photo by: Courtesy: KU Endowment/Douglas County

This rendering, which was part of a presentation to the Douglas County Commission, shows how the The Crossing development on KU's West Campus could look in future years.

A $30 million Dillons grocery store that is 30,000 square feet larger than its predecessor now has an official opening date: Friday, Oct. 17.

The new store at 2205 Iowa Street is set to open at 7 a.m. on Oct. 17. The store — which is just north and west of the Clinton Parkway and Iowa Street intersection — is replacing Dillons’ longtime store at 1015 W. 23rd Street.

It is replacing it in a big way. The new store is 86,000 square-feet, and Dillons officials said in a release that the retail space of the new location will be 30,000 square-feet larger than the old store. In addition to the traditional departments of produce, meat, bakery, deli, dairy and others, the store will feature a Murray’s Cheese shop, a Starbucks Coffee shop and a full pharmacy with drive-thru lane.

Dillons has added about 150 employees to staff the store, in addition to transferring many of the existing employees at the 23rd Street store. The 23rd Street store remains open, but has been operating with a reduced stock for several weeks. The 23rd Street store will close once the new store opens. There haven’t been any plans for re-use of the building, which is owned by an out-of-state investment group.

The new store also is the first Dillons location in the region to operate with a new type of refrigeration system that uses a more natural refrigerant that is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 200 tons per year, the company said in a release.

The grand opening on Oct. 17 will include several ceremonies, including free samples and drawings for prizes. The Lawrence Arts Center will participate in a mural dedication at the store, and a food drive to benefit Just Food and KU’s Campus Cupboard also will be held as part of the opening festivities.

The store’s opening also is a big moment in KU’s multi-year effort to develop its West Campus. KU officials have dubbed the development The Crossing, and the Dillons store is the largest tenant to date for the mixed-use project.

KU and the KU Endowment Association envision West Campus turning into a hub for university research that also has a mix of private offices, apartments, condos and retail development. KU’s incubator facility — KU Innovation Park — already is located on West Campus and houses a mix of true start-up companies along with well-established firms like Archer Daniels Midland, Argenta, and a host of engineering firms.

KU officials hope to continue to attract both start-ups and more advanced companies, and are particularly interested in landing research and development offices for larger firms who want to be close to KU researchers and students.

KU plans to put some of its newest research labs on the West Campus site, including a new National Security Center that is in the final stages of planning after receiving a $22 million federal grant last year.

That center could include research labs for everything from cybersecurity to radar technology, both areas of research expertise for the university. But the building also could serve as an example of KU’s strategy of trying to build space for private companies that are willing to pay the university to be on West Campus. KU Chancellor Doug Girod has told the Journal-World that KU officials are working to secure a deal for a research lab for Panasonic, the giant Japanese technology firm that recently opened the country’s largest plan for electric vehicle batteries in nearby De Soto. In July, Girod said Panasonic could be a tenant in the new national security space, although he said KU was still working to finalize a memorandum of understanding with the company.

KU officials are counting on several deals like that materializing in the coming years, and the university and the Endowment Association are betting that companies will be more likely to locate on West Campus if it is part of a bigger live, work and play development.

The Dillons store is the biggest development yet in that effort, although the KU project also has landed deals with Truity Credit Union and The Olive Garden for locations that are just east and south of the intersection of 19th and Iowa streets. The credit union is already open, and the restaurant is under construction.

What may be next for the KU development, however isn’t clear. Because KU and the Endowment Association continue to own the land on West Campus, future development projects aren’t required to go through the normal approval process at Lawrence City Hall. Thus, projects can be fairly far along before they become publicly known.

KU officials, however, have made it known that they are interested in working with developers that would build one or more multi-story buildings to house upscale apartments or condominiums on the site. The remaining lots east of Iowa Street also are being actively marketed for quick service food locations or other such uses.

The KU development does come with a significant twist that impacts retail sales, and will be a factor in what shoppers at the new Dillons store pay. The entire development is part of a Community Improvement District that charges an extra 1.5% sales tax on eligible purchases made within the district. The special sales tax is used to pay for the various infrastructure projects — streets, sidewalks, utilities, parking and more — within the district.