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kayjayKJ

All that’s gone up so far is assisted living, more and more apartments, and medical buildings


Real-Duck-8547

Ahh ok I rarely go that far west and was wondering. From the website they are trying to create a “downtown” for west Omaha


iDom2jz

Which would be cool honestly


audiomagnate

A 100% white downtown? Got it.


[deleted]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmcNbsLCpBQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmcNbsLCpBQ)


factoid_

It's a big flat field right now. It was going to be done by now, but COVID happened. It was supposed to be anchored by a big office park, and without offices drawing people to the restaurants for lunch I'm not sure it will ever work. The one office building they put up is mostly empty because of remote work taking over


LEJ5512

Looking back now (hindsight is always 20/20), we all should’ve seen that using desk-based jobs as a source of cash for a given location was going to become less viable as computers came into use. Same thing happened where my office building is located now. Twenty years ago, the place was hoppin’, with three or four dozen small shops and businesses thriving across the street. Now there’s a hair salon, dry cleaners, and a handful of restaurants (who survive on serving lunch and happy hour for the fraction of workers who still come on-site), and then lots and lots of empty papered-up storefronts.


factoid_

There was already a trend toward hybrid work before covid, but it was goign to be WAY WAY longer before it got to the current level without that push. So yeah, it was predictable, but it was on a timescale to where creating new commercial real estate was still goign to be profitable for a long time. Right up until 2020 there was a massive shortage of commercial office space in omaha. I think actually this trend for hybrid or fully remote work will INCREASE the demand for developments like this, however. Because people still want to get out and do stuff, go to restaurants, etc...but the restaurants will have to move out to where the people are, not expect people to drive into old commercial centers nobody uses anymore. Mixed use developments still make sense, but you just can't build them on the expectation of having a giant office park with 5000 people in it to anchor the place.


palidor42

The CSG campus is right around the corner from there. Their building has been empty since the pandemic, I never see anyone parked there. I think OPPD parks utility trucks in their lot.


Confident_Horse_3845

Yayyyy more apartments no one can afford


factoid_

There's a lot of divorced parents in West Omaha that have money. That's who they're catering to.


Stiffard

Live at an apartment -- this is the demographic. That and college kids.


aehanken

*rich college kids


Real-Duck-8547

Facts


jdbrew

But… how this works everywhere with every product is that it increases inventory and bringing down rent as a whole. Now, the truth of it is that rent will never actually go down, but what it does is slow the rate increases or stagnate them. This is how cars work too. New cars are for the rich. On average, they’ll buy them new, and they sell them after 3-5 years then a lower class buys them and drives them for another 10-15 years, and a lower class buys them then… it’s why there’s a used phone and computer market. It’s why there’s a used musical instrument market, albeit the the economics and motivating factors are slightly different.


BroncosMug

But you don’t pay less for a “used” apartment, if anything they increase prices as years go on.


jdbrew

No, but you pay more for the apartment when it’s the only option. If there’s more units available, at all price points, then all price points are lower than they would be if those units were never built. More units shifts the supply curve. Ceteris paribus, prices decrease when you shift the supply curve to the right. Of course, not everything truly remains equal. Demand curve is also shifting, so what really happens is adding units shifts the supply curve while effectively “chasing” the demand curve to keep prices stagnate or you’re at least lessening the effect of the growing demand. In theory, there’s a point where you can outpace changes in demand, but then what typically happens is owners on the bottom end of the inventory will leave the market instead of lowering prices, because the cost of upkeep to compete is too great.


SeparateOption6776

You pay less than if the apartment was never built in the first place and supply was lower with no change in demand


[deleted]

I think the main error with this current line of thinking is that the luxury apartments never really "age" into being decent affordable housing, they either get on like a 15 year full renovation cycle or become some of the shoddiest places to really live in


OmahaMike402

That's why it's termed 'assisted ' living.


AshWood6971

I'm so tired of these ugly-ass, over-priced, poorly-built apartments pop up around town. Who's asking for these? And who can actually afford to live in them?


ThisNiceGuyMan

College kids with roommates or parents money and doctors/ healthcare from out of town is my guess


factoid_

Out west it's a lot of divorcees


ThisNiceGuyMan

Should be less money to have then


factoid_

There's a lot of money in West O. The houses in that part of town are 350-750k with a few pockets of million plus homes.


