The owner of three buildings on the south side of O Street between 13th and 14th wants to redevelop their upper floors into apartments.
GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
The owner of three buildings near 13th and O streets housing Subway, The Watering Hole, Cliff's Lounge, Main Street Bar and O'Rourke's Tavern plans to redevelop the upper floors into apartments.
The owner of three buildings near 13th and O streets is planning to redevelop them and add apartments.
Jeff Overturf, who bought the buildings at 1317, 1319 and 1325 O St. over the past couple of years as investments, said he plans to develop the upper floors of the three buildings into market-rate apartments.
The 1317 and 1319 O St. buildings have two floors, while 1325 O St. has three floors. All the upper floors in the three buildings are vacant.
According to plans submitted to the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Department, Overturf who lives in Edgar, is planning 22 apartments across the three buildings — 10 studios, eight one-bedroom units and four with two bedrooms.
The redevelopment does not include the first-floor retail spaces in the buildings, which house restaurants and bars, including Subway, The Watering Hole, O'Rourke's Tavern, Main Street Bar and Cliff's Lounge. All of those businesses are remaining open, Overturf said.
Cost of the project is estimated at $2.1 million, with about $335,000 of that amount expected to come from tax-increment financing.
In addition to developing the apartment units, Overturf also is planning to renovate the buildings' facades to restore them to their "natural look," he said.
Todd Ogden, president of the Downtown Lincoln Association, said the project fits perfectly with what the city and his organization want in terms of having a mix of housing downtown, by adding more market-rate apartments.
"This is really a bull's-eye for what we need our downtown to want to do with these properties," he said.
Because the project is seeking to use TIF, it will have to go through a public approval process, with hearings in front of the Planning Commission and City Council.
The Planning Commission hearing is tentatively scheduled for March 4.
Overturf said that if the approval process goes as planned, he would be looking at starting work on the project in spring or summer, with the first units ready to rent sometime next year.
His project is the fourth redevelopment project proposed on O Street downtown in the past four years.
A similar project with 13 market-rate apartments on the upper floor and 5,000 square feet of retail at 16th and O streets is nearing completion, while a six-story Holiday Inn Express is under construction at Ninth and O streets.
A developer also has purchased the Gold's Building at 11th and O streets and plans a redevelopment project that includes an extended-stay hotel. He said he would likely apply for tax-increment financing.
As part of its Downtown Master Plan update in 2018, the city identified an O Street "corridor" stretching from Ninth Street east to 21st Street and listed possible projects that could include streetscape and facade improvements, as well as redevelopment of buildings.
Wednesday, it filed an application to create a Greater Downtown Principal Corridors Revitalization Project, which is "dedicated to the revitalization of the key entryways and streetscapes into and through Greater Downtown Lincoln along three Principal Arterial routes: Ninth, 10th, and O streets."
The corridor encompasses N, O and P streets from Ninth all the way to 28th Street, and Ninth and 10th Streets from S to M streets. If the City Council approves it, it would allow the city to use any new property taxes created through valuation increases to be used specifically for projects in the corridor, which could include streetscape enhancements, alley restorations and redevelopments of "significant" buildings.
It would be similar to TIF districts that are created for private projects, except in this case, rather than using property taxes created by a new or enhanced building, it would use the new property taxes generated by increases in valuation. The city has created a half-dozen similar districts, the most recent one covering the West O Street area.
City officials estimate that the downtown redevelopment corridor area would generate about $5.2 million in new property taxes over the 15-year life of the district to be used for projects.
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The owner of three buildings near 13th and O streets housing Subway, The Watering Hole, Cliff's Lounge, Main Street Bar and O'Rourke's Tavern plans to redevelop the upper floors into apartments.