The Crossroads (72 & Dodge)

[daveoma]

Sure, it's still in the middle of Omaha if you gauge 72nd and Dodge to still be that spot, but I wouldn't drive from 168th and Center to 72nd and Dodge just to visit perhaps a second Apple store.

Hopefully they prove me wrong and this turns into something remarkable, but until the first set of new shops pop up, I remain cautiously pessimistic.

Needs hundreds/thousand of new residential units so people don't have to drive at all.

Given the challenges of the development, adding residential seems like the likeliest way to generate enough demand for sizeable commercial development. Although it may require multiple developers with separated buildings/sections, I think that a thousand units is absolutely realistic and should be pursued. The huge benefit to living at 72nd and Dodge is the location, and in my opinion they'd sell/rent easily. I'm not a real estate expert, so maybe one of them can give their opinion on this.

[Dusty]

I hope the whole project tanks. This whole design is an outlet mall with a few hotels to give it a fake urban feel.
This is what get when you hire a developer that specializes in building outlet malls. This corner is very special to a lot of us. We don't need another cookie cutter lifestyle center.

We set the bar way to low on this project. Of course, city officials are in the mindset of building anything is better than leaving it vacant. This shows we have no real vision for the city. I have been saying for 10+ years that we needed a car-free development to kickstart a real urban revival in our city core. We just needed a parcel of land large enough to make it worthwhile. Crossroads was the perfect spot for this. Right off a transit line and close to a college.

If you need a better visual of what I envisioned for Crossroads, check out Culdesac Tempe.
https://culdesac.com/

[OmahaOmaha]

Welcome to Culdesac Omaha, opening in Spring 2028. Located at 72nd and Dodge, one of Omaha’s busiest intersections, you’ll find an oasis free of cars and parking lots. Here, you’ll find 1200 luxury apartments featuring stainless steel appliances, luxury baths, snow boot cubbies, and direct access to the heated 5000 stall bike ramp with a ground floor DSW, Whole Foods, and Starbucks. Amenities include roof top pools, a miniature golf course featuring beautiful Kaneko ceramic heads, a 24 hour theater playing skyscraper, street car, and fast food porn, gift wrap room, on site shoe repair, a 50 stall bike wash, and a community car shaming deck overlooking Dodge Street. Shop the quaint shoe boutiques and eat at the local fine dining establishments located along four miles of heated sidewalks. You won’t find any drive thru lanes here. Come experience the best of true Live, Walk, Bike, Work living in one of Omaha’s most sought after, convenient locations, just a short one hour bike ride or two hour walk to Mutual of Omaha tower. Visit our leasing office today.

[ita]

I hope the whole project tanks. This whole design is an outlet mall with a few hotels to give it a fake urban feel.
This is what get when you hire a developer that specializes in building outlet malls. This corner is very special to a lot of us. We don't need another cookie cutter lifestyle center.

We set the bar way to low on this project. Of course, city officials are in the mindset of building anything is better than leaving it vacant. This shows we have no real vision for the city. I have been saying for 10+ years that we needed a car-free development to kickstart a real urban revival in our city core. We just needed a parcel of land large enough to make it worthwhile. Crossroads was the perfect spot for this. Right off a transit line and close to a college.

If you need a better visual of what I envisioned for Crossroads, check out Culdesac Tempe.
https://culdesac.com/

Thanks for sharing. Here is the project page from Opticos Design, who also happened to help plan the urban waters development.

https://opticosdesign.com/work/culdesac-tempe/







Pretty impressive that they could get 700 units on 14 acres with 2-3 story buildings. Price tag is $170 million, which includes 44k sq. ft. of retail and amenity space. Crossroads is 40+ acres. If they did 4-5 story buildings with similar pedestrian focused planning, you could easily double that number, while not taking cars away completely. I guess you could do a completely car free neighborhood; utilize the 2200 space existing garage and have all resident's have parking there.

Interesting project. If you compare the team leading Culdesac and Crossroads, it's easy to see why the projects differ so greatly in focus and scope.