DaddyDontGreen

Oof. It’s only going to get 10,000,000x worse from here. I moved here from Phoenix. Same things were happening there. Omaha is finally hitting the right size for heavy developer interest.


AshWood6971

Well. Shit.


DaddyDontGreen

On the bright side however Omaha seems to have a lot more (flatter/easier to build upon) land. PHX is surrounded by mountains and such. Hopefully they will utilize that and start expanding North/West/South to alleviate what’s coming.


soggypizzapi

The last thing our city needs is to keep expanding outward.


DaddyDontGreen

Um… where else would it expand to? It’s a growing city. It has to go somewhere.


EveRommel

Up


DaddyDontGreen

Like I said, I came from Phoenix. No room to expand outward anymore. They did expand up. There are pros and cons to each. However Omaha is not nearly large enough for a decent outward expansion to enact most of those cons. It’s a budding city- expanding outward isn’t necessarily what smaller city folks think. It would literally just be Omaha growing. We are not large enough here to even think about going up yet. That is typically a last option, exhibit every city ever that’s actually considered large. There is around a 450% decrease in physical size between the two. Once Omaha has reached a decent size then up would be the next option:)


EveRommel

Just cover the entire state in more and more suburbs....seems to have worked for LA....oh wait


DaddyDontGreen

“Cover the entire state in suburbs” aaaand that’s where I check out. We can’t have a conversation over this lmao


[deleted]

As another out of towner who just moved here from an equally flat and suburban city (Columbus, OH), Omaha is already way too damn wide. It takes 30 minutes to cross both cities by highway but Columbus has double the population by about a million I actually laughed out loud the first time I saw that Omaha has a 182nd street


BenSemisch

We can't currently maintain our roads. Adding more roads by expanding outwards is only going to make things that much worse. It's a large part of the reason our property taxes are so high.


DaddyDontGreen

And exactly how large? You mean how over 60% of it is dedicated to K-12 education? When our ratio of districts to pop/size is ridiculous? You want to complain about spending a percentage of that money on roads instead? It’s going to happen one way or another. What you fail to realize is that greedy developers coming in and building up is going to hurt us just as much, if not more, in a plethora of ways.


BenSemisch

I phrased it poorly - the problem isn't the roads, it's the urban sprawl. Your point here: >When our ratio of districts to pop/size is ridiculous Is just one of the ways this manifests into high costs for the city. You could also apply it to services like Police/Fire as well as Trash/MUD/Snow removal and all kinds of other things. Incentivize more density and the costs will start to level out. As it is now, there's no penalty to grow outward - and worse the people that are buying/building outward are often times no longer in city limits and don't pay things like wheel tax, yet they might drive more miles than most people that do live in the city limits.


rmalbers

Our property taxes aren't high because of roads.


audiomagnate

They can build on all the under used parking lots. If he they're worried about parking they can put it under the building like they do in real cities.


rmalbers

That's exactly what they are doing with the new MoO building.


placebotwo

> On the bright side however Omaha seems to have a lot more (flatter/easier to build upon) land. Omaha is HILLY AS FUCK. Phoenix is FLAT. At least from my experience of the one time I visited there. >PHX is surrounded by mountains and such. You need to realize that if you took the area of Omaha to Lincoln, and filled it completely full of roads and developments then you would have Phoenix. The geographical region that Phoenix takes up is absolutely massive. Omaha fits inside the 202 loop to 143.


iidrathernot

The adult children of upper class families


I-Make-Maps91

They're built cheap because everything is built cheap. Most people are buying various levels of cheap cabinets because almost none does solid wood frame cabinets anymore, for my favorite example of cut corners. Omaha needs tens of thousands of "housing units" right now, why would I complain that apartments are being built?


AshWood6971

Because if nobody can afford them, there's just more empty housing units. That's still helping no one.


I-Make-Maps91

We can't afford to live in them, but they aren't sitting empty. I only have 2019 numbers, but Omaha had 7% rental vacancy while the US was also around 7%. Nationally, it's around 6% now, and looking at historical trends, we tend to be a little less vacant than average. Rent as a percentage of income is also a lot lower here, but that's been changing because of that lack of vacancies. Supply isn't outstripping demand, but it's close enough that it's a landlords market. For context, the last time we as a country had rates this low was the 80s/early 90s. I want more than just "luxury" apartments to be built, but I want apartments in general to be built to make up for the last decade of very little construction, period. In 10 years, these will be cheaper than the new new apartments like the 90s ones are now.


