O'Keefe building (1402 Jones)

[ita]

There is a redevelopment plan for this property. 19 condos, most are 2000+ sq. ft. each, $500k+, on the upper floors, and several commercial bays on the ground floor, one 6500 sq. ft. and three 2500 sq. ft. bays. This is a good test of the condo market downtown.

https://planning.cityofomaha.org/images ... une/11.pdf

[Athomsfere]

This is a great location IMO. Just outside the OM, but still walkable and bikeable.

Additionally, SOZO has some great coffee... If they open back up.

[jjjjhskr]

This is a great location IMO. Just outside the OM, but still walkable and bikeable.

Additionally, SOZO has some great coffee... If they open back up.

I’m calling the area Old Market West

[Louie]

This is a great location IMO. Just outside the OM, but still walkable and bikeable.

Additionally, SOZO has some great coffee... If they open back up.

I’m calling the area Old Market West

That area's buildings have more of the industrial look that the Old Market used to have before redevelopment. Very unique and it does have a different vibe than the original OM.

[Big E]

By my count, and unless you count the 4 units at Driscoll Leather, this is the first "new" condo project in downtown since jLofts finished... in 2008?

(And now that I think about it... new condos in downtown Omaha pretty much guarantees we're in a housing bubble that is about to crash.)

[Athomsfere]

By my count, and unless you count the 4 units at Driscoll Leather, this is the first "new" condo project in downtown since jLofts finished... in 2008?

(And now that I think about it... new condos in downtown Omaha pretty much guarantees we're in a housing bubble that is about to crash.)

I can't see how we aren't. Regardless, I think investing in the core as an individual is still the smart move. As Omaha continues to come alive, I'm sure we will see those condos become more and more sought after. Especially those with character like this.

[U R my Helix]

Just adding a street view photo for context.

Added to Omaha Apartment Map
Added to Apartment Index Page

[ita]

O'Keefe Elevator building in downtown Omaha rises to another occasion: condos and retail

Cindy Gonzalez
A 100-year-old downtown Omaha building that for decades was the corporate headquarters of O'Keefe Elevator is poised for conversion into high-end condos and retail space.

At almost 80,000 square feet, the future O'Keefe Lofts structure at 1402 Jones St. will include 14 homes, 40 or so underground parking spots and a rooftop terrace and clubhouse.

The project cost is almost $12 million, which includes purchase price and renovation expenses. City officials have approved a request for $1.7 million in public tax-increment financing.
...
At the O'Keefe Lofts site, condo shells will average 2,100 square feet and sell for about $520,000 each, Lund said. Buyers would build out and customize their own space, he said. He expects the value of a finished condo to be between $800,000 and $1 million.

[LetsBeReal22]

I just don't understand where people are getting all this money. Maybe this is targeted more towards California transplants? Remote workers?

[Louie]

I just don't understand where people are getting all this money. Maybe this is targeted more towards California transplants? Remote workers?

The money is here already. I don't see these sitting around and not being sold.

[LetsBeReal22]

I just don't understand where people are getting all this money. Maybe this is targeted more towards California transplants? Remote workers?

The money is here already. I don't see these sitting around and not being sold.

$3500 a month for loan payments
$1650 a month for property tax
$250 a month for insurance (totally guessing here)
That's $5400 per month or $64,800 a year.

[ita]

I just don't understand where people are getting all this money. Maybe this is targeted more towards California transplants? Remote workers?

The money is here already. I don't see these sitting around and not being sold.

$3500 a month for loan payments
$1650 a month for property tax
$250 a month for insurance (totally guessing here)
That's $5400 per month or $64,800 a year.

Here's my numbers on a $800k mortgage, $14k property taxes/year, $1800 home insurance/year, $350 HOA/month, 2.3%, 20% down. That's a $4,100/monthly payment. If you keep it conservative and say you need to make 3x the mortgage, that's about $12k/month, around $150k/year. That's a lot of money, but not a crazy amount. That's a well paid professional, or two decent incomes.

[LetsBeReal22]

How do you get 1.4% property taxes? Is this a special rate for a certain part of town?

[ita]

How do you get 1.4% property taxes? Is this a special rate for a certain part of town?

$800k valuation would be about $18k/year at 2.25% property tax assessment. I am being generous with the valuation. Even if a condo was assessed at the value a homeowner paid for it (usually assessed for less, the mortgage would be around $4460/month, but that's making assumption about how much insurance and HOA would be as well as the interest rate someone could get.

[Louie]

I just don't understand where people are getting all this money. Maybe this is targeted more towards California transplants? Remote workers?

The money is here already. I don't see these sitting around and not being sold.

$3500 a month for loan payments
$1650 a month for property tax
$250 a month for insurance (totally guessing here)
That's $5400 per month or $64,800 a year.

Here's my numbers on a $800k mortgage, $14k property taxes/year, $1800 home insurance/year, $350 HOA/month, 2.3%, 20% down. That's a $4,100/monthly payment. If you keep it conservative and say you need to make 3x the mortgage, that's about $12k/month, around $150k/year. That's a lot of money, but not a crazy amount. That's a well paid professional, or two decent incomes.

Right, in fact there are quite a few households that can afford that: https://www.city-data.com/income/income ... raska.html. According to these figures about 30,000 households in Omaha would be very capable of affording such a house and that was in 2019.

[ita]

Just heard on Grow Omaha that there's going to be a coworking space dedicated for people who sell physical goods, needing storage and docking in addition to office space that traditional coworking spaces do not offer. I wished they asked, but does that mean the condos that were planned are dead?

