In the barrage of often bleak housing news, a bright spot has emerged: apartment complex construction.
Demand for multi-family building permits in the Omaha area is up nearly 160 percent since 2009, according to the latest figures from metro-area cities and counties.
Broadmoor Development, for example, is in the midst of constructing its second phase of apartments at Aksarben Village near 64th Avenue and Frances Street. The 148 new one- and two-bedroom units, set to open in the summer, will add to the 258 that opened in 2009 at the site.
Seldin is opening a 134-apartment complex near 131st Street and West Center Road. It's also starting to lease at Montclair Village and an additional 270 units in a complex near the new Ralston arena.
I've also been seeing more apartments being built at 111th & Corby.
Surprise! Not everyone who bought a house in the past several decades actually had the money to do so. But, lo and behold, those people still need shelter!
Shocker.
And, of course, everyone's clammering to make a buck off of it.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
Surprise! Not everyone who bought a house in the past several decades actually had the money to do so. But, lo and behold, those people still need shelter!
Shocker.
And, of course, everyone's clammering to make a buck off of it.
Whats wrong with developers/real estate investors making money? This is the second thread tonight I've seen where you've made an anti " making money" comment. Is it a bad thing to for one to invest his/her money in both a potentially lucrative and tax sheltered investment?
Last edited by OmahaJaysCU on Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
OmahaJaysCU wrote:Whats wrong with developers/real estate investors making money? This is the second thread tonight I've seen where you've made an anti " making money" comment. Is it a bad thing to for one to invest his/her money in a a both potentially lucrative and tax sheltered investment?
What is up with all these so called "businesses" that are attempting to make a profit by increasing the supply when the demand goes up? Have they no soul? Even worse, why are we increasing the population density east of 72nd when there is plenty of room for more sprawl out west? Death to the infill! Down with density!
It's that this industry has been one of the key soul- and economy-wrecking forces in America for the last 60 or so years, responding to an artificial demand, creating sprawl without growth, and behaving like wh*res in the marketplace, investing their money anyplace and everyplace that promises some kind of return, with no regard for a community's social, environmental, or physical health. The "investments" this industry has made over the years, and which Americans have bought into as fools in the Ponzi scheme of sprawl, are the very toxic assets that are infecting our society and dragging down our economy to this day; and they're not going anywhere. As a nation, we are still completely blind to this, and we are still idiotically measuring the vitality of our economy by new home sales and the auto industry, doing everything we can to prop them up with government subsidies that inexplicably enjoy overwhelming support from Democrats and Republicans alike.
Anyway, all I was originally saying is that this isn't some sort of magical new demand; people need places to live. Only now the veil of illusion is being pulled off of the housing sector, i.e hoards of people who bought houses did not, in reality, have the financial wherewithal to do so, and it was the "market forces" (banks, developers, investors) who created bogus financial tools to get them into houses that should never have been built in the first place.
So, yes, it's no wonder that, for all those with an interest in making money by keeping the gears of the sprawl machine churning, apartments are the new silver bullet, or "superstar."
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
It's not, per se. Obviously the urban examples are not what this guy had in mind when he said, "apartments are housing's new superstar." Let's have a little common sense.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
StreetsOfOmaha wrote:It's not, per se. Obviously the urban examples are not what this guy had in mind when he said, "apartments are housing's new superstar." Let's have a little common sense.
Then what was the author thinking about while he was writing this?
The astronomically larger suburban home-building industry, which is now turning to apartments in an attempt at self-preservation.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
StreetsOfOmaha wrote:The astronomically larger suburban home-building industry, which is now turning to apartments in an attempt at self-preservation.
I highly doubt the article in the Omaha paper, quoting Omaha housing statistics, and using apartment construction in Omaha as examples was attempting to convey the global evils of the "Ponzi scheme of sprawl" or "keeping the gears of the sprawl machine churning", etc.
The intent of the people implicated in the article has no bearing on their involvement and place in the larger picture.
Last edited by StreetsOfOmaha on Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
I wouldn't really take issue with these developers for building sprawling apartment complexes on the outskirts where land is cheaper, instead, I take issue with those who allow them to do it.
