Omaha Development Update

[bchris02]

I've never been to Omaha but from these pics it looks awesome. I really like the character of the Old Market area and love the density of all those new developments. I like that Omaha did not choose to go the suburban route in its downtown like OKC did in Lower Bricktown. These projects are a definite model for OKC in terms of Midtown infill and the like. I also like all of the street-level businesses, something that has yet to really take off in OKC.

[UrbanNebraska]

Developer's plans for downtown Omaha high-rise excite officials - Omaha.com

At this point, Lanoha's concept calls for a glass, asymmetrical structure 10 to 25 stories high, with a mix of uses and a construction price tag of up to $100 million.

It would include as much as 40,000 square feet of retail space, 10 to 15 floors of office space, up to five floors of parking and as many as five upper floors with condominiums.

“This is an office-driven project,” Lanoha said. “At the end of the day, we are seeking that major tenant wanting to put their name on the building and join the other major companies who call downtown home.”

Still a lot up in the air it sounds like, but this is a big big announcement. A true mixed use tower on the site that was formerly going to hold the now dead 32 story Wallstreet Tower condos.

This on top of the massive hotel/office/apartment/retail project listed a few pages up is two big time landscape changing projects for Downtown Omaha. Could be in real boom territory here.

[UrbanNebraska]

And the render.

[dmoor82]

UrbanNebraska do you know how many uc/proposed and existing residential units are in dt Omaha?

[Spartan]

I've never been to Omaha but from these pics it looks awesome. I really like the character of the Old Market area and love the density of all those new developments. I like that Omaha did not choose to go the suburban route in its downtown like OKC did in Lower Bricktown. These projects are a definite model for OKC in terms of Midtown infill and the like. I also like all of the street-level businesses, something that has yet to really take off in OKC.

Um they have a gigantic office park w Gallup along the Missouri River.

[UrbanNebraska]

UrbanNebraska do you know how many uc/proposed and existing residential units are in dt Omaha?

535 u/c and 415 announced in DTO. As a whole that is a harder question to peg down. According to our DT Master Plan released in 2009 there were "around 5000" residential units. I would probably peg somewhere between 5400 and 5500 right now. The latest downtown population I saw we were a couple hundred under 9000.

Also of urban living interest there was an update on Midtown Crossing a couple weeks ago. The project holds 500 total residential units and officials said that they development is 90% full right now, thanks in large part to $7.5 million in condo sales year to date in the project. The claimed they met their yearly sales goal in March this year.

[UrbanNebraska]

Um they have a gigantic office park w Gallup along the Missouri River.

Yep. Second time Omaha has let major employers dictate suburban development on the riverfront. First was ConAgra in the late 80s. Omaha is slowly figuring this urban thing out, but I could go on for days on things we could and should be doing better.

One of the funniest(saddest) things lately is that city officials are talking about ideas of how to get more people to the riverfront to support a newly opened restaurant. Maybe promoting more residential units than parking stalls would be a good start.

[dmoor82]

Thank you for replying! Omaha punches well above it's population, even more than some 1million plus sized metros. People tend to forget that Lincoln is a short distance away and adds <300,000 more people to the region. Does Lincoln have any notable projects in the works?

[Just the facts]

Does Lincoln have any notable projects in the works?

They just opened the Pinnacle Bank Arena on the edge of downtown.

[UrbanNebraska]

Thank you for replying! Omaha punches well above it's population, even more than some 1million plus sized metros. People tend to forget that Lincoln is a short distance away and adds <300,000 more people to the region. Does Lincoln have any notable projects in the works?

Just bumped the Lincoln thread. I left off dorm and classroom project because those are kind of a dime a dozen. As for Omaha and Lincoln being close Omaha likes to say they have 1.2 million with in 60 miles of downtown Omaha when they advertise the retail market. The two cities will probably join one CSA after the 2020 census. A 900K and 300K metro right next to each other. Still probably 30 miles of farmland between edges of Omaha and Lincoln development though.

They also just finished the decade long I80 widening project between the two cities this month. Now 3 lanes each way between each city, will probably make the two interact even more.

