Avenue One (192nd & Dodge)

[Garrett]

Personally I kind of like this pending district. It seems like if they aren't dropping a section of Manhattan into West Omaha, people get upset. My expectations have always been something between Aksarben and Village Pointe. If this comes to fruition on what they plan, they will have apartments over retail, business over retail. Is that what everyone wants?

Listing all of the retailer out below, its looks like a pretty good start and not a lot of oversaturation.

New retailers
LL Bean
Arhaus
West Elm

Second Stores
Trader Joes - Huge Get
Williams Sonoma
Pottery Barn
Total Wine
Barnes & Noble - 3rd Store
ULTA - 3rd

Restaurants
Perry Steakhouse
Yardhouse

Thats 11 businesses. There are 28 free standing retail buildings and then 5 larger Office and Apartments with retail building. If that is what actually comes to plan, you are looking at like an additional 25-30 businesses. Thats a pretty big retail section in West Omaha. My biggest hope is that they still try to keep it to relatively new to market businesses and hopefully they can add like food hall or some cluster/gathering place

The plans are fine for where it is, I’m just generally opposed to using taxpayer dollars for what’s essentially going to be a juiced up mall. Subsidizing retail is one of the worst uses of tax dollars, and I’m particularly skeptical that it’s going to draw out of state visitors in any significant capacity anymore than Westroads, Village Pointe, or Aksarben.
People have a finite budget for retail/entertainment spending, so this is effectively just creating a sink for retailers that just as easily could have ended up at a non-taxpayer subsidized district. Bellevue has got it right with centering their district on the waterpark as an actual new destination that can be a regional draw, and for all the pie in the sky proposals that Yates put forth at NEX, at least they were ambitious.

This is exactly it. The project is fine, it’s whatever, but it used one of the few Good Life Districts allotted for a development that looks like several others in the metro area. The powers that be that handed out these districts either lost the plot or there were some under the table agreements made to award it to an underwhelming project. The fact that the second largest metro in the state didn’t get a single district, or a unique proposal wasn’t waited on for a place like South Sioux City which is near a larger population center, or even in western Nebraska is such a major fail for what this initiative was trying to fulfill.

Exactly! heck, Heartwood Preserve is building an essentially identical if not superior development just 3.5 miles away from this development. There are a few new to market retailers but mostly a lot of repeats. As you said, the subsidies going to this could have gone to a community that needed it. There's not going to be out of state tourist dollars going to the second Trader Joe's in the city, so why not fund something big in Lexington or South Sioux City that could actually use a boost? Or invest in infrastructure that could produce better dividends.

[nebport5]

What's frustrating about this project is, yes the promise of out of state dollars isn't likely to attract much more than Iowans who are already all over metro Omaha. And watching this sprawl take off like wild fire with huge tax incentives all while the city has struggled for years to spur redevelop at two of the largest urban entertainment/retail sites in the Civic and Crossroads. The CEO of Woodbury on Grow Omaha basically suggested a 5 year process to gain commitments from the right kind of tenants and retailers for Crossroads. Meanwhile Avenue One seems to be racking up "the right kind" of tenants as quickly as mushrooms after a spring rain.

So if you voted for this "new front door to the city"(for people who live in Valley?), remember that next time you biatch about Crossroads glacial pace.

[Greg S]

What's frustrating about this project is, yes the promise of out of state dollars isn't likely to attract much more than Iowans who are already all over metro Omaha. And watching this sprawl take off like wild fire with huge tax incentives all while the city has struggled for years to spur redevelop at two of the largest urban entertainment/retail sites in the Civic and Crossroads. The CEO of Woodbury on Grow Omaha basically suggested a 5 year process to gain commitments from the right kind of tenants and retailers for Crossroads. Meanwhile Avenue One seems to be racking up "the right kind" of tenants as quickly as mushrooms after a spring rain.

So if you voted for this "new front door to the city"(for people who live in Valley?), remember that next time you biatch about Crossroads glacial pace.

I'm not buying this as an excuse for the pace of Crossroads. Crossroads has received millions incentives, over $100 million in TIF and close to $70 million in enhanced employment area, and now add in garage and underground parking completely paid for by the city.

[riceweb]

All the retailers in this area expect massive subsidies, then when they get those subsidies they demand more. I think we need to cut off the spigot. State constitutional amendment, if necessary, to prevent one metro competing with another metro on subsidies for retail projects.

We simply don't need them. My life is in no way improved by LL Bean coming here. If they want to move in, then they can do so without a special district.

[nebport5]

What's frustrating about this project is, yes the promise of out of state dollars isn't likely to attract much more than Iowans who are already all over metro Omaha. And watching this sprawl take off like wild fire with huge tax incentives all while the city has struggled for years to spur redevelop at two of the largest urban entertainment/retail sites in the Civic and Crossroads. The CEO of Woodbury on Grow Omaha basically suggested a 5 year process to gain commitments from the right kind of tenants and retailers for Crossroads. Meanwhile Avenue One seems to be racking up "the right kind" of tenants as quickly as mushrooms after a spring rain.

So if you voted for this "new front door to the city"(for people who live in Valley?), remember that next time you biatch about Crossroads glacial pace.

