Raraavis
May 26, 2005, 4:23 PM
Omaha - Three huge multi-use infill projects announced in the last month.
Project 1 - North Downtown
North Downtown Plan aims to convert 80 blocks
BY C. DAVID KOTOK
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
North Downtown Entertainment District
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/NorthDowntown.jpg
The rundown area north of downtown would be transformed into one of Omaha's most inviting neighborhoods under a plan unveiled Thursday.
Mayor Mike Fahey said the proposals to create "Omaha's new urban neighborhood" are a necessity, not just pretty pictures in a 100-page book.
The plan is grandiose in scope, but there's no real money to pull off its biggest idea for an anchor destination - a four-square-block baseball stadium or museum district between Webster and Cuming Streets, from 14th to 16th Streets.
Both the Omaha Royals and Creighton University expressed interest in joint use of a stadium. No financial commitment has come from them or the city.
But the plan is even broader than a controversial new baseball stadium surrounded by apartments, shops and restaurants.
The proposal covers 80 blocks that are now dominated by pawn shops, rooming houses, light industry, a vacant railyard and shuttered factories.
The possibilities for the area were underscored at a press conference held by civic leaders in the old Tip-Top Building at 16th and Cuming Streets, which is undergoing a $20 million renovation into loft apartments and an entertainment complex.
North Downtown Masterplan
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/NorthDowntownMasterplan.jpg
Commitments to build in the area were expressed by Saddle Creek Records, the Omaha-based, independent recording company, and Bluestone Development.
Jason Kulbel of Saddle Creek Records said his company is looking for a site for a live-music venue called Slowdown, which would include a bar, a concert hall and business offices.
If all goes as planned, Slowdown would open in 2006, said Kulbel, who says the area has potential as an entertainment district.
"We want to wake up this sleeping giant," said Bluestone's Christian Christensen, who is the developer of the SoMA townhouses south of the Old Market.
Christensen said he is looking at developing 25 to 40 apartments on top of the Saddle Creek project.
He calls the area NoDo.
The administration will submit the recommendations to the Planning Board in June and to the City Council in July to guide development, Fahey said.
North of downtown Omaha lies a rundown area that some see as full of possibilities. This view is looking south toward downtown from the old Tip-Top Building at 16th and Cuming Streets.
Such a transformation won't be easy, said Doug Bisson, who led the HDR Inc. consulting team that prepared the plan.
Most Omahans "have either no perception of the study area or a negative perception of it," Bisson wrote in the report, which was financed by $180,000 in grants from the city and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.
If all went well, it would take 10 to 15 years to turn the concepts into reality.
The area is already in transition, with no guidance on how to shape it. Creighton University's expansion as far east to 17th Street and the Qwest Center Omaha at 10th Street have drawn attention to the area in between.
The reshaping of Abbott Drive from Eppley Airfield onto Cuming Street has redirected traffic through the area.
Speculators already have picked up on the potential, Fahey said, and the city must take control in order to ensure that its eastern entrance is attractive.
"You have to start with a plan for the highest and best use," Fahey said.
Some property in the area has been sold, and land options have been taken out on other pieces, driving up property prices.
The study also concludes that an anchor is needed to make the area a destination for all Omahans.
"Without an anchor, quality development will occur," according to the report, "but it will occur much more slowly and most likely not at the intensity levels desired."
The easiest anchor to create would be a massive residential project for the four-square-block area east of Creighton's new soccer complex west of 17th Street.
Another option would be a museum district, with a science museum, modern art museum or both.
But those two concepts pale compared to the attention given to building a ballpark to serve Creighton and the Omaha Royals. Rosenblatt would remain as the home of the College World Series.
The Royals would use the new park for 70 to 75 days a year, with Creighton, special events and tournaments raising the total annual use as high as 150 days, according to the report.
A new stadium could pick up the summer slack from the new convention center and arena, where the maximum usage is from September though April.
The area's parking lots and other lots would be used, generating more foot traffic in the area.
The report visualizes a park styled after other minor league parks in Memphis, Tenn.; Akron, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Indianapolis.
But there is the little item of coming up with $40 million to build it.
The city doesn't have the money, Fahey said. Providing the infrastructure and assembling the property might be as far as the city could go toward making a new baseball stadium happen.
"The other parts of the development are just as important as a ballpark," Fahey said.