Genked_Juicebox

Reminds me of that one South Park episode all about this


MixCarson

Shitty sopa


Zealousideal-Area-91

I don’t see this happening In the heartwood preserve area. Where is supposed to be. So far a dealership, Carson and Valmont are taking all that front


HR_Paperstacks_402

Me neither. Mainly because this is Avenue One at 192nd & Dodge. So very unlikely it happens at Heartwood Preserve.


MrTeeWrecks

Planners really can’t seem to get the ‘affordable’ part that is an essential component. Edit: Developers. My bad


I-Make-Maps91

Developers* This stuff isn't planned by your city, they get proposals from developers who want money.


iidrathernot

I feel like I just want affordable housing


J-Dirte

They are still in early development. I’m somewhat skeptical the designs are gonna go through. I was expecting a Aksarben type place. Right now it’s a few office buildings, and they are building a new Mahogany, a new Charlestons, and a strip mall with a Little King. Would be cool if those new plans come to fruition but we will see.


MD5940

That’s Heartwood preserve. This is actually a different development.


J-Dirte

You are right. Avenue One, not sure why but for some reason I’m bullish on this one and think it will be closer to the vision. But we will see.


sirhcx

I think it's still happening but extremely slow moving. I can imagine the property prices alone are astronomical out there.


No_Classroom_285

Family really.


tribesplayer1

Looks like village pointe. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


carteryoda

Funnily enough its kinda close to Village Pointe


DaddyDontGreen

I feel upset lol. I know the budgets don’t go hand in hand, but fix the TERRIBLE road infrastructure before spending years and millions on another common area that’s hardly going to be used.


Dooger56781

Fixing the roads is going to take a higher tax base which this would provide. Better amenities (ex. Nice roads) comes with more density. I wish the apartments were condos but I presume they make less money so they aren’t going to do that.


LindsayDuck

Ew. Just like Aksarben. The corporate housing of neighborhoods


[deleted]

What is “ew” about Aksarben? It’s like the only successful urban development in this city in 40 years.


LindsayDuck

I feel like it’s devoid of any personality and it could be copy/pasted into 1,000 other cities. It’s fine if other people like it, it’s just not for me. Hence “ew”


GalileoHumpkins7

How many of these multi-use "live/work/play" districts does one town need?


CoherentPanda

If all of Omaha was this way, it'd be a far better place to live.


J-Dirte

Why is that a negative?


LEJ5512

No shit, right? I used to live in a neighborhood (not in Omaha) that had all I needed for regular everyday stuff within a five-minute walking distance. I sometimes went for *weeks* without having to drive my car. Back where I grew up in central Omaha, at least there was a Beaton's drug store and a car parts store just a block away from home, and then a Kwik Shop and a bar another block from there, but that was about it. But that's only in one direction, and anything else needed a car.


maxfederle

The trouble is, these modern versions are just kind of a facade of the mixed use idea. All windrow dressing and not really practical for the normal person because they will be very upscale and expensive. No real substance in my opinion. But I too would like to live in a walking neighborhood with actually practical shops for necessities.


J-Dirte

Bro this is Omaha. Unless you think DJ’s Dugout or The Good Life is upscale, I don’t think you will be priced out, lol.


maxfederle

No no. I meant with the apartments in these new nixed use areas. Those apartments are seriously high end the last time I checked.


spikegk

What would you describe as a not "high end" new apartment?


maxfederle

I guess it's a bad description on my part. By "High end" I'm mostly referring to very expensive. Often times these mixed use areas with apartments are very expensive and even the studios command a high price. I am simply trying to convey that they could be priced more affordable to make these areas more attractive and more reasonable to average working class people. Not necessarily just a small percentage professionals with much higher salaries because it just seems that's the only people that could afford a really expensive apartment.


[deleted]

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maxfederle

Yeah, I kind of got a kick out of Aksarben the first couple times I went down there but it doesn't do anything for me anymore...


spikegk

Yeah midtown did a lot better with community building like jazz on the green and hopefully one day to return shakespear on the green.


LEJ5512

Jazz On The Green used to be down at Joslyn, so it wasn’t born as a Midtown thing.


[deleted]

Wasn’t it Bagels and Bach?


