By Isaiah Ang and Jeff Beals
Many commercial real estate professionals across the country have downplayed the idea that a substantial number of urban office buildings could be transformed into residential properties. The conventional wisdom is that office buildings are simply too difficult to renovate into apartments, at least in a cost-effective manner.
In the era of hybrid schedules and remote workers, that has led some real estate developers in major cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco to say, “We are under-demolished.”
Well, that is not the case in Omaha, where several office buildings have been or currently are being transformed into highly desirable residential properties. Much of the credit for Omaha’s office-to-residential success goes to NuStyle Development, owned by Todd and Mary Heistand.
According to the Omaha World Herald, NuStyle is adding another project to its growing list of downtown properties. NuStyle plans to turn the older First National Bank of Omaha tower at 1620 Dodge Street into 300 market-rate apartment units. Known by FNBO employees as the “Main Bank,” the 22-story building was constructed in 1971. At 295 feet, it is the fifth tallest occupied building in Omaha behind the First National Center, WoodmenLife Tower, Elmwood Tower and Union Pacific Center.
The tower remains a prominent fixture of the skyline neighboring downtown’s tallest hotel, the Doubletree. According to the World Herald’s article today, FNBO has been transitioning employees out of the Main Bank building to its newer tower across the street over time, particularly since the rise of hybrid working schedules.
That means the Main Bank building is now largely vacant. Existing tenants, such as the District U.S. Attorney’s Office, will be relocating employees to another location. NuStyle plans to reinvigorate the first two floors with new commercial space. The project will cost $75-to-$85 million and is estimated to be completed in 2026.
The Omaha Press Club, the long-time occupant of the building’s top floor, will most likely remain.
“The Board of Directors of the Omaha Press Club have been in communication with officials from NuStyle, and both parties are interested in maintaining the club in its current location,” said Dr. Robert Meyers, president of the Omaha Press Club. “Our discussions have been very productive, and we look forward to continuing to work with the new owners and reaching an amicable conclusion.”
Nustyle is also bringing new commercial development to a different part of the 16th Street corridor thanks to its Duo project, the redevelopment of Central Park Towers. That project will include a new, mixed-use, high-rise building consisting of a parking garage with residential apartment units built above it and retail/commercial space on the first two floors facing 16th Street. Altogether, the Duo will create about 700 apartment units.
Last month, NuStyle announced The Beam, a built-from-the-ground-up, residential, high-rise project next to the planned Children’s Museum along the north side of Heartland of America Park. That 17-story tower will have 260 units built on top of a city-owned parking garage. Combined, the three NuStyle developments will bring approximately 1,200 new apartment units to the downtown market.
NuStyle has already completed several office-to-apartment conversions in the downtown area that have proven to be quite popular among renters. Among them are the old Northern Natural Gas Building (2223 Dodge Street), which is now The Highline; a former AT&T building (100 South 19th Street), which is now The Wire Apartments, and the former Peoples Natural Gas building (119 North 19th Street), which is now The Slate Apartments.
Perhaps its most ambitious project, NuStyle in 2019 converted the former Creighton University Medical Center St. Joseph hospital into The Atlas Apartments. The 1.05 million sq. ft. building has 732 units, making it the largest apartment building in the state of Nebraska.
