Developers propose building a high-rise apartment tower on the current site of a city-owned surface parking lot in downtown Lincoln.Â
Redevelopment plans obtained by the Journal Star envision a 15-story building on the southwest corner of 14th and N streets.
Chicago-based Argent Group, which previously built Latitude, a student apartment building at 11th and N streets, formally proposed the high-rise to the city earlier this year.Â
The city wants to redevelop the majority of what it calls Block 65, which is bounded by 13th, 14th, M and N streets. The city bought a parking garage at 1318 M St. and two of the three other lots on the block in 2018.Â
Argent and its architect, DLR Group, foresee a 202-unit apartment building with nearly 180,000 square feet of residential space and a fourth-floor exterior deck.Â
Their tower would sit on top of what's now known as the Sharp Lot and directly to the east of one of Lincoln's tallest buildings, the 166-foot-tall Sharp Building.Â
They hope their market-rate apartments with high-end amenities attract "both high-tech employed millennials already working downtown, as well as empty nesters looking for connectivity to the (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and the Capital District," Argent Group said in its proposal.
Their tower would include three floors of private parking with 165 stalls accessible off 14th Street and the alley cutting through the middle of the block.
On the first floor, Argent would offer resident lounges, fitness rooms, a lobby and nearly 4,300 square feet of retail, according to the plan.
And if officials went forward with that project, the city would build a 700- to 800-stall public parking garage on the north side of M Street between 13th and 14th streets.Â
Parking officials hope to reduce the 700-person wait list for monthly parking in downtown garages and provide needed off-street stalls in a quadrant of downtown with the largest parking shortage, according to the city's Urban Development Department.
Argent submitted its proposal to the city in February. This month, the city received two additional responses from developers, who were unaware of Argent's plans, seeking considerations in the city's plans for the block. Â
The Sup family, which intends to take ownership of the Sharp Building later this year, told the city that it plans to renovate the 93-year-old building and may look to convert some of the upper floors into residences, according to its pitch sent to the city.Â
The Sups would seek to lease up to 10% of stalls in the new city parking garage on the site, have the skywalk connecting it to the garage to the south replaced and have the building's backup generators housed in the city's new garage, among other requests.
Lastly, Tom Beckius of Steppe Development expressed interest in partnering with the city to bring retail space to the first floor of the new garage.Â
In his letter, he proposed that the city build a 10,000-square-foot shell that could be sold to Steppe Development.Â
Both the Sup family and Steppe Development said they would prefer the city's new parking garage to run north-south along 14th Street.Â
A committee of city staff, with Downtown Lincoln Association Executive Director Todd Ogden and Nebraska State Building Division Administrator Amber Brannigan representing the public, will meet to review the plans.
Several redeveloped sites around downtown have taken years -- sometimes decades -- and more than one attempt before something significant was built.
The committee will then make its recommendation to Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, who will decide on whether to proceed with any of the proposals.Â
Urban Development Department Director Dan Marvin said he doesn't believe the different submissions compete with each other and said that the city could incorporate aspects of each into the project. Â
As with many things, the coronavirus pandemic has made the block's ultimate redevelopment less than a certainty, Marvin said, noting it's unclear if the financial implications of the outbreak will affect the financial ability of the city or a developer to move forward.