Omaha Development Update

[UrbanNebraska]

Great stuff! I love the UNO revitalization, especially the bit about going from 0 students living on campus to 2500 with demand being strong. That is an unqualified success story.

It really has been a lot of hard work and investment, but both the university and city are reaping the benefits. UNO was unaffectionately called "Omaha High" or "Dodge Street High" and was completely a commuter campus with very little campus pride. Now UNO is the fastest growing university in the Nebraska system with faster % and raw number growth than the flagship in Lincoln.




The graduate programs have also grown 10% this year. 12% more out of state students are enrolled than last year too.

UNO will obviously never be UNL, but it can be a university to employ the next generation of workers in Omaha. Local business leaders realized the potential here when they donated millions to build a new building for the business college.


This is a cool shot of where the main campus sits compared to the urban areas of Omaha.


In that aerial you can see two universities(UNO and Creighton), two medical schools(UNMC and Creighton) and 4 Fortune 500 HQs. And my house .

[UrbanNebraska]

Local photographer Brad Williams got up in the air recently and grabbed some great shots of Omaha.

Even with ConAgra leaving we still have an impressive coporate HQ presence for a city our size. A couple big names in the suburbs.

Fortune 1000 TD Ameritrade's HQ(Online Trading).


Fortune 1000 Valmont(Irrigation).


Fortune 1000 Green Plains(commodity trading). Moving from a suburban location to the new urban Aksarben Village.



The classic DTO shot. ConAgra's campus just begging for dense development...


The Capitol District has two cranes flying.


And the aerial shows the relation with the rest of DT. I also like this shot b/c it shows the linear density we are developing. You can see DT, Midtown and if you look closely the cranes over the Nebraska Medical Center. The BRT was run right past all of these employment centers. Also the surface lot right next to the construction site will be the new 16 story HQ of HDR brining 900 jobs from the suburbs to DT.


The Buffett Cancer Center at the Nebraska Medical Center.


And the next area of the city eyed for an Aksarben Village or Midtown Crossing type new urban development. This is an old industrial area directly next to the medical center that the institution has bought and is looking to develop hotel, retail, residential and office space to support the campus and make it more attractive to students and professionals. All the cars are the construction crew for the cancer center.

[BG918]

ConAgra's campus reminds me a lot of OSU's campus in Tulsa. Both are not urban but next to downtown and have a similar style of architecture.

Hopefully ConAgra's campus gets redeveloped into something denser. It's a great location on the river next to downtown. It's just a shame so much of the warehouse district was destroyed to originally build it.

[UrbanNebraska]

ConAgra's campus reminds me a lot of OSU's campus in Tulsa. Both are not urban but next to downtown and have a similar style of architecture.

Hopefully ConAgra's campus gets redeveloped into something denser. It's a great location on the river next to downtown. It's just a shame so much of the warehouse district was destroyed to originally build it.

From what I have been hearing developers have already been contacting the Mayor and she has said that is is just way too early in the process. ConAgra is still keeping 2-3 of the buildings full and the talk here is that the buildings are way too well maintained Class A office to make a complete tear down realistic. The thing is they aren't going to sell off property until the restructure is done and that is a long process.

I think in 2-3 years the front lawn and gaudy corporate promenade will get taken care of. Omaha is pretty good at taking care of big time properties. I think they get heavy handed, but they don't mess around on spending money to appease the movers and shakers in town.

[TU 'cane]

Call it or call me whatever, but every time I come here and look at what Omaha has going on, I'm more than impressed.

Urban, are you and/or the city expecting a bigger year than 2015 in terms of development and announced projects that you can tell right now?

[TexanOkie]

The wife and I visited Omaha for a 4-day mini-vacation a couple years ago and loved it. Several things stood out about the city:

(1) There is a higher density of development in the older neighborhoods than you find in central Oklahoma City or Tulsa; so much so that Omaha feels like a bigger city when you're walking or driving through it than it actually is.

(2) There were multiple grocery stores in the downtown/midtown area, fairly well spaced through downtown, the old market, and midtown.

(3) The Doorly Zoo is one of the best zoos I've been to. It's not the largest, but the open buildings used for many of the enclosures really brings you face to face with the wildlife.

(4) The quality of the public parks system (or at least the parks we went to) rivals cities two or three times its size.

[zookeeper]

Omaha is a great city and will handle the ConAgra HQ loss. Great pix, by the way.