What I would take issue with is the developers using the cheapest construction materials, appliances, drywall, insulation, fixtures, EVERYTHING, then charging premiums to the post-high school demographic for living in those shitholes, just because there is an olympic sized swimming pool and a couple treadmills. Living in an apartment in Omaha has little value, and with Omaha's lousy wages, it really restricts that age group from upward economic mobility.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
I just don't see how we clamor for infill, an article talks about apartment demand going up and points to Aksarben Village, the area near the Ralston arena, and 131st and Center, and we speak of it as if the Devil himself is constructing these properties. On a nationwide scale there may be other examples of things happening, but in Omaha I see this as a good thing.
If you drive across the Omaha-metro area, it may feel like there are more and more apartment complexes popping up and that’s because there are.
“We have projects going, multi-family projects going up all over the city, downtown, Millwork, Blackstone, out west, everywhere,” says Omaha Planning Director Dave Fanslau.
“We need annually 2,000 units to come online, every single year, in order to meet demand,” says Rhonda Pederson, the Executive Director of the Apartment Association of Nebraska. “Obviously you’re seeing the apartment communities coming up all over but you’re also seeing some bigger organizations coming into Nebraska which is extremely exciting for us economically, but we’re going to need places for these individuals to live and these families to move to.”
The demand for those apartments is there. In 2020 during the pandemic, Fanslau says it was one of the busiest years yet for all types of projects, including apartments.
Building permit valuations were at a record high last year with over a billion dollars in valuation.
“In 2017, the city of Omaha permitted over 2,600 multi-family residential units, been busy since ‘17, ‘18, ‘19, and in 2020 we permitted around 1,500,” Fanslau says. “Over the last two years we’ve done over 3,000 so, that demand has been consistent within the city of Omaha.”
53% of all residential units that were permitted by Fanslau’s department in 2020 were multi-family units and when it comes to available apartments, Pederson says the number of people living in them has remained steady over the years and during the pandemic.
“In Omaha and Lincoln we’re looking at above 90% occupancy, and as you go further west, 95-96% occupancy,” she says.
Over the next several years, you can expect even more units to pop up, especially along Dodge Street. That’s thanks to ORBT buses.
“What we did is we went through a zoning code change and master plan change to allow more density along that corridor, because if you’re going to put in that transportation system, why not take advantage of it? People can walk to the stops, or right along the route, or a short distance away from it as well,” Fanslau says.
Apartment complexes that are closer to public transportation like ORBT don’t need to meet the normal standards that other complexes do, mostly due to needing fewer parking stalls on their properties.
Fanslau also says growth in west Omaha is expected to last for about 20 more years and after that, it’s more likely to see more re-development and vertical development closer to downtown.
Good article with some data points on apartment construction in Omaha. That last sentence must be a misquote; I hope the planning doesn't actually believe that statement.
If you drive across the Omaha-metro area, it may feel like there are more and more apartment complexes popping up and that’s because there are.
Fanslau also says growth in west Omaha is expected to last for about 20 more years and after that, it’s more likely to see more re-development and vertical development closer to downtown.
Good article with some data points on apartment construction in Omaha. That last sentence must be a misquote; I hope the planning doesn't actually believe that statement.
Agreed. Although I see more stuff happening downtown every year it feels like: Driving out west, say at Giles it seems obvious we have to change course some more to get the city on track.
I do hope we are looking at 2-5 years, and not 20. Some very dense infill can't come soon enough, IMO.
If you drive across the Omaha-metro area, it may feel like there are more and more apartment complexes popping up and that’s because there are.
Fanslau also says growth in west Omaha is expected to last for about 20 more years and after that, it’s more likely to see more re-development and vertical development closer to downtown.
Good article with some data points on apartment construction in Omaha. That last sentence must be a misquote; I hope the planning doesn't actually believe that statement.
Agreed. Although I see more stuff happening downtown every year it feels like: Driving out west, say at Giles it seems obvious we have to change course some more to get the city on track.
I do hope we are looking at 2-5 years, and not 20. Some very dense infill can't come soon enough, IMO.
What I’ve often heard is that western expansion will stop at the Elkhorn River due to something involving the inability to feasibly connect sewage pipes across it. There is probably about 20 years worth of land between the current edge of development and the river.
I do hope 2-5 years is more accurate though.
"Video game violence is not a new problem. Who could forget in the wake of SimCity how children everywhere took up urban planning." - Stephen Colbert
It would definitely take a massive infrastructure investment to cross the Elkhorn River, and with how flood prone that area is, I’m not sure you’d want to build large scale over there anyway.
