TD Ameritrade Old Mill Campus

[Stargazer]

I used to work in that first building (simply called the FDR 'tech building') when most of you were probably in elementary school.

[cdub]

Your just clarifying for us that you're old?

[Bob from Omaha]

Your just clarifying for us that you're old?

You think he's old? I remember when Old Mill was announced. It was big news and the original designs were seen as revolutionary.
Later Old Mill, Miracle Hills, One Pacific Place and Regency Office Park were referred to as Silicon Prairie with Wang, HP, etc.

Damn, I am old.

[Stargazer]

When I was at ACI/FDR... we called it the Silicon Ditch.

[Bob from Omaha]

When I was at ACI/FDR... we called it the Silicon Ditch.

That too. Naturally the Local Monopoly Fishwrap did a full page on it, trumpeting the similarity to San Jose and environs.

[Big E]

It was big news and the original designs were seen as revolutionary.

I'm sure it was a revolution...

[windsor]

I believe the garage is topped out now.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

No renderings have been released, right?

So, who else wants to bet that these two "mult-story" buildings are both two stories? Four tops?

[SaOmaha]

The past few Sundays en-route to Christ Community Church, I notice The Stonebrook Office Park on the
west side of the 108th Street is being torn down. It is across the Street from TD AMERITRADE Campus.





I did Internet research and discover that TB Ameritrade Services Company brought this Property

http://douglasne.mapping-online.com/Dou ... 1907780586

[Brad]

Thanks for the Update Steve!

[TitosBuritoBarn]

Yeah, I believe part of the plan is for TD Ameritrade to tear all those down and build taller (three story?) buildings in their place.

[mrdwhsr]

I would like to see Omaha Light-Rail in that picture someday. Running along Papio Creek and UP right-of-way light-rail could connect North Park, Old Mill, Regency, 1-Pacific Place with Downtown Omaha and Eppley.

[wigster]

Its possible that TD Ameritrade is expanding, but now that this news story is out...it might be more likely that the work could be for KVC.

http://www.ketv.com/news/21976627/detail.html

A behavioral services organization plans to relocate its regional headquarters to Omaha and create 180 new jobs in the process.

KVC Behavioral Services, a nonprofit, will move into the Old Mill area.

The organization will partner with the state to provide psychiatric services and foster care for children and families in the juvenile justice system.

"One of our biggest emphases is really maintaining children in their own home safely whenever possible," said KVC Nebraska Director Sandra-Gasca-Gonzalez. "This is really what we are striving to do through all of our office locations."

[JPenny]

idk if anyone has seen this yet but TD Ameritrade is building a new headquarters that is suppose to be 12 stories or 230 ft tall on their old mill campus. it will be LEED platinum certification. There are a few renderings of it in the OWH. This is great news!! oh i forgot that it said it will be the tallest building outside of downtown/midtown...

[the1wags]

"TD Ameritrade wants to go vertical with its new corporate headquarters.

The online brokerage firm is planning to build a 230-foot-tall headquarters building as part of its new corporate campus in the Old Mill area.

The headquarters would be Omaha's tallest office building outside downtown and midtown and rank 12th in the city overall."

Link to the full Omaha World Herald article....

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100404/M ... trading-up

[Brad]

12 Stories and LEED Platinum too!

[Seth]

It's a shame they didn't decide to move downtown, but at least they're building taller than most of the space-wasting suburban office parks out there. The LEED Platinum goal is nice, of course we'll see if they can meet it (it's more difficult in a suburban area because it's hard to get the transportation points for mass transit and walkability). Even LEED Gold would set a nice standard, though.

[TechnicalDisaster]

My wife will be moving to this building in 2012 (from the L street location). Thank God it isn't downtown, we wouldn't want to have quadruple the commute just to make the young hipsters happy. Old Mill is an excellent location!

[Brad]

Old Mill is an excellent location!

Since I work right up the street from this area, I know how awesome the old mill area is to work. I can Make it to Fremont, Council Bluffs, Bellevue and anywhere in Omaha in 15 min. With I680 and the west dodge expressway, it is a great location.

[TechnicalDisaster]

Old Mill is an excellent location!

Since I work right up the street from this area, I know how awesome the old mill area is to work. I can Make it to Fremont, Council Bluffs, Bellevue and anywhere in Omaha in 15 min. With I680 and the west dodge expressway, it is a great location.

My new job is near Old Mill, and when my wife moves over there we might think about moving our family to this area as well. Maybe somewhere near 132nd and Dodge so we can stay in the Millard school district.

[SaOmaha]

Below is the computer image of TD Ameritrade's new corporate headquarters and map from the Easter Sunday Omaha World-herald article "Brokerage firm trading up"

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100404/M ... trading-up


Apparently that the old ACI Worldwide building will be torn down for parking. The new headquarter Ameritrade's New headquarters will be built on the site of former The Stonebrook Office Park. It will change the face of the Old Mill Area.

