Gold’s Department Store purchased by Hilton

[ricko]

I don’t know if this has been mentioned, but Gold’s is being converted into a Hampton Inn. I believe it’s either open or close to it.

[Linkin5]

Thanks Ricko, we never updated the site information after the prior convention/hotel plans fell through on this site. The Hampton Inn is now open.

[thenewguy]

that's a good looking building

[BIGO88]

A new 11 story 338 apartment building was just announced for the other half of this site.

[Garrett]

[Habits76]

Looks good!

[Cermak]

Looks real nice. Will add density and mid level height.

[WiinterU]

How tall is it supposed to be? What we were going to get on the site would have been about 200 feet or higher.

[thenewguy]

i think that's a handsome looking building

[Garrett]

How tall is it supposed to be? What we were going to get on the site would have been about 200 feet or higher.

Probably in the range of 100 ft. Generally you can estimate a new build residential project like this will have about 9' per floor.

[WiinterU]

At this point, Lincoln's never gonna have a big skyline.

[GenX]

At this point, Lincoln's never gonna have a big skyline.

Not until they remove the height restriction and some capital corridors.

[thenewguy]

you're not going to have a big skyline in a metro of 300k. I don't think what Lincoln has is even bad, just not big. I think that Lincoln looks just fine from a distance (I look at it every day), it doesn't have to be big to be interesting.

[almighty_tuna]

Hot take: I'd rather have a fervently active, pedestrian-friendly downtown without prominent towers over a dead downtown that looks picturesque. Twenty year old Tuna would probably argue that it's lame, but Lincoln really has done a great job with its downtown area in the last 10-15 years, and its pedestrian/cycling infrastructure is far ahead of Omaha. Having an adjacent university with 20,000+ students certainly doesn't hurt the vibe.

[Garrett]

Hot take: I'd rather have a fervently active, pedestrian-friendly downtown without prominent towers over a dead downtown that looks picturesque. Twenty year old Tuna would probably argue that it's lame, but Lincoln really has done a great job with its downtown area in the last 10-15 years, and its pedestrian/cycling infrastructure is far ahead of Omaha. Having an adjacent university with 20,000+ students certainly doesn't hurt the vibe.

You're exactly right. For a comparison, Albany, New York has a fairly impressive skyline, but only around 3,000 people living downtown, compared to a 1.3 million pop metro, because so much of it was destroyed in the Urban Renewal era to build Empire State Plaza.







This is compounded by SUNY Albany's main campus, with around 17,000 students, being 4 miles away from downtown in a mid-century built campus.



In comparison, downtown Madison, Wisconsin doesn't have any skyscrapers, but has more than 35,000 people in its downtown vs a metro of 700,000, strengthened by the adjacent UW-Madison.

[skinzfan23]

Madison is a very underrated city. When you are walking downtown, it feels like you are in a much larger area. It blows Omaha away, sure they don't have any towers, as mentioned, but the density is impressive. Although along with that comes pretty expensive rents.

[thenewguy]

madison looks more european than i thought

[Greg S]

Madison is a very underrated city. When you are walking downtown, it feels like you are in a much larger area. It blows Omaha away, sure they don't have any towers, as mentioned, but the density is impressive. Although along with that comes pretty expensive rents.

I was lucky and got to attend a week long learning conference for work at UW. It was on campus and we stayed at a university owned hotel right on campus. Absolutely fell in love with the area. Every morning I would get up early and walk around the trail on Lake Mendota. At night would just walk downtown, and usually head to State Street which was awesome.
And yes great example of a downtown that doesn't need height to be impressive and awesome.

Lacrosse Wisconsin is pretty cool too.

[skinzfan23]

Awesome, great to hear. I lived in Dubuque, IA about 90 min from Madison about 15 years ago. It was the perfect distance for a day drive and I walked around State St all the time. There are so many restaurants and shops there. Its like the Old Market on steroids. Unfortunately, some of it has been replaced with chain stores, but it is still pretty nice. We go through Madison at least once per year and I am always amazed at all the new buildings being built.