Omaha Forums

Hmm. It's an interesting proposal. I like it in general, but it doesn't seem very peopled-scaled or all that urban. I'd prefer 700 units in a highrise or a handful of smaller buildings similar to the Howard District.

Question: are the trails on this property going to extend off of the property? Or connect to the one by Gifford Park/others in the area?

Taco wrote:Question: are the trails on this property going to extend off of the property? Or connect to the one by Gifford Park/others in the area?

The city put out a request for bids in the fall for a trail extension that would go from Dodge to Burt along 30th then down to 17th on Burt. I don't know whatever happened with that though.

I don't get what they mean by "the lake isn't meant for swimming." It has a beach so why can't people swim there?

PotatoeEatsFish wrote:I don't get what they mean by "the lake isn't meant for swimming." It has a beach so why can't people swim there?

Water doesn't circulate / bring in enough fresh water?

Athomsfere wrote:

PotatoeEatsFish wrote:I don't get what they mean by "the lake isn't meant for swimming." It has a beach so why can't people swim there?

Water doesn't circulate / bring in enough fresh water?

Won't the fountain circulate and aerate the water?

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:Hmm. It's an interesting proposal. I like it in general, but it doesn't seem very peopled-scaled or all that urban. I'd prefer 700 units in a highrise or a handful of smaller buildings similar to the Howard District.

I have the same concerns with this project. It's such a disconnected island in a sea of highways. N 30th Street is currently a six-lane divided highway (counting left-turn lanes) that's totally underutilized. I don't think pedestrian bridges will stitch together the old neighborhood fabric. Who wants to walk over the interstate?

yard salad wrote:

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:Hmm. It's an interesting proposal. I like it in general, but it doesn't seem very peopled-scaled or all that urban. I'd prefer 700 units in a highrise or a handful of smaller buildings similar to the Howard District.

I have the same concerns with this project. It's such a disconnected island in a sea of highways. N 30th Street is currently a six-lane divided highway (counting left-turn lanes) that's totally underutilized. I don't think pedestrian bridges will stitch together the old neighborhood fabric. Who wants to walk over the interstate?

Yeah, it would be great if they could just bury a wide swath of 30th and the north freeway so that the strong California St. axis and pedestrian mall could extend west from Creighton at grade level over those barriers. If the ped bridge is done right, and is say 15-20' wide, it could be pretty cool, but it will still not feel too pleasant to walk high above the concrete jungle of the north freeway in inclement weather.

But, the most important thing about this project is that behemoth hospital building is being re-purposed and will bring a large number of people to the area 24/7/365. Architecturally, it's not a bad building at all and is a good example of late modernism from the 1970's.

I'm just glad they're saving the building. It's very unique.

I bet it would be cheaper to repurpose it, even after the environmental remediation, than to tear it down completely.

What a waste. This building would make for a great state pen and I am being serious. Has anyone walked inside? This city has no developers with any kind of vision.

Erik wrote:What a waste. This building would make for a great state pen and I am being serious. Has anyone walked inside? This city has no developers with any kind of vision.

Friends-

Let's remember.. We can disagree with the OPINION of our fellow posters.

But insulting THEM is not allowed..

Thanks...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

Erik wrote:What a waste. This building would make for a great state pen and I am being serious. Has anyone walked inside? This city has no developers with any kind of vision.

I hope you're being sarcastic.

PotatoeEatsFish wrote:

Erik wrote:What a waste. This building would make for a great state pen and I am being serious. Has anyone walked inside? This city has no developers with any kind of vision.

I hope you're being sarcastic.

Seconded...

Erik wrote:What a waste. This building would make for a great state pen and I am being serious. Has anyone walked inside? This city has no developers with any kind of vision.

I really like the architecture of this building. It would make for awesome apartments. I like how the building juts out in various spots. Very unique.

Erik wrote:What a waste. This building would make for a great state pen and I am being serious. Has anyone walked inside? This city has no developers with any kind of vision.

Location, location, location...

Some of the apartments should come with spectacular views I would think.

I can definitely understand why some aren't thrilled with this project. The building itself is pretty ugly and is massive, it will be interesting to see what the final product looks like.

I would have a concern about rooms that have been infected with MRSA. I hope they address this.

Linkin5 wrote:I can definitely understand why some aren't thrilled with this project. The building itself is pretty ugly and is massive, it will be interesting to see what the final product looks like.

I think it will definitely be a challenge, and I agree that the building in its current state is far from beautiful. I also think that if NuStyle can't pull this off then no-one can. I didn't think the Wire would be awesome but that building is now beautiful.