Also the Newspaper article side bar listed the TD Ameritrade's new corporate headquarters will be Omaha 12th tallest building. How does this compare the Blue Cross and Blue Shield building Rank.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100404/M ... -buildings

[Stargazer]

Wow! Between BCBC at Aksarben Village and this... we're starting to see some height emerge in the suburbs.

[almighty_tuna]

holy cow! very cool!

[Brad]

I am happy they are staying in Omaha. Yes another tower would have looked cool, but some people just don't want to deal with downtown. I think Ameritrade has made that abundantly clear. They could have rented space in many office buildings down there, but yet they chose to stay at Southroads.

[guitarguy]

this will definitely add a ton more traffic on the expressway though so those breeze drives are going to slllllllowwwwwwww down haha that and the area around old mill will be super congested at rush hour! ughh

-adam

[TechnicalDisaster]

this will definitely add a ton more traffic on the expressway though so those breeze drives are going to slllllllowwwwwwww down haha that and the area around old mill will be super congested at rush hour! ughh

-adam

It will not add traffic to the expressway. You don't use the expressway if your destination is 120th or 108th street.

According to the article, the area was suffering from two other large employers leaving (ACI and FDR). TD's plans to build there will bring the number of commuters back up to normal.

[Brad]

According to the article, the area was suffering from two other large employers leaving (ACI and FDR). TD's plans to build there will bring the number of commuters back up to normal.

I was going to say, from what I have heard FDR wedged as many people as they could in to those offices. One FDR employee told me "no one can cram people in to an office like FDR".

[guitarguy]

haha how do you think people are going to get to those exits though? either with 680 or coming east on dodge.... or west on dodge... either way there will be substantially more traffic around that area with this

-adam

[Ben]

I know the arguments back and forth on downtown vs out in Old Mill have several of you arguing....

The one thing we can all celebrate on this is the announcement of their aim for LEED Platinum design. Wow, I don't know if you all know how big this is. There's only something like 50 structures around the entire country that currently qualify for this top level of LEED. This would be a huge showcase project that would bring lots of prominence to the architects and get Omaha mentioned on a national level, from a green architecture perspective.

By no means am I an architect, but from what I understand, due to the need for green space around a structure its virtually impossible to achieve this Platinum certification in a truly urban environment.

BTW, the only other buildings that I know of in the Omaha area that are LEED certified are the National Parks Service (gold), Homeland Security (gold), and Midtown Crossing (basic).

EDIT: Oops, upon further research, there is 1 LEED Platinum building in town: Morrisey Engineering's HQ - up at 120th and Fort.

[OmahaJaysCU]

I am wondering how they can get enough LEED Platinum points with a building surrounded by surface parking with little access to public transportation, and isn't walkable. They must be spending a fortune on the building itself to get enough points. Most of the time, LEED buildings take advantage of walkability and public transportation access to get points without really paying for them.

I am still very pleased with this project though. This should be great for the Old Mill area. I always saw the area as a bit of an eyesore. Maybe with this some other investors will tear down some of those hideous 1-2 story buildings for bigger and better projects. Here's an idea, why not develop that area into a business district full of LEAD certified buildings, creating a vibrant business district that feeds off its surround developments. Its proximity to 680 and Dodge make it very attractive for office space, especially considering that it is literally 15 minutes away from CB, Bellevue, Downtown, Elkhorn, and all the other major business districts in the city.

Maybe that's a little far fetched, but damn that'd be cool. 8)

[Stargazer]

It's adjacent the Big Papio trail.

Can anyone remember an article back in the 90's (80's ?) talking about how Old Mill south was never intended to handle the number of businesses which were jammed in there, some planning folks looking the other way when developers came along... later, there was talk of a ramp leading on to 680. I'm curious what it's going to be like when they add another 1,000 people. When I worked at ACI... I was told that one of the reasons they really encouraged working a flexible schedule (a pretty new concept back in the 80's)... was to help stagger the traffic out of there. I don't think it's been nearly as bad since FDR's presence diminished... but I would guess it's starting to get back to that point with TD Ameritrade increasing its presence.

[Stargazer]

Fortunately, employers are becoming more cognizant of the interests of their employees... locating in the suburbs. So, people like me can have the best of both worlds.

[Tornado]

Obviously it's great to hear of TD Ameritrades long term commitment and affirmation of Omaha as it's headquarters, and everyone loves to hear about new exciting development and jobs, but the skyline enthusiast in me of course would have loved to seen a downtown tower. I think I'm just frustrated with the streak of delayed or canceled proposed towers in Omaha the last couple years. With the new TD headquarters and campus and the BCBS tower at Aksarben we could have been looking at two nice towers downtown maybe in the 400-500ft range. If you add these two projects with the joke of the Wallstreet Tower, and the mayors decision to go with a suburban style Hilton hotel instead of a 28 story Marriot that time has proved would have been the best route, than you can see where all of us height obsessed folk around here would be frustrated.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

This is wonderful news for Omaha. Obviously (as a hipster ) I'm disappointed it's not going up Downtown or in Midtown, but it's still "infill" of a sort and brings density and growth to an "older" suburban office park.

