White Lotus Group and the City of Omaha made some progress on the Civic Auditorium redevelopment project this week. The site is bounded by Capitol Avenue as well as 17th, 19th and Chicago streets. White Lotus Group is an Omaha-based real estate development firm.
The City Council approved a final plat and subdivision agreement. The original auditorium was demolished in 2016. Despite current and previous proposals to develop the property, it remains vacant.
Based on public testimony at this week’s City Council meeting, infrastructure work will apparently begin soon. According to Dan Dolezal of Ehrhart Griffin & Associates, sewer infrastructure will start this year and be completed by 2026. Additional infrastructure – such as side-street parking – will be completed with each phase of the project.
Arun Agarwal, CEO of White Lotus, emphasized that, despite not seeing much progress since his company took over the project 19 months ago, required planning and approvals are generally on track.
White Lotus is currently in vertical design and are working closely with Creighton University to possibly serve as a type of commercial extension to the university. He referenced Aggieville in Manhattan, Kan., Wrigelyville in Chicago and the Haymarket in Lincoln as comparable mixed-use districts to what they are trying to achieve at the Civic Auditorium site.