You know, Urban will know this, but there is an old joke in Omaha back in the 70's and 80's that went something like this:

Visitors in town have to only ask one question about how to get to ________.
"Which way on Dodge?"

The growth patterns at that time made that answer truer than many wanted to admit.

My, how things have changed!

[UrbanNebraska]

Well I was going to respond to you guys with a lot of the things I am excited for in 2016, but I will have to get to that some other time.

The Old Market lost an icon and it really has put a damper on the new year. A century old building burned all day Saturday with sub zero temps after dark making it extremely hard for the amazing fire fighters. A gas line was hit an explosion lead to a fire. M's Pub a restaurant and Nouvelle Eve a clothing store have been on the ground floor of this building for 40 years and are gone. M's especially wears heavy on me b/c it has always been a go to for me. From first dates to holiday celebrations it has served me well for years and decades for others. Truly an Omaha institution. This corner is the direct heart of the Old Market and it just feels like the whole city lost a piece of its soul. Fingers crossed they can rebuild.




ConAgra is a bigger loss on paper, but this one feels like a punch to the gut.

[zookeeper]

Well I was going to respond to you guys with a lot of the things I am excited for in 2016, but I will have to get to that some other time.

The Old Market lost an icon and it really has put a damper on the new year. A century old building burned all day Saturday with sub zero temps after dark making it extremely hard for the amazing fire fighters. A gas line was hit an explosion lead to a fire. M's Pub a restaurant and Nouvelle Eve a clothing store have been on the ground floor of this building for 40 years and are gone. M's especially wears heavy on me b/c it has always been a go to for me. From first dates to holiday celebrations it has served me well for years and decades for others. Truly an Omaha institution. This corner is the direct heart of the Old Market and it just feels like the whole city lost a piece of its soul. Fingers crossed they can rebuild.




ConAgra is a bigger loss on paper, but this one feels like a punch to the gut.

Oh NO! So sorry to hear this. Iconic corner, what a huge loss.

[Spartan]

Sorry to hear about the Old Market building. At any rate, I am sure it's a valuable-enough corner, that the right solution will be found.

[UrbanNebraska]

HDR gives us a first look at their new HQ.

[zookeeper]

Interesting building. When I first looked at it I saw a giant razor cartridge.

Have you heard anymore on what they plan to do at the M's Pub building? Such a shame.

[UrbanNebraska]

Interesting building. When I first looked at it I saw a giant razor cartridge.

Have you heard anymore on what they plan to do at the M's Pub building? Such a shame.

The city said they thought the north wall needed to come down. The building owners decided to bring in their own consultation to check the structure and just tonight they came out and said that they are feeling positive about saving the structure.

The north wall is the one w/o windows on the right side of the building.


And the structural engineer inspecting the building.


The people that own the building are the Mercer family. They own a number of the buildings in the Old Market and their family has owned property in the neighborhood since the late 1800s. The Mercer family owned the original building on this site that burned down 101 years ago to the month.



The building standing today was the replacement for that building.

The Mercer's actually had an apartment in this building and they lost a pretty substantial art collection.

Basically it is safe to say the owners here care about The Old Market like it is a family member. They have the resources and the will to do anything and everything to save this place.

[zookeeper]

Wow. Those are incredibly sad pictures. To think they burned 101 years apart sent chills up me looking at those photos.
Thanks for the update, Urban.

[Spartan]

Great news though that it may be salvageable!!

[UrbanNebraska]

A great(and rare) day for historic preservation in Omaha.

In the background of the new HDR headquarters were 4 100+ year old buildings. The whole thing is complicated, but here it goes.

When HDR said they were going to move DT they eyed this surface lot in the middle of the photo.


That lot is owned by Omaha Performing Arts(OPA). They own and run the Holland Performing Arts Center across the street.


OPA said that they would not sell the parking lot to HDR unless they could get a hold of the 4 century old buildings on the east end of their block. They said they needed it for a parking garage and potentially more performance and education space.


And the back of the buildings. OPA already owns the lawn.


The most significant historic building is the 132 year old Specht Building. It is the last cast iron facade in the state.


The building I felt got overlooked was the Happy Hollow Coffee Building.