And of course I'm delighted to hear of TD Ameritrade's effort to achieve LEED Platinum status. Although, I am also a little befuddled at how they will do this with the amount of surface parking I see in the rendering, and the lack of walkability and access to public transport in the area, as others have mentioned.

[S33]

Looks like the LEED checklist has much more to do with the building itself, rather than it's area, setting, or transit.

http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=5546

[Seth]

Looks like the LEED checklist has much more to do with the building itself, rather than it's area, setting, or transit.

http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=5546

I don't know if I would to go that far:

From page vi:

Sustainable Sites 26 Possible Points
 Prerequisite 1 Construction Activity Pollution Prevention Required
 Credit 1 S ite Selection 1
 Credit 2 Development Density and Community Connectivity 5
 Credit 3 Brownfield Redevelopment 1
 Credit 4.1 A lternative Transportation—Public Transportation Access 6
 Credit 4.2 A lternative Transportation—Bicycle Storage and Changing Rooms 1
 Credit 4.3 A lternative Transportation—Low-Emitting and Fuel-Efficient Vehicles 3
 Credit 4.4 A lternative Transportation—Parking Capacity 2
 Credit 5.1 S ite Development—Protect or Restore Habitat 1
 Credit 5.2 S ite Development—Maximize Open Space 1
 Credit 6.1 S tormwater Design—Quantity Control 1
 Credit 6.2 S tormwater Design—Quality Control 1
 Credit 7.1 Heat Island Effect—Nonroof 1
 Credit 7.2 Heat Island Effect—Roof 1
 Credit 8 Light Pollution Reduction 1

Out of 26 possible site-related points, 12 are for non-conventional-auto transportation, and 6 alone for public transportation access. Considering that you need 80 points for a platinum rating, those 12 points are pretty important.

In regards to what others have said about location, I agree that it's good to have it close to where employees live, but only if there are options other than driving. With modern suburban development, it could be only 2 miles away (practically next door on a bike), but it might as well be 10 miles away if you're forced to drive.

[S33]

You cited a small portion of the checklist. The vast majority of credits are issued for the building materials and efficient systems within. I did misspeak, however, a lot also has to do with it's integration with the land and habitat restoration. Either way, a downtown location is in now way more conducive to gain more LEED credits than Old Mill.

[Brad]

Sustainable Sites 26 Possible Points
 Prerequisite 1 Construction Activity Pollution Prevention Required - Required by Omaha for any project
 Credit 1 Site Selection 1
 Credit 2 Development Density and Community Connectivity 5 - Bike trail connection and way more dense than previous buildings
 Credit 3 Brownfield Redevelopment 1
 Credit 4.1 Alternative Transportation—Public Transportation Access 6 - existing bus route
 Credit 4.2 Alternative Transportation—Bicycle Storage and Changing Rooms 1 - easy
 Credit 4.3 Alternative Transportation—Low-Emitting and Fuel-Efficient Vehicles 3
 Credit 4.4 Alternative Transportation—Parking Capacity 2
 Credit 5.1 Site Development—Protect or Restore Habitat 1
 Credit 5.2 Site Development—Maximize Open Space 1
 Credit 6.1 Stormwater Design—Quantity Control 1 - Required by Omaha for any project*
 Credit 6.2 Stormwater Design—Quality Control 1 - Required by Omaha for any project**
 Credit 7.1 Heat Island Effect—Nonroof 1
 Credit 7.2 Heat Island Effect—Roof 1
 Credit 8 Light Pollution Reduction 1 - easy

* Assuming they mean on site Detention/Storage
** Assuming they mean runoff treatment for pesticides and petroleum among other things.

There are also TWO EXISTING connections to the Bike Trail, see below:

[GetUrban]

Attaining LEED Platinum will go a long way in correcting some of the mistakes that were made in the initial Old Mill South development. It's kind of ironic that the opportunity for earning some of those points make not have been possible, had those mistakes not been made. ......Such as reducing the urban heat-island effect and reducing and detaining storm water run-off.

If it earns LEED Platinum, this project will definitely set a good example for other future developments to follow. I'm glad to see it already has connections to the Papio Trail.

We probably spent too much time talking about automobile & transportation access, and not enough about what it will be like when you get there. I'm looking forward to seeing more details.

Also, I doubt that many downtown sites would be any less conducive to earning LEED V3 Platinum (80 pts. min.). The rating system takes location into account. There are enough different points available, out of 100 possible, so that points achievable in urban areas may not be applicable in suburban areas, and vice versa.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Since they are so close to the trail, I wonder if they will offer bike storage/parking and changing/showering facilities, since those are both point-getting criteria.