[Plutonic Panda]

Just bumped the Lincoln thread. I left off dorm and classroom project because those are kind of a dime a dozen. As for Omaha and Lincoln being close Omaha likes to say they have 1.2 million with in 60 miles of downtown Omaha when they advertise the retail market. The two cities will probably join one CSA after the 2020 census. A 900K and 300K metro right next to each other. Still probably 30 miles of farmland between edges of Omaha and Lincoln development though.

They also just finished the decade long I80 widening project between the two cities this month. Now 3 lanes each way between each city, will probably make the two interact even more.

Any talk of an HSR?

[UrbanNebraska]

Any talk of an HSR?

That will depend a lot on what Iowa does. The state is currently looking into funding for an Omaha to Chicago rail transit project, which is mildly funny considering neither Omaha or Chicago is actually in Iowa . The long term plans would include 5 round trips between Omaha and Chicago with top speeds up to 110. State officials have said it would only make sense for us to extend that line to Lincoln if Iowa gets theirs going.

Still a long long ways off from anything like that though. Just too much rural opposition to anything "urban" in Nebraska right now.

[UrbanNebraska]

Big time project announced today. Crossroads Mall is getting torn down to make way for a massive $400 million project.

$397 million Crossroads redevelopment moves forward with 'unique financing plan' - Omaha.com

The project, which would be built from the ground up, would result in a more than 50-acre mixed-use development offering:

>> 400,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space

>> 300,000 square feet of office space, including a midrise, eight-story office building and two-story office space situated above ground-level retail storefronts.

>> 400 “luxury loft” residential units.

>> a 135-room boutique hotel.

>> A two-acre public pedestrian-only park that would serve as the retail focus. Retail shops and residential space located above the ground floor storefronts would overlook the urban park.

CenturyLink will provide the development with a high-speed, 1-gigabit-per-second broadband network with voice, data, video and cloud-based services, said Danny Pate, CenturyLink vice president and general manager for Nebraska. Yates said the planned “smart” network has made some technology companies interested in the office space.

Going from this:


To this:


The Target and parking garage on the east end of the land are staying everything else is going away for a pretty great mixed use project. Expected to be a bunch of new to market retailers as well as some from the recently opened outlet mall that was built by the same developer. Not perfectly urban, but still pretty freaking awesome!

Got a big announcement for another big mixed use area of the city Aksarben Village. A $50 million project, $35 million on a 8 story office building 125K SF of office space on the top 6 floors and 12 retail bays on the bottom two floors. The other $15 million for a 1500 stall parking garage.

Render:


The project site:


Directly across the street from the nearly finished Gordman's HQ, which also has ground floor retail space:


On the same street frontage a Residence Inn u/c with the existing mixed use buildings further down the street:


And here is the "back" of the property, the garage will go in the center of the lot with the new 8 floor building on the left corner. The garage will eventually be surrounded by office and apartments fronting the street.


Got some better details for the new high rise downtown. Still pretty vague, but it is all we got.

10K-40K SF Retail Space.
5-8 Floors of Parking(550-880 stalls).
10-15 Office Floors(220K-330K SF)
3-5 Condo Floors(24-40 units)

And a render of the different angles. Pretty slick design for Omaha.


$22.5 Million 125 unit project announced downtown. Going right near the Old Market which is hot with new apartments right now.


25 year old Blue Barn Theater company is getting a brand new modern theater space thanks to some nice donations. They are leaving their current 86 seat theater in the Old Market for this new 96 seat theater in the neighborhood directly adjacent to the Old Market. This project also includes 10 condos and a restaurant space. Really cool project to make Omaha a little more dynamic design wise.


$25 Million Great Plains Black History Museum. This one is still more conceptual than anything no site picked although they want to be downtown and they don't have the money raised to build yet either.


100 unit Jones13 apartment building construction shot.


75 unit 1501 Jackson apartment building construction shot.


40 unit "The Limelight" apartment building construction shot.


154 unit "Spaces" apartment building construction shot. Located in Midtown.

[catch22]

Geez.

Way to go Omaha!

[JoninATX]

Very nice! Omaha is on a roll.