[Dusty]

A few more notes about Culdsac Tempe:
There is a small parking lot for visitors to park a car and visit residents. Residents themselves are not allowed to have a car.
All residents get unlimited transit passes to everyone living in the unit. Discounts off Lyft, Uber, etc.

Crossroads could easily make this work. Large parking garage already there. Target is lucky if there ever fill half the parking lot. And we have 5 parking garages that mostly sit empty at Aksarben Village. If we really need to, we can run a shuttle so people can park and ride to Crossroads.

I know there will be a lot of skepticism like OmahaOmaha. Car culture is all they know. We need to break the misguided perceptions about urban living and mobility outside of a car. We are not all pretentious hipsters attempting to mock drivers. We are hard-working citizens who believe in moving people instead of moving cars.

[skip]

A few more notes about Culdsac Tempe:
There is a small parking lot for visitors to park a car and visit residents. Residents themselves are not allowed to have a car.
All residents get unlimited transit passes to everyone living in the unit. Discounts off Lyft, Uber, etc.

Crossroads could easily make this work. Large parking garage already there. Target is lucky if there ever fill half the parking lot. And we have 5 parking garages that mostly sit empty at Aksarben Village. If we really need to, we can run a shuttle so people can park and ride to Crossroads.

I know there will be a lot of skepticism like OmahaOmaha. Car culture is all they know. We need to break the misguided perceptions about urban living and mobility outside of a car. We are not all pretentious hipsters attempting to mock drivers. We are hard-working citizens who believe in moving people instead of moving cars.

I like this. Would love it if Crossroads could pivot towards a project like this. Good use case, Dusty.

[Garrett]

A few more notes about Culdsac Tempe:
There is a small parking lot for visitors to park a car and visit residents. Residents themselves are not allowed to have a car.
All residents get unlimited transit passes to everyone living in the unit. Discounts off Lyft, Uber, etc.

Crossroads could easily make this work. Large parking garage already there. Target is lucky if there ever fill half the parking lot. And we have 5 parking garages that mostly sit empty at Aksarben Village. If we really need to, we can run a shuttle so people can park and ride to Crossroads.

I know there will be a lot of skepticism like OmahaOmaha. Car culture is all they know. We need to break the misguided perceptions about urban living and mobility outside of a car. We are not all pretentious hipsters attempting to mock drivers. We are hard-working citizens who believe in moving people instead of moving cars.

It’s definitely an interesting proposal! Not sure if Omaha could quite pull off a fully “no cars if you live here” development but I’m a fan of the innovative thinking.

[Dusty]

Thanks for the support.
The way I look at it is this developer has made 5-6 renditions. Every version that comes out, the community hates. They are not listening to us. You can rearrange the plan 100 times, it's still the same suburban lifestyle center. Strip mall concept with 100% chain stores. Throwing in a hotel and a small green space does not magically make this an urban development.

I would love to stop production on the site and give the people a choice before it's too late. if the developer can't build the urban vision we want, then we need to find a developer who will.

[TransitOriented]

It needs to be a dozen or so 8-20 story buildings. Dodge is already gaining height with 84th street.

It's hard when your home-away-from-home is decades ahead of Omaha, and you want Omaha to progress instead of building even more strip malls.

[nebport5]

There's certainly an ideal for what we'd like to see here and then what is feasible. A development car free and with multiple mid-rises isn't going to happen. I'm not a fan of "lifestyle" centers either. V.P. is nightmare to navigate. The angled parking in the middle does more to impede foot traffic than provide sufficient adjacent parking. The consensus on the early renderings is that there is indeed too much surface lots. That's something than can be realistically reworked, save Target. We can hope they sell off part of the lot at some point. We also have to consider the post Covid market. Are all the same retailers on board as before? It's also likely that the developer will accommodate retailer needs which may dictate some of the overall design elements. The early renderings may just be that. I would rather see a few sizable mixed used parking structures over the silly "lifestyle" grid. I doubt most of us are going to get what we want here esthetically but this project has been in the works for so long who knows. Retail numbers overall are still down so it may be better to develop C.R. in phases as such with Hines and The Mercantile.

