Brandeis Building (210 S 16th St)

[ItsAllAboutMe]

This really surprises me. It' a grand ole building but I'm sure those that run the food court would rather see the building full of office workers.

[j4nu]

Can Omaha handle 400 new condos? Try 544 new condos. This came out of no where. I think this could be really exciting, between this and the other 16th street developments, we could have a true urban neighborhood on our hand and definitely enough residents to justify a small to moderate grocery market. Very exciting news although I'd always hoped to see the building become a store of some kind again.

[DMRyan]

Wow, that's good stuff. don't you just love this out of the blue developments that get built way before the big controversial, well-publicized developments?

Wonder if this had anything to do with the downtown Kinko's closing?
What a beautiful building.

[almighty_tuna]

Great boost for 16th street!!

[icejammer]

Darnnit! I was just in the building yesterday thinking to myself, "I wonder how feasible it would be to turn the upper floors into condos?"

Guess my brain is a day late and a few dollars short!

I would think the food court would welcome anybody in the building, now that it's almost empty.

I wonder though what this will mean for the walkway over to the Parkfair building?

[OmahaDevelopmentMan]

How much will this lower the vacancy rating in dt? I mean didn't UP have a ton of space they had just left since the completion of their new HQ?

Anyway, great news for downtown!
Lke icejammer, I have always thought that the Brandies building would be a great building for some condos. Is there a story on this anywhere?

[Sodak]

I'm excited that the developer plans to spruce up the hideous parking ramp that stradles 17th street by painting it and adding some architectural improvements. That is an eyesore.

This location has a lot of advantages over some of the condominiums going in downtown due to its proximity to some of the large employers dowtown.

As the residential units move in, the critical mass necessary for retail continue to build......

[nebrwesleyan]

@6pm today, channel 7 is doing a pice on condos downtown!!!!!

[almighty_tuna]

the VCR is set!!

[Coyote]

Condos planned for Brandeis Building

The next candidate for conversion to downtown Omaha living quarters? The Brandeis Building.



Fifty years ago, the 10-story Brandeis building was part of a thriving downtown shopping district. The Brandeis, which has been converted into offices and retail space, is losing FedEx Kinko's.

The owner of the mostly vacant 98-year-old building at 16th and Douglas Streets and a Lincoln developer confirmed this week that it is under contract, with the sale scheduled to close at the end of January.

Bob Hampton of Hampton Development Services in Lincoln said he plans to build 144 loft condominiums on the top eight floors of the 10-story building and sell them at market rates: most in the $190,000 to $300,000 range, with penthouses going for as much as $1 million.

He said he will keep the existing food court and make major efforts to secure more food court vendors and other restaurants, service retailers, a health club and a small food market on the first floors.

"That corner is just begging for a Starbucks," Hampton said. "With all the residential projects downtown, there's a need for a market, and I think I've got a great location."

His goal, he said, is to open two model condos by April and have the first, upper-floor units sold and people moving in by fall 2005. That would put him ahead of many of the previously announced projects calling for more than 400 condos downtown.

Hampton said he can move quickly because the Brandeis Building was substantially renovated in the 1980s and is well-maintained. He will not have to gut the interior.

"It's an absolutely beautiful building; the ornamentation on the outside is incredible," Hampton said. He plans special lighting at night to play up the building's architectural features.

Hampton declined to say how much he has agreed to pay for the building. Virginia Sobol, a spokeswoman for the owner, the Mack-Cali Realty Corp. in New Jersey, said the building was "under contract to a residential converter," but other details weren't available.

Hampton grew up in the development business, working with his father, Joe, at Hampton Enterprises Inc.

In 1994, Bob Hampton formed a land development company that is responsible for the Vintage Heights and Ridge Pointe residential projects, the North Creek and Stone Bridge Creek mixed-use developments and the Savannah Pines retirement communities in Lincoln.

Hampton built Williamsburg, Lincoln's first urban village. He also is working his way through the approval process to build a six-story loft condominium-office complex in Lincoln's Haymarket district.

Hampton serves on the Lincoln Airport Authority and is a former president of the Home Builders Association of Lincoln.

Hampton is a widely known and well-regarded member of Lincoln's development community, said Nadine Condello, executive director of the builders association.

"He's done a lot of things, . . . good, creative things," she said.

Omaha Planning Director Bob Peters said he had had no conversations about redeveloping the Brandeis Building and would wait to comment after he had seen the plans.

One of the challenges of the Brandeis project, the developer said, is that the adjacent 650-stall garage has water damage. He said he will ask the city for tax-increment financing to help with that repair work.

In addition to the garage parking that has direct access to some floors of the Brandeis Building, Hampton plans 95 heated, secure spaces in the building's basement for condo owners.

The condos, which will range from 900 square feet to 4,000 square feet, will back up to the glass walls of two 25-by-25-foot atriums that were added during the 1980s so the large floors could be divided into office space.

