MANHATTAN, Kan. (WIBW) – The City of Manhattan is planning to rezone the former Ag Press building site.
The City Commission unanimously voted to rezone from a light industrial district to a commercial planned development floating zone district.
“Our hope is to take something old and make it new for Manhattan, Kansas and we just don’t have a ton of these old buildings so we’re really excited about this opportunity of taking something beautiful and making sure that we can preserve for years to come that’s really the method behind all this and seeing how we can allow Manhattan people to come in and enjoy it as well,” said Derek Richards.
The former Ag Press building now operates as The Press as an outdoor venue for events and concerts. Owner of the building, Derek Richards, said with 40,000 square feet and 4 acres of area there are plenty of ideas being implemented.
“We’re exploring a lot of different things, we definitely want it to be an entertainment space for families here in Manhattan, Kansas, we want it to provide things like pickleball a place to just relax with your family and have a bag toss and watch the K-State away football game or even see a really awesome concert here so we’re exploring a lot of different ideas,” said Richards.
Richards said the goal is to remake the building into the cornerstone of a third commercial district in the city.
“This is for Manhattan, this is not an investment where we’re just trying to do a money grab, we’re hoping that somebody in Manhattan really wants to be a part of what we’re doing here that’s why we’re opening it up to the community to find out what does Manhattan need and we hope that this space can provide that,” said Richards.
“Our hope is to really hit highlights of culture and experience that people can be really proud of and also the location is unique where we’re different we’re not Aggieville, we’re not downtown so we kind of hope that this central location will really be a vibrant addition to what’s already here in the neighborhood,” said Richards.
Richards said that they hope to have things completed sometime in 2025.
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