Wallstreet is Dead aka: FOR SALE

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Wallstreet is Dead aka: FOR SALE

Post by I KNOW ALL »

Two separate business leaders are reporting that Townsend is trying to sell the land where wallstreet was going to be built.
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S33
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Post by S33 »

I think we all knew that was coming, but I'm interested to see what kind of proposal takes place of Wall St. in this market. If this is factual, I would bet that lot sits empty for a long time.
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iamjacobm
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Post by iamjacobm »

I hope it at least gets filled in if it does end up sitting for a while longer.
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Post by Guest »

And another historic building bites the dust for NOTHING!

I loved the Medical Arts building, but feel ok since First National replaced it with something of at least equal value (architecture, planning, visual, etc.).  However, tearing down buildings without a solid game plan is unforgivable.

Maybe we should start farming crops downtown like Detroit - at least people would get food out of the deal.  We could farm the old UP site, the old OWH site and that |expletive|-of-a-park with the bronze sculptures.
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Bosco55David
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Post by Bosco55David »

I thought the sale contract had a clause that the property reverted to city ownership if construction didn't begin by a certain date, so how is Townsend going to be the one selling this?
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Post by Coyote »

I thought that also - but how much did they spend in the demolition and clean-up?
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Post by Guest »

Bosco55David wrote:I thought the sale contract had a clause that the property reverted to city ownership if construction didn't begin by a certain date, so how is Townsend going to be the one selling this?
And not to forget (if I'm remembering correctly), the land was sold to Townsend for a give-away price. So, is the city of Omaha going to get into the habit of making these sweet deals anytime a developer comes in with "good idea" and when that train derails, allow them to re-sell the property at market price?
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

Bosco55David wrote:I thought the sale contract had a clause that the property reverted to city ownership if construction didn't begin by a certain date, so how is Townsend going to be the one selling this?
...What I was thinking also.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

How does that work?  The assessor shows Wallstreet as the owner so does the city have a lean on it?  I don't how someone can own something but really not own something?
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Post by S33 »

Brad wrote:How does that work?  The assessor shows Wallstreet as the owner so does the city have a lean on it?  I don't how someone can own something but really not own something?
That's the thing, this is if Townsend "owns" the lot without lien. I just found it funny that the city would accept such a proposal (out of a number of other proposals) with such confidence in a developer that has NO experience in new construction and basically giving away 1 full city block of prime property without recourse in the event the project fails.

Of course, this is only true if our understanding of the deal is accurate.
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Greg S
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Post by Greg S »

The old UP building is definitely not one I would look back and wished we had saved.  They had ruined it already.

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Post by Garrett »

This is a weird thought and it would have coasted a ton, but what if we only tore down the section from the 70s and built a new tower on that part while preserving and restoring the historic structure. Necessarily reasonable? Possibly if they wanted to pay a bucket load.
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Post by Guest »

That was actually my suggestion when this project was first proposed.
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Post by Historic Omaha »

They could have left the 70s structure and refaced it with a new curtain wall.  The property could have been listed in the National Register (even with the non-historic additions).  By listing, the developer could have taken advantage of the historic tax credits for rehabilitation expenditures at the historic and non-historic portions of the property..  Townsend is doing a historic tax credit project at the Brandeis so these guys could have worked it out for their UP property.  The property was also nationally significant so Townsend could have applied for Save America's Treasures grants.   Now we are left with a hole - a hole that can only be filled by a project using local TIF funding (not augmeted/balanced by other non-local funding sources such as historic tax credits).  If Julia Roberts would say, "Big mistake!"
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Post by iamjacobm »

That would of looked amazing to see a glass structure almost rise out of the old UP building.
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Wallstreet Tower

Post by Guest »

Townsend is trying to sell everything they own.  The banks must be all over them looking for cash.  I am told they have more than 15,000,000.00 in debt on it so I would assume this turkey is headed back to the bank.
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Post by Garrett »

Hmmm..... does this mean Brandeis could change hands?
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Post by cdub »

The City |expletive| this up and as near as I can tell has little ability to impact anything right now unless it at least can afford what Townsend has in the project.
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

So Townsend just sells to anther developer then, right?
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
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Linkin5
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Post by Linkin5 »

Yes.

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Post by OmahaJaysCU »

I'm not so sure how “solid as a rock” helps people forget the fact that we built houses in Iraq...
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Post by Guest »

You almost can't help but to feel bad for Townsend now, having initially qualified for financing, invested heavily in demolishing the old UP, then building the new showrooms and every other marketing and overhead expense, only to have the economy tank and their financier keep raising the bar on them.

