Plans
are moving ahead quickly for redevelopment of Omaha's riverfront.
An 125-acre area north of downtown Omaha will stretch from the
south edge of Heartland of America Park, through the newly named
Union Labor Plaza and then through the Gallup
Organization's new headquarters to the border of Carter Lake.
The Nebraska Legislature recently advanced Legislative Bill 657
which provides $1.5 million annually for 15 years in cigarette
taxes, producing $15 million for the city's initial site work.
Omaha expects to spend $64 million to buy land, install streets
and sewers and prepare the riverfront site for construction.
Not all of the $64 million has been nailed down, however.
Taxpayers are expected to pay $37 million (including the state's
$15 million), private donors, $10 million, Gallup Organization,
$7 million, and the potential sale of the convention center-arena
naming rights, $10 million.
Meanwhile, work is proceeding to clear scrap metal from the Aaron
Ferer location. The company must turn the site over to the city
by September 25th, with all the scrap gone. According to Greg
Peterson, a city planner, motorists should be able to see the
river from Abbott Drive by this fall. Once all the scrap metal
has been cleared from the area, the city will move quickly to
tear down Ferer's one-story building, remove environmental
contamination and bring in fill dirt. The city must have the site
ready for the Gallup
Organization to start construction by next April.
| Artist's
rendition of the main Gallup office building on the new
Riverfront Campus |
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The Gallup
Organization, a worldwide public-opinion polling and
management-training firm, has begun detailed design of buildings
expected to cost $66 million; a 320,000-sq-ft office building and
training center, a child-care center and a small hotel for the
company's management training. They plan to move 650 to 700
employees into the first building on their new riverfront campus
by August 2003. More than 4,000 business executives will come to
Omaha each year for training at Gallup's management education
center.
Also included in the development plans, the federal government is
expected to construct a National Park Service building just north
of the Gallup campus. The building will be two stories tall and
will have 60,000 to 70,000 sq. ft. of floor space. The Park
Service will move its 13-state, 140-employee Midwest headquarters
from downtown Omaha to the riverfront.
One obstacle to the plans may be the Port of Omaha which sits
just north of the Ferer location. The city still needs to buy out
leases from two companies that operate facilities at the
barge-shipping dock, then relocate them. The $64 million
riverfront budget includes money to buy out those leases and to
establish a new Port of Omaha.
Visitors to the area will see a tremendous amount of work going
on at the riverfront in 2002 and early 2003.
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