CITY AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, August 22, 1984
Page
Downtown developer steers clear of public eye
By SHAWNA SEED
Staff Reporter
However, no one has thorough records on Schwada.
Duane Schwada Jr. has thorough, videotaped records of every public meeting on downtown redevelopment in the last few years, Bob Gould, an architect working with him on the downtown mall project said.
Schwada, the leader of the development team for the proposed mail in Lawrence, confounds those who would keep records on records from the government, remaining one of the most elusive and controversial figures in Lawrence.
"He is not a public relations person," said David Longhurst, Lawrence city commissioner. "If he were a glad-handler, he might be in a better position with the public. But I have the ability to do the job is the bottom line."
Although Swada heads Town Center Venture Corp., the developer of record for the downtown mall project that is sanctioned and would be partially financed by the city, he does not welcome publicity.
Schwada does not grant interviews as a matter of policy, according to a secretary at Mastercraft Corp., one of the many companies he is associated with.
"He is the kind of person that when he has information he's prepared to share, he'll be open and aggressive about sharing it," Gould said.
Personal information about himself is not information Schwada chooses to share. In one of the few interviews he has granted since becoming developer of record, he said he had been in Lawrence for about 27 years, but refused to give his age.
'Guarded' dealings
Voter registration records show that he is 49 years old, born June 12, 1935.
Schwada is also reluctant to share information about his business deals and real-estate holdings, even with the officials who chose him for the downtown mall project.
When the Lawrence City Commission named Town Center the developer of record in November 1983, the commission asked for financial information about the members of the team to determine if they had the financial resources for the project. However, Commissioner Nancy Shontz said that Schwata resisted that request.
"The whole group, especially Schwada, seemed to view it as an imposition and an invasion of privacy." Shortz said.
However, Longhurst said that Schwada was willing to provide the necessary information to City Manager Buford Watson, but that he would not make any information public.
"He's guarded about his business actions," Longhurst said. "He deliberately did not make information available to the public. It is not the public's business to go rummaging around in his holdings. I'm sure some people would try to use it against him."
However, some information is available to the public in open records kept by the county and the state. A check of tax records revealed the extent of his Douglas
County holdings; since 1979 Schwada had acquired 25 separate tracts of land in the county.
Town Center was incorporated one month before the company's presentation to the commission for the downtown mall project was made. Although Gould acknowledged Schwada as the "leader" of the group, incorporation records at the Kansas secretary of state's office list Richard Zinn, Schwanda's attorney, or the corporation's resident manager.
In addition to the downtown mall, Schwada has been involved in the development of the Meadowbrook apartment complex, 15th and Crestline streets; Southern Hills Shopping Center, 1601 W. 23rd St.; Tanglewood Apartments, 951 Arkansas St.; 14th and Massachusetts streets; and Sundance Apartments, Seventh and Florida streets.
At odds with residents
Schwada's real-estate developments have brought him into contact with a number of people in the area, and he has left a variety of impressions.
Longhurst said that Schwada had developed a "reputation" with some people in the community, sometimes placing him at odds with neighbors of his developments.
One such incident began in 1980, when Schwada requested that the city rezone an area north of Sixth and Iowa streets, known as the Bluffs. It was zoned for single-family residences, but Schwada requested that it be zoned for multiple-family dwellings.
Residents of the area objected to the rezoning. When the commission approved the rezoning, the residents filed suit.
Marty Leitner, an attorney from Kansas City, Mo., represented the residents, and said recently that Schwida intervened, making it "a three-party suit," which was then settled out of court.
Shortz said that Schwada's personal style of preferring not to answer questions hurt his relationship with some neighbors of his projects.
pent.
"There were many occasions, such as the Bluffs or Tanglewood, when he could have done more to relieve the neighborhood's fears." she said. "He never gave an inch."
**
'Stormy' relationship
Schwada's relationship with the city has also been stormy at times.
Before becoming the developer for the downtown mall, Schwada's main contact with the city was as a private developer. He often appeared before the commission for site plan approval, rezoning landholdings related to his developments, said former Mayor Mari Francisco.
senwada's relationship with the commission on which she served was "awkward," Francisco said.
Schwada's differences with the city have led to his involvement in at least one lawsuit, in which the city sued the Meadowbrook developers to gain control.
"It may have been a question of a difference of opinion of what was best for the city, and what the city had a right to do," she said.
Shortz told the city had needed to put in a water line along 15th Street,
and needed an easement, which is permission from the landowners to the city to run the line across the Meadowbrook property.
when the Meadowbrook developers refused to grant the easement, forcing the city to file suit against them, Shontz said she was not surprised.
Schwada and the mall
When Town Center was chosen for the downtown project, Swada's relationship with the city changed. He was no longer a private developer working on a private project, but a public developer of record working on a semi-public project.
Gould also said that Schwada was the right person to develop the downtown mall.
THE MAIN THING is that he is the right type of person to do this very difficult task." Gould said. "It takes a leader like Duane to do it, and no one is more likely to succeed than Duane is."
SCHWADA ALSO has not provided much information to the Downtown Improvement Committee, but Schwada has reasons for that, said John Nauhtin, a member of the DIC.
1ms is the first time I've been involved with a developer that we couldn't get information from," she said. "We haven't heard a word."
"Well, I think that he doesn't want to deal with the DIC; he wants to deal with the commission." Naughtin said. "He has agreed to come and answer questions, but I don't think that he really has the answers yet."
Longhurst said that Schwada and others involved in Town Center did not answer questions because they had nothing to tell the DIC yet.
"I'm not interested in hearing something until there's something to report," he said. "And Duane is the one who asked." "It looks up before he talks about them."
Opera House plans
Also frustrated by Swada's silence are two men who have worked to preserve the Lawrence Opera House, 642 Massachusetts St., which stands in the block where the mall is planned.
Lee Barnett is with Management Alternatives, a Topeka firm that has proposed renovation of the Opera House. Barnett said that he had tried to meet with Schwada to discuss plans for the block, but that he had only dealt with Zinn, Schwada's attorney.
Skip Moon, owner of the Opera House, said that he was disappointed that Schwada and others involved with Town Center thought it was necessary to destroy the Opera House.
"I'm disappointed in the way he's reacted to the plans to save the Opera House," Moon said. "Originally, he may have intended to save it. I really don't know."
1. The Bluffs, north of 6th and Iowa streets
2. Sundance Apartments, 7th and Florida streets
3. proposed downtown mall, 600 block
3. proposed downtown mail, 600 block
of Massachusetts Street
--of Massachusetts street
Tangrove, 10th and Arkansas streets
4. Tanglewood
5. Meadowbrook Apartments, 15th Street and Crestline Drive
7. Southern Hills Shopping Center, 1601 West 23rd St
6. Hanover Place, 1400 block of Massachusetts Street
--service
Anita Cieland/KANSAN
Moon said that he had tried to meet with Schwada, but that nothing had come of his attempts.
"As an architect and a planner, he maintains high standards and ethos."
WHATEVER OBJECTIONS people may have to his methods and his style. Schwada seems to be respected as a developer.
Longhurst listed what he considered to be Schwada's strengths.
"He can construct the thing. He's very good. He's tough, aggressive and he does things right."
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