Bennington's Old Market

[Coyote]

Bennington aims for Old Market-style appeal

The 115-year-old community has grown from 361 residents in 1960 to 1,500 today. It is projected to grow to 4,220 people by 2030, according to the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency.

Bennington's look is about to change as well. This summer, the city will launch a $1.5 million redevelopment project for the four-block business district, which angles east off 156th Street. The goal of the downtown project is to create a distinctive look for the northwestern Douglas County town as Omaha moves closer to its borders. "The consensus of Bennington residents is to create a downtown atmosphere with the historic feel of Omaha's Old Market district," said Angie Smith, chairwoman of the downtown redevelopment committee. "Some of the brick buildings already give it that feeling."

Bennington's downtown includes a city hall, library, sports bar and grill, keno hall, auto body shop, dentist's office and other small businesses. Eight or nine vacant buildings or empty lots are available for new businesses, said Mayor C.C. "Skip" Wolff. "We want it to support existing businesses and attract more," Wolff said of Bennington's business district improvements.

[Harpoon]

The sketch of the Bennington downtown that showed up in the newspaper looked like an 8 year old drew it.

[midtown charlie]

I was on the phone or I would've beat you to the story.....Dang!



Very cool. I think Bennington is taking the right approach....albeit so they don't get annexed but they are definitely taking the right approach.

[Stargazer]

I only 'discovered' downtown Bennington a couple of years ago... it's a nice little business district, some good architecture.

[joeglow]

This will make a nice addition to Omaha in a couple decades.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

The sketch of the Bennington downtown that showed up in the newspaper looked like an 8 year old drew it.

Haha, I noticed that.