[ita]

It needs to be a dozen or so 8-20 story buildings. Dodge is already gaining height with 84th street.

It's hard when your home-away-from-home is decades ahead of Omaha, and you want Omaha to progress instead of building even more strip malls.

I would be behind such a plan. With, purportedly, $500 million available for this project, why are we getting what we're getting? I am sure just the demo and massive infrastructure is going to eat up a ton of budget, but instead of:

Entertainment/Lifestyle: 150,000 SF
Retail: 200,000 SF
Hotel: 150 rooms
Apartments Homes/Senior Living: Approximately 400 residences
Office Space: Up to 500,000 SF

They could/should have devoted much more to residential space. 1000 units should of been a minimum. Plans may have been revised and the most recent renderings may not show future plans for the remaining surface lots, but the City should have demanded more from Lockwood.

[OmahaOmaha]

I know there will be a lot of skepticism like OmahaOmaha. Car culture is all they know. We need to break the misguided perceptions about urban living and mobility outside of a car. We are not all pretentious hipsters attempting to mock drivers. We are hard-working citizens who believe in moving people instead of moving cars.

I know all about mobility without a car. I grew up on a farm about five miles from town. I used to ride my bike to town to spend the hot summer afternoons at the swimming pool. I remember how hard it was to pedal against the wind on those warm steamy days. During the school year, I remember waiting on the end of our quarter mile long driveway to get on the big yellow people mover. In the winter, it wasn’t fun waiting out in the freezing cold for the bus to arrive, which regularly showed up 15 to 20 minutes late.

When I was in high school, my family moved to town. I had to walk to school, about a mile and a half away. That wasn’t fun either. Some days would be hot, and other days would be cold and rainy. I remember several times stepping off the curb unexpectedly into a deep puddle of water that would quickly fill the inside of my shoe. Then there was those freezing cold days, walking on icy sidewalks and trying to step over the snow pile at the intersections that the city plow pushed to the curb.

I do like to walk and ride bike, but only for exercise. I don’t want to use a bike as my transportation to the grocery or want to show up at work all hot and sweaty from a bike commute, and I don’t want to relive those cold and miserable walks that I was forced to take back in high school.

I don’t want to get on a bus either. When I go out for a walk, I often pass a bus stop located in front of a big box store. I’m often asked by the people waiting for the bus for money or cigarettes. I’ve seen people talking to themselves, people who appeared to be drunk, and even a guy who crapped his pants. I regularly see a young guy who plays his music on his phone quite loudly and the stuff he listens to is vulgar and uses the “f” and the “n” word over and over. When he’s there, it always smells like pot. Before people board the bus, many of them leave behind half empty soda bottles, candy wrappers, and containers of half eaten deli food. The sidewalk is usually left littered with gum and cigarettes. Do I want to walk in hot and cold weather to a bus stop to get on a bus with these people? No thanks. I’ll keep driving my car.

[Louie]

I don’t want to get on a bus either. When I go out for a walk, I often pass a bus stop located in front of a big box store. I’m often asked by the people waiting for the bus for money or cigarettes. I’ve seen people talking to themselves, people who appeared to be drunk, and even a guy who crapped his pants. I regularly see a young guy who plays his music on his phone quite loudly and the stuff he listens to is vulgar and uses the “f” and the “n” word over and over. When he’s there, it always smells like pot. Before people board the bus, many of them leave behind half empty soda bottles, candy wrappers, and containers of half eaten deli food. The sidewalk is usually left littered with gum and cigarettes. Do I want to walk in hot and cold weather to a bus stop to get on a bus with these people? No thanks. I’ll keep driving my car.

