Omaha Development News

[Dale]

Hello ?

[jpIllInoIs]

Not really development news, but since this forum is so dead...
Omaha Skyline shot is in the new movie " Michael Clayton" starring george clooney..eExcellent movie.. Just a breif shot of the city but you can clearly see the Woodmen building.

[Dale]

Where are the Omaha people ?

[Dale]

Well, at least I got an email from the Omaha Steaks people today.

[shevaub]

Originally Posted by Dale

Hello ?

Hello

[Coyote]

Originally Posted by Dale

What is the status of the Wallstreet condo tower ?

Demolition of the old UP site should be finished by March of 2008.

Wallstreet Tower thread on eOmahaForums

[Milwaukee, WY]

Any other news in Omaha? All the other Omaha people disappeared. Welcome, by the way.

[TU 'cane]

Nice to see Omaha doing good. A lot of developments.

[omahajayscu]

Wow, it is really sad to see how neglected this thread has been. There are so many exciting things that have been going on in Omaha, I guess I will have do all the dirty work.

Lets get it started:

Wall Street Tower
32 Stories, 373 ft. 270 condo units, retail space, rooftop pool; Demolition of the former Union Pacific Headquarters is well underway, and should be completed by May. This glass beauty should be completed by 2010.
Rendering:

Demolition:





Riverfront Area
Riverfront Place
Phase 1 of Riverfront Place, which included townhomes and a 13 story condo tower, is complete. Phase 2 should begin shortly, which includes a 15 story condo tower and more townhomes. Note: phase two is the closest to the river.
Here is a very cool flyover video:
http://riverfrontplace.com/tour/t_tower-video.htm
Site Plan:

Rendering:

Post construction Phase 1:




Missouri River Pedestrian Bridge
The 25 million dollar pedestrian bridge, which is the centerpiece of Omaha's riverfront revival, is well under way. The towers are both complete and the decking is beginning. The bridge should be opened by the end of this year.
Rendering:


Construction:





Council Bluffs, IA Riverfront Plan (Other side of Pedestrian Bridge)
The city of Council Bluffs, Iowa has been developing their plan for the other side of the pedestrian bridge. Their plan includes 200 residential units, a 10 story condo building, park space, retail, and office.
The Plan:



Downtown Baseball Stadium
There hasn't been any mention of this here. Currently, the NCAA and the City of Omaha are negotiating a contract extension for the College World Series. The city of Omaha is currently investigating two options, either build a new downtown stadium in the North Downtown/Riverfront area for a 20 year contract extension or renovate Rosenblatt stadium for a 10 year extension. The city has formed a committee to evaluate 5 different downtown sites and 3 different renovation plans for Rosenblatt to determine the best option for the city.

The initial stadium proposal: $120 million stadium that would seat 9-10,000 for the Omaha Royals (AAA PCL) and be expandable to 24,000 seats for the College World Series. The initial idea was to build it on Lot D of the Qwest Center Omaha, however, the idea was met with opposition because the Qwest Center uses that lot of outdoor events and as an unloading area for conventions and events, and would also block future expansion of the convention center.



North Downtown Area
The North Downtown area has been taking off as of late. There are currently 4 hotels either completed or under construction in the area and the newly completed Slowdown Development, which includes Saddle Creek Records new music venue, an independent movie theater, Urban Outfitters, Live/work units, Blueline Coffee, upper level condos, and rumored American Apparel. There have been rumors of other developments in the area, but we probably won't hear much until the dust settles with the baseball stadium.

Slowdown venue/Theater (Saddle Creek Records)







A great night shot of the entire development (UO, Slowdown, Theater)


Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn:


Fairfield Inn:


Holiday Inn:



Old Mattress Factory Bar & Grill


Old Market Area Development
jLofts: 55 condos with ground floor retail and office space in the heart of the Historic Old Market
rendering:


Construction:



Residence Inn: 118 room hotel located at 12th and Jackson in Old Market


Other Downtown Development
Brandies Building:
The original developer of the 10 story former department store filed for bankruptcy in May of last year. After being on the market half finished for almost a year, Townsend Inc of Kansas City has purchased the property and plans to redevelop it into condos, apartments, office and retail space.


The Paxton:
The former Paxton Hotel building has been successfully converted into condos and ground floor retail space. In the three lower level bays, two have been leased to the Paxton Chophouse and Ashley Lynns Tanning. Its garage, located in the rear of the building, has office space on the upper level and a n American National Bank on the ground floor. Oscar winning director Alexander Payne and former Nebraska Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns have purchased condos in the building.




Magnolia Hotel:
The former Aquila building has recently been redeveloped into a Magnolia Hotel. From what it sounds like, this will soon be downtown Omaha's second 4 diamond hotel.




Patrick's Market:
Omaha recently opened its second full scale urban grocery store to the west of the Old Market area.


Zorinsky Federal Building:
The renovation of the Zorinsky Federal Building is complete.