One area that Fahey and Chamber President David Brown emphasized is the portion along Abbott as it makes the turn into Cuming.
"That's a real unique piece of property that could be turned into an outstanding corporate campus," Fahey said.
Brown said the property could be another tool in recruiting a major corporate relocation.
In addition to the office or corporate campus area west of the Gallup University Campus, which the plan divides the area into several distinct districts.
Entertainment district: Includes the convention center and arena, extending west to 14th Street.
Residential-retail district: Between 14th and 16th Streets, with multistory buildings and townhouses built to the sidewalks.
Arts district: The warehouse area surrounding the Hot Shops Art Center at 13th and Nicholas Streets.
Light industry district: Extends north of the arts district as far as Seward Street.
The intention is to meet the employment needs of the north Omaha community while extending the downtown area north to Cuming, Fahey said.
The proposal won praise from the Rev. John Schlegel, president of Creighton University, and City Councilman Frank Brown.
The plan that came out of the 18-month survey was attentive to the job-creation needs for north Omaha, Brown said. "I'm pleased with that commitment."
Schlegel said the north downtown concept fits well with the $100 million that Creighton is spending on its campus east of 24th Street.
"This will open up opportunities for our students for entertainment, housing and employment," Schlegel said. "The Saddle Creek announcement will excite our students today."
Nort Downtown Streetscape
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/NorthDowntownStreetscape.jpg
First North Downtown project announced
Omaha fun zone envisioned
BY JOSEPH MORTON
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Downtown residents would have a new movie theater, a concert venue and other amenities under a plan to jump-start development of areas in north downtown.
This is a drawing of a proposed entertainment and residential area in north downtown, looking northwest from 13th and Webster Streets.
Saddle Creek and Bluestone Development
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/SaddleCreek.jpg
Details of a joint proposal from Saddle Creek Records and Bluestone Development were released last week. Wednesday was the deadline the city set to submit plans to develop a two-block area from Webster to Cuming Streets between 13th and 14th Streets.
The Saddle Creek and Bluestone proposal was the only one received.
That development would cost more than $10 million and include commercial, recreational and residential space.
Saddle Creek's portion of the proposal features a rock concert hall and bar called Slowdown, a pizza shop, additional retail space and residential areas. It also would have two movie screens run by a nonprofit cinema showing independent and foreign films.
Bluestone's portion includes a 36-unit apartment building and a second building housing stores and residential spaces.
The two groups propose buying about 40,000 square feet of land from the city at a cost of $7 per square foot. The two square blocks are left over from the original Qwest Center Omaha property.
Additional city-owned land would be rented to the developers for parking.
Mayoral aide Jennifer Mahlendorf said the proposal exactly matches what the city was seeking when it invited proposals last month.
"This concept is going to set the precedent for what north downtown is all about," she said.
Mahlendorf said the details of a redevelopment agreement and requests for tax-increment financing still must be discussed in the coming months.
David Brown, president of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, said the development is part of establishing a new, vibrant neighborhood in that part of town.
"It's a great step for the attraction of young people to downtown," Brown said.
According to the proposal, the Slowdown would open by June 2006, and the Bluestone portion of the project would begin next year and be finished by 2007.
Project 2 - Aksarben Village
Aksarben Village Streetscape
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/Aksarben.jpg
The most storied vacant lot in Omaha, Ak-Sar-Ben, would give rise to shops, restaurants, offices, apartments, town homes, a hotel and a park under plans revealed by the property's owners Monday.
This artist's sketch shows a proposed view of Ak-Sar-Ben Village along Center Street.
The plan for the 70-acre Aksarben Village gives specifics to general concepts of mixed-use development that Ak-Sar-Ben Future Trust leaders have talked about since they began demolishing the coliseum, horse track grandstand and other buildings at the site last October.
The village would stretch roughly from Center Street north to the University of Nebraska at Omaha's south campus, from 63rd Street west to the Keystone Trail.
The Future Trust, the property's nonprofit owner, will present a redevelopment plan soon to the City of Omaha, seeking zoning adjustments and tax-increment financing for streets and utilities, said Jay Noddle, president of Noddle Cos.
With tax-increment financing, or TIF, developers obtain a bank loan in the amount of the TIF agreement. The city agrees to forgo property tax on the increased value of the fully developed property until the loan is repaid.
Noddle, whom the Future Trust hired to help put together the plan, said individual developers will be sought for its different pieces. But he said stringent design standards set by the Future Trust will guide all building, landscaping and even maintenance.