Why are you people complaining?
Would you rather have it be torn down and left as a parking lot for years?

It's an interesting project and a step forward for downtown Omaha.

A project like this could get some descent accolades for what's it's all accomplishing. Apart from possibly zapping some of the momentum from the downtown housing boom this project will help the core out immensely.

PotatoeEatsFish wrote:Why are you people complaining?
Would you rather have it be torn down and left as a parking lot for years?

It's an interesting project and a step forward for downtown Omaha.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm super happy this building be repurposed. I just think there are challenges to this sort of project and I am glad that NuStyle is doing it because they've done great things before.

Saw on twitter that the sale closed today.

iamjacobm wrote:Saw on twitter that the sale closed today.

Sweet! Does anyone have an idea of when this will start?

HR Paperstacks wrote: Sweet! Does anyone have an idea of when this will start?

Definitely after the hospital moves out in June 2017.

There was a meeting regarding this project earlier in Nov hosted by the Gifford Park Neighborhood Assoc. Was anyone able to attend? If so, did you find out anything new?

I read my post earlier.... holy |expletive|, who pi$$ed in my honey nut cheerios that day

Will be called "The Landing" TIF request before planning board.

Can't wait to see how big the TIF is for this massive redevelopment.

I'm all for this project, but it seems odd that it would be eligible for TIF to take a fully-functioning non-blighted hospital building and redevelop it into apartments. I guess they're just skipping letting it become "blighted" first. I guess you could say the hospital is obsolete by today's standards though.

They should just drop the word "blighted" from the whole TIF process, since even "clean slate" projects like Ak Village are getting TIF too anyway.

GetUrban wrote:I'm all for this project, but it seems odd that it would be eligible for TIF to take a fully-functioning non-blighted hospital building and redevelop it into apartments. I guess they're just skipping letting it become "blighted" first. I guess you could say the hospital is obsolete by today's standards though.

They should just drop the word "blighted" from the whole TIF process, since even "clean slate" projects like Ak Village are getting TIF too anyway.

Have they changed it from "blighted" to Community Reinvestment Area(CRA) yet? I thought they were going to change the terminology.

The hospital will be out of the building in June, Heistand says phase one of the project will be complete by August of 2018. The $104 million project is scheduled for completion by late 2019 or early 2020.

http://www.wowt.com/content/news/Major- ... 42765.html

Nothing new in this article, but still nice to see it moving along and timelines discussed.

$108 million apartment complex in CUMC building will be called the Landing

http://www.omaha.com/money/million-apar ... 26d2d.html

By Cindy Gonzalez / World-Herald staff writer wrote:It now has a name — the Landing — along with a higher price tag of $108 million and a bigger apartment count of 731.

That's a pretty small TIF for something this size and from the rendering it looks like the off ramp is going to be two ways, interesting.

I heard its going to be redeveloped into apartments -- and this thread confirms it all. Interesting. I like the rendering. It's interesting seeing how balconies will change the outer appearance a bit (an appearance that is stark & modern, almost brutalist-feeling architecture). Honestly, I always felt that NW corner of the I-480/North Freeway interchange was kinda gloomy, even with that busy hospital there. The fact that unmoved mounds of dirt existed between ramps on the interchange didn't help things -- yet, those were later smoothed out, thankfully, and it looked way better. Hopefully, this will brighten things up a bit. And, hopefully, that hotel right there, built in that odd spot, the one with the wonderful bands of colored brick and set backs (originally a Days Inn, then another hotel chain) will be helped out w/ all this new change. It is sitting empty, unfortunately.

I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one who likes the look of the building. I usually hate these kinds of buildings but the way parts hang out of it makes it unique. I agree it is kinda gloomy though but I think it'll change.

PotatoeEatsFish wrote:I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one who likes the look of the building. I usually hate these kinds of buildings but the way parts hang out of it makes it unique. I agree it is kinda gloomy though but I think it'll change.

I can appreciate the design of the hospital. Like I mentioned, it almost has a "brutalism architecture" feeling (not quite, but going towards that a bit). It is uniquely different, in a good way, imo. However, we both acknowledge that gloomy feeling around there. I think that is changing, though. North Omaha (near the hospital) is getting more & more cleaned-up. They are also restoring old buildings to be apartments in the area. It is exciting the change.

Is anyone else wandering if Boys Town is planning on building a new hospital or something because I don't know how many people will feel comfortable living in a building attached to an operating hospital?