Brandeis Department Store conversion
(Original Condo conversion by Hampton Development; Conversion and completion of the remaining department store structure by a developer from Kansas City).
The Brandeis family were retail experts in the City of Omaha. The original store nearby couldn’t handle the business, so they built a Grand Department Store at 16th and Douglas Streets, eventually adding on stories to grow to ten stories in height. At some point structured parking was built to the west of the half-block structure, spanning across 17th Street. This enabled the first floor to extend from the east building face all the way to 18th Street, becoming the “longest retail aisle” in America for quite some time. To complement their retail business, they eventually constructed an adjacent theater (that building, sadly, is no longer present). Such a mind for business the family had that they created a central steam / chilled water system that eventually provided many downtown buildings with heating and air conditioning.
An incredible project - converting the now office building (conversion to which occurred in the late 1980s) to multi-family residential.
The basement was under-utilized and was converted to parking and storm shelter during the multi-family renovation.
The first floor was, is, and continues to be an evolution of disparate ideas. A portion of the second floor provides a variety of luxury tenant amenities, the existing light courts introduced to the structure in the 1980s were reused and incorporated into the housing conversion. An extensive restoration of the garage structure to the west occurred, and that structure continues to provide parking for the three buildings that are adjacent.
Links
The Brandeis Building National Register Nomination
(Original nomination submitted in 1982 for the 1982 conversion to offices; NRN amendment as well as the Historic Tax Credit application was compiled by Rosin Preservation of Kansas City, MO, for tax credits associated with the apartment conversion).