That fits with the Future Trust's commitment to developing the land "to the highest and best use possible" in keeping with its tradition, said Ken Stinson, chairman of the Future Trust board.
He said no buyers or tenants have signed on yet, but market studies show the project will work.
Under the plan, 386 apartments and town homes would stretch west from 63rd Street, adjoining the existing residential neighborhood.
The area from 64th Street to 67th Street would be a mixture of apartments, retail and office buildings.
The plan would extend 67th Street all the way through the property, to be Aksarben Village's main street, with first-floor shops built up to the street to create a lively, pedestrian area. Ak-Sar-Ben Drive would no longer reach Center Street.
A 4.6-acre park, connected to the Keystone Trail, would create the development's front door, from Center Street to Mercy Road, and the trail to 67th Street.
Parking would be tucked behind the buildings, which would be kept at low heights, probably below five stories.
Construction could begin next year. The site could take seven to 10 years to develop and cost up to $140 million, Noddle said.
The plan is the long-awaited concept for what will become of the horse racing track and entertainment venue that for decades operated on the property at the direction of the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben.
As horse racing declined with the expansion of dog racing and other forms of gambling, Douglas County purchased the Ak-Sar-Ben property totaling 145 acres.
The 70 acres involved in the new urban planning concept are what remain following a sale in 1996 that provided First Data Resources land for its headquarters campus and UNO south campus.
Today, that land along the northern portion of the Ak-Sar-Ben property houses the Peter Kiewit Institute, which is a technology and engineering center for both UNO and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, residential halls for UNO and the Scott Technology Center for starting new tech-related business.
In 1997, the non-profit Ak-Sar-Ben Future Trust assumed ownership of the remaining land and launched an eight-year process to determine its best use.
Stinson said the demolition at the site is 95 percent complete. Barns that had housed the Omaha Police Department's mounted patrol were the last to go, after the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum and the grandstand.
UNO has the opportunity to make use of a four-acre section along the northern edge that is designated for educational purposes.
Aksarben Village Master plan
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/AksarbenMasterplan.jpg
Final use of that land has not yet been determined, Stinson said.
Noddle said that 67th Street, which cuts through campus and will be the focal point of the new development, will become the main street of the development.
UNO may still have the prospect of expanding on another 57.5 acres of land controlled by the Future Trust southwest of the proposed Aksarben Village.
Stinson said that property was leased to Chili Greens Golf Course, south of Center Street.
If the property becomes available, UNO still might be able to build an athletic complex there, Stinson said. "We have no agreement," Stinson said.
Planned for Aksarben site
• Main entrance and park at 67th and Center Streets.
• 67th Street serves as development's main thoroughfare.
• Ground-level buildings for retail and entertainment, including music venues and possible theater. Upper-level offices.
• A 150-room hotel.
• Potential $140 million in private investment.
• The 70 acres is about the same size as One Pacific Place shopping center, 10307 Pacific St., but would have more than double the office and retail space.
• Eastern edge could have 386 apartments and town houses
Aksarben Village Site
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/Aksarbensite.jpg
Project 3 - Mutual of Omaha's Midtown Development
A 'first step' for Mutual project
BY CHRISTOPHER BURBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Mutual of Omaha Development
Midtown Development Streetscape
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/Mutual.jpg
Mutual of Omaha wants to start midtown revitalization with an ambitious development in its own backyard.
Mutual of Omaha wants to build a development next to its midtown Omaha headquarters.
The insurance giant announced Wednesday that it is developing a plan to build shops, restaurants and apartments east of its signature buildings at 33rd and Dodge Streets.
Mutual officials said nothing is definite yet. But they envision up to 600 residential units rising above first-floor shops and entertainment venues in a pedestrian-friendly area that blends into an improved Turner Park.
The development would replace parking lots and mostly vacant Mutual buildings between 31st and 33rd Streets, from Dodge to Farnam Streets. The company owns all the land except for a funeral home on Farnam Street.
"Our vision is to create an area where people want to live, work, shop and play," said John McClelland, a Mutual senior vice president.
He said the development could cost $70 million to $90 million, and might be completed by 2007 or 2008.
The company would convert four blocks into retail shops and apartments or condominiums.
