World Herald story...
Another downtown Omaha warehouse will be converted to condominium lofts and custom-built apartments.
The eight-story Beebe & Runyan Furniture Co. building, which sits near the Missouri River, will have 60 or more residences built around an atrium that would run down through the top six floors.
The 91-year-old building at 105 N. Ninth St. is next door to the Marriott Courtyard Hotel, which also was built in an old warehouse.
Buyers on the top two floors will be able to take as much space as they want and design the residences as they like, said Vince Leisey, owner of Prudential Ambassador Real Estate, the broker.
The fourth, fifth and sixth floors will be used for one- and two-bedroom lofts and possibly some three-bedroom units, Leisey said.
Work has started on the fourth floor, where one one-bedroom unit and one two-bedroom unit will be built as models by the end of September, he said.
The third floor is being used by a business now but is expected to be made into more one- and two-bedroom units, he said.
The first two floors will be a garage. Every residential unit will have at least one parking stall, Leisey said. Outdoor parking also will be built.
Part of the rooftop, which will have gardens, will be common space for all tenants, and part will be reserved as private space for owners of eighth-floor units.
The work is expected to be completed by the end of 2005.
Like many other downtown converted warehouses, the residences will have 12-foot ceilings, exposed brick walls and hardwood floors.
Each floor has about 26,000 square feet of space, with about 2,000 to be taken up by the atrium on each of the top six floors.
Pre-construction prices start at less than $200,000 for one-bedroom units, Leisey said.
Boca Development Co., which filed Nebraska articles of incorporation in January, bought the building for $2.99 million. Partners in the company are O.B. Seaton of Pennsylvania, Andrew Seaton of Colorado and Corey Stader of Omaha.
Stader is with Tackett Homes Inc., an Omaha company that will do the construction work. Leo Daly Co. is the architect.
Stader could not be reached Wednesday.
The building, built in 1913, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Leisey said the developers have decided to forgo federal tax credits in order to be free to alter the outside of the building.
Jim Krance, a City Planning Department employee who does reviews for the Landmarks Commission, said taking the tax credits requires that developers do such things as make new windows look like old ones and new brickwork look like the original.
"Basically, you want an old building to look like an old building," Krance said.
One of the fourth-floor lofts will have a walk-in vault, a feature that was built into the furniture company's offices. Beebe & Runyan, a wholesale house that supplied Midlands retailers, closed in 1990.
.
Yeah really, we even had another fire that burned down an apartment building this Saturday.