Civic Square (former Civic Auditorium)

[Louie]

That is the uglies box out of all the ugly boxes. I hate White Lotus.

[InTheRoom]

Ugly, but on brand. Worst developer in town. The 'thing' they created in Lincoln was unfathomably unattractive... this might be worse.

[nativeomahan]

Ugly, but on brand. Worst developer in town. The 'thing' they created in Lincoln was unfathomably unattractive... this might be worse.

Is that a minimum security prison, per chance?

[nativeomahan]

Edit: Scrolled all the way through the doc and got to a rendering of their Phase I 100 unit apartment building and ohhhhhhhh my god

I would be utterly embarrassed and shamed for attaching my name to such a utilitarian piece of rubbish.

[GenX]

Maybe they should change their name to White Elephant…

[djc311]

It’s legit a total P O S - the fact this is even on the table is ridick. I’d rather see a 10 year old build something out of LEGOs than see this |expletive| be built.

[thenewguy]

"hey white lotus, we have one of the most prime spots in Omaha ready for development, whatcha got?"

-"well, we were thinking of copying the same design of every 5 over 1 built in Omaha in the last 15 years, and make the city wait another decade to get it"

"sounds good to us!"

this is an absolute joke. I pray to God this does not get built, it does not fit in with the CBD of downtown at all, and would go down as one of the biggest misses in Omaha development history.

[nebugeater]

what a sh1tshow. if this was food, it would be a gluten free, low salt entree at a nursing home. how embarrassing and a massive waste of space.

My dad is in a nursing home, and the food there far exceeds this.

[Renovator2559]

Can we just drop White Lotus and cancel their plans, I have not liked any of their renderings at all. It almost seams that white lotus is a scamming company.

[djc311]

Can we just drop White Lotus and cancel their plans, I have not liked any of their renderings at all. It almost seams that white lotus is a scamming company.

I agree - they're like those that took Covid dollars.... probably have about 20 shell companies just moving money around.

[Hawkeye]

Edit: Scrolled all the way through the doc and got to a rendering of their Phase I 100 unit apartment building and ohhhhhhhh my god

I would be utterly embarrassed and shamed for attaching my name to such a utilitarian piece of rubbish.

Holy heck that's absurdly awful. Some of you know that Ol' Hawkeye worked in commercial real estate development back in the day. Back then, we would have been absolutely HUMILIATED beyond belief to submit something like this to a municipality for consideration...and furthermore would have been eviscerated by the local trade press and competitors, making it very difficult to even get a foot in the door for any future development opportunities. WL is absolute trash in every conceivable way and should be utterly ashamed of this. How they even stay in business is beyond comprehension.

[buildomaha]

I wonder if the current litigation between WL and the city is forcing the city to allow them to slide on…well every aspect that was promised in this project. If not, then the city needs to put its foot down and trigger contract clauses that allow the land to be taken back. heck, reimbursed WL for the minimal infrastructure work done so far and cut them dry.

[Brad]

Anyone know what happened at Planning Board today?

[iamjacobm]

Anyone know what happened at Planning Board today?

Planning Board rep starts at around 1:07 and developer starts at about 1:12:30 into the video below. There are a lot of potential opinions to be drawn from the comments made during the meeting, but probably the most pertinent IMO is a city rep explicitly said that litigation with the developer is still ongoing.

TIF is approved to move forward.

[nebport5]

Anyone know what happened at Planning Board today?

Planning Board rep starts at around 1:07 and developer starts at about 1:12:30 into the video below. There are a lot of potential opinions to be drawn from the comments made during the meeting, but probably the most pertinent IMO is a city rep explicitly said that litigation with the developer is still ongoing.

TIF is approved to move forward.

To piggyback off of this...

-In spite of the ongoing litigation, the notice of default has been withdrawn from the city.

-The plan is to resume hopefully in the spring of '27 to finish infrastructure.

-A question in regard to potential partners was responded to by pointing out the numerous stop and starts to the project.

-On the potential for grocery component, Arun(White Lotus), said he doesn't think there can be two regardless of where a store eventually ends up. 65% of downtown residents apparently drive to the CB Hy-Vee. (Not me). He also said that the city and its planners may determine the best place for downtown grocery, but they(White Lotus) are obviously biased for the Civic site and partly because of the proximity of the 480 on/off ramps. Arun believes getting a customer base beyond just downtown is important for a 25k sq ft grocer to survive. He added that Hy-Vee was reluctant to cannibalize their own store across the river.


So at this point there aren't likely to be much if any commitments in the way of retail and especially grocery. Of the 6 phases of this project, grocery would be the last. I think that's telling. I think Arun has a point about a full service store needing a broader customer base as well as the convenience to 480. That said, I don't feel confident there will be a grocery store here by phase six or 2032.

As a downtown resident, I will say again I'd prefer to have two smaller stores(with accessible hours) vs one big "full service" store. Two of the right small stores could actually compliment each other and you may have people shopping at both regularly. Best case scenario, nothing is likely to be up and running before the streetcar. With that in mind something like a Natural Grocer's/Vitamin Cottage could take the old Wholner's space and be fed by the streetcar. Meanwhile, if the Trader Joe's ever happened downtown it would obviously draw from well beyond. Personally I'm rooting for a Whole Foods Daily Shop which is typically between 7k and 14k sq ft. That 9k sq ft space going into the second level of the Duo apartments would be perfect for a WFDS and I also don't think it would conflict much with the public market.