[zookeeper]

Old Market just keeps on going. I {{{{{{{ love }}}}}} Old Market. In fact, I love so much of Omaha. Des Moines, too - and some other great cities your direction.

[OKCisOK4me]

Peyton Manning hut hut!

[Just the facts]

Thought I would pass this link along.

Downtown Revitalization: Omaha | Metro Jacksonville

While we are at it - Omaha redevelopment has caught the attention of Colorado Springs.

http://gazette.com/downtown-done-rig...gLEB3w1RCr4.99

[UrbanNebraska]

Thought I would pass this link along.

Downtown Revitalization: Omaha | Metro Jacksonville

While we are at it - Omaha redevelopment has caught the attention of Colorado Springs.

Downtown done right: Omaha's success could hold lessons for Colorado Springs

Thanks for posting that!

The Jacksonville photos are making me ready for spring. There are some great shots of Omaha there, looks like he did quite a bit of walking! Omaha's wiki is pretty out of date so some of the info on there is wrong, the convention hotel has since been expanded from 450 to 600 rooms and the streetcar proposal has a much different route now.

[Spartan]

What's the unique financing plan behind the Crossroads redev?

Does Omaha utilize CDBG, CDCs, etc?

[UrbanNebraska]

What's the unique financing plan behind the Crossroads redev?

Does Omaha utilize CDBG, CDCs, etc?

Well some news today puts me in a place where I don't know what to think.

The funding was supposed to come from $53 million in TIF, $58 million from a 1.95% occupation tax in the development district and another $50 million in a bond issue to pay for the roads, sewers and infrastructure that would be up for public vote. I think the "uniqueness" came from the 1.95% tax which the NE Unicameral passed recently and the fact that all those incentives were going to be used together.

The other info that had come out since the original announcement were: the hotel being Aloft, being in negotiations with REI as an anchor and that 100K of the 400K in office space would be a "Technology Village" with CenturyLink(which brought 1 gig internet to Omaha last August) would provide the entire development with 10 gig internet. It's not as "sexy" as Google Fiber, but would be a massive draw for the development.


Well news dropped today that the Mayor is urging the City Council to postpone the bond vote that was scheduled for the May elections. She said to gather more info and better inform voters of the issue as well as to not confuse it with a separate $92 million bond issue on the ballot this May.

So we will see. These developers killed it with the new outlet mall here and did the Legends area in KC as well so they have the pockets. This property is just so maligned yet so crucial to Omaha's future that it is important to do it right. I am going to a meeting on the 19th that the developer is supposed to speak at so I am hoping for something tangible to come out of that.

EDIT: now reports that the project would start this summer wether the bond happens or not. Just throwing more oddities into this property.

[UrbanNebraska]

Maha Music Festival announced it's lineup yesterday. Death Cab for Cutie, The Head and the Heart and Local Natives headline. The Both with Aimee Mann and Ted Leo, Minneapolis hip hop group Doomtree, St Joseph MO punk rockers Radkey and Des Moines indie band The Envy Corp fill out the main stage. OKC's own Flaming Lips headlined last year.

http://vimeo.com/mahamusicfest/2014lineup

The final preferred transit alternative from our Alternatives Analysis study was released. The improvements the study found would cost $170 million including a 7.98 mile BRT route from downtown out west to Westroads Mall which is the city's premier shopping location as well as a 3.22 mile streetcar line that would run from North Downtown near the baseball stadium, south to the Old Market then out through Midtown Crossing ending at University of Nebraska Medical Center. Seems like a good combination to get the benefits of a streetcar in the urban core with improved transit to the suburbs without the massive upfront costs of light rail.

They are now moving onto the next step which includes environmental studies and conceptual engineering, they also say that they are in the process of trying to secure a $33 million TIGER Grant.

Small PDF of how the route would run through the city:
http://omahaalternativesanalysis.org...Map_041814.pdf

Here is the rendering video of what the transit could look like in our current building stock.
http://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/...y?popover=true

The Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center is well underway. The 577,000 SF $323 million building will employ 1200 and is expected to have another $300+ million in development in the surrounding neighborhoods...where I happen to live so that is nice.