Well when it came down to the numbers the owners of the buildings didn't want to sell to OPA. With the threat of OPA not selling their lot to HDR the city decided to step in. They came in and said they would buy the properties for $11 Million and then GIVE IT to OPA. OPA was then going to sell the parking lot to HDR for $3 million, of which would have been funded through the TIF for HDR. So basically the city was going to give $14 million in tax payer dollar funds to OPA as well as give them 4 historic buildings to tear down. Also it came out that the CEO of HDR is on the OPA board so all kinds of backroom deal theories were being thrown around.

Well obviously that pissed people off. Freedom of Information Act requests were filed, boycotts of OPA were organized, multiple downtown architects and business owners spoke out. It was a really organized opposition.

Even through that the planning board and mayor had said they supported the deal. Just today OPA came out and said that they would drop the request for the properties from the city and would still sell the lot to HDR. It is honestly the first time I can remember that big $ and power lost to the people in this city. Maybe I am overestimating the impact, but I really hope this galvanizes the citizens of this city to think they actually have a voice in the major decisions in our city.

[UrbanNebraska]

The wife and I visited Omaha for a 4-day mini-vacation a couple years ago and loved it. Several things stood out about the city:

(1) There is a higher density of development in the older neighborhoods than you find in central Oklahoma City or Tulsa; so much so that Omaha feels like a bigger city when you're walking or driving through it than it actually is.

(2) There were multiple grocery stores in the downtown/midtown area, fairly well spaced through downtown, the old market, and midtown.

(3) The Doorly Zoo is one of the best zoos I've been to. It's not the largest, but the open buildings used for many of the enclosures really brings you face to face with the wildlife.

(4) The quality of the public parks system (or at least the parks we went to) rivals cities two or three times its size.

1. That is one thing I really love about Omaha. While the traditional urban stock has taken a hit over the years the neighborhoods have stood strong. Dundee, Fairacres, Benson, Gold Coast, Joslyn Castle ect are all very well maintained and have seen surging home values with the push back to the city core.

I live in the Joslyn Castle neighborhood. This building is literally two blocks from my place.


This video focuses mostly on Memorial Park, but does show the old hoods still going strong.


2. I kind of like our urban grocery options. Patrick's Market downtown is just so expensive and I feel like doesn't differentiate themselves enough from a big box to draw people outside of convenience. Haven't ever been in, but it seems like a Native Roots finds the smaller grocer niche better.



The Wohlner's in the Midtown Crossing development is still higher than the big box, obviously, but more reasonable. Plus the best meat counter in town!



3. The zoo here is really awesome. Annually competes with STL and San Diego for best zoo in the country and world. They are just finishing up on the zoo's largest project ever, a $73 million African Grasslands project. The elephant barn is supposed to be the largest in the nation. We are waiting on elephants from Africa along with Wichita and Dallas zoos. Hoping they can clear through the hurdles soon, it has been too long since we have seen elephants. Had to give ours up when one of the two died and needed to get the lonely guy into a new group.

4. The parks are plentiful, but I wish we had at least one "active" park along the lines of Myriad. All of our parks are passive green space, which is nice, but wish there was one headliner than was a bit different.

[UrbanNebraska]

Omaha is a great city and will handle the ConAgra HQ loss. Great pix, by the way.

You know, Urban will know this, but there is an old joke in Omaha back in the 70's and 80's that went something like this:

Visitors in town have to only ask one question about how to get to ________.
"Which way on Dodge?"

The growth patterns at that time made that answer truer than many wanted to admit.

My, how things have changed!

Dodge is still "Main Street" in every way possible. Omaha is very much a E/W linear city when it comes to the major employers and commute patterns. About a decade ago they built this massive $100 million bypass project to jump Dodge over 3 stoplights. A little I-35 in Austin vibe.

[UrbanNebraska]

HDR no longer moving downtown. Said the land deal with OPA couldn't be reached, parking was too expensive to workout and that the timeline doesn't work anymore. Staying in the city likely the suburbs according to the rumors.

[UrbanNebraska]

Well I was going to wait until HDR announced their new HQ location, but a huge project was dropped that has got me jazzed.

Creighton University Medical Center is moving their facility a bit further west to a hospital near Aksarben Village. In the wake of that they were selling their massive, dated current building. Just today the buyer was announced and their plans were released, they are exciting and substantial to say the least.