I'll translate that for you...'ew poor people'

[OmahaOmaha]

I don’t want to get on a bus either. When I go out for a walk, I often pass a bus stop located in front of a big box store. I’m often asked by the people waiting for the bus for money or cigarettes. I’ve seen people talking to themselves, people who appeared to be drunk, and even a guy who crapped his pants. I regularly see a young guy who plays his music on his phone quite loudly and the stuff he listens to is vulgar and uses the “f” and the “n” word over and over. When he’s there, it always smells like pot. Before people board the bus, many of them leave behind half empty soda bottles, candy wrappers, and containers of half eaten deli food. The sidewalk is usually left littered with gum and cigarettes. Do I want to walk in hot and cold weather to a bus stop to get on a bus with these people? No thanks. I’ll keep driving my car.

I'll translate that for you...'ew poor people'

Being poor has nothing to do with it. I just choose to not be surrounded by litterbugs, people who smell like pot and cigarettes, drunks, people with poopy pants, and the mentally ill. Yes, some of these people might be poor, but that’s no excuse for their actions. I know there’s probably lots of people on here who feel the same way, but most people will keep quiet because they know that they can be easily silenced by some who don’t agree with your view point.

[OmahaOmaha]

You can try to take cars out of developments, but you’re just going to get more Lyft cars, Uber cars, Door Dash cars, and visitor’s cars circling around waiting for the few parking spots to free up. You’ll also have more trucks too…Amazon, UPS, Fed Ex, trash removers, grocery delivery, etc..

[ita]

You can try to take cars out of developments, but you’re just going to get more Lyft cars, Uber cars, Door Dash cars, and visitor’s cars circling around waiting for the few parking spots to free up. You’ll also have more trucks too…Amazon, UPS, Fed Ex, trash removers, grocery delivery, etc..

If Crossroads did a Culdesac-like development, there is already an existing 2200 space parking garage. They could have a shuttle to circle though the district and/or provide bike ride share from the parking garage. They could build a really dense residential district, with some retail, amenities, and office. The 40 acre district could be car free, but people living or visiting the district still has ample parking options between the garage and Target's existing surface parking lot, while having some bus access between ORBT and Routes 8 and 18. Centralized delivery and disposal sites, like any apartment/condo complex.

[Garrett]

If you build neighborhoods so people can reasonably not need cars for day to day tasks you’ll get fewer people using cars. When every development has to ask the question “well where will we park?” you are designing your city poorly

[Dusty]

A car-free Crossroads is a different concept. At minimum, it's a mixed use development that doesn't allow privatized cars to drive through and park inside the complex. Beyond that, we decide how it's built and how it functions. You would still have open access to fire and rescue, police, designated hours for delivery trucks, moving trucks, etc. Yes, you would have a pickup and drop zone for cars: Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, etc. Digital counters on garage to show openings so you don't have to drive around in circles.

There are plenty of parking for cars to visit. We have a large parking garage, Hobby Lobby is closed on Sunday's, which opens up parking. After 8-9PM you can use Hobby Lobby, Lowes, and Target for overflow parking. If that's not enough, you can park at 1 of 5 parking garages at Aksarben Village and take the bus for the short ride over.

We can set the tone and pace of the project. For example:

Option A: All residents are to be car-free. Parking garage is for visitors only
Option B: Build it out in 2 phases. First phase residents are allowed one car per unit. As the development progresses, they can charge residents a monthly fee to park. This would entice some to go car-free while other decide to continue having a car. We also have the option to put in temporary surface parking during Phase 1 to help people adjust to a different kind of development. When ready, they can develop over the temporary lots with more buildings.

We just have to decide as a community if we want to pivot away from what we are getting and start over with a new concept.

As for transit, the system is only as good as we allow. The end result is a reflection of the amount of money and design we put into it. if you design a poor system, you only get poor riding out of necessity. If you want World Class transit that everyone is proud to ride, then raise your standards. We can turn our nose to it and complain or we can tell the city what we expect so they can change it.

[NEDodger]

Option A: All residents are to be car-free. Parking garage is for visitors only

And you thought financing is difficult now? This is a deal-breaker for any bank for a metro as small as Omaha. You’re not going to get hundreds and hundreds of tenants to pay to live here and agree to a “you can never have a car here” requirement .