The atriums now reach from the fifth floor to roof skylights, and one will be opened down an additional two floors to shed light over the escalators and into the food court, Hampton said.

He said he hopes to offer some office space on the second floor to any existing tenants and possibly people interested in live-work arrangements where they own a condo and have office space in the same building.

Hampton said he sees his first Omaha project benefiting from continued job growth in Omaha, a downtown condo market that still is in its infancy and a trend of baby boomers moving downtown as they become empty nesters.

In addition, he thinks he can capitalize on the Brandeis Building's location in the midst of office towers, government buildings and the downtown financial district.

"I'm really bullish on downtown Omaha," Hampton said.

Hampton said he intends to add architectural detail and paint to the garage so it better matches the distinctive character of the 1906 Brandeis building.

The J.L. Brandeis and Sons Store Building was the flagship of a family department store operation that became one of the largest in the region. Generations of Midlanders recall traveling to downtown Omaha to Brandeis and other stores.

The store those people knew closed in 1980, the building was sold and then renovated, becoming mostly offices with two floors of retail.

On its fourth owner since then, the Brandeis has some retail and office tenants but is mostly vacant because longtime tenant Union Pacific consolidated offices into a new, 19-story headquarters in July.

The Mack-Cali Web site indicates that 87 percent of the Brandeis Building's 320,000 square feet is available.

Mack-Cali officials indicated in August that they were looking to sell to someone interested in turning the building into residences because of the area's growing focus on residential development.

Hampton agrees with that vision. "I'm optimistic that all the (downtown condo) projects announced will be quite successful. This type of activity just attracts more."

He also is not that unhappy with the much-criticized 16th Street pedestrian mall.

"The 16th Street Mall in time will be an asset," Hampton said. "Once 144 units of people are living there, it will create a real vitality."

[OmahaDevelopmentMan]

He said he will keep the existing food court and make major efforts to secure more food court vendors and other restaurants, service retailers, a health club and a small food market on the first floors.

"That corner is just begging for a Starbucks," Hampton said. "With all the residential projects downtown, there's a need for a market, and I think I've got a great location."

YAY. They want a DT grocery store! Hopefilly they can get something together.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

FABULOUS!!!

Although I wouldn't mind having a Starbucks downtown, since it's kind of a mainstay in urban areas, I don't think that corner is "begging for it" as Hampton says.

Once again, this is amazing. In addition to the new condos, this building will also have that stupid net removed finally, and have a nightime lighting scheme! I've been hoping for the Brandeis to get lit up for YEARS.

Although, I'd rather get rid of the "food court" and open the bottom two floors up for retail. I'd love to see some actual shopping destinations along 16th again.

I don't know if I've ever seen the Brandeis Building without the Kinko's awning, and if I have it was FOREVER ago. So it will be nice to see the building in a "pure" form.

[OmahaDevelopmentMan]

yea the lighting is great too! I guess this is so exciting you can miss a few things. This is great news!

[edsas]

Exciting!

[projectman]

This is a great building and will make an awesome urban lifestyle. We still need many more condos before the retail comes back.

[Ingersoll1978]

The Brandeis Building is gorgeous! If I was moving to Omaha...this would be the one I'd want to live in.

[Finn]

This will help transform the 16th Street Mall into an activity node. Hopefully, more development will come to complement FNC, the Orpheum and the proposed Lerner rehab. The mall will be bustling in a few years!

[eomaha]

This is very exciting indeed. I really didn't expect to see this part of downtown see a residential boom... not this soon anyway.

[Finn]

Oh sure, everybody is up now. Don't you people sleep? We have five registered users on-line now. And I was almost through being the last post on each forum!

It's good to have goals.

[AZCorey]

It's been 7 years since I lived in DTO, so forgive me if this is an odd question, but is there still that Stage Door Coffee or Stage Left Coffee or something like that in the Orpheum building? Would a Starbucks in the Brandeis building kill that Stage Door place? I would think it would be hard to have both coffee places do well only being a couple of blocks away from each other....just a thought!

[j4nu]

I drove by the Orpheum the other day and it looked like the coffee place may be closed or perhaps just renovating.

[PapioGrandpa]

The coffee shop is closed.

I started working downtown a few years before the 16th street renovation. The mall was just dirt. The project had stalled and it seemed like forever before water flowed and grass was planted.

Parkfare was an asphault flat parking lot behind the new twin towers.

Brandeis was closed. After the initial renovation, OPPD and UP occupied several floors.

In the 24 years I've worked downtown I've seen a lot of change.

The thing that always kept downtown from really taking off was the lack of a residential base. Most of the retail would close around 2 or 3 pm, because all of the customers went home to other parts of Omaha.

You can't pay the rent when your only open a few hours a day.

With the addition of all the new condos, it looks like that may change.

Things seem to be looking up.

[eomaha]

Thanks for sharing that Grandpa.

