Industrial businesses gravitate to North Lawrence for many reasons, including affordability, abundant space, parking and good visibility.
| 2018 Q4 | story by writer Emily Mulligan | photos by Steven Hertzog
Lee Tuan, owner of Extreme Building with some of his creations for customers.
Business industrial space has been hard to come by in Lawrence for the better part of the past two decades. As such, many locally based industrial businesses have landed in North Lawrence, which provides ample space along with many intangibles, business owners agree.
Printing Solutions moved to North Lawrence in 2011 to expand its footprint and business operation, after starting in southeastern Lawrence for its first 11 years. Happy Shirt opened in North Lawrence in 2010 in a garage and moved to its current North Lawrence location in 2013 for more space and a visible location. Extreme Bus Builders began in a large North Lawrence commercial garage in 2010 to have adequate work and parking space for large vehicles.
When it made the move to North Lawrence, Printing Solutions wanted to expand its offset printing operations and incorporate digital printing, screen printing and embroidery. Owner Terry Jacobsen says he did not think the company could afford the industrial spaces in town at the time until his bank steered him to the small industrial complex on the north side of town at 725 N. Second St.
“This was a spec office complex, and the building was a shell, so it lent itself to both office and industrial space, both of which we needed,” he explains. “We built the truck dock out in the back, which we share with everyone in the building now, and we finished the rest of the space for ourselves. We own some space in the building that we don’t occupy, over 50 percent of the complex.”
Lynn Electric, Kansas City Sailing, G-Force Athletics and Midwest Management are some of the businesses housed in the same shell of the industrial complex.
Justin Shiney sits at his desk inside Happy Shirt in front of their newly designed skateboards.
Happy Shirt needed space for its three presses and dryers, plus storage for bulk orders of shirts, bags and other inventory. The company also wanted to be able to have a retail presence for its locally designed and printed goods, to which owner Justin Shiney will add a skateboard shop in the near future. The space, at 608 N. Second St., is freestanding with a small parking lot and was previously a motorcycle dealership.
“We fill this building up,” manager Dana Mullis says.
Extreme Bus Builders does custom outfitting of commercial vehicles such as party buses, limousines and food trucks. Owner Lee Tuan’s indoor and outdoor spaces at 619 N. Second St. include a high-clearance garage, traditional wood shop, metal fabrication space and parking for vehicles awaiting their turn at transformation. Because he handles every aspect of the customization himself, from interior framing, flooring and upholstery to the exterior design wraps, Tuan’s requirements for work space were rather unique.
“People want to be able to call a place that can do it all. I close the deal, I design it, I build it and I deliver it. I needed a shop big enough,” Tuan explains.
Jacobsen, Mullis and Tuan all say that being located in North Lawrence has a lot of practical advantages for their individual businesses. Jacobsen employs 48 people, so he says having plenty of parking—and free parking, to boot—is a nice perq for his employees.
“North Lawrence used to be less desirable, but now, this part of town is really nice. People have built new buildings for their businesses and new homes, “ Jacobsen says.
Mullis says about 34,000 cars drive by Happy Shirt’s location every day, because it is between I-70 and Downtown Lawrence. That means when people decide they need shirts for their company or for their sports team, they remember where they can go to order them.
“A lot of people come in and say they’ve driven by here every day, and now they’re here to get shirts,” Mullis explains. “Being close to Downtown Lawrence is nice, but we’re also far enough away that it’s not too crowded, and parking is easy for our customers.”
Interestingly, all three businesses conduct large portions, if not most, of their business with clients outside of Kansas, a great deal of them on the coasts. Printing Solutions started off as a subcontracting printer for other printers, doing business cards for Macy’s. Now, it does direct contracting, as well, and a lot of its business comes from health-care organizations and large hospital associations.
Happy Shirt has launched a step-by-step, robust online store for customers to order screen printed items. Customers can upload their own artwork and designs, and choose fabrics and colors online. Add to that the company’s full-service art department, and Happy Shirt has clients all across the U.S., including a regular customer in Hawaii, and it recently sent a shipment to the Netherlands.
“People love T-shirts. They always have an event, or they have a team to outfit or a group to identify, employees to match up,” Mullis says.
Although Tuan does all of his work on-site in his shops and garage, Extreme Bus Builder’s geographic location within Lawrence is still important for a unique reason.
“Ninety percent of my business is from out of town, mostly on both coasts. People can fly to Kansas City and take an Uber here really easily. I can’t imagine doing this anywhere else in town as conveniently,” Tuan says.
Inside the production rooms at Printing Solutions.
When they talk about being located in North Lawrence, all three businesspeople list off neighboring businesses and business owners as if they’re talking about their friendly neighbors in a residential subdivision. They all say they make it a priority to connect and do business with their fellow North Lawrencians.
“Our building is technically a condo association,” Jacobsen says. “We each own our own space, but the condo association is responsible for the shell, parking lot and other common spaces. So we meet regularly and agree on how to best address those spaces. This complex is all owner-occupied except two businesses, so the owners are all here every day.”
Happy Shirt has a particularly close connection with one of its across-the-street neighbors, Combs Custom Cycle, because Happy Shirt’s art director creates custom designs for airbrushing on motorcycles. Their other interactions with business neighbors are more typical.
“We do shirts for the Levee Café and Combs, and we have done shirt business with a lot of customers who are our neighbors,” Mullis says.
Tuan says that his two biggest subcontractors happen to be his North Lawrence neighbors: Geoff Abegg, of Commercial Vehicle Services, and Ben Koehn, of Sign Up. Abegg does any necessary mechanical repairs on Tuan’s buses and trucks, and Koehn produces the exterior wraps for the vehicles, as well as some interior design elements.
“I see Geoff and Ben daily. If it weren’t for those guys, I might be in Kansas City,” Tuan says.
He is also a regular at O’Reilly Auto Parts and grabs lunch in North Lawrence when he can.
“There isn’t a single person in North Lawrence that I haven’t worked with,” he continues.
All three businesspeople say they would recommend industrial businesses look to locate in North Lawrence, because of the variety of spaces and land available, and, of course, because of the camaraderie.
“Affordable, available space is tough to find in this town. Industrial space is not overflowing, it’s expensive; and Lawrence has a complicated and almost unachievable tax abatement process that is out of reach for most of us,” Jacobsen explains.
Tuan says he continues to be impressed with the businesses, especially the industrial businesses, located in North Lawrence.
“There are a lot of hidden gems in North Lawrence. I can get almost anything done here,” he says. “A lot of businesses in North Lawrence are just one guy who is doing amazing stuff.”
Jacobsen explains he appreciates the way North Lawrence is just a bit different than Lawrence as a whole.
“Being here definitely makes us our own little community. We have a number of employees who were born and raised in North Lawrence. They refer to themselves as ‘sand rats,’ and it’s a point of pride as an identity,” he says.
Extreme Builders creation.