Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday agreed to purchase the former newspaper printing press building downtown, to be used as a city hall annex, for $2.1 million. They’re not rushing to complete an estimated $21 million in renovations needed down the road, though.
The current City Hall, at 6 E. Sixth St., was built in 1980. It’s about 35,500 square feet, which city staff members and consultants with local design studio Multistudio have said is no longer enough space for staff.
Commissioners in 2024 considered purchasing a building near Sixth and Iowa streets to become the new city hall. After hearing from more than 30 people, almost all in opposition, they ultimately voted against that plan and opted to keep city hall downtown.
City staff members arranged to potentially purchase the former Lawrence Journal-World printing press facilities at 609 New Hampshire St. and 630 Massachusetts St. The buildings are owned by The World Company, which the Simons family owns, according to public records.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Multistudio staff also looked at the Reuter building and the former Borders building, both nearby on New Hampshire Street, but determined that the former printing press would be the best option, Gwen Gigous, associate principal with Multistudio, told city commissioners on Tuesday.
Please support
The Lawrence Times!
Subscribe here.
Assistant City Manager Brandon McGuire said it was “very exciting to think about what we could do with all of this space, and how we could coordinate it and plan it out.”
Alarm.com had planned to purchase 630 Massachusetts St., but the company has changed plans. Attorneys for the company filed an application for tax incentives from the city, first to redevelop the building at 630 Massachusetts St., but it was “determined not to be a suitable fit for the proposed project,” according to a memo to the commission. Alarm.com is now seeking the creation of a neighborhood revitalization district and industrial revenue bonds to finance construction at 714 Vermont St. The incentives have not yet been approved.
McGuire said the city had been negotiating with Alarm.com and with the building sellers to try to determine how to address the roof and other issues that would be necessary to address if the city bought one building and the company bought the other.
But when Alarm.com backed out, “We thought, man, it would be a whole heck of a lot easier and cleaner if we just took all of that, and so we reopened the negotiations, and that’s the proposal before the commission this evening,” McGuire told commissioners.
Gigous said the approximately 57,000 square feet of the two buildings would give the city plenty of room to grow.
“It’s been a long vacant building, so the city could bring back some vibrancy into that space and occupy a vacant building,” Gigous said. “It has nice, open, column-free space, so it could accommodate things like Municipal Court or other large gathering spaces, and there’s also just future opportunities for improvements to create some sort of plaza, or even potentially a skywalk to connect the two buildings far down the road.”
Gigous said the building needs a new roof, and they received an estimate of $700,000 for that work. Another $1 million would go toward removing a portion of the building from an alley easement, she said.
Melinda Harger, assistant director of Municipal Services and Operations, said city staff members are recommending that the rest of construction be completed in phases. She said staff understand that the budget for the whole project is only about $12.5 million right now.
Gigous said there would be roughly $8.4 million remaining in the capital improvement plan budget with the purchase and the initial work done on the building.
One public commenter asked how much property tax revenue would be lost if the city purchased this building. McGuire said it was about $35,000 to the city and $136,000 total this year.
Commissioner Kristine Polian said she could support the purchase of the building.
But “I will not support a renovation right now until we know what the heck’s going on with debt,” Polian said. “… I’ve been saying this over and over again. I want to see what we can sell our land for. I want to know what efficiencies are being brought to (Municipal Services and Operations) because of a $130 million building. I want all of that stuff before we dive in.”
Mayor Brad Finkeldei said he thought there was a good possibility that the Massachusetts Street building could still end up in private hands. He said there were about 9.5 acres between City Hall, the printing press buildings, Riverfront and the parking garage.
“You have a lot of acreage there that we need to put to use, not only for the community but also for the taxes, and I look forward to that discussion,” he said.
Commissioner Amber Sellers said commissioners had discussed internally the potential to make City Hall more public-facing, including potential meeting spaces and incubator space. She said it would be exciting to have those conversations also be more public-facing with the acquisition of the buildings.
Commissioner Mike Dever, who attended via Zoom, said he doesn’t think the city needs to be in the business of buying land and speculating on it but for the proximity to City Hall, in this case.
“I agree with other commissioners that we need to do another inventory on all of our real estate and make a concerted effort to try to sell what we can and/or trade what we can, to our best benefit, so that we don’t continue to acquire more property on the tax roles that is not paying property tax, because that’s not a formula for success,” Dever said.
Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the purchase.
Riverfront building
The commission last month agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit that will include the city purchasing the Riverfront building for $325,000; however, city staff members implied that the best course of action for the building might be demolition.
Gigous said the Riverfront building needed significant foundation repairs, it sits in the floodway, and it’s right next to the railroad tracks.
“Removal of the Building, for example, may grant the community unparalleled access to the Kansas River for use by the residents of Lawrence for recreation purposes, for civic purposes, for a nature park, or the like; all of which would allow for revitalization and reimagining of the northern portion of our beautiful Downtown,” a memo to the commission in April stated. “The City looks forward to exploring those possibilities with the community.”
Until the settlement agreement is final, which will be on or before April 5, 2027, the Riverfront building is owned by lawsuit plaintiffs La Posada Group LLC, BC Lynd Hospitality LLC and Riverfront LLC. The latter is registered to Dolph C. Simons III Revocable Trust and Dan C. Simons.
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat — get the latest news from the Times delivered to your inbox:
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at [email protected]. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
