Rejected Proposal for ConAgra re: Jobbers Canyon

[CrankyOldDude]

I've been looking for this story for years & just found it. The City of Omaha had Marty Shukert come up with an alternative plan for ConAgra's Omaha headquarters that tried to save some of Jobbers Canyon. Mike Harper gave it lip service but the die was cast. It wouldn't have completely saved Jobbers Canyon but some of it might still be around.

[arch_RP_planner]

"The decision to develop the riverfront was so important. The benefits outweighs the cost of the historic district."

That might have to be one of the brain-dead blanket statements I have ever read.

I'm fresher on the earth, as in I was still 10 years late to this whole fiasco, but genuinely, knowing they would relocate the HQ to Chicago, Omaha should've just let them walk... they still kept a large chunk of workforce here, but could've maintained office space in the central park towers, until they determined they wanted new kicks, but what could've been different. I know there is a lot more to the story, but it feels like a toxic ex that we let hang around too long, they completely changed who we were, and once they were done with us, they wiped their hands clean and walked... we sat in the ruins of it for years, and the riverfront still lacks its true historic presence decades later... At least we have the Old Market as a reminder.

[CrankyOldDude]

"The decision to develop the riverfront was so important. The benefits outweighs the cost of the historic district."

That might have to be one of the brain-dead blanket statements I have ever read.

I'm fresher on the earth, as in I was still 10 years late to this whole fiasco, but genuinely, knowing they would relocate the HQ to Chicago, Omaha should've just let them walk... they still kept a large chunk of workforce here, but could've maintained office space in the central park towers, until they determined they wanted new kicks, but what could've been different. I know there is a lot more to the story, but it feels like a toxic ex that we let hang around too long, they completely changed who we were, and once they were done with us, they wiped their hands clean and walked... we sat in the ruins of it for years, and the riverfront still lacks its true historic presence decades later... At least we have the Old Market as a reminder.

Your thoughts make sense. Here's the thing: Enron bailed & moved pretty much everyone to Houston not long before ConAgra started in. It was a stomach punch to Omaha & Mike Harper, CEO of ConAgra threatened to do the same. Everyybody pack, we're moving to <insert a city other than Omaha> He floated Knoxville, TN & a half dozen other cities. If Omaha & Nebraska didn't cave he said they were out of there.

Also, and I know in hindsight it looks bad, what happened in that area was in large part good. The abandoned battery plant on the river got demolished & cleaned up and downtown had a new front door. Was/is it perfect? Nope. But families spent time by the riverfront & downtown. Prior to that that area was pretty sickly. For quite a while ConAgra was, with the exception of Jobbers Canyon, a great corporate citizen, donating millions to local charities.

Do I wish things would have turned out differently? Of course. Before all the buildings were torn down I walked around the entire Jobbers Canyon. I have no idea where all the pictures I took are. It would have been a great addition to the old market. On the other hand, ConAgra did spend the better part of a century in Omaha & still employs a lot of people there.

[omaha79]

"The decision to develop the riverfront was so important. The benefits outweighs the cost of the historic district."

That might have to be one of the brain-dead blanket statements I have ever read.

I'm fresher on the earth, as in I was still 10 years late to this whole fiasco, but genuinely, knowing they would relocate the HQ to Chicago, Omaha should've just let them walk... they still kept a large chunk of workforce here, but could've maintained office space in the central park towers, until they determined they wanted new kicks, but what could've been different. I know there is a lot more to the story, but it feels like a toxic ex that we let hang around too long, they completely changed who we were, and once they were done with us, they wiped their hands clean and walked... we sat in the ruins of it for years, and the riverfront still lacks its true historic presence decades later... At least we have the Old Market as a reminder.

Your thoughts make sense. Here's the thing: Enron bailed & moved pretty much everyone to Houston not long before ConAgra started in. It was a stomach punch to Omaha & Mike Harper, CEO of ConAgra threatened to do the same. Everyybody pack, we're moving to <insert a city other than Omaha> He floated Knoxville, TN & a half dozen other cities. If Omaha & Nebraska didn't cave he said they were out of there.

Also, and I know in hindsight it looks bad, what happened in that area was in large part good. The abandoned battery plant on the river got demolished & cleaned up and downtown had a new front door. Was/is it perfect? Nope. But families spent time by the riverfront & downtown. Prior to that that area was pretty sickly. For quite a while ConAgra was, with the exception of Jobbers Canyon, a great corporate citizen, donating millions to local charities.

Do I wish things would have turned out differently? Of course. Before all the buildings were torn down I walked around the entire Jobbers Canyon. I have no idea where all the pictures I took are. It would have been a great addition to the old market. On the other hand, ConAgra did spend the better part of a century in Omaha & still employs a lot of people there.

I absolutely agree with this. the building of Heartland of America Park is on the front end of my functional memory. so, I can't really weigh in on the viability of the Jobbers Canyon buildings; however, I know enough about Omaha and where the bodies are buried to say that the need for all of those old warehouses didn't exist in 1990 and probably would still struggle to be viable today.

