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500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:41 am
by skinzfan23
Great news to hear:
City eyeing new downtown development
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.
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:42 am
by skinzfan23
Here is a picture of the current building:
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:44 am
by iamjacobm
Cool!
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:06 am
by Coyote
Building already looks decent... Nice project!
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:58 am
by skinzfan23
Coyote wrote:Building already looks decent... Nice project!
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.
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 11:08 am
by Coyote
Can you find any old pics of it?
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:02 pm
by skinzfan23
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:
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:53 pm
by skinzfan23
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
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:24 pm
by Seth
The original looks a whole lot more respectable than the gaudy yellow monstrosity it's been turned into.
I really love the red brick Richarsonian in the forefront of those postcards. That's elegance you don't see anymore.
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:37 pm
by GetUrban
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.
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 4:00 pm
by EastCB
There's a picture of it on the Pott County Historical Society's web site that was taken in the 60's. This dates me, but I remember it!
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 3:31 pm
by iamjacobm
Plan for the parking lot.
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 5:02 pm
by Joe_Sovereign
Found a couple old pictures of it.
The building is in the center of the picture with the street car in front of it. 1930s
Again in the Center of the picture from the other direction. 1960s
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:32 pm
by Brad
Complete side not. One of those old Post Cards shows a building with "Benos" on it. What is Benos?
Several of us train people call the signal and switch at Monument Lane, just north of CB, "Benos".
1. Benos:
2. Benos:
3. Benos:
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:34 pm
by skinzfan23
Beno's was a department store in CB similar to Brandeis. Here is a pciture:
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:38 pm
by Brad
skinzfan23 wrote:Beno's was a department store in CB similar to Brandeis. Here is a pciture:
Cool. Wonder how the railroad picked up the name?
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:20 pm
by Hawkeye
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.
It was a pretty cool store. There's a nice write-up on it in this PDF starting on page 13.
https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryM ... id=IE77090
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:32 pm
by skinzfan23
Thanks for the post....in the article it stated that in 1987, the 126-year old store closed its doors for the final time.
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:44 am
by Joe_Sovereign
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.
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 12:22 pm
by Hawkeye
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.
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 10:17 pm
by U R my Helix
New Rendering for Broadway Crossing, Council Bluffs AKS 500 West Broadway from
http://www.claritydevco.com/projects/ 
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 8:01 am
by skinzfan23
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.
Re: 500 West Broadway
Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 2:23 pm
by U R my Helix
It looks like this project has been removed from the developers website. Does anyone know if it is postponed or scraped?
