photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The former Charlton Manley building at Eighth and Rhode Island streets in downtown Lawrence will become the new headquarters for CEK Insurance.

Lawrence-based CEK Insurance has had a hectic month, completing a pair of deals to buy a competing agency and to purchase a downtown Lawrence building that will become the new headquarters for the firm.

The firm has some history with tough tasks, though. The company was founded in 1931, which, if you are scoring along at home, means the company started a financial services firm during the Great Depression. It has worked out, though, as the company has had a lot of growth in Lawrence and is going through another wave now, CEK partner Mark Buhler said.

“We are returning to downtown because of great opportunities we’ve had,” Buhler said. “We have grown and we need more room.”

CEK recently completed the purchase of the former Charlton Manley office building at 211 E. Eight Street on the east edge of the downtown district. The building is about 40% larger than the company’s existing headquarters at 1011 Westdale Road, just southwest of the Ninth and Iowa area.

Construction crews currently are doing interior remodeling work in the Charlton Manley building, and Buhler said CEK hopes to move into the new offices near the first of the year. When the move is completed, there will be about 30 employees based in the building.

Some of those employees will be from another recent acquisition. CEK also recently completed the purchase of Lawrence-based Prairie Land Insurance. Prairie Land was owned by the family of Jamie Lowe, a longtime Lawrence businessman who unexpectedly died in November. CEK leaders not only knew and respected Lowe, but also had a strong relationship with his widow, Bonnie Lowe, president and CEO of the Lawrence chamber of commerce.

Buhler said as the family was doing its planning after Jamie’s death that the idea of a merger between the two Lawrence companies made sense.

“It is a strong independent agency,” Buhler said of Prairie Land, which was founded about 50 years ago by the Lowe family. “They have some carriers we didn’t have and we have some carriers they didn’t have, and they have a really talented staff. We are fired up about it.”

Buhler said that for the time being the company will keep the Prairie Land name and will continue to occupy its office on Bob Billings Parkway. Eventually, though, the company will adopt the CEK name and move into the new corporate headquarters building, he said.

As for the decision by CEK leaders to focus on the downtown area for its new headquarters, Buhler said the company was enthused about the amount of redevelopment that is happening the downtown district. He also said the downtown district fits well with the company’s history and Lawrence roots. The company was located in downtown from 1931 to 1982, with its founding location in the building just south of the Granada Theater, home today to Einstein Bros. Bagels.

Kindred CPA, which previously was located in the building, has moved to new west Lawrence offices on Corporate Centre Drive, according to the firm’s website.