Little Italy Developments
Towns at Seventh at Little Italy consists of 35 row houses in the Little Italy neighborhood to the south of Downtown.



Giovana




Midtown Development
Midtown Crossing: The Midtown Crossing development is finally taking off. The demolition has been completed and the construction has begun.





University of Nebraska Medical Center Research Tower



Outside of Downtown/Midtown
Aksarben Village
Phase 1 of this mixed use development on the former Aksarben Racetrack site is well underway.







80 Dodge
The future location (red brick building)

Renderings

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Coyote

Demolition of the old UP site should be finished by March of 2008.

Wallstreet Tower thread on eOmahaForums

Thanks! Sorry, I had given up on ever hearing from Omahans.

[Dale]

WOWSER! I guess the upside of not hearing anything for months and months is that you get hit by waves of new developments. Very cool stuff indeed.

[omahajayscu]

Originally Posted by Dale

WOWSER! I guess the upside of not hearing anything for months and months is that you get hit by waves of new developments. Very cool stuff indeed.

Thanks. Most of these had been kind of scattered throughout the thread, but I figured I may as well update everyone on all of it. Lots of exciting stuff.

[UrbanTom]

Thanks for all the news. I was wondering - for the new building on the old Union Pacific Railroad Building site - are they going to preserve the facade? It kind of looked like in the demolition picture that they were bracing some of the outside walls. I hope so. That is a beautiful building. Actually it would be nice if they could save the whole building and simply convert it to another use - but if that's impossible - it sure seems like it would be nice to at least save the beautiful architecture on the outside of that UP building. Also - I like the pedestrian bridge very much. I'm just curious where the funds are coming from to pay for it. Federal DOT Transportation Enhancement grants? State / City funds? Local or other foundations / philanthropies? Local contributions? Other? All of the above? Did they ask Warren Buffett for the change behind his couch cushions? Just curious - its a real nice bridge and I find it helpful to see how other communities are funding their pedestrian infrastructure. Hope Omaha keeps growing. - Tom in Tampa / Indianapolis

[omahajayscu]

UrbanTom, Thanks for the comments.

The pedestrian bridge was the vision of longtime Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey. He saw it as a potential centerpiece to the city's "back to the river" campaign. Before leaving office, he secured a $17 million federal bridge grant. The rest of the bridge was paid split. The bridge totaled $22 million, and the money came from a mixture of the City of Omaha, City of Council Bluffs, and various philanthropic organizations and businesses.

With the old UP Building, sadly, none of it is being preserved. The facade of the building has been in extreme disrepair in the past several years. Parts of it were crumbling onto the street and sidewalk below, making it kind of dangerous. The inside also was covered in asbestos. I guess you could say this thing was a real mess. There were also numerous ugly little 70s style additions to the building that made it unappealing to save. As much as I don't like to tear down our history, I am glad to see that an even more beautiful building will take its place.

Thanks for the comments guys!

[omahajayscu]

Big news for downtown yesterday. The Gallup Organization, who employs 600 in their riverfront campus, will be building a new 100,000 square foot, 4 story addition. To fill this they will be expanding their riverfront workforce by 300.

[g-man430]

Both shots taken on Christmas day:

[omahajayscu]

Great shots! Wall Street will fit in perfectly.

[omahajayscu]

Omaha Development update as of 1-31

Wall Street Tower
Demolition of the Union Pacific Headquarters for the http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=566610continues to chug along. On Jan 23 the Omaha World Herald repoted that the demolition should be completed by the end of February.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pag...u_sid=10239079








Missouri River Pedestrian Bridge
Funding goals for the new $2 million dollar bridge landing and park area on the Omaha side has been reached.

Construction Update:






Old Market jLofts
The jLofts suffered a minor construction setback Monday when an Omaha World-Herald delivery truck crashed into the construction site taking out two of the columns. Work should still be on pace to meet fall move in dates.



The Giovanna
The model for the Giovanna Rowhouses in Omaha's Little Italy area is complete.







Towns at Seventh and Little Italy
What looks to be the last row of the 35 row house Tows at Seventh and Little Italy development has begun.



Mutual of Omaha's Midtown Crossing
Construction on the $300 million http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=570799development is cruising along.



Former World-Herald Building
The Omaha World Herald, who recently moved from into the former Qwest Building, has announced its plans to demolish the 2 story and "temporarily" build a plaza. Rumor has it that there are plans in the works for a new high rise.

Notice how cheap the plaza is, no fountains, statues, etc.

[milwaukeeunseen]

NICE!

I was in Omaha for the first time last summer and was very impressed with the development happening in the Downtown/Riverfront area. Glad to see that what I saw was just the beginning of an urban renaissance. Go Omaha!

[Milwaukee, WY]

I love Omaha. Good to see things moving along. Oh, and I absolutely loved how American Idol painted this picture of Omaha as this one-horse farm town, and the smallest city they'd ever been to. It is larger than Charleston, right? 'nuff said.