The details include:

$90 million redevelopment
700 apartment units
40K SF in retail
2.5 acre lake with a fountain and sand beach
A rooftop pool
A 700 foot pedestrian bridge over the interstate to connect the building to Creighton's campus
A new elementary school on the parking lot across the street
Walking and biking trails running to Midtown Crossing and North Downtown

Here is a look at the Soviet-esque looking monster


A rendering


A site plan


700 units in one building is insane and will be a massive anchor for the entire neighborhood just west of DT and north of Midtown Crossing.

The Capitol District is beginning to make its presence felt.


The hotel will have a great street presence.


And the apartment tower using a pretty interesting modular process. They say it will put up 10 floors in 15 weeks.


The Yard in North Downtown coming together.

Kiewit's national training facility.


And the 100 unit apartment project on the other end.


A yet to be announced hotel will sit between those two.

Even Hotel, which will be the 4th location of the concept getting closer.


This modest apartment project is very close to ^that^ hotel. Right next to the high rise on the left side of the above picture.


A mixed use project is set to start in North Downtown this summer. Alvine Engineering will occupy 30K SF of office space with retail and 45 apartments taking up the rest of the building. Interestingly Alvine has an office in OKC and it is the only suburban location of their 4 locations in Omaha, Lincoln and DSM. Maybe they will move in OKC eventually.


The old postal annex is u/c into a new office building with a restaurant bay. A local construction company and alternative energy companies have already been secured as tenants. The top 2 floors are spec office space while the bottom floor is going to be leased by the desk for startups.


Another cool industrial building moving forward. Former power plant being turned into apartments. Save developers as the med center redevelopment from the first project above. They are awesome.



Kaneko is an arts compound in the Old Market. They are adding an atrium to connect their buildings and ad about 5K SF of space.



This project is also supposed to incorporate these black and white granite sidewalks which will be super cool.


32 unit row house project just south of DT going up.



19 more row house units set to start south of DT.



Also in the area south of DT these storefronts are being rehabbed.



Near Midtown Crossing a 137 unit project has broken ground.


The Blackstone neighborhood getting very strong lately. This project is retail on the bottom with 7 apartments w/ garage doors above and a 50 unit apartment building behind.


Also in ^that^ picture the building with the orange sign is being turned into 12 apartments and retail space and the building with blue awnings is being renovated into 40 market rate units.

A little further west Dundee has three good projects.

A Home2 By Hilton is going in by the Med Center.


Dundee Flats is 63 unit apartment building with a coffee shop.


Then in the hear of Dundee this perfect building will have a clothing store, vegan restaurant, medical office on the second floor and apartments on top.


The area just west of Dundee will get a 215 unit project under the shadow of the 3rd tallest(sadly) building in Omaha.


Our main mall has got some interesting development too.

Westroads got rid of their traditional food court with the Orange Julius and Burger King and replaced it with a food hall run by a local company. Word is they will expand the concept to Madison and Chicago soon.





The old food court is being replaced by a Container Store.



Still lots of stuff going down elsewhere. Aksarben Village has another hotel and 250 apartment units going up. Crossroads is supposed to start demo by Sept 1st. A 500 acre tract of land by Boy's Town is being developed into a massive project. HDR still needs to announce a home. The Civic Auditorium demo is fully underway.

[OKCisOK4me]

For its size, Omaha really is a beautiful city.

[UrbanNebraska]

The Henry Doorly Zoo welcomed their 1 Millionth visitor of 2016 this past weekend their earliest ever to that mark. The zoo opened a new $73 million African Grasslands exhibit that included the zoo having their first elephants since 2011. Safe to say the facility this is consistently ranked in the top 2-3 in the country is not sitting on its laurels.

For its size, Omaha really is a beautiful city.

Haha, I think we have plenty of work to do, but we try our best. The awesome photographer Brad Williams got back in the helicopter a few weeks ago and took a bunch of great shots. I will put a couple of my favorites, but this is the link for the entire set.
http://www.eomahaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17994






That last shot I absolutely love b/c it just showcases the whole urban city including the DT, Midtown and Med Center skylines.

And this shot to me is just the quintessential Omaha. The old school brick of the Old Market gradually leading to the historic stock in the CBD that often gets lost other skyline shots then you get the modern buildings behind. Then you throw in the train in the fore ground that harkens back to our founding. Just awesome.


For development news:

HDR settled on their new site for their HQ. They were originally going DT, but the land deal fell about through an entirely messy situation. Once they pulled out of DT there was a worry that they would make a suburban office park. Well we got about the best alternative to DT. They are going to the last empty plot of land in Aksarben Village.

