Nebraska developer seeks incentives for 131-unit northwest Lawrence apartments

Lawrence city leaders are set to weigh whether to give a Nebraska developer a tax break that would help finance 131 apartments at the northeast corner of Wakarusa Drive and Queens Road. MRES Lusso Holdings LLC is seeking $35.3 million in Industrial Revenue Bonds, a structure that would exempt construction materials from sales tax and lower the project’s upfront cost.

That is the central public tradeoff: the city would forgo some tax revenue now in exchange for new housing later, but the project is not being pitched as affordable housing. For Lawrence, where west-side growth has pushed toward Douglas County’s edge, the question is whether 131 market-rate units meaningfully ease the shortage or mainly subsidize a development that would likely move forward anyway.

The project site has already advanced through the city’s planning process. The Lawrence Planning Commission approved a preliminary plat for Lusso on Nov. 17, 2025, and Lawrence City Commission minutes from May 19, 2026, show acceptance of utility easements tied to a final plat at the same location. The repeated filings suggest the apartment project is not a one-off idea, but part of a longer development effort at one of northwest Lawrence’s most watched corners.

The incentive request also arrives after earlier plans for the same land. A November 2025 Lawrence Journal-World report said a Nebraska development company had filed plans for about 125 units of luxury, class A apartments at the northeast corner of the roundabout at Wakarusa Drive and Queens Road, then described the area as a farm field. The current request keeps the same basic location and high-end direction, while increasing the unit count to 131.

Lawrence’s own economic development policy lays out the toolbox the city can use to shape private construction, including Industrial Revenue Bonds, property tax abatements, neighborhood revitalization areas, tax increment financing, transportation development districts and community improvement districts. City tax-abatement guidance says Kansas offers two ways to obtain real property tax abatements, a constitutional tax abatement and IRBs, with the choice depending largely on the business taking place on the property and other financial considerations.

Kansas Commerce says IRBs in Kansas can be issued by cities, counties or the Kansas Development Finance Authority. The state’s Economic Development Revenue Bond Act dates to 1961, a reminder that Lawrence’s current decision sits inside a long-running state framework for using public finance to encourage private development. For Lawrence taxpayers, the immediate issue is whether that framework should help underwrite another west-side apartment project now, or be reserved for proposals with a clearer public return.