Project site
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/Mutualsite.jpg
Mutual has hired ECI Investment Advisors Inc., a Chicago-based firm that specializes in urban revitalization, to do a feasibility study, said Dan Neary, Mutual's chairman and chief executive officer.
Among other things, the study will measure the demand for rental or owner-occupied housing on the site and business interest in locating there.
Mutual also will look into what help might be available from government, such as tax-increment financing and tax credits, improvements to Turner Park and street realignment.
"This is really just the first step in a long journey," Neary said.
But he and other officials said they are optimistic the study will show that the project can succeed.
"Based on what we already know, we feel like it's viable, but until we have proof, we can't be sure," said Jim Nolan, a Mutual spokesman.
The announcement, in a press conference atop Mutual's headquarters, held out the potential of the first tangible development of the Destination Midtown effort to revitalize neighborhoods west of downtown Omaha.
In that effort, Mutual of Omaha and other major employers in the area have been working with small businesses and neighborhood associations to plan improvements to a part of town where 28,000 people live and 40,000 people work.
McClelland, who sits on the Destination Midtown board, said Mutual wants the development to be in keeping with neighborhood wants and needs that surfaced in the effort's forums and surveys.
Those include such retail shops as grocery stores, services such as dry cleaning and entertainment options such as a movie theater and destination restaurants with sidewalk dining.
The development site comprises eight acres of pavement with a smattering of buildings, including Mutual's vacant, former residence for professional development. The company's other buildings on the site are used mostly for storage, and it doesn't need the parking spaces there, its officials said.
McClelland said Mutual is in talks with the owner of the only property on the site that Mutual doesn't own. That's Crosby-Kunold-Burket-Swanson-Golden Funeral Service's Farnam Chapel. If the funeral home doesn't sell, it would fit into the site, McClelland said.
"It's a nice building," he said.
The prospect of the development is likely to add urgency to discussions about major street changes in the area. Those could include changing Farnam and Harney Streets from one-way to two-way routes and reconfiguring Dodge Street's "S" curve into Douglas Street at 31st Street.
A traffic study commissioned by the city is expected to look at those issues, among others.
Neary said Mutual has a duty to make the best use of its property.
"This has been our home for over six decades," he said. "It's where many of our employees live. We really do owe a lot to the neighborhood, and we want to give something back."
Mutual of Omaha Development Streetscape
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/Mutual2.jpg
Project 1 - North Downtown
North Downtown Plan aims to convert 80 blocks
BY C. DAVID KOTOK
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
North Downtown Entertainment District
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/NorthDowntown.jpg
The rundown area north of downtown would be transformed into one of Omaha's most inviting neighborhoods under a plan unveiled Thursday.
Mayor Mike Fahey said the proposals to create "Omaha's new urban neighborhood" are a necessity, not just pretty pictures in a 100-page book.
The plan is grandiose in scope, but there's no real money to pull off its biggest idea for an anchor destination - a four-square-block baseball stadium or museum district between Webster and Cuming Streets, from 14th to 16th Streets.
Both the Omaha Royals and Creighton University expressed interest in joint use of a stadium. No financial commitment has come from them or the city.
But the plan is even broader than a controversial new baseball stadium surrounded by apartments, shops and restaurants.
The proposal covers 80 blocks that are now dominated by pawn shops, rooming houses, light industry, a vacant railyard and shuttered factories.
The possibilities for the area were underscored at a press conference held by civic leaders in the old Tip-Top Building at 16th and Cuming Streets, which is undergoing a $20 million renovation into loft apartments and an entertainment complex.
North Downtown Masterplan
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/NorthDowntownMasterplan.jpg
Commitments to build in the area were expressed by Saddle Creek Records, the Omaha-based, independent recording company, and Bluestone Development.
Jason Kulbel of Saddle Creek Records said his company is looking for a site for a live-music venue called Slowdown, which would include a bar, a concert hall and business offices.
If all goes as planned, Slowdown would open in 2006, said Kulbel, who says the area has potential as an entertainment district.
"We want to wake up this sleeping giant," said Bluestone's Christian Christensen, who is the developer of the SoMA townhouses south of the Old Market.
Christensen said he is looking at developing 25 to 40 apartments on top of the Saddle Creek project.
He calls the area NoDo.
The administration will submit the recommendations to the Planning Board in June and to the City Council in July to guide development, Fahey said.
North of downtown Omaha lies a rundown area that some see as full of possibilities. This view is looking south toward downtown from the old Tip-Top Building at 16th and Cuming Streets.