I'm not buying this as an excuse for the pace of Crossroads. Crossroads has received millions incentives, over $100 million in TIF and close to $70 million in enhanced employment area, and now add in garage and underground parking completely paid for by the city.

Let's compare apples to apples.


Crossroads is a redevelopment that has also gone through multiple developers and yes while significant incentives are at play from the city, the Good Life District are ground up builds with incentives that cater more directly to the retailers, which is my point.

From the Unicameral:

"A good life district applicant or retailer will be eligible for a refund of 50% of the state sales tax paid on development costs for a new business, an additional good life district retailer or a relocated good life district retailer, within certain limits."

[Greg S]

What's frustrating about this project is, yes the promise of out of state dollars isn't likely to attract much more than Iowans who are already all over metro Omaha. And watching this sprawl take off like wild fire with huge tax incentives all while the city has struggled for years to spur redevelop at two of the largest urban entertainment/retail sites in the Civic and Crossroads. The CEO of Woodbury on Grow Omaha basically suggested a 5 year process to gain commitments from the right kind of tenants and retailers for Crossroads. Meanwhile Avenue One seems to be racking up "the right kind" of tenants as quickly as mushrooms after a spring rain.

So if you voted for this "new front door to the city"(for people who live in Valley?), remember that next time you biatch about Crossroads glacial pace.

I'm not buying this as an excuse for the pace of Crossroads. Crossroads has received millions incentives, over $100 million in TIF and close to $70 million in enhanced employment area, and now add in garage and underground parking completely paid for by the city.

Let's compare apples to apples.


Crossroads is a redevelopment that has also gone through multiple developers and yes while significant incentives are at play from the city, the Good Life District are ground up builds with incentives that cater more directly to the retailers, which is my point.

From the Unicameral:

"A good life district applicant or retailer will be eligible for a refund of 50% of the state sales tax paid on development costs for a new business, an additional good life district retailer or a relocated good life district retailer, within certain limits."

Yes, so the Crossroads has been struggling long before Avenue One entered the scene. Different developers had struggled with it on it's own. Now you know only have $170 million in incentives at Crossroads, plus the garages and underground parking (which I would bet puts the incentives over $200 million), you know have the city coming in to put in the Police and Fire HQ and taking that part of the development off the city tax rolls.

Say what you want, apples to oranges, whatever. I just don't see how the now recent development hindered Crossroads. That's been going on since 2011.....

[nebport5]

What's frustrating about this project is, yes the promise of out of state dollars isn't likely to attract much more than Iowans who are already all over metro Omaha. And watching this sprawl take off like wild fire with huge tax incentives all while the city has struggled for years to spur redevelop at two of the largest urban entertainment/retail sites in the Civic and Crossroads. The CEO of Woodbury on Grow Omaha basically suggested a 5 year process to gain commitments from the right kind of tenants and retailers for Crossroads. Meanwhile Avenue One seems to be racking up "the right kind" of tenants as quickly as mushrooms after a spring rain.

So if you voted for this "new front door to the city"(for people who live in Valley?), remember that next time you biatch about Crossroads glacial pace.

I'm not buying this as an excuse for the pace of Crossroads. Crossroads has received millions incentives, over $100 million in TIF and close to $70 million in enhanced employment area, and now add in garage and underground parking completely paid for by the city.

Let's compare apples to apples.


Crossroads is a redevelopment that has also gone through multiple developers and yes while significant incentives are at play from the city, the Good Life District are ground up builds with incentives that cater more directly to the retailers, which is my point.

From the Unicameral:

"A good life district applicant or retailer will be eligible for a refund of 50% of the state sales tax paid on development costs for a new business, an additional good life district retailer or a relocated good life district retailer, within certain limits."

Yes, so the Crossroads has been struggling long before Avenue One entered the scene. Different developers had struggled with it on it's own. Now you know only have $170 million in incentives at Crossroads, plus the garages and underground parking (which I would bet puts the incentives over $200 million), you know have the city coming in to put in the Police and Fire HQ and taking that part of the development off the city tax rolls.

Say what you want, apples to oranges, whatever. I just don't see how the now recent development hindered Crossroads. That's been going on since 2011.....

New developments have nothing to do with the past struggles to get Crossroads vertical, and yes, there are sizable incentives. However, the incentives for Avenue One are obviously extremely appealing for tenants/retailers. It's an advantage that Avenue One has over not just Crossroads but established shopping centers and ones that are still gaining momentum like Heartwood Preserve. There's even a section in the revised Good Life Act that addresses relocation existing businesses. Think Regency Court. We've been told over the past year of coming announcements regarding additional tenants for Crossroads and specifically an end of summer timeframe. I don't think that was just referencing the exciting Police/Fire Headquarters announcement. The CEO of Woodbury is now suggesting 5 years of retailer corralling is normal. Maybe in some respects that is true but the U-turn in messaging is telling. Meanwhile, an unconfirmed potential tenant at Crossroads has signed on at Avenue One along with a gaggle of new to market and other highly coveted retailers. Notice how quickly Avenue One has been collecting tenants vs any other developments?