[ita]

New Elevator co-warehousing community aims to lift e-commerce startups, fill gap in Omaha market

Cindy Gonzalez
Their so-called Elevator co-warehousing facility is to open in October at 14th and Jones Streets, reactivating a century-old downtown brick structure that had been on track to become million-dollar condo lofts before the deal fell through.

Different ownership now will lease out the four-story facility to the venture founded by the Lerdas. The Elevator is akin to the nationally popular wave of co-working spaces, except that it’s geared more toward smaller enterprises that sell physical goods and need storage for packing space.

About 55,000 square feet of the 1402 Jones Street building is being divided into 92 individual stations: 75 spots for warehousing tenants and 17 others for more traditional office users.

The Elevator offers a twist beyond rental space: A team of onsite mentors will help tenants hone or scale their startups, arrange extra labor when needed and handle carrier pickups so the business owners have more flexibility with their schedule.

The Lerdas expect the operation to be just the start of more co-warehousing communities they hope to launch in other cities about the size of Omaha.

A $1.7 million capital infusion from Nebraska investors Black Dog Ventures, Nelnet and the Nebraska Angels is covering renovations and setting up the team for growth.

[ita]

Building in Omaha's Old Market offers work space for small businesses

Kelsey Stewart
An Old Market building is now open as a space for entrepreneurs and businesses to work, store items and fulfill orders.

The startup, Elevator, is at 14th and Jones Streets in the Old Market.

The concept stemmed from the struggle founders Shannon and Emiliano Lerda faced when running a pet supply business from their home.
...
The four-story building features 75 warehouse-like storage spaces, 17 offices, underground parking and more than 7,000 square feet of shared space.

It’s now home to a dozen businesses that employ nearly 40 employees. Tenants can reserve storage space on a month-to-month basis. It allows them to scale up, down or move out, Lerda said.

The smallest storage space runs $229 a month with the largest space sitting at just shy of $3,000 a month.

This is a nice niche in the office/warehouse market downtown. I would like to see some of the possible new office space downtown like the T3 at Mercantile, Ashton in Millwork or the Builder's District take on businesses in advanced manufacturing. They are generally much cleaner, less noisy and can fit in urban spaces in buildings with the right footprints.

[Big E]

Define "advanced manufacturing".

[ita]

Define "advanced manufacturing".

Maybe it's too much a generalized term, but manufacturing that uses advanced technology or methods. Could be principally assembly versus material production. I have read some articles about other cities rezoning and encouraging manufacturing in urban centers. We don't need another lead smelting plant in downtown and food processing plant for that matter, but say a company comes out of UNEMED and needs space to manufacture a new medical device or other tech. Let's make it possible to do it downtown near labor and transit. Maybe a clothes manufacturer. Car part assembly. Industrial uses, particularly in manufacturing, aren't just smoke stacks and funny smells anymore, so we can intermingle land use in and encourage more diverse job growth in the urban core.

[Garrett]

Define "advanced manufacturing".

Maybe it's too much a generalized term, but manufacturing that uses advanced technology or methods. Could be principally assembly versus material production. I have read some articles about other cities rezoning and encouraging manufacturing in urban centers. We don't need another lead smelting plant in downtown and food processing plant for that matter, but say a company comes out of UNEMED and needs space to manufacture a new medical device or other tech. Let's make it possible to do it downtown near labor and transit. Maybe a clothes manufacturer. Car part assembly. Industrial uses, particularly in manufacturing, aren't just smoke stacks and funny smells anymore, so we can intermingle land use in and encourage more diverse job growth in the urban core.

To add on to this, there’s a push to reincorporate space for small scale low polluting industries, like a cheese, furniture, or shoe factory with 5 employees making specialized goods, or basically even large scale Etsy-esque businesses.

[ita]

Define "advanced manufacturing".

Maybe it's too much a generalized term, but manufacturing that uses advanced technology or methods. Could be principally assembly versus material production. I have read some articles about other cities rezoning and encouraging manufacturing in urban centers. We don't need another lead smelting plant in downtown and food processing plant for that matter, but say a company comes out of UNEMED and needs space to manufacture a new medical device or other tech. Let's make it possible to do it downtown near labor and transit. Maybe a clothes manufacturer. Car part assembly. Industrial uses, particularly in manufacturing, aren't just smoke stacks and funny smells anymore, so we can intermingle land use in and encourage more diverse job growth in the urban core.

To add on to this, there’s a push to reincorporate space for small scale low polluting industries, like a cheese, furniture, or shoe factory with 5 employees making specialized goods, or basically even large scale Etsy-esque businesses.

That reminds me of artifact. They are on 27th and Leavenworth, and sew everything in that small space, at least from what I tell.

[ita]

Lifting Small Enterprise: Elevator Opens Unique Co-Warehousing Space

Gabby Hellbusch
A few years after founding a pet supply company in 2018, local entrepreneurs Emiliano and Shannon Lerda found themselves in a predicament that is more common among small, home-based business owners than many might imagine — they needed warehousing space to scale their operation.

Finding a Solution
Upon researching options, the couple only found large warehousing spaces (roughly 3,000 to 5,000 square feet) with a three-to-five-year lease term. This wasn’t ideal for the Lerdas, who hoped to secure a space that was approximately 500 square feet with a six-to-12-month commitment.

“We quickly realized that what we needed was co-warehousing,” Shannon Lerda said. “This means taking a larger warehouse space, dividing it up among businesses and sharing costs all for a low monthly commitment.”

[Coyote]

Old Market business offers different perspective on co-warehousing



The company has been open since October. He's been here since May. The space was made for businesses like Treadway's.