Sorensen Park Plaza tax incentives approved

[eomaha]

Council OKs $8.5 million in subsidies for project

Developers won preliminary approval Tuesday for $8.5 million in city tax subsidies for a commercial retail development in north-central Omaha.

Sorensen Park Plaza will include a regular Target store - not a SuperTarget - and is planned to be built on the site of the old Vickers plant on 72nd Street, between Crown Point Avenue and Sorensen Parkway.

The site has environmental contamination. The Omaha City Council voted 6-1 in favor of the project, with Councilman Franklin Thompson voting no.

The council had approved the project by the same vote previously. Another commercial development down the road, Benson Park Plaza, then went to court and forced the city to go through the process again.

The council still must approve final plans for the center before the project can proceed - a step that should happen next month, said attorney Larry Jobeun.

Sorensen developer Jim Otis said actual work on the site could start as early as March.

In the meantime, the developers are planning a meeting with neighbors, some of whom have said they are concerned about additional contaminants drifting from the site once work begins.

[Coyote]

Objections send N. 72nd project back to court

A commercial retail development on North 72nd Street is once again headed to court.

Benson Park Plaza filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the Omaha City Council's approval of plans and tax subsidies for Sorensen Park Plaza.

The proposed Sorensen Park Plaza would be built between Crown Point Avenue and Sorensen Parkway, on the site of the former Vickers plant.

The council gave preliminary approval earlier this month to Sorensen Park Plaza and almost $8.5 million in tax subsidies for the project.

Benson Park Plaza argues in its lawsuit that the former Vickers site doesn't meet the criteria of "substandard and blighted" that forms the basis for the subsidies.

It also argues that former Mayor Hal Daub promised that the site would remain industrial.

This is the second time the project has gone through the approval process.

After Soresen Park Plaza was approved the first time, Benson Park Plaza challenged the action in court and was at least partly successful: Douglas County District Judge Joseph Troia found fault with the city's notification process.

But the judge also ruled in October that the city legally applied Nebraska's tax-increment financing law in the initial project approval.

The Sorensen Park Plaza developers started the process over from scratch.

[DTO Luv]

Fine. If I go and upset on the Vicker's site will that make it more blighted? This is so stupid. Benson Plaza isn't more than a Baker's, gas station, Blockbuster, and Sonic. The Sorensen plaza won't have that much of an effect on Benson Plaza's business. The area is sorely under served and it needs more shopping/recreation options. I used to live right down the street from that area (Vicker's) and I always ended up either having to shop out west or in CB.

[eomaha]

Actually I believe Benson Park Plaza has some additional space they are eventually looking to develop on... and I'm sure there will ultimately be competing businesses up at the Vicker's site. The developers are business to make money... I wouldn't expect them to do anything differently.

[DTO Luv]

Still, SPP is going to happen eventually. Why not just give in and let it happen instead of being a nuisance. I thought BPP was full after the two off shoot retail stores opened. Maybe I'm wrong. But what I don't get is that west O has lots of these things right next to each other. Why is this one so differant.

[eomaha]

You'd probably see it contested more often... if the west Omaha developments were riding on these big tax incentives.