Downtown Council Bluffs may see a $20 million investment project that would bring back to life a mostly vacant building, along with a new building directly to the west.
Clarity Development Co. owns the yellow four-story building that used to house a bank at 500 W. Broadway. The city owns the parking lot directly to the west and is leased out for employees at the Omni Centre, according to Wade.
According to the memorandum of understanding, Clarity would like to purchase the parking lot and utilize it as the site of a four-story building featuring a restaurant, plus retail and offices on the main floor with 60 to 70 apartment units on the upper three floors.
Clarity’s plan would also rehabilitate the existing building it owns with similar uses for the main floor and 25 to 35 apartment units on the upper floors. Total investment is listed at $20 million, according to the memorandum.
The developer is also asking for about $3 million in tax increment financing.
White Lotus Group is the manager of the current building.
I just looked it up....the building was originally built in 1900. I am sure that it was much prettier than it currently is. I would love to see that hideous color of yellow removed and the original brick work exposed.
Coyote wrote:Can you find any old pics of it? :lol:
I am going to keep looking, but this is what I have found so far: This would be the parcel where the parking lot is now looking east towards 500 Broadway.
I believe it would be the building on the far right of this picture that you can barely see:
I could be completely wrong, but I think this is the building (City National Bank), the window openings appear to match what is there today. 500 W Broadway 3 by scottstronck, on Flickr
Last edited by skinzfan23 on Mon Feb 23, 2015 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
I'll take the early 1900's version of that any day. It looks like there may be a nice terracota or stone cornice hidden under the angled metal cornices that are there now. I've seen that happen to a number of buildings where a metal roofing company will come along and offer to cover-up deteriorating stone and terracota cornices with a "modern" maintenance-free material. There's a building in Fremont where that happened too.
I like the original windows better also.
He said "They are some big, ugly red brick buildings" ...and then they were gone.
skinzfan23 wrote:Beno's was a department store in CB similar to Brandeis. Here is a pciture:
Yep. Multi-floor department store. Had the old pneumatic tube system for sending stuff from department to department and to the accounting office and so forth. Ol' Hawkeye's aunt worked there for many years. For a long time it still had an elevator operator who did the whole, "2nd Floor...Lingerie and Ladies' Accessories" bit, just like you'd see in the movies. As kids, we sure got a kick out of that.
When the Midlands Mall opened next door destroying blocks and blocks of what was the heart of downtown CB and driving all of the shoppers inside. Beno's had to move into the Mall or be destroyed. I am surprised it lasted until 1987, that was when Mall of the Bluffs opened and Midlands Mall closed. Now we have gone nearly full circle and Mall of the Bluffs is being sold for scrap and new multi-story residential/office/retail buildings are being built along Broadway.
Joe_Sovereign wrote:When the Midlands Mall opened next door destroying blocks and blocks of what was the heart of downtown CB and driving all of the shoppers inside. Beno's had to move into the Mall or be destroyed. I am surprised it lasted until 1987, that was when Mall of the Bluffs opened and Midlands Mall closed. Now we have gone nearly full circle and Mall of the Bluffs is being sold for scrap and new multi-story residential/office/retail buildings are being built along Broadway.
Truth. My dad said back when Midlands Mall was being proposed that it would kill downtown CB for generations to come. He wasn't wrong. Then MOTB came along and killed Midlands Mall. And now we see MOTB going in a death spiral, and development returning to the core of CB....as well as the riverfront, which is what many of us had been saying for decades should have been the focus all along.
It's just crazy how all of this is playing out.
"In Heaven there is no beer. That's why we drink it here." -Plato (Probably. No one is really sure.)
I like adding a building on the parking lot but if that is how the renovation of the existing 4-story structure is going to look, I am sure they could do much better. Granted, the existing look is terrible as well. It would be nice if they could restore it to look more like it originally did.