Such a transformation won't be easy, said Doug Bisson, who led the HDR Inc. consulting team that prepared the plan.
Most Omahans "have either no perception of the study area or a negative perception of it," Bisson wrote in the report, which was financed by $180,000 in grants from the city and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.
If all went well, it would take 10 to 15 years to turn the concepts into reality.
The area is already in transition, with no guidance on how to shape it. Creighton University's expansion as far east to 17th Street and the Qwest Center Omaha at 10th Street have drawn attention to the area in between.
The reshaping of Abbott Drive from Eppley Airfield onto Cuming Street has redirected traffic through the area.
Speculators already have picked up on the potential, Fahey said, and the city must take control in order to ensure that its eastern entrance is attractive.
"You have to start with a plan for the highest and best use," Fahey said.
Some property in the area has been sold, and land options have been taken out on other pieces, driving up property prices.
The study also concludes that an anchor is needed to make the area a destination for all Omahans.
"Without an anchor, quality development will occur," according to the report, "but it will occur much more slowly and most likely not at the intensity levels desired."
The easiest anchor to create would be a massive residential project for the four-square-block area east of Creighton's new soccer complex west of 17th Street.
Another option would be a museum district, with a science museum, modern art museum or both.
But those two concepts pale compared to the attention given to building a ballpark to serve Creighton and the Omaha Royals. Rosenblatt would remain as the home of the College World Series.
The Royals would use the new park for 70 to 75 days a year, with Creighton, special events and tournaments raising the total annual use as high as 150 days, according to the report.
A new stadium could pick up the summer slack from the new convention center and arena, where the maximum usage is from September though April.
The area's parking lots and other lots would be used, generating more foot traffic in the area.
The report visualizes a park styled after other minor league parks in Memphis, Tenn.; Akron, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Indianapolis.
But there is the little item of coming up with $40 million to build it.
The city doesn't have the money, Fahey said. Providing the infrastructure and assembling the property might be as far as the city could go toward making a new baseball stadium happen.
"The other parts of the development are just as important as a ballpark," Fahey said.
One area that Fahey and Chamber President David Brown emphasized is the portion along Abbott as it makes the turn into Cuming.
"That's a real unique piece of property that could be turned into an outstanding corporate campus," Fahey said.
Brown said the property could be another tool in recruiting a major corporate relocation.
In addition to the office or corporate campus area west of the Gallup University Campus, which the plan divides the area into several distinct districts.
Entertainment district: Includes the convention center and arena, extending west to 14th Street.
Residential-retail district: Between 14th and 16th Streets, with multistory buildings and townhouses built to the sidewalks.
Arts district: The warehouse area surrounding the Hot Shops Art Center at 13th and Nicholas Streets.
Light industry district: Extends north of the arts district as far as Seward Street.
The intention is to meet the employment needs of the north Omaha community while extending the downtown area north to Cuming, Fahey said.
The proposal won praise from the Rev. John Schlegel, president of Creighton University, and City Councilman Frank Brown.
The plan that came out of the 18-month survey was attentive to the job-creation needs for north Omaha, Brown said. "I'm pleased with that commitment."
Schlegel said the north downtown concept fits well with the $100 million that Creighton is spending on its campus east of 24th Street.
"This will open up opportunities for our students for entertainment, housing and employment," Schlegel said. "The Saddle Creek announcement will excite our students today."
Nort Downtown Streetscape
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/NorthDowntownStreetscape.jpg
First North Downtown project announced
Omaha fun zone envisioned
BY JOSEPH MORTON
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Downtown residents would have a new movie theater, a concert venue and other amenities under a plan to jump-start development of areas in north downtown.
This is a drawing of a proposed entertainment and residential area in north downtown, looking northwest from 13th and Webster Streets.
Saddle Creek and Bluestone Development
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/SaddleCreek.jpg
Details of a joint proposal from Saddle Creek Records and Bluestone Development were released last week. Wednesday was the deadline the city set to submit plans to develop a two-block area from Webster to Cuming Streets between 13th and 14th Streets.
The Saddle Creek and Bluestone proposal was the only one received.
That development would cost more than $10 million and include commercial, recreational and residential space.
Saddle Creek's portion of the proposal features a rock concert hall and bar called Slowdown, a pizza shop, additional retail space and residential areas. It also would have two movie screens run by a nonprofit cinema showing independent and foreign films.
