Jan 24, 2011

North downtown is building characterBy Steve JordonOmaha.com

More than 30 new businesses have popped up in Omaha’s north downtown since the Qwest Center Omaha signaled the area’s growth potential.

There’s room for dozens more, and there’s the rub:

It’s a 60-square-block area with some big-footprint features — a new baseball stadium, the Qwest Center, some industrial buildings — and lots of open space in between. That makes development of the area different from other pieces of Omaha’s growth.

It’s not the dense Old Market, where a stroll down a single block passes 20 gift shops and restaurants.

It’s not a mall, where you park your car and choose from an array of national and local retailers.

It’s not a traditional downtown strip like South Omaha or Benson, with storefronts reaching out to window shoppers and block after block of nearby housing.

But a fully developed north downtown promises to be distinctly different, its backers say, and since the Qwest Center opened in 2003 it has moved toward its potential with, in the time scale of urban growth, admirable speed.

The next five years may see even more growth as TD Ameritrade Stadium opens, the economy frees up money for commercial development and the success by some of the area’s pioneers attracts more of the same.

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