[thenewguy]

i mean, why are they not courting Aldi? That's a perfect sized store and does a great job with seasonal flavors. That would easily fit in the base of any garbage design white lotus comes up with and would be worthwhile for residents in the area

[djc311]

W T F are they still involved. This is absurd. I would have thought a new mayor would have killed this agreement.

We have Noddle, Yates (yuck), Lockwood Development, Lerner... so many other options. None of them wanted to take this on?

I'd be shocked if they have anything vertical before 2030.

[nebport5]

One note about the design. WL used the same documents for the TIFF application. So with this project essentially restarting the designs are not particularly finalized, which Arun alluded to as the next step during the meeting. He did also show another conceptual rendering that while not spectacular, perhaps may not be perceived as heinous as the above rendering.

[Garrett]

One note about the design. WL used the same documents for the TIFF application. So with this project essentially restarting the designs are not particularly finalized, which Arun alluded to as the next step during the meeting. He did also show another conceptual rendering that while not spectacular, perhaps may not be perceived as heinous as the above rendering.

From 1:17 in the video

[nebport5]

One note about the design. WL used the same documents for the TIFF application. So with this project essentially restarting the designs are not particularly finalized, which Arun alluded to as the next step during the meeting. He did also show another conceptual rendering that while not spectacular, perhaps may not be perceived as heinous as the above rendering.

From 1:17 in the video

Thanks, I was trying to screen shot it but it wasn't coming out well.

[Garrett]

I'm also fairly certain it's just an AI rendering because there's a lot that doesn't make sense in it.

[ita]

I would encourage all interested in this project to watch the Omaha Planning Board's review of this item to see how one can answer a question without actually answering the question.

[ita]

I'm also fairly certain it's just an AI rendering because there's a lot that doesn't make sense in it.

Yes sir. Their phase one apartment building is not even in this rendering.

[remline]

The cited statistic was interesting about 65% of the people within 1.5 miles of the civic site going to the Hy-Vee in Council Bluffs.

I'm not quite up to speed on these things: why was the notice of default withdrawn?

[Linkin5]

This is insanity do not let them develop this lot City of Omaha!

[ita]

I think this is a good time to start contacting your city council representative to take a closer look at what's happening. The fact that none of the renderings are matching is red flag enough.

[djc311]

The fact the city not long ago told these clowns to take a hike, then the developer sued (over God knows what considering they hadn't developed diddly), and now the city is like "OK, we'll go with you". It's like a scene out of Tommy Boy.

I'm telling you, I'd prefer to give my 7 year old grandson LEGOs to build something on that lot before WL. Surprised that dude can tie his own shoes.

[mcarch]

If that is what is going to be built - that is a waste of real estate - not to mention a pig w/the worst lipstick ever. I would rather have this site sit vacant until a GOOD plan is put forth instead of building subpar buildings that will later be expensive to demolish to make way for something better - or yet, not having the opportunity to have something better because we put up something like this.

[thenewguy]

If that is what is going to be built - that is a waste of real estate - not to mention a pig w/the worst lipstick ever. I would rather have this site sit vacant until a GOOD plan is put forth instead of building subpar buildings that will later be expensive to demolish to make way for something better - or yet, not having the opportunity to have something better because we put up something like this.

while i think we all agree with your sentiment, it would seem that the city thinks they can't do any better than this (for some reason) and just want to say that they got SOMETHING done, whereas they should indeed just wait for something/anything better.

[Flyer14]

I would encourage all interested in this project to watch the Omaha Planning Board's review of this item to see how one can answer a question without actually answering the question.

It was almost impressive how much was said but at the same time nothing spoken had any value.

[ita]

If that is what is going to be built - that is a waste of real estate - not to mention a pig w/the worst lipstick ever. I would rather have this site sit vacant until a GOOD plan is put forth instead of building subpar buildings that will later be expensive to demolish to make way for something better - or yet, not having the opportunity to have something better because we put up something like this.

while i think we all agree with your sentiment, it would seem that the city thinks they can't do any better than this (for some reason) and just want to say that they got SOMETHING done, whereas they should indeed just wait for something/anything better.

I do not think the City has that mind set. In fact, they were actively pursuing other options last year as the construction thresholds were not being met by White Lotus. At this point however, considering what is happening or not happening with the litigation, I do not think the City wants to be in a position where they appear to be delaying the project. In regards to the TIF application, if it meets all the criteria, such as appropriate use for zoning and master planning, financials are appropriate, than the TIF committee, planning or city council have no reason to deny it. That is the crux of White Lotus's position in litigation; they argue the City was doing things to prevent the project from moving forward, so any missed construction deadlines are because the City not the developer. With the City withdrawing the notice of default, I think this TIF application resubmission is the developer knowing they are in a stronger position to go forward, even if they do not actually have plans to go beyond phase 1 at this point. Just my thoughts.

[Hawkeye]

One note about the design. WL used the same documents for the TIFF application. So with this project essentially restarting the designs are not particularly finalized, which Arun alluded to as the next step during the meeting. He did also show another conceptual rendering that while not spectacular, perhaps may not be perceived as heinous as the above rendering.

From 1:17 in the video

Oh thank goodness.....more nondescript low-rise square boxes. Ol' Hawkeye was very worried we wouldn't get more of those in one of the most prime spots in downtown. But never fear...the bang-up crew at White Lotus comes through and saves the day!