The Piedmont shopping center at Cotner Boulevard and A Street is on its way to getting a new life.
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission on Wednesday agreed there is enough evidence to find the 57-year-old center is blighted and substandard.
The finding, assuming it is affirmed by the City Council, opens the door to using tax-increment financing to redevelop the center.
Wynn Hjermstad with the city's Urban Development Department, said a blight study found many of the conditions needed for the center to qualify, including aging infrastructure and deteriorating buildings.
The center has been in disrepair for many years and is about half full. Businessman Steve Glenn bought it this year for $2.7 million and has big plans to revive it.
He plans to spend $2 million or more on renovations that will include improving facades, new signage and new landscaping.
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"We think this could be one of the nicest centers in Lincoln," he said.
Glenn, who owns two True Value Hardware stores in Lincoln, plans to open a third in the center's anchor space. He also is trying to bring in a restaurant.
To that end, the Planning Commission also approved a zoning change that will make it easier for businesses to sell alcohol. Now, its zoning prohibits the sale of alcohol because it is bordered by homes, a middle school and a park.
AÂ couple of commissioners expressed concern about selling alcohol there, but they also universally expressed support for redeveloping the center.
The blight designation now goes to the City Council. Assuming approval there, Glenn will have to prepare a redevelopment plan and then negotiate an agreement with the city spelling out the proposed uses of tax-increment financing.
If all goes as planned, he said, work likely would start in the spring.
In other business Wednesday, the Planning Commission found a redevelopment plan for an area southeast of downtown to be in conformance with the Comprehensive Plan.
The plan, called Exchange at Antelope Valley, calls for a grocery store of up to 40,000 square feet, 67 rowhouse-type town homes and a mixed-use building with 12,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and 28 apartments on two upper floors.
The development would stretch from Antelope Valley Parkway and K Street to 21st and N streets.