Jake Larsen likes his clean and furnished fifth-floor apartment with its hardwood floors and private bedrooms.
It’s close to campus, a 15-minute walk from Andersen Hall. Plus the complex has a rooftop patio for relaxing and provides regular bus service to and from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, where Larson is a junior studying broadcasting, advertising and marketing.
This is the second year Larsen has lived at 8N Lofts, 811 N St., the newest downtown apartment complex catering to college students.
Larsen lives with three other students, each with a separate lease, in a four-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment.
Living at 8N Lofts, which costs him $539 a month, is actually less expensive than dorm living, where he also paid for a meal plan, Larsen says.
Now he cooks for himself. Sometimes at night he’ll get an inexpensive steak from the nearby grocery store for grilling and a package of salad mix for a side course.
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“For me, at least, it is less expensive,†he said.
Larsen represents one of the three general groups of people most likely to be drawn to living downtown: college students, young professionals or older professionals without children and retirees.
Lincoln’s downtown growth rate, at 1.9 percent per year since 2010, is higher than the citywide growth rate of 1.4 percent. But downtown Lincoln isn't setting any growth records, at least compared to peer cities.Ìý
Madison, Wisconsin, and Salt Lake City have had population booms this decade, adding more than 3,000 residents in downtown. The downtown areas in Des Moines, Iowa, and Raleigh, North Carolina, have seen large population gains, growing by more than 25 percent since 2010.
In the past decade much of the new downtown housing in Lincoln has been aimed at college students, beginning with Parkhaus, an apartment complex built in 2012 at 13th and Q with 52 units and beds for 192 residents. New student housing made up less than 2 percent of the housing units downtown at that time.Ìý
Today there are 626 newerÌýapartment units targeted at students in the downtown area that could house 2,498 people, according to city records. That’s about 17 percent of the downtown housing inventory.Ìý
However, many more students live in other, older quarters in the downtown area, said Andrew Thierolf, a city planner.
Researchers, using census and other records, estimate college students account for nearly half of all residents in downtown Lincoln.
Around 33 percent of those living downtown are young professionals, and 16 percent are the Social Security set.
However, the student market appears to be saturated at this point, according to research for the city’s downtown master plan.Ìý
Canopy Lofts, which opened in 2013 with 203 beds, initially marketed to students but is now shifting its focus toward young professionals, according to the market assessment.
The building adjacent to Pinnacle Bank Arena is transitioning four-bedroom units to two-bedroom units in an effort to boost lease rates.
Planners expect much of the new downtown housing in the future to be aimed at the professional workers and retirees who are attracted to the downtown area.
Over the next decade planners expect between 900 to 1,900 nonstudent-oriented apartments or condominiums will be developed in the downtown area, including the Telegraph District at the eastern edge of downtown.
Dean Settle first moved into a downtown condo 29 years ago when he came to Lincoln to head the county Mental Health Center. And he never moved back to suburbia.
His children were grown. And Settle, who had lived on a 15-acre ranchette in suburban Wichita, Kansas, said he didn’t want to spend his weekends on a mower.
Settle and his wife, Harriet Grossbart, love the convenience of their two-bedroom condo in the heart of downtown, with the daily newspaper delivered to their front door.
“I like the feel of downtown, the energy of downtown," he says. The couple can walk to the movies, to a restaurant, to church. Settle, who retired from his county job several years ago, now owns Metro Gallery in downtown Lincoln and can walk to work.
But living downtown can be expensive, with condo prices rising, Settle says.Ìý
In fact the recently released downtown master plan report pointed out that housing costs for nonstudents in the downtown area are rising.Ìý
In the Haymarket area median sale prices over the last two years moved north of $500,000, and three units sold for more than $800,000. Lincoln’s median home value during that time was about $172,000, the report points out.
“Now the city needs to address affordable downtown living,†Settle says.
Planners also expect that a national trend where young professionals are moving from very expensive cities, like Denver, to smaller cities will bring more people to Lincoln’s downtown.
These young people are looking for affordable living in an active and interesting downtown area, consultants say.
It will be important for new development downtown to provide a variety of unit types and prices to accommodate a “multi-skilled workforce of different interests and incomes, consultants say.
To that end, work on Lied Place Residences is expected to begin later this year, with high-end condominiums rising 20 stories above Q Street. Condos at The Schwartz and neighboring Raymond Bros. Building either have come online or are coming onto the market soon.
For renters, apartments at Canopy Row are now part of the West Haymarket housing marketplace. In the heart of downtown, new apartments will open soon in the renovated Swanson Russell building at 1222 P St.