Bob from Omaha wrote: Fri Jul 28, 2023 4:32 pm
Did you ever notice that with very, very few exceptions developments that are announced with massive fanfare end up as a non cohesive yawning mess? In the exception category I'd place Midtown Crossing first. Of course that was driven by Mutual and clearly someone in the company saw to it that it didn't end up a sh*t show. Capitol District to a large extent also mostly came through. Village Pointe for the most part is what was originally promised, though over time the configuration changed as retailers teased their intentions and then pulled out. On the other hand, the Boys Town property, Avenue One, h e l l, for that matter pretty much everything on Dodge west of 168th with the exception of Village Pointe. Dodge west of 168th had such potential to be an amazing example of planned development.
Heartwood Preserve and Avenue One have zero soul, zero personality, zero innovation.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong
I keep being told I'm wrong when I scream there's a problem with these "ideas" that will go nowhere. They're just large commercial developments that have wonderful initial art-advertising, but no follow through.
It's like selling a house that doesn't have a spectacular backyard, but it COULD have that backyard, so I get a Graphic Artist to render some Boards of what it COULD look like, Pool with color changing lights at night, Fountains, Fire, Fireplace, Pergola, all the bells and whistles, but it never happens.
The best follow through I have seen in a large commercial project has been Aksarben Village. They kept tight control of each zone. The only areas where they have seemingly lost their way, is in the areas of Residential on the Smaller Lots surrounding the Parking Garages. No one wants to live in a Row House or a 3-level apartment-type building facing a Parking Garage that is going to cost an arm and a leg. It would need to be a Mixed-use building with Residential on the top floors, so more of a 6 story building, with Retail on the first, some small offices on the 2nd.