10 floors ~250K SF with room for their 900 Omaha based employees in one building. They are turning the plot next to this building as temporary park space b/c HDR expects to add a couple hundred employees to the local workforce.




With the addition of HDR Aksarban Village is stamping itself as a major anchor for the city for generations to come. Office anchors include Blue Cross Blue Shield, Gordman's HQ, Pacific Life's Omaha operations with over 350 employees, Fortune 1000 Green Plains Energy HQ, Fortune 500 First Data's Omaha operation and 2 massive Architecture/Engineering firms in DLR group and HDR. And it site right next to the University of Nebraska Omaha campus creating a great energy.

This aerial is a little older, but HDR's building will go up on the surface lot and grassy area on the right side of this photo.


The Buffett Cancer Center with the exterior done.


And the Nebraska Medical Center's new $100 million virtual teaching facility. This puts the investment on campus to nearly a billion dollars in this 5 year window.


Capitol District progress


Iowa developing their side of the riverfront into a large mixed use development w/ 300K SF of office/retail and over 350 residential units.


With the infrastructure going in


The Civic Auditorium is finally seeing demolition. They began exterior demo last month after over half a year of asbestos removal inside. It is set to be replaced by a $300 million mixed used project with a 16 floor office tower, 200 rental units and a new civic component(which the hot rumor is will be a new modern flagship library). Here is the rendering.


And the last shot of the facility before it meets its maker

[UrbanNebraska]

Not development, but one of my favortie days of the summer is this Saturday.

Maha Music Festival back at it in Aksarben Village with another great lineup.



And I always enjoy the map they post of locations where tickets were purchased.

[UrbanNebraska]

Absolutely massive project announced for suburban West Omaha. Envisioned to make a DT for the west side of the city.

The 500 acre land it sits on was leapfrogged by development for miles b/c Boys Town own one farm and a family held their until now.

Plans are just sprouting, but developers saying:

Total $1.2 Billion in assessed value for the city.
2.3 Million in Commercial space, 1.3 million of that office with the rest for dinning, retail and entertainment.
2000 residences ranging from mansions on the edges near existing single family areas to apartments, condos and town homes above shops and more near the center of the development.
4 star hotel.
Outdoor amphitheater.
20 year build out.

First firm anchor is Applied Underwriters HQ. Omaha based insurance company. They will start construction next year.

This is the land it will sit on. The two farms located on the corner of 144th and Pacific. (Apologies for the small image)
Picture 31.jpg

And a master plan look at one portion of the project.


What is crazy is that that isn't the only suburban "Downtown" project announced this year.

A suburb on the south side of the metro called La Vista is a run down empty Wal-Mart site with their own version of a city center. This one to the tune of only $250 million.





Will be fascinating to watch this all come together.

[UrbanNebraska]

Yesterday was a huge day for development announcements.

Most notable being Mutual of Omaha announcing that plans for the area east of Midtown Crossing will begin development.

The first buildings will be a 6 floor hotel and a 5 floor apt building shown in a little more detail. The rest of the orange structures will be built in later phases. Rumor is Mutual will move their offices into the larger buildings shown on I480 and their old buildings will go apartment. We will see.


Children's Hospital in central Omaha also announced a $450 million, 500K SF, 10 floor addition with an attached 1000 stall garage.


Some more images of the "downtown" planned for the suburbs.








This building DT will become a boutique hotel to join Hilton's Curio collection.


This awesome hidden gem will be spared from the wrecking ball and turned into affordable housing.


One of the last untouched buildings just outside of the Old Market getting some love.



This mixed use project in North Downtown has broken ground. Includes 30K SF for an engineering company with 45 apartments and retail space.


Progress on The Yard development in North Downtown. This one is Kiewit's company training facility. Supposed to contribute 15,000 hotel nights a year from people traveling in to Omaha to train.


And the apartments with retail on the other end.



Between the two buildings will be a hotel that is in the process of being approved.

The Rail and Commerce building which will be HQ to a local construction firm and offer coworking space has come a long way. Before:

And with new windows:


Another little gem DT getting some love. 20 apartments and 2 retail bays.



New dental school building for Creighton has broken ground.


And finally the tragic fire nearly a year ago that worried many that we were going to lose one of the premier buildings in the Old Market now has all 3 of the original tenants building out their space again. Amazing amazing work by everyone involved to save the beauty. Impressive with how much 11 months can do.