Barker and Lerner building projects!!

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 7:51 am

The snowball is rolling...

Barker Building project page

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:05 pm

These are FANTASTIC DEVELOPMENTS!!!

It really says a lot that downtown residential growth is moving into the heart of downtown, and not just the Old Market.

I'm so glad to see that the Barker Building will be saved, and EVEN MORE EXCITED at the unexpected Lerner Building project!!!!

The Lerner Building proposal looks fantastic. I was just in Stage Right Coffee the other day gazing out the window at that building thinking about how amazing a residential project with street level retail would be, and here it is!!! And I love the fact that they're adding three stories to it.

Yay for Omaha! I love you!

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:07 pm

And Heritage Affordable Housing, I believe of Seattle, is a great developer of affordable, urban units. This should really help to satisfy some of us who are really dying to live downtown, but maybe can't afford what's currently available.

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:51 pm

I'm particulurly excited about the Lerner project since it is on 16th St. I hope this gets the ball rolling on turning 16th St into a major destinaton DT like th OM. Like it's been said around lately, I would like to see more rental units come DT. If you price out the artist, college aged kids, minority families, than DT will lose it's real urban mix appeal. I'm all for more people DT, but I don't want the place to become gentrified.

DMRyan · Post by **DMRyan** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:53 pm

If you price out the artist, college aged kids, minority families, than DT will lose it's real urban mix appeal.

Price out minority families? What's that supposed to mean?

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:11 pm

To explain this w/o setting off you or anyone else. I'm talking about the immigrant families (Mexicans, Sudanese, Togoese) that don't have enough money for a $200k house or even a house at all. Also single mothers. A friend of my mom's from Iceland lived in near the Rorick building and lived their just long enough to get a nicer place. Differant kinds of people add, at least to me, to the appeal of the neighborhood.

DMRyan · Post by **DMRyan** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:31 pm

I like different kinds of people in my neighborhood too, I just would've used the word immigrant from the get go instead of minorities. The PC alarm has sounded...

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:39 pm

And hey... how you can go wrong with 'Free HBO' at the Rorick.

DMRyan · Post by **DMRyan** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:51 pm

The Spanish Channels are good for that sort of thing these days too...

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 1:27 pm

I was downtown today around lunchtime, having some coffee at Stage Right. It was an absolutely marvelous day to be downtown. It was so vibrant. Anyway, Stage Right is directly across Harney Street from the Lerner Building. As I sat in the coffee house, I just stared at the building and visualized the rendering with the brick facade, retail on ground level, and three additional levels of residential. I will tell you right now, this project is going to be absolutely wonderful for 16th Street!!! I can't wait to see it start taking shape.

Also, I drove past the Barker Building, and it definitely has a "SOLD" sticker on it!!!

Downtown residential is really taking off!!!

zefiris · Post by **zefiris** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 2:15 pm

This will be a nice addition b/c i am definitely in the market for purchasing a place DT, but not $200,000 for a 1000 sq. ft. place

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u ... id=1196719

The $100,000 - 150,000 would be REAALLY nice...THough i imagine that with all the construction/renovation someone will be forced to lower prices, unless there is more of a market than i think, which would be great if i bought one...Wow...long sentence...

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 2:56 pm

Quote from the above linked article:
"Ross said two $1 million penthouses each would cover 4,200 square feet on the 12th and 13th floors of the first of two towers."

Did I miss something, or did the developers add another floor to each of the towers? I thought the towers were going to be 12 stories each. Maybe it's a typo, and the penthouses will be on the 11th and 12th floors. Does anyone know?

That's cool if they added a floor.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 4:48 pm

I would expect we're seeing the prices going up in response to the inquiries the developer is seeing... which is good news for long term downtown development.

As for the number of floors... I'm not sure I read anywhere how many floors there were going to be. I recall 'counting' about 12 floors when looking at the rendering.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:21 pm

Well, the press release on the development's website definitely says 12 stories. But the article in the paper definitely QUOTES the developer as saying 13.

Hmmmm.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 9:59 pm

Barker Building finally goes public. Developer is apparently looking to draw a Starbucks into the building along with a restaurant.

Apparently they're holding back on taking the Lerner project plans public.

Note what appears to be a new structure joining the Redick and the Barker buildings in this rendering...

New owner to put condos, shops in Barker Building

A boarded-up downtown Omaha building, on the market for five years, finally has a "sold" sign on it.

The Barker Building at 15th and Farnam Streets has been bought by Heritage Affordable Housing, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that combines urban revitalization with what it calls "worker housing."

Heritage plans 42 residential condominiums marketed to first-time home buyers and some first-floor retail tenants, said Richard Sontgerath, Heritage president. The condos probably would sell for an average price of $150,000, he said.

"We think we've got a winner," he said Thursday at the end of a visit to Omaha. "We love historic buildings - we think we're pretty good at them - and this one certainly has its own charms."

With the new Union Pacific and First National office towers nearby, the Barker Building "is just surrounded by great stuff. There's just that one block of blight, and we enjoy those situations," Sontgerath said.

Heritage paid $750,000 for the 91-year-old, seven-story building owned since 1994 by the Maharishi Vedic University of Omaha.

Home to transcendental meditation courses and a hair salon until a few years ago, the Barker Building has been vandalized as it sat empty amidst a surplus of vacant downtown office space. A bank of mailboxes disappeared from the lobby during the year Sontgerath was considering the purchase.

"We were very patient to find the right developer," said Gerard Daly, the CB Richard Ellis/MEGA associate who handled the building's sale. "It became more apparent after the building closed that we needed someone with vision, and we found him."

Sontgerath has spent 30 years in commercial real estate and development in the Pacific Northwest.

The two-year-old Heritage organization specializes in taking advantage of tax credits and tax-exempt bonds provided for in the federal Tax Reform Act of 1986.

Sontgerath said Heritage still is putting together the financing for the $5.5 million Omaha project, so he's not sure yet whether some of the units will have income restrictions.

He envisions the condos appealing to a mix of tenants, including workers at nearby offices as well as school teachers, police officers and health-care workers in need of affordable housing.

Heritage will aim for a Starbucks coffee shop, a bookstore and a Class A restaurant on the first floor, Sontgerath said.

"We'll go after name tenants and make them a deal they can't refuse," he said. "We're determined to have upscale retail on the ground floor."

Sontgerath said he already is talking to neighboring property owners about upgrades.

"This is going to be an incredible block," he said.

Heritage also is involved in a 97-unit senior housing complex in Ralston and a downtown Des Moines project to turn the historic Harger-Blish building into 50 condominiums called Mulberry Lofts.

For the downtown Omaha project, Heritage will be working with Tim Steinbach at NP Dodge, RDG Schutte Wilscam Birge architects and Dicon Construction.

Sontgerath said the goal is to have people moving in a year from now.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 10:55 am

I've very excited about this!! Its affordable housing, $150,000, and will still have great amenities like the Starbucks and a Class A restaurant. Brilliant!

adam186 · Post by **adam186** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 11:24 am

I agree with you almighty_tuna, I hope this leads to a new trend in Omaha and bring more developement and people downtown.