At that time, they'd had a failed revitalization of 16th street including a spectacular failure of the Park Faire mall. ASARCO sat as a blight on all of downtown making people sick. The old Abbott drive cooridor was filled with scrap yards, rail yards, etc. Near North Downtown was a crumbling rotting industrial wasteland from the riverfront/ASARCO to Creighton University, which really hadn't moved much East of 20th at that time. Jobbers Canyon was mostly abandoned. Omaha had just demolished all of the Central Park Buildings because they were crumbling with little chance of effective reuse.

To me, I think there is little doubt that Omaha's downtown was overbuilt by the 70's to 90's with lots of buildings that were surplus and in disrepair. It wasn't until almost 2000 that the arena idea gained traction and, I was working for MECA at the time. The amount of remediation that had to go into making the ASARCO plot habitable was a legendary feat. it's one of the largest Superfund sites in the nation.

We can debate what was lost and, very likely, it would have been nice to have some of those buildings, in the Omaha landscape of 2026, but it wasn't going to pan out in 1990, 2000, or even 2010. The revitalization of North Downtown literally took 40 years and is still ongoing. But, it's now mostly moved further North to the Makerhood.

You can look at South Downtown and go near St. Mary's avenue and you can throw a rock and hit an abandoned building in all directions. But, no one likes to think of the literally dozens of abandoned brick buildings that sit in downtown, right this minute, just aching for renovation and effective reuse. It's much easier to wax poetically about a perceived crime against urbanism that occurred in 1989.

I will always say, let's focus on what can still be done and let's rally around South Downtown or the buildings in the Makerhood and avoid another Jobbers Canyon than focusing on what can never be changed.

[Big E]

the literally dozens of abandoned brick buildings that sit in downtown, right this minute, just aching for renovation and effective reuse.

Which ones?

[omaha79]

the literally dozens of abandoned brick buildings that sit in downtown, right this minute, just aching for renovation and effective reuse.

Which ones?

Fairmont building for one in old market.

the Richard Young building by 480.

I don't know the names of all of them, but walk around the St. Mary's avenue area from around 14th-20th. can see numerous empty buildings that are boarded up.

There are some underutilized buildings in the old Civic site area near the interstate.

There are still some up north in the Makerhood area and Cuming corridor.

And, some near Woodman/16th St. like this one, which is one of the taller fully abandoned buildings in Omaha.



Omaha has done an ok job hiding its blight. The abandoned buildings hide in plain sight. they are just corpses/shells that you drive by, but don't think about. They sit like relics in the under utilized/under appreciated areas of downtown like near Leavenworth/St. Marys ave and up to police headquarters near Rose & Crown.

But, the point is, there are entire areas of downtown in desperate need of rehabilitation and we keep talking about Jobbers Canyon.

[Garrett]

I think this ignores that a decent number of Jobbers Canyon buildings were either still in use or actively being renovated. Yeah, there are still empty buildings around the city, but that doesn't mean that it's inevitable that all of Jobbers Canyon would be abandoned to this day. Different choices could have been made, as the concepts posted show, but weren't, and we have to live with the results.

[nebport5]

the literally dozens of abandoned brick buildings that sit in downtown, right this minute, just aching for renovation and effective reuse.

Which ones?

Fairmont building for one in old market.

the Richard Young building by 480.

I don't know the names of all of them, but walk around the St. Mary's avenue area from around 14th-20th. can see numerous empty buildings that are boarded up.

There are some underutilized buildings in the old Civic site area near the interstate.

There are still some up north in the Makerhood area and Cuming corridor.

And, some near Woodman/16th St. like this one, which is one of the taller fully abandoned buildings in Omaha.



Omaha has done an ok job hiding its blight. The abandoned buildings hide in plain sight. they are just corpses/shells that you drive by, but don't think about. They sit like relics in the under utilized/under appreciated areas of downtown like near Leavenworth/St. Marys ave and up to police headquarters near Rose & Crown.

But, the point is, there are entire areas of downtown in desperate need of rehabilitation and we keep talking about Jobbers Canyon.

I can appreciate your point but maybe continuing to make light of Jobber's can't hurt towards getting more of these underutilized historic structures rehabbed. The good news is 1501 Howard St, The Standard Oil building and The Service Life building(the one in the video) are all being actively rehabbed.

near Leavenworth/St. Marys ave and up to police headquarters near Rose & Crown.

You lost me a bit here as Rose & Crown is on 20th St and Police Headquarters is between 14th and 15th St. but I get your intention about the dereliction in this corridor.

I know there's some concern about whether 420 S. 18th St(corp of engineers facility) just North of The Flatiron can be saved.

South of The Flatiron are a cluster of old brick buildings including; 1811 St. Mary's Ave, 563 S 18th St, and 1712 Jackson St. I don't know that these are particularly abandoned but it certainly would be great to see them rehabbed.

Up the hill across from the Y sits 421 S. 20th St which is apparently an OPPD warehouse. I've always like the facade of this building that is listed as being built in 1990?! This is a typo right?