU’s renovated football stadium at 11th and Mississippi streets. I’m hoping to learn more about what Krsnich is planning for the site, and will pass along any details I find.

• Plans have been filed at City Hall for a new 61-bed fraternity house, southwest of the Ninth Street and Emery Road area, and I can sense another GPS argument in the making. The site is 1510 Sigma Nu Place, but Sigma Nu is not the fraternity that is undertaking construction. (Sigma Nu is across the street in a historic building that was built by former Kansas Gov. Walter Roscoe Stubbs.) Instead, the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity has filed plans to build a new house for its KU chapter.

Plans call for a 21,000 square-foot, two-story building that will have beds for 61 fraternity members, plus multiple common and recreation areas. The plan shows an outdoor basketball court, covered front porch and various other amenities.

According to the fraternity’s website, the organization has undertaken a $3.5 million capital campaign to help finance the construction of the building. My understanding is the fraternity currently doesn’t have a house for its KU chapter.