News and notes from around town.

• Sixth Street motorists, a Dunkin’ Donuts store really will be coming to a location near you. We first reported back in 2008 that a Dunkin’ Donuts was coming to the northwest corner of Sixth and Michigan streets. Then, it didn’t come. In October, we reported in Town Talk that a nearly $500,000 building permit had been issued for a Dunkin’ Donuts at the site. Then, it didn’t come.

But local Dunkin’ Donuts owner Sonny Patel told me this week that the store is still very much going to happen. Patel said he plans to start construction on the store in March and hopes to have it open by the end of August.

He said issues with the bank took longer than expected, and he delayed the project while he had some eye surgery as well.

“But it is ready to go now,” Patel said. “I don’t think anything is going to hold us back.”

The existing Dunkin’ Donuts store at 521 W. 23rd St. will remain open. Patel said customers have been asking for a store on the more northern edge of town for years. The store will be built on what is now a vacant lot, but once was home to a medical equipment store.

The new donut shop will be about 2,400 square feet and will include a drive-through lane.

• As we told you would be the case, longtime Lawrence restaurant owner Bob Schumm has launched a campaign to serve on the Lawrence City Commission. Schumm, who served two stints on the City Commission in the early ’80s and early ’90s, announced his candidacy this morning. The owner of Buffalo Bob’s Smokehouse and Dynamite Saloon said he wants to do more to spur small-business development in Lawrence. Those plans include creating a new downtown retail incubator that would give selected new businesses a small subsidy to help with rent and property taxes as they work to get off the ground. Check back later for a more complete report about Schumm’s announcement.

• Keep an eye on Lawrence’s Borders bookstore. It looks like the chain is struggling mightily at the national level. The New York Times and other outlets have reported that Borders notified major publishers last week that it would delay payments owed to them. Retail analysts generally have said Borders has been the bookstore chain most hurt by e-books and online book retailers. Company executives, though, said in The Times that the company is not in a liquidity crisis and that stores remain well-stocked. Two of the company’s top executives, however, did resign on Monday.

Located at Seventh and New Hampshire, Borders occupies a large piece of real estate in Downtown Lawrence. It also created quite a controversy when it sought to come to downtown in the early 1990s. There were historic preservation concerns, but also concerns that the chain would put local booksellers out of business.

• Look for Kansas University to undertake more West Campus development soon. The university has notified the city that it is beginning to move forward with plans for a Center for Design Research that will be built near the old Chamney dairy site along Bob Billings Parkway. The new center would house researchers from several disciplines and would have a focus on studying developing energy performance systems.

The first phase of the project could begin construction this spring and be completed by the end of May. Plans call for KU architecture students to design and build a 1,000-square-foot studio building that would have an open walkway connection to the historic Chamney Barn and House, which are near the southeast corner of Bob Billings Parkway and Westbrooke Drive. The building could be just the first of several. According to “concept plans” provided to the city, the design center could include another large building or several smaller buildings just west of the University Press operations.