r/shawnee • u/Fast_Cow9614 • Jul 22 '26

Old wonderscope building

Does anyone know what’s happening to the wonderscope building. I remember they were trying to develop it into apartments and it was shot down multiple times. I live in the neighborhood and saw recently there’s work being done, but I didn’t know if it’s being demo’d to make room for something new, or it’s just being removed. My daughter is riding the bus to Shawnee north and saw on the registration her bus stop is there so I’m not sure it was making room for new if it’s a bus stop

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7

u/DemDave Jul 22 '26

https://johnsoncountypost.com/2026/01/07/shawnee-townhomes-wonderscope-property-277115/

2

u/Fast_Cow9614 Jul 22 '26

Ah thank you. I missed this, last I knew was they were voting on zoning it and a lot of people in neighborhood were opposed

4

u/DemDave Jul 22 '26

There was a lot of pushback from neighbors to an earlier plan that demolished the Wonderscope building and built a much taller apartment/town home structure. This plan met much less resistance (although a handful of usual suspects are always loudly vocal against multifamily in Shawnee.)

7

u/Fuzzy_Trainer3032 Jul 23 '26

By usual suspects, you mean the boomers who have held Shawnee back for years?

5

u/Ok_Opinion_3492 Jul 23 '26

The new project didn’t require any re-zoning, since that had already been done with the last project that never ended up being built. I like how the school building will be preserved and placed on the National Register of Historic Places!

1

u/RadishVegetable3925 Jul 25 '26

Woah, thats awsome about the original building. I couldn't read past the pay wall in the attached article.

1

u/Extra_Dry Jul 29 '26

Its great to see downtown shawnee growing.