photo by: John English/Special to the Journal-World

Excavation work for a new Costco store in northwest Lawrence is pictured on May 12, 2026.

News and notes from around town.

• Everything is bigger at Costco — including worries that something will derail the retailer’s plans to open in Lawrence later this year.

When Costco announced in November that it had decided to build a giant retail store near Rock Chalk Park in northwest Lawrence, there was a lot of excitement from local residents. After all, the store — which is a wholesale club that sells large quantities of discounted merchandise — had been rumored to be coming to Lawrence for more than a decade, with shoppers getting disappointed each year it didn’t happen.

Given that, I’m not surprised that I have received some outreach from readers who say they’ve heard the project isn’t progressing as planned. Has there been some sort of problem with its approvals at City Hall, and other such questions have been popping up.

What I can report is that Costco indeed has received its building permit from the City of Lawrence. The permit was issued on May 8, according to City Hall records. There was a time period in April and late March where Costco had submitted a set of building plans to the city for review, and those plans on three occasions did not get the technical approvals needed to issue a building permit. However, such rejections aren’t that uncommon in Lawrence, especially on big projects where there are a lot of technical standards to meet.

photo by: City of Lawrence/MG2

A proposed Costco for northwest Lawrence is shown in this rendering. This is a view from Mercato Drive.

The project is big. The building permit places a construction value of $21.8 million on the approximately 155,000-square-foot retail building. I’ll tell you what else is big — and should provide plenty of confidence to people worried that something will derail Costco coming to Lawrence: The pile of dirt the store will be built upon.

Excavation crews already have piled layer upon layer of soil to create a building pad that stands more than 20 feet tall. If you pull into the parking lot of LMH Health’s west campus, you can see what I’m talking about. It looks like a two-story tall wall of dirt. Excavation crews can do that type of work without a building permit, but given that such work is expensive, most projects don’t start moving large quantities of dirt unless they are sure they will get their building permits.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Construction vehicles, pictured in May 2026, are shown atop a tall dirt pad for a new Costco retail store in northwest Lawrence.

So, that big pile of dirt should also be a big confidence boost that Costco is indeed coming to Lawrence. As for a potential opening date for the store, Costco hasn’t said anything official, but the commercial real estate firm marketing property next to the Costco site sent a press release in February that said the store is expected to be open by Thanksgiving.

Costco’s construction partner, as we have reported, says on its website that a Costco construction project generally takes 110 days “from the time construction begins to the moment doors open to their members.” If that statement holds true, and you use the May 8th issuance of a building permit as the start date, that would mean an opening could happen as soon as the last week of August.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Walmart has filed plans to a use the portion of its parking lot located near 34th and Iowa streets, pictured on Feb. 27, 2026, for a convenience store and gas station.

• The Costco project will include a very large gas station. A Costco convenience store with 24 pumps will be located at the Costco site northwest of Sixth Street and George Williams Way. But that is not the only gas station news in town. As we reported in February, Walmart filed plans to build a gas station and convenience store in the parking lot of its Walmart store on south Iowa Street.

There are solid signs that project also is moving forward. Walmart has now filed for a $3.9 million building permit to begin construction of a gas station. The building permit hasn’t yet been issued, but is being reviewed by city building officials. As we’ve reported, plans call for enough pumps to accommodate 16 vehicles at a time, and the project also would include a 1,600 square foot convenience store.

The plans show the convenience store and fueling station would be in the portion of the parking lot closest to the intersection of 34th and Iowa streets. If you are having a hard time picturing the spot, that’s the entrance that has the Walmart parking lot to the north and Crown Automotive to the south.

photo by: University of Kansas

A concept of KU’s Gateway District, as provided to the Lawrence City Commission for review.

• Both of those are big projects, but certainly not the biggest in town. It is hard to outsize the work underway at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium at 11th and Mississippi streets. Work is underway to complete the east side of the renovated football stadium, with plans calling for the lower bowl of the stadium to be open to fans when KU’s football season begins in August.

But crews are getting ready to start another part of the project too. The City of Lawrence has received a building permit application for $54 million worth of student housing that will be built next to the stadium. The student housing, more than 400-beds worth, has been part of the plans since KU announced its desire to turn the stadium into the university’s Gateway District.

The building permit application, though, is the surest sign yet that the student housing component indeed will be part of the final product. The multi-story apartment buildings would occupy the area where the east parking lots for the stadium were housed. The apartment buildings, in addition to having apartments, also will have a couple of levels of parking garage spaces built into them.

The apartment buildings won’t be open by the time KU starts its football season in August. It is not certain that construction will even be underway on the buildings by then. Work on the buildings is expected to last well into 2027.

Most KU projects don’t require a city building permit, but ones of a commercial nature due. The student housing project meets that definition because it has a private partner behind it. Sunflower Development Group — which has done projects ranging from the Margaritaville hotel in Kansas City to several regional apartment complexes — is listed as a developer on the building permit application.

An application that hasn’t yet shown up at City Hall is plans for a hotel that KU officials want a private development firm to build at the northeast corner of the stadium. That would allow the hotel to connect to both the stadium and the new conference and convention center that already is open in the north end of the stadium. KU officials have said they expect an upscale, 162-room Marriott hotel to eventually be part of the development, but the hotel is shaping up to be the last piece of the Gateway development plan to come together. When I receive an update on that part of the project, I’ll let you know.