photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The building at 735 New Hampshire Street is pictured on Nov. 4, 2025.

News and notes from around town:

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If you really like bars, there’s a pending downtown development that may make your head spin (or pound): Two new apartments in between the very active downtown bars The Bottleneck and Leroy’s.

However, there is a catch. The two apartments will be on the second floor of an existing building, which means stairs. (It has been my experience that really liking bars and really liking stairs aren’t the most natural of partners.) But, back on the positive side, the space beneath the two apartments will be bar-like.

The building I’m talking about is 735 New Hampshire Street. It hasn’t been an active business for many years, even though it is on a busy portion of New Hampshire Street. As I mentioned, The Bottleneck is to its south and Leroy’s is to its north.

Longtime bar operator Jon Davis — he developed Leroy’s, among others — has filed plans to completely restore the old building that is falling into disrepair. Plans filed with City Hall call for the ground floor space to be a small event hall. Plans show the addition of a catering kitchen, and restrooms, with the rest of the area devoted to a large open floor plan that could house receptions, dances, watch parties or any other number of functions.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The two-story building at 735 New Hampshire Street is pictured on Nov. 4, 2025.

A far greater amount of work would happen on the second floor. It would house two apartments. One would be a fairly straight-forward two bedroom, one-bath apartment. The other — the one overlooking New Hampshire Street — would be an expansive four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath apartment.

That’s an apartment that could accommodate an entire family, but I don’t suspect that is the likely tenant. While it might attract a group of students, it also is worth remembering that several downtown units now spend most of their time serving as short-term rentals, such as Airbnb or VRBO units.

Being located right between two active clubs, including one of the magnets for live music in Lawrence, becomes a selling point to many of those short-term rental customers, rather than a detriment.

The project will be interesting to watch from a historic preservation standpoint as well. Lawrence-based Paul Werner Architects is designing the project, and the application mentions that it likely will be pursuing historic tax credits.

Davis has experience with bringing old buildings back to life. He has been heavily involved in restoring the old buildings in North Lawrence near the intersection of Seventh and Locust streets, which have housed a variety of antique and home furnishing stores.

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A little dot of commercial development in East Lawrence may soon become the site for new homes. Plans have been filed at City Hall to demolish the commercial building at 1045 Pennsylvania Street and build single-family homes on the site.

The approximately 2,200-square foot building most recently has been home to Dragon’s Hoard, a game and hobby shop that sells board games with mythical themes — think Warhammer — along with several other board games. We wrote about Dragon’s Hoard back in 2018, and it has had a good run at the space, both selling games there and hosting gaming events at the location.

That business will keep on running, but now at a different location. It recently moved to the shopping center at 23rd and Harper, which includes Set ‘Em Up Jacks, the Salvation Army Thrift Store and other tenants.

As for what happens to the shop’s old location, city planners still must provide some approvals before any changes can occur. Developers are seeking to rezone the property, going from a commercial zoning to a residential zoning category. That would put the property in line with everything around it, which is a mix of old and new single family homes.

That’s correct. There are some new single family homes in the old East Lawrence neighborhood. There has been a fair amount of infill development of new homes on the old, small lots. Several such infill projects have happened near that intersection.

The rezoning request doesn’t state how many homes the developers may try fit on the property. Such details would be required in a separate plan, if the zoning is approved. However, the application does state that it would be seeking to built multiple single-family residences on the site. The size of the lot indicates that two single-family homes would comfortably fit on the property.