[OmahaOmaha]

Good luck recruiting businesses to locate in a car free development.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

If you build neighborhoods so people can reasonably not need cars for day to day tasks you’ll get fewer people using cars. When every development has to ask the question “well where will we park?” you are designing your city poorly

I'm going to reiterate Garrett's point. There's no need to polarize neighborhoods as car-free or car-heavy. When given options for different transportation uses, convenience of having common goods and services walkable, attractive built environments, while also finding operating a motor vehicle difficult (low-speed roadways, parking that's not right up front or plentiful, not trying to achieve LOS A) then people naturally gravitate to not using their car.

[Athomsfere]

I keep floating my crazy idea: The only way I can see to make this intersection livable:

1. Cut and cover all through traffic, and turn lanes.
2. Business access via a single lane and round about
3. Space for dedicated ROW for RT
4. Continuous sidewalks for a greenway, to also double as speed tables for the access route with the round about.

[mistergutierrez]

I'd also say it's only a matter of time before Village Pointe, Westroads, and Shadow Lake all add residential components.

Just imagine if they would allow people to live inside the stores, I bet sales would sore through the roof.

What a crazy idea, apartments on top of businesses.

[BRoss]

I'd also say it's only a matter of time before Village Pointe, Westroads, and Shadow Lake all add residential components.

Just imagine if they would allow people to live inside the stores, I bet sales would sore through the roof.

What a crazy idea, apartments on top of businesses.

Wow, that's an old post. Those are some names I haven't seen in a while.

[Athomsfere]

I'd also say it's only a matter of time before Village Pointe, Westroads, and Shadow Lake all add residential components.

Just imagine if they would allow people to live inside the stores, I bet sales would sore through the roof.

What a crazy idea, apartments on top of businesses.

What infuriates me about places like Village Point: The have faux utility above them. They build facades to look like something could be up there

[GetUrban]

I keep floating my crazy idea: The only way I can see to make this intersection livable:

1. Cut and cover all through traffic, and turn lanes.
2. Business access via a single lane and round about
3. Space for dedicated ROW for RT
4. Continuous sidewalks for a greenway, to also double as speed tables for the access route with the round about.

Sounds like a nightmare bottleneck solution to me, except for some sort of connected greenway. Omaha is way to dependent on that intersection to mess with and slow down all of the converging traffic too much,

[Athomsfere]

I keep floating my crazy idea: The only way I can see to make this intersection livable:

1. Cut and cover all through traffic, and turn lanes.
2. Business access via a single lane and round about
3. Space for dedicated ROW for RT
4. Continuous sidewalks for a greenway, to also double as speed tables for the access route with the round about.

Sounds like a nightmare bottleneck solution to me, except for some sort of connected greenway. Omaha is way to dependent on that intersection to mess with and slow down all of the converging traffic too much,

I mean, overall throughput should stay about the same. Same number of lanes / cars in the cut and cover. Not needing the pedestrian signals might actually slightly increase the leadtimes.

Only travel to the businesses might increase. IMO. And without signals up top, probably very little or even a decrease.

Mostly though, if Omaha wants transit and for that intersection to become a "city center" like we say it is for the central library, it needs actual accessibility for pedestrians, bikes, and transit.

Even if it hurts traffic a little, it feels like the right step for the city to me.

[Dusty]

I keep floating my crazy idea: The only way I can see to make this intersection livable:

1. Cut and cover all through traffic, and turn lanes.
2. Business access via a single lane and round about
3. Space for dedicated ROW for RT
4. Continuous sidewalks for a greenway, to also double as speed tables for the access route with the round about.

Sounds like a nightmare bottleneck solution to me, except for some sort of connected greenway. Omaha is way to dependent on that intersection to mess with and slow down all of the converging traffic too much,

I mean, overall throughput should stay about the same. Same number of lanes / cars in the cut and cover. Not needing the pedestrian signals might actually slightly increase the leadtimes.

Only travel to the businesses might increase. IMO. And without signals up top, probably very little or even a decrease.

