Kelly Langer did his homework.
Langer, who went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to be a teacher after graduating from East High School in the '70s, never taught a class.
After 15 years working at Cushman -- a great job, he says -- he went to the Arbor Day Foundation. Then into real estate.
One thing led to another, and he found himself building homes. The big new places sprouting on the edge of the city. His first home sold in Stone Ridge in far south Lincoln in the early 2000s.
Then came 2008, and the builder had to go back to studying.
As the housing market spiraled, he turned to remodeling projects and spent a lot of time thinking.
A large house could sometimes take a year to build, and by the ninth month he often found he was tired of it.
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He thought about the city, growing south, pushing southeast, extending northwest. All of that requires infrastructure. Water and sewer, parks and streets. Was it sustainable?
And he thought about potential buyers. The numbers indicate Lincoln will keep growing, but it’s also growing in age. What if his focus was meeting the needs of the people wanting to downsize?
“I want to be the guy to do something different,†he said.
The first new home on Cordner Court sold last year, a 1,700-square-foot space going for $300,000. The buyers weren’t retirees but instead a young couple sold on an idea of living in a new place in a tight-knit neighborhood close to everything.
The lot near 55th and L streets was for decades essentially an in-town acreage. A century-old house on 1.3 acres just a stone’s throw from O Street, a few blocks from Hy-Vee and Gateway Mall. You could reach downtown from there in a few minutes.
Langer saw potential in the old house he’s now working to restore but also something different. Why not convert a space with one home in the middle of the city to one with eight?
He’s about to begin work on the second new house, a ranch with one bedroom on the main floor and two in the basement, and that’s when the vision for his “pocket neighborhood†will really take shape.
“We’re getting a lot of good feedback with social media marketing,†said Kelby Kraft, a Realtor who is working with Langer on the project.
They’re hearing from people who like that it’s something different, that they don’t necessarily want to drive an extra 10 or 20 minutes to get to work and then home again.
The houses will be close to one another -- the lots are essentially 110 feet by 55 feet -- but with neighbors as close as what you would find in some of the city's newer subdivisions, the developer said. The city mandates a 5-foot setback from either side of a property line.
Langer’s business, Nebraska Cottage Co., has a significant presence in Village Gardens, the unique development surrounding Campbell’s Nursery at 56th Street and Pine Lake Road.
Langer built 24 homes there, clusters of cottages with common green space that were attractive to retirees and young families alike.
Village Gardens was a new development, but Langer believed some of the same things could work in older parts of the city.
He had his eye on 55th and L as a potential pocket neighborhood for years. The project draws its name from John G. Cordner, who built the original house there and who was an architect involved in designing several notable buildings in Lincoln, including First United Methodist Church in University Place and the Carnegie Library in College View.
Langer says there are other areas in the city perfect for pocket neighborhoods, including a spot near East High School, one in Rathbone and another near 44th and L.
He, too, is testing the market with single cottages. When the city tore down a condemned property near 33rd and Randolph streets, Langer went onto the tiny lot with a new two-story home that suits its surroundings.
There are unused or underutilized areas all over town where he'd like to leave his mark. Areas for new, "homey" places where the homeowner actually might use most of the space.
"You're striking a balance," Langer said. "Quality, size and price."