photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

A sign shows a rendering of the Phase IV building at KU Innovation Park, which is under construction in the background, on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026.

News and notes from around town:

Last December, we reported on the National Weather Service’s agreement to operate out of a new building at KU Innovation Park, but we didn’t know then when that building would be complete.

Now, the forecast is clearer: Expect it to be done sometime in 2027.

On the site on the University of Kansas’ West Campus, just a little ways west of the Dillons grocery store, the frame of the new Phase IV building at Innovation Park is now taking shape. Trucks were moving in and out of the site on Wednesday, and a sign at the fence with a rendering of the building said it would be finished next year.

When the 100,000-square-foot Phase IV building opens, it is expected to house a variety of businesses and organizations related to national security research or activities.

Last time we reported on the project, preliminary site work and utility work was ongoing, but there wasn’t a formal start date for construction yet, because Innovation Park was still trying to finalize leases with other tenants. Lindsey Slater, the vice president of strategic communications for Innovation Park, told the Journal-World on Tuesday that there was no new information to provide about the building’s tenants beyond what we’d reported then.

“The only real new thing is that construction has started in earnest,” Slater said.

However, this past week, a permit application was filed at City Hall for lab and office spaces on the first and second floors of the new building. Back in December, the NWS forecasting center project applied for a $3.7 million permit for 7,500 square feet of office space where it plans to locate a new regional forecasting center. This new lab and office space application has a valuation of $8.9 million and would be for 15,254 square feet.

As for the National Weather Service, I’ve reached out to that agency for more details about its timeline and what its plans are.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

A truck backs into the construction site for the Phase IV building at KU Innovation Park on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026.

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Developer Phil Bundy, whose proposed STAR bond district that included Costco was rejected by city commissioners last week, is still determined to make a STAR bond project in Lawrence work.

In an email newsletter on Wednesday, the Wichita-based developer and his K-10 Development Group said that they were working with city staff to simplify their STAR bond proposal so that it wouldn’t require the massive revenues that Costco would generate.

The project that Bundy’s group had been proposing would have included two major areas of development – one on the southern edge of Lawrence that would include youth sports fields for Sporting Kaw Valley and a barefoot walking trail, and another west of the South Lawrence Trafficway with an arena with an indoor cycling track.

But those are just the entertainment-related amenities that are required for a STAR bond project to happen in the first place. STAR bonds are a state program meant to incentivize tourism developments that could bring visitors into Kansas from elsewhere.

The other part of the proposal has always been Lawrence’s growth to the west. As we’ve reported, Bundy is hoping to develop hundreds of millions of dollars worth of single-family and multifamily housing west of the SLT, and he pitched the STAR bonds as a way to capture sales taxes that would otherwise have gone to the State of Kansas and use them to build out the infrastructure required for that growth. The group’s update on Wednesday reiterated that.

“What hasn’t changed is our vision for Lawrence’s future and the tremendous opportunity for growth west of Highway K-10,” the newsletter read. “Lawrence needs more housing choices, and making that possible begins with infrastructure.”

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And, finally, a local space for artists and craftspeople to sell their works will be closing at the end of this month, but the project behind it isn’t going away entirely.

We reported earlier this year on The Peoples Market, which opened in July. It was created by the organizers of the Inclusive Winter Market and other events that focused on artists from marginalized communities and those who might not have had the opportunity to sell at more traditional art markets or shows.

But earlier this month, the Peoples Market announced that it would be closing the doors of its physical location at 846 Illinois St. at the end of October. Eileen John, The Peoples Market’s director of operations and a member of Lawrence’s Cultural Arts Commission, said the storefront just wasn’t generating the kind of traffic it needed to be sustainable.

“Our storefront wasn’t something that the community saw consistently, like every day,” John said at the Cultural Arts Commission’s meeting last week.

But this won’t be the end of The Peoples Market. A post on its Facebook page says it’s now going to focus on doing more pop-up events “to connect local artists, makers, service providers and community members wherever the opportunity arises.”

Before its storefront closes, The Peoples Market will be holding a trunk-or-treat event this Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the store parking lot, where artists will also have their work available for sale. And the group is planning for its next Inclusive Winter Market on Dec. 12 and 13 at Abe & Jake’s Landing.

“The Peoples Market is just going to be nomadic from here on out instead of having that physical storefront,” John said at the meeting last week. “We are still going to keep in touch and keep our vendors together and have options for them to sell.”

photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Hand tie-dyed clothes are displayed at The People’s Market, 846 Illinois St., a new artisan space that aims to lift Lawrence artisans and become a community hub.