[Brad]

Was the Walgrenes that closed also in the Brandise building?

[Ingersoll1978]

No...it was in ParkFair Mall.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

That's really too bad that Stage Right Coffee closed. It was a great hang out. I wonder what will go in there now. It has great wood paneling and big tall ceilings with grand chandeliers.

I think it could have survived with a Starbucks because it catered to all the smokers...and did quite well doing so .

[OmahaDevelopmentMan]

This is a pretty different location in downtown, but is that coffee shop still in 1200 Landmark Center?

[Minneapolis Boy]

Yes, the coffee shop in the Landmark Center is MJ's Java. It is still open, at least last Saturday night it was!

[nebport5]

I hope they keep the neon sign, I love that.

[Finn]

From Omaha World Herald:

A new chapter for Brandeis

BY DEBORAH SHANAHAN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The Lincoln developer who wants to transform downtown Omaha's mostly vacant Brandeis Building into condominiums and retail shops has closed on the purchase and assembled a team to do the job.


A Lincoln developer plans to use some of the 10-story Brandeis Building for condos. The penthouses may sell for as much as $1 million.

Bob Hampton of Hampton Development Services said he now was aiming to have two model condos open by June and residents occupying the first two floors of condos by January 2006.

Some commercial tenants could come sooner, possibly this fall, he said.

"We've had a surprisingly strong amount of interest in the commercial space," Hampton said. "We've had interest from restaurants, coffee shops and delis.

"With the connecting tunnels and skywalks, this is going to be a fabulous neighborhood."

Hampton's Brandeis Lofts LLC paid $8,675,000 for the 318,224-square-foot building, buying the department-store-turned-office building at 16th and Douglas Streets from the Mack-Cali Realty Corp., a real estate investment trust based in New Jersey.

The building is 13 percent leased, Mack-Cali reported.

Mack-Cali acquired the building in 1997, sold it in 2000 and then, when the new owner defaulted on a mortgage, got it back in May 2004.

Later this month, Hampton said, he plans to make applications for tax-increment financing and tax credits for restorations of historic buildings. He said the amount of tax incentives he would seek hasn't been determined.

Hampton said he is working with Martin Kluck, a project designer and licensed interior designer with Alley Poyner Architecture, to design the condos.

Hampton said he selected the firm because of its extensive work on historic downtown properties, including many NuStyle Development apartment projects.

The Weitz Co. will be the general contractor for the project.

Tasha Henninger of Prudential Ambassador Real Estate's Urban Omaha team will handle the condo sales, Hampton said, while Grubb & Ellis/Pacific Realty will handle the commercial leasing and continue to manage the property. Pacific Realty's Allan Murow represented Mack-Cali in the sale.

Hampton plans 144 loft condominiums on the top eight floors of the 10-story building. He plans to sell them at market rates: $190,000 to $300,000, with penthouses going for as much as $1 million.

Hampton, who does most of his development work in Lincoln, said it had been fun planning the project because it was in the 1906 Brandeis Building, the former flagship of a regional department store operation.

"So many people I'm dealing with have fond memories of it," he said.

[icejammer]

Assuming full occupancy, this should be a good little money maker for Hampton, considering that he's paying about $27/sq. ft., and will be selling condo space at approx. $200/sq. ft. Even a major retrofit won't cost $175/sq. ft. Good for everyone all around though.

[OmahaDevelopmentMan]

Great! I hope we can see more of these. Look what Hampton is saying will happen to the area.

[Swift]

That building is so gorgeous in so many ways.

[omahahawk]

check out this cool article.

http://www.omahacityweekly.com/col-tsqu ... ibeams.asp

[StreetsOfOmaha]

THEY FINALLY TOOK DOWN THE HORRIBLE NET THAT'S BEEN ON THAT BUILDING FOR YEARS!!! Brandeis is naked again!

[DTO Luv]

Aren't those nets for birds? The courthouse has those too.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

I think that's the excuse...but I'd rather see pigeon |expletive| on a building than those nets. Besides, they can just put those "spike strips" up if they want to keep the birds off the building. Anyway, the DC Courthouse needs to loose its net, too. It's just SOOOOOO ugly. You'd think there is a solution to the bird problem that is slightly less offensive to the eye.

[icejammer]

You'd think there is a solution to the bird problem that is slightly less offensive to the eye.

Like legalized hunting?

Seriously though, the netting hasn't been the most effective, as the sidewalk below (at least on 16th) has been littered with bird droppings as of late. I don't think those spike strips are the most effective either. Anyone ever hear how effective First National's "fireworks display" last month was at keeping birds away?

[DTO Luv]

I heard there were still quite a few birds lingering. Enough for them to still say it was a health hazard.

[Finn]

Maybe they should invest in some falcons or hawks like they did at the Woodmen. I thought that I heard the hawks relocated to another building. Bring in more predators!