Bluestone's portion includes a 36-unit apartment building and a second building housing stores and residential spaces.
The two groups propose buying about 40,000 square feet of land from the city at a cost of $7 per square foot. The two square blocks are left over from the original Qwest Center Omaha property.
Additional city-owned land would be rented to the developers for parking.
Mayoral aide Jennifer Mahlendorf said the proposal exactly matches what the city was seeking when it invited proposals last month.
"This concept is going to set the precedent for what north downtown is all about," she said.
Mahlendorf said the details of a redevelopment agreement and requests for tax-increment financing still must be discussed in the coming months.
David Brown, president of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, said the development is part of establishing a new, vibrant neighborhood in that part of town.
"It's a great step for the attraction of young people to downtown," Brown said.
According to the proposal, the Slowdown would open by June 2006, and the Bluestone portion of the project would begin next year and be finished by 2007.
Project 2 - Aksarben Village
Aksarben Village Streetscape
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/Aksarben.jpg
The most storied vacant lot in Omaha, Ak-Sar-Ben, would give rise to shops, restaurants, offices, apartments, town homes, a hotel and a park under plans revealed by the property's owners Monday.
This artist's sketch shows a proposed view of Ak-Sar-Ben Village along Center Street.
The plan for the 70-acre Aksarben Village gives specifics to general concepts of mixed-use development that Ak-Sar-Ben Future Trust leaders have talked about since they began demolishing the coliseum, horse track grandstand and other buildings at the site last October.
The village would stretch roughly from Center Street north to the University of Nebraska at Omaha's south campus, from 63rd Street west to the Keystone Trail.
The Future Trust, the property's nonprofit owner, will present a redevelopment plan soon to the City of Omaha, seeking zoning adjustments and tax-increment financing for streets and utilities, said Jay Noddle, president of Noddle Cos.
With tax-increment financing, or TIF, developers obtain a bank loan in the amount of the TIF agreement. The city agrees to forgo property tax on the increased value of the fully developed property until the loan is repaid.
Noddle, whom the Future Trust hired to help put together the plan, said individual developers will be sought for its different pieces. But he said stringent design standards set by the Future Trust will guide all building, landscaping and even maintenance.
That fits with the Future Trust's commitment to developing the land "to the highest and best use possible" in keeping with its tradition, said Ken Stinson, chairman of the Future Trust board.
He said no buyers or tenants have signed on yet, but market studies show the project will work.
Under the plan, 386 apartments and town homes would stretch west from 63rd Street, adjoining the existing residential neighborhood.
The area from 64th Street to 67th Street would be a mixture of apartments, retail and office buildings.
The plan would extend 67th Street all the way through the property, to be Aksarben Village's main street, with first-floor shops built up to the street to create a lively, pedestrian area. Ak-Sar-Ben Drive would no longer reach Center Street.
A 4.6-acre park, connected to the Keystone Trail, would create the development's front door, from Center Street to Mercy Road, and the trail to 67th Street.
Parking would be tucked behind the buildings, which would be kept at low heights, probably below five stories.
Construction could begin next year. The site could take seven to 10 years to develop and cost up to $140 million, Noddle said.
The plan is the long-awaited concept for what will become of the horse racing track and entertainment venue that for decades operated on the property at the direction of the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben.
As horse racing declined with the expansion of dog racing and other forms of gambling, Douglas County purchased the Ak-Sar-Ben property totaling 145 acres.
The 70 acres involved in the new urban planning concept are what remain following a sale in 1996 that provided First Data Resources land for its headquarters campus and UNO south campus.
Today, that land along the northern portion of the Ak-Sar-Ben property houses the Peter Kiewit Institute, which is a technology and engineering center for both UNO and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, residential halls for UNO and the Scott Technology Center for starting new tech-related business.
In 1997, the non-profit Ak-Sar-Ben Future Trust assumed ownership of the remaining land and launched an eight-year process to determine its best use.
Stinson said the demolition at the site is 95 percent complete. Barns that had housed the Omaha Police Department's mounted patrol were the last to go, after the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum and the grandstand.
UNO has the opportunity to make use of a four-acre section along the northern edge that is designated for educational purposes.
Aksarben Village Master plan
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/AksarbenMasterplan.jpg
Final use of that land has not yet been determined, Stinson said.