Talk about wrong place at the wrong time.
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Post by S33 »

^^^ mine
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

I'd feel sorry for him except that he seems like a total shyster. Seriously, check out videos of him talking - if you can find them.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
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S33
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Post by S33 »

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:I'd feel sorry for him except that he seems like a total shyster. Seriously, check out videos of him talking - if you can find them.
I've seen him (I assume you mean Jason Townsend) speak and also spoke with him several times, I've also spoken with a couple others at Townsend and never once got the impression any of them were "shysters."

Not sure what you mean there.
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

I mean that, to an outsider, he seems like a snake oil salesman.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
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Post by thenewguy »

maybe he is.  I mean, he did sell me some blinker fluid for my car, so...
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Post by Bosco55David »

thenewguy wrote:maybe he is.  I mean, he did sell me some blinker fluid for my car, so...
I thought my muffler bearings were great quality.
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Post by psl25201 »

Spoke to the guy that led the America First proposal for this site and it is his understanding that the City of Omaha absolutely has a lean on this property, or specific ownership rights to its development, and because Townsend didn't fulfill their end of the obligation, the City can take it back anytime - assuming they've "run" out of time on their contract.

He said that they (America First/Burlington Capitol) would be interested in the site again, but because they were relying on bringing a major corp into downtown (at the time TD Ameritrade was it) to occupy most of the space, they'd have to relocate another.  Obviously, very hard to do right now.
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Post by Big E »

So we lost a residential tower, a historic building, AND a corporate headquarters in the same deal?  Nice.
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Greg S
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Post by Greg S »

What corporate headquarters?  UP is still here, who are you referring to?

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Post by Big E »

Not getting TD downtown.

"Missed out on" is probably more accurate than "lost", I suppose.
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Post by NovakOmaha »

Were there ever renderings of the other bidders?
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Post by icejammer »

NovakOmaha wrote:Were there ever renderings of the other bidders?
There were only two - Townsend and America First.  Renderings are in the Wallstreet thread somewhere, good luck in finding them.  Nearly everyone on here at the time was ga-ga over the Townsend proposal, as opposed to the America First proposal.  As they say, be careful what you wish for.
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Post by Big E »

Hindsight is definitely 20/20.  Obviously we all assumed (as did the city) we were dealing with a viable project.

I think it would be pretty easy to make the right decision knowing what we know now.

Look at this way: everyone now gets to say "I told you so" because my West Dodge Ghettomaker predictions didn't come true.
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Post by cdub »

psl25201 wrote:Spoke to the guy that led the America First proposal for this site and it is his understanding that the City of Omaha absolutely has a lean on this property, or specific ownership rights to its development, and because Townsend didn't fulfill their end of the obligation, the City can take it back anytime - assuming they've "run" out of time on their contract.

He said that they (America First/Burlington Capitol) would be interested in the site again, but because they were relying on bringing a major corp into downtown (at the time TD Ameritrade was it) to occupy most of the space, they'd have to relocate another.  Obviously, very hard to do right now.
Yes, the City can likely get it back.  If they can come up with the money to cover all the demo costs already sunk into it.  This is not terribly likely at this point, but possible.
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Post by Bosco55David »

psl25201 wrote:Couple things -

Maybe I wasn't completely clear in my first post, but it was never the plan to bring a new corporation to town.  The foundation of the proposal was built on America First relocating a current Omaha corporation to downtown, that being TD Ameritrade.  Now that they have their own campus, America First would have to find another company to relocate and because nearly all of the major corps in Omaha have built new buildings/campuses, they'd have to look out of state.
Thanks for the clarification. Does this mean that TDAmeritrade had effectively agreed to move downtown but then pulled out presumably because of the delays? If so, that would mean that was the stake in the heart for this project, right? [/quote]
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Post by Guest »

Anyone see late last week KETV had a little story about the fact that the city was starting to look at trying to take that land back.  I couldn't find it online but they seemed to imply that something was going to start happening pretty soon, either a new project or probably green space, but that in fact city leaders are growing impatient.  As a side note, and it probably should be in another thread, the same story indicated that the hotel spot in the Old Market supposedly had gotten new financiers and that an announcement on what will be going there and when should happen pretty soon.
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Post by Guest »

Maybe we can build a pedestrian bridge between the UP and WH green spaces.
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Post by iamjacobm »

Anonymous wrote:Maybe we can build a pedestrian bridge between the UP and WH green spaces.
:sarcasm: ?  If legit why?
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