Render:


Shot of the tower crane:


Another tower crane up near Aksarben Village. 150,000 SF, $42.6 million medical office building.



UNO's new arena is going up in the Aksarben Village area too. $75 million 7500 seat arena.



The 300 unit "The Wire" office to apartment conversion is getting close to coming online. The will open the top floor to tenants in June and will open up each subsequent floor below as they finish out the interiors. Here is a shot of them hoisting the pool up to the roof. Will be a unique option for the city.


The same developer doing ^that^ project got a steal of a deal by purchasing our out of commission riverfront power plant for $100,000. Plan to spend $30 million converting it into a 135 unit apartment building. It is kind of disconnected from downtown, but being on the water will be a nice draw. Also should be really unique units b/c of the size of the floors.


That above shot of the power plant also shows the site of a project that just broke ground. The grass lot on the left side of that photo near the bridge is the location of this $22.5 million 125 unit apartment project that just started last week. It will be the first in ground pool in downtown so that will be a nice draw.


100 unit Jones13 is topped out.


75 unit 1501 Jackson topped out.


40 unit The Limelight is topped out.


154 unit Spaces apartments, nearly topped out.


The newly created "Blackstone District" is getting ready to pop. A ton of investment going in on this street corner. It currently sits on at one way street that is set to go two way this summer.

This closed up antique shop is going to get a major redo. They are going to bring those storefronts out to the street and add another bay to the end. Will include a small park as well. The large home on the property was so cut up from being an antique showroom that they are converting it to office space for 10 startups.


With the render for the new storefronts.


Also on that corner there will be a new Mexican Restaurant and tequila bar. It is going in the two story building on the corner, there are already 7 completed apartment units on the 2nd floor.


Next door a micro brewery is going in.


Across the street is just a tried and true bar. Sullivan's has been in the area for 40 years and decided to renovate this building when they saw all the rest of the investment.


All of that is like 3 blocks from my house... needless to say I am pumped.

Decent little 31 unit apartment project going into Midtown. This is about two blocks away from Midtown Crossing.


Just down the street from that project is kind of a cool little unique project. A board game cafe. A man has collected over 1000 different board games throughout his life and has decided to create a nonprofit space to share them with the community. Offer refreshments, small snacks and meals where you can show up and buy day passes or buy year passes to use the games.


Haven't been able to find details on this, but apparently the top floors of our gorgeous Flat Iron building are undergoing renovation for rentals.


This great collection of buildings in the sort of no-man's land between downtown and Midtown have been purchased by a single developer with the intent of rehabbing them.





No renderings yet, but a developer has said he will build a 6 floor 176 unit apartment building on this triangle shaped property in Midtown.


And finally this 430 unit apartment project 2 blocks from our Crossroads Mall mega project is getting NIMBYed hard. It is on the fringe of our Fairacres neighborhood which houses a lot of wealth. They have banded together saying it would create too much traffic. Our planning department has already approved it, but with the influential people in that neighborhood it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I will be incredibly disappointed if the city chases away this kind of investment...

[UrbanNebraska]

I LOVE Omaha once the snow thaws. Great tree cover and some great public spaces to enjoy.











Plus spring means the bikes come out in full force!


And we love our beer here. Two separate very successful beer festivals on the same day in the Big O.

Omaha Beer Fest at Aksarben Village:



And Benson Beer Fest in you guessed it, the Benson neighborhood. Benson is an awesome area of town that I don't really talk about much. The area has two breweries, currently 6 live music venues with a 7th and 8th(like a half venue) being worked on now and some unique artwork. Really the heart of Omaha's music and artistic scene. Also the hottest biking neighborhood, the shot of the bikes a few up is in Benson.

[Pete]

As always, thanks for sharing.

I really need to get to Omaha at some point.

[UrbanNebraska]

As always, thanks for sharing.

I really need to get to Omaha at some point.

I never thought I would root against the Anteaters, I love when they make the CWS, but I am hoping that OSU can bounce back here and make it up to Omaha so some Okies would come visit. Not to offend any Sooners here, you guys can come visit when OU plays Creighton in November.