Noddle said that 67th Street, which cuts through campus and will be the focal point of the new development, will become the main street of the development.
UNO may still have the prospect of expanding on another 57.5 acres of land controlled by the Future Trust southwest of the proposed Aksarben Village.
Stinson said that property was leased to Chili Greens Golf Course, south of Center Street.
If the property becomes available, UNO still might be able to build an athletic complex there, Stinson said. "We have no agreement," Stinson said.
Planned for Aksarben site
• Main entrance and park at 67th and Center Streets.
• 67th Street serves as development's main thoroughfare.
• Ground-level buildings for retail and entertainment, including music venues and possible theater. Upper-level offices.
• A 150-room hotel.
• Potential $140 million in private investment.
• The 70 acres is about the same size as One Pacific Place shopping center, 10307 Pacific St., but would have more than double the office and retail space.
• Eastern edge could have 386 apartments and town houses
Aksarben Village Site
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/Aksarbensite.jpg
Project 3 - Mutual of Omaha's Midtown Development
A 'first step' for Mutual project
BY CHRISTOPHER BURBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Mutual of Omaha Development
Midtown Development Streetscape
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/xraraavis/Mutual.jpg
Mutual of Omaha wants to start midtown revitalization with an ambitious development in its own backyard.
Mutual of Omaha wants to build a development next to its midtown Omaha headquarters.
The insurance giant announced Wednesday that it is developing a plan to build shops, restaurants and apartments east of its signature buildings at 33rd and Dodge Streets.
Mutual officials said nothing is definite yet. But they envision up to 600 residential units rising above first-floor shops and entertainment venues in a pedestrian-friendly area that blends into an improved Turner Park.
The development would replace parking lots and mostly vacant Mutual buildings between 31st and 33rd Streets, from Dodge to Farnam Streets. The company owns all the land except for a funeral home on Farnam Street.
"Our vision is to create an area where people want to live, work, shop and play," said John McClelland, a Mutual senior vice president.
He said the development could cost $70 million to $90 million, and might be completed by 2007 or 2008.
The company would convert four blocks into retail shops and apartments or condominiums.
Project site
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Mutual has hired ECI Investment Advisors Inc., a Chicago-based firm that specializes in urban revitalization, to do a feasibility study, said Dan Neary, Mutual's chairman and chief executive officer.
Among other things, the study will measure the demand for rental or owner-occupied housing on the site and business interest in locating there.
Mutual also will look into what help might be available from government, such as tax-increment financing and tax credits, improvements to Turner Park and street realignment.
"This is really just the first step in a long journey," Neary said.
But he and other officials said they are optimistic the study will show that the project can succeed.
"Based on what we already know, we feel like it's viable, but until we have proof, we can't be sure," said Jim Nolan, a Mutual spokesman.
The announcement, in a press conference atop Mutual's headquarters, held out the potential of the first tangible development of the Destination Midtown effort to revitalize neighborhoods west of downtown Omaha.
In that effort, Mutual of Omaha and other major employers in the area have been working with small businesses and neighborhood associations to plan improvements to a part of town where 28,000 people live and 40,000 people work.
McClelland, who sits on the Destination Midtown board, said Mutual wants the development to be in keeping with neighborhood wants and needs that surfaced in the effort's forums and surveys.
Those include such retail shops as grocery stores, services such as dry cleaning and entertainment options such as a movie theater and destination restaurants with sidewalk dining.
The development site comprises eight acres of pavement with a smattering of buildings, including Mutual's vacant, former residence for professional development. The company's other buildings on the site are used mostly for storage, and it doesn't need the parking spaces there, its officials said.
McClelland said Mutual is in talks with the owner of the only property on the site that Mutual doesn't own. That's Crosby-Kunold-Burket-Swanson-Golden Funeral Service's Farnam Chapel. If the funeral home doesn't sell, it would fit into the site, McClelland said.
"It's a nice building," he said.
The prospect of the development is likely to add urgency to discussions about major street changes in the area. Those could include changing Farnam and Harney Streets from one-way to two-way routes and reconfiguring Dodge Street's "S" curve into Douglas Street at 31st Street.
A traffic study commissioned by the city is expected to look at those issues, among others.
Neary said Mutual has a duty to make the best use of its property.
"This has been our home for over six decades," he said. "It's where many of our employees live. We really do owe a lot to the neighborhood, and we want to give something back."
Mutual of Omaha Development Streetscape
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