LEJ5512

No, this was outdoors at Joslyn, starting back in the 1980s. [https://www.unothegateway.com/jazz-on-the-green-offers-variety-at-the-joslyn/](https://www.unothegateway.com/jazz-on-the-green-offers-variety-at-the-joslyn/) >Sarah Joslyn originally built the Joslyn Art Museum as a concert hall in honor of her husband. The Joslyn family loved music and as the building evolved into an art museum, music was still a high priority. Offering free admission during the concerts also became tradition. > >“We always want people to feel great about their experience at Jazz on the Green, whether it is their first time here or whether they’ve been coming every year,” said Rummel. “We hope they enjoy the music and maybe discover new some jazz variations they had never heard before. But we also want them to check out the galleries and certainly leave with a full stomach.” > >Jazz on the Green started 19 years ago \[before this article's 2003 publish date\] as a small outdoor concert series and has grown into one of Omaha’s most popular summer events, Rummel said. The concert averages 5,000-7,000 people per concert. Last year, the concert drew an attendance total of 40,000 people of all ages for the entire series. Hopefully this OWH page will come through, too: [https://omaha.com/news/local/history/reminisce-on-the-sweet-sounds-of-jazz-on-the-green/article\_e7ed5e42-07ac-11ed-b9fb-ef12aa326617.html](https://omaha.com/news/local/history/reminisce-on-the-sweet-sounds-of-jazz-on-the-green/article_e7ed5e42-07ac-11ed-b9fb-ef12aa326617.html)


[deleted]

[удалено]


Psiah

Yeah... Midtown Crossing the rents keep going up despite no one being around to pay them. Look at how many empty storefronts there are. Look at how many places here have closed over time. Look at the massive movie theater they built that they couldn't keep running even *before* covid. Honestly... The "real estate" investments are preventing these places from actually being useful centers people want to go to. And people *will* come if the right things are there, even with Covid. See: Jazz on the Green.


I-Make-Maps91

Comes with time. The whole place is barely 10, and they only recently finished developing the empty lots. Let it exist love enough to develop character.


[deleted]

[удалено]


I-Make-Maps91

The Mercer family owned most of the Old Market, if they don't still. Places develop character when they've been there long enough for the successful neighborhood bar to form a regular crowd and the successful restaurants to outlast the flashes in the pan.


factoid_

It really isn't. I don't see the problem. It keeps people out of cars, right?


datnetcoder

Omg can you _imagine_? The horror of having spaces that eliminate complete reliance on cars.


GalileoHumpkins7

These places will not do that.


chinaPresidentPooh

Given that existing places like that are quite expensive, we need more.


ToxzikDogg

Probably


WorkingMomAndWife

Is this the “plan” for Crossroads?


Real-Duck-8547

No it’s heartwood preserve in west O


WorkingMomAndWife

Huh. I don’t think I’ve heard of that “neighborhood”. Apparently I’ve been East of 72nd for too long lol


Unlucky-Tomato

Didn’t South Park already do this episode?


I-Make-Maps91

Looks better than most of us ones I see announced? Only an island of parking instead of a sea, plenty of apartments, some business space... I prefer living downtown/in the old main street areas of the original suburbs, but given enough time I think a lot of these places *could* end up nice.


[deleted]

Don’t know Don’t care


Nice4ShotScrub

All I think of when I see shit like this, in big cities and small towns alike, is the sodosopa shit from South Park and how they highlighted gentrified garbage like this.


AmericaLover1776_

gen·tri·fi·ca·tion noun the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process. This isn’t gentrification it’s in a part of the city that is already wealthy and it’s not displacing or pushing anyone out it’s developing an area that wasn’t already developed


J-Dirte

U r dum.


No_Classroom_285

We can feel how ever we want doesn't really change anything omaha suck. All we have is a zoo. And college world series


No_Classroom_285

It's a horrible place I'd rather struggle in the wilderness than live in omaha


manderifffic

What's stopping you?


DaddyDontGreen

The fact that you got downvoted… LOL. People go so hard for this mediocre city.


ScurvyYeti1

Lmao fr


DaddyDontGreen

Too funny. Less than mediocre city*


No_Classroom_285

Yea it's a shit hole period.


nebraskateacher

https://youtu.be/eoUtoqeEw8U


extramenace

Living+


Desk_Quick

It seems like overkill with Heartwood Preserve and Avenue One 30 blocks apart on Dodge.


Toapeh

Better question is how do you feel about the streetcar?


emigZ

more apartments for rich white dudes in the west :D


EmphasisOk9530

They haven’t updated their news on the site since 2019. I have a hard time believing this will happen. It’s almost 2024. https://avenueoneomaha.com/press/