Mostly though, if Omaha wants transit and for that intersection to become a "city center" like we say it is for the central library, it needs actual accessibility for pedestrians, bikes, and transit.

Even if it hurts traffic a little, it feels like the right step for the city to me.

I agree the main area should stay the same. I would like to see dedicated transit lanes in time as people support it.
As more people ride transit, the cars lanes become less congested. At this point, changing the vibe of the streetscape is the most important thing we can do. The current look is a lot of concrete with very little landscaping. We have industrial structure over the intersection gives it a speedway vibe. For me, this intersection is the worst in town for cars speeding through red arrow lights. It's not pedestrian friendly as it could be since many of the crosswalk lines are faded and cars pull too far forward and block the walkways.

It's proven when there are more obstacles likes: trees, shrubs, etc drivers naturally slow down. If we want the area more pedestrian friendly, then we have to use a different strategy. Otherwise, drivers will continue to go 50-60 mph in a 35 mph zone.

[djc311]

Is all of the infrastructure buried there yet? Power, sewer, etc? Or is this simply just a big blank lot that used to hold the mall? I get it, covid screwed up A LOT of plans. But for the supposed heart of Omaha that sees tens of thousands of cars a day, I can't believe it's still idle.

[Brad]

Is all of the infrastructure buried there yet? Power, sewer, etc?

Storm Sewer and Sanitary Sewer appear to be in the ground. I haven't seen water going in. I would doubt Power is in.

Its not exactly "paving season" to be putting in roads or even prepping the subgrade.

[nativeomahan]

Is all of the infrastructure buried there yet? Power, sewer, etc? Or is this simply just a big blank lot that used to hold the mall? I get it, covid screwed up A LOT of plans. But for the supposed heart of Omaha that sees tens of thousands of cars a day, I can't believe it's still idle.

My thoughts exactly. If there was real interest in businesses itching to locate here it would have been done and completed and open for business by now.

[djc311]

https://www.wowt.com/2023/03/14/crossro ... -progress/

I was very bored reading this as it starts off by stating the clearly obvious - everything aside from Target has been demolished. Common sense can tell anyone driving down Dodge St that this has happened.

In the last few lines they mention they're putting in an additional eastbound turn lane off of Dodge St and they will start paving streets in the Crossroads area soon. They anticipate construction of buildings to commence "later this year". We will see.

[S.O.Boy]

https://www.wowt.com/2023/03/14/crossro ... -progress/

I was very bored reading this as it starts off by stating the clearly obvious - everything aside from Target has been demolished. Common sense can tell anyone driving down Dodge St that this has happened.

In the last few lines they mention they're putting in an additional eastbound turn lane off of Dodge St and they will start paving streets in the Crossroads area soon. They anticipate construction of buildings to commence "later this year". We will see.

The streets may have started. Last week there was like 4 mixers there.

[PWL73316]

They took a lane of Dodge to move some heavy equipment around this morning. Looks like they may be getting started after the winter break.

[nativeomahan]

If you build neighborhoods so people can reasonably not need cars for day to day tasks you’ll get fewer people using cars. When every development has to ask the question “well where will we park?” you are designing your city poorly

Agreed.

[nativeomahan]

According to Channel 6 in their report last night no vertical construction will occur until sometime in 2024.
Talk about a slow walk…

[Athomsfere]

I saw an article from KETV this morning (Facebook) and it had no real news, except construction is even later now it appears.

Also, More lanes to Dodge? When will this city learn?

[Louie]

I saw an article from KETV this morning (Facebook) and it had no real news, except construction is even later now it appears.

Also, More lanes to Dodge? When will this city learn?

To Dodge or on Dodge?

[Athomsfere]

I saw an article from KETV this morning (Facebook) and it had no real news, except construction is even later now it appears.

Also, More lanes to Dodge? When will this city learn?

To Dodge or on Dodge?

Unclear, and I doubt I can find the article. What I'd read it was "two turn lanes onto the development". It might be wrong, I might have misread it too.

[nativeomahan]

“We’re on the road to nowhere…”