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A vacant building at 2211 Douglas Street is slated for redevelopment. The project will be part of massive wave of downtown Omaha redevelopment projects and will bring badly needed affordable housing to the urban core.

The 3-story building was once the 402 Hotel, and before that was an EconoLodge motel. The property is controlled by Front Porch Investments and Together.

The two local organizations released a Request for Proposal earlier this year to redevelop the former hotel into affordable housing. The property was most recently used as non-congregate shelter by Together during the pandemic and is now vacant.

The 20,000 sq. ft. structure opened in 1964 and sits on a 29,555 sq. ft. lot. Since becoming vacant, the building has become an eyesore as plywood covers the first-floor doors and windows.

The selected developer, Lincoln-based Hoppe Development, plans to build a 73-unit, mixed-income, senior housing community with more than half of the units affordable to households earning at or below 60 percent of the area median income.

“This redevelopment will preserve affordability in a rapidly changing part of the city and contribute to broader urban core revitalization efforts,” said a newsletter released by Front Porch Investments.

In addition, through a partnership with the Spark Co-Developer Apprenticeship program (a Front Porch grant-funded initiative), Hoppe will work alongside an emerging developer throughout the development process to build capacity and equity in the industry, according to Front Porch Investments​​.

Demolition of the existing structure is anticipated to occur this summer, with construction beginning in spring 2026. Pending approvals, the first residents could move in by fall 2027.

This project will be part of a flurry of redevelopment activity in the downtown area that is seeing more than a thousand apartment units are being converted out of previously non-residential buildings.

Williamsburg Pizza and Stories Coffee are coming to the 156th & Maple area. They will share a two-bay building under construction on the northeast corner of 156th & Spaulding Street. Interior build-out is now underway. Williamsburg Pizza is from New York and opened its first non-New York location in Omaha near 168th & Harrison Street. Locally owned Stories has four current locations in Omaha and Gretna.

One of the last things standing at the old Park Fair Mall on the east side of 16th Street downtown was an abandoned skywalk connecting the former mall to the Brandeis Building. Crews have started demolishing that structure. Because it spans 16th Street, the thoroughfare was temporarily closed to traffic. As of Monday afternoon, the windows had been removed and demo was underway on the skywalk’s floor.

The mall was built in the 1980s but was converted to an indoor parking structure many years ago. In its place, NuStyle Development will build a 12-story building that will include seven levels of parking and five multi-family floors with 150 apartments. The ground floor will have 12,500 sq. ft. of retail space. The building will be part of a broader project, known as The Duo, which will include the twin towers just to the east.

Construction is underway on the Primrose School of Elkhorn at 19401 South HMS Cleveland Boulevard. That’s southwest of the 192nd & West Dodge Expressway interchange. The immediate area is also home to recently completed office buildings for MD West One and Bankers Trust. Opening is planned for late this year. Primrose Schools is a national chain of accredited, private, preschool franchises based in Atlanta. In Omaha, Primrose has four existing locations at 192nd & Harrison Street, 174th & West Center Road, 160th & West Maple Road, and in La Vista.

Construction continues on a multi-family building site near 71st & Mercy Road north of the THINK Healthcare building. That’s where a 4-story, 200-unit apartment building is going up. The future building’s parking garage has already been constructed.

Photo by Brad Williams

This color rendering of The Duo provides a detailed look at what the massive downtown project will look like when it’s done. NuStyle Development is converting the twin towers of Central Park Plaza from office space into hundreds of apartment units. The towers are located on 15th Street between Farnam and Douglas streets. Sullivan’s Steakhouse, a tenant in the south tower, will remain. A coffee shop is planned for the north tower.

As part of the project, the old Park Fair Mall (on the west side of the block along the east side of 16th Street) is being demolished. In its place will be a 12-story building that will include seven levels of parking (open to the public) and five multi-family floors with 150 apartments. Altogether, the three buildings will have more than 700 apartment units. The west building will have approximately 12,500 sq. ft. of street-level retail space and will also feature a rooftop swimming pool. The complex will be strategically located right next to a future streetcar station.

The Catalyst, an innovation hub on the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s EDGE District campus, is opening for business. Crews are putting the last, final touches on the 170,000 sq. ft. facility built inside a 119-year-old, former steel-casting factory.

UNeMed, Bio Nebraska, Invest Nebraska, RespirAI Medical, ViaRx, Forward Movement, LLC, Members.MD are among first tenants moving into The Catalyst. The building will also have a Big Grove Brewing taproom, which is opening this spring.

The 30-acre EDGE District is located west of Saddle Creek Road and south of Farnam Street. Other construction projects in the EDGE District include a 7-story parking garage and a 6-story office building and research building known as the C.O.R.E. Building.

Photo by Brad Williams

Crews have made quite a bit of progress on TreeHouse, a mixed-use development in Council Bluffs at First Avenue & 34th Street. That’s just a bit south of West Broadway. When it’s complete, the development will consist of 12 buildings. Two of them will be retail, while six will be apartments and two will be townhouses. Altogether, TreeHouse will have 121 apartment units, 34 townhouses and 17,400 sq. ft. of retail space. The architect is Schemmer and Lund Ross Constructors is the contractor.