Ann Turnbull and her husband, Rud, will have new neighbors soon. Luckily, they already know most of them. The Turnbulls, co-directors of the Beach Center on Disability, will move into one of the Hobbs Taylor lofts being built at Eighth and New Hampshire streets.

The lofts will soon be home to a small community from the University of Kansas. KU faculty and professors already have bought five of the 32 lofts, said Linda Boyd, an agent for Stephens Real Estate.

“It will be really nice to have University colleagues and friends close by,” Turnbull said.

Jim Roberts, vice provost for research, said he and his wife, Carol, had wanted to live in a loft since they lived on the East Coast when they were younger. Once they saw their daughter’s loft in downtown Chicago, they sought out one for themselves.

“When the first hint of the lofts appeared in the newspaper, we looked at each other and said ‘Why not?,’” Roberts said. “We were one of the first to buy.”

Roberts’ fifth-floor loft is far from his current countryside residence in West Lawrence. Space 5D overlooks downtown Lawrence.

It’s a nice view, Roberts said, but he is looking forward to the ambiance of downtown more.

“We’ll be close to all the restaurants and stores,” Roberts said. “We expect to walk to everything and just be a part of the excitement of downtown.”

Some of the lofts could be completed by late July, Boyd said.

The properties range from 1,400 square feet to 2,400 square feet and cost between $200,000 and $480,000. Boyd said the lofts appealed to University faculty because they were travel-friendly.

Without a yard or outdoor mailbox, residents can travel and not worry about yard maintenance, Boyd said.

Marian Hukle, coordinator of the bioscience initiative program, and her husband Jack Porter, chairman of the department of mathematics, will move to a loft on the third floor of the Hobbs Taylor building from their home in West Lawrence. Hukle said she would like the travel perks of living in a loft.

“If we want to travel, we can go and just lock the door,” Hukle said. “We already drive downtown every weekend. We wanted to live where we hung out.”

So did the Turnbulls.

“It will be nice being so close to the coffee shops, the ice cream shop and Liberty Hall,” Ann Turnbull said. “We’ll go out to dinner a lot. I don’t expect to make many cooked meals.”

The lofts are located across the street from Last Call and the Bottleneck. Potential late-night noise shouldn’t be a problem, though, Boyd said. The windows and the building are well-insulated, she said.

But Hukle said it wouldn’t matter if they weren’t.

“Living around young people will keep me alive,” Hukle said.

— Edited by Ross Fitch