6/16/2015 Business is booming in Farnam's Blackstone district Omaha.com: GO Arts & Entertainment
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PHOTO BY MATT MILLER/THE WORLDHERALD Jazzocracy Kayla Pottebaum and Zack Salem dine at Mula Mexican Kitchen & Tequileria near 40th and Farnam Streets, across Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St., Lincoln 6:00 pm from Sullivan's Bar's new digs. Genre: Jazz. Cost: no cover.
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By Casey Logan and Sarah Baker Hansen / WorldHerald staff writers
You could be forgiven for forgetting about the corner of 40th and Farnam.
Consider the scene there five years ago. One corner sat lifeless, left vacant by a shuttered bookstore.
That was the happy corner.
Across the street, a bar called Cheaters had earned a reputation for trouble and the police calls to justify it. It hit bottom in November 2009 when a fight broke out and an offduty police officer fired at a car speeding away from the scene. http://www.omaha.com/go/businessisboominginfarnamsblackstonedistrict/article_82073faf79ec50b5a1c7871819133584.html 1/11 6/16/2015 Business is booming in Farnam's Blackstone district Omaha.com: GO Arts & Entertainment
Things were less exciting during the day, and that was part of the problem. A handful of businesses dotted the streetscape, but just as many bays were empty or boarded up. Traffic flew through the area — long ago converted to a oneway thoroughfare out of downtown — with little reason to slow down, much less stop.
The view from Dan Houlihan’s window was bleak. Houlihan, who
had bought the longstanding MOVIES OPENING THIS WEEK Sullivan’s Bar in 2001, saw eyesore after eyesore. No energy. Depression. Opening this Week more...
But something else. 1. Inside Out n/a 2. Dope n/a Potential. 3. Manglehorn PG13 4. Infinitely Polar Bear R Today, Houlihan’s view looks quite 5. Eden R different. Now Playing more...
For one thing, he’s moved his bar THE WORLDHERALD across the street. A new Sullivan’s Click on the graphic to zoom in. now occupies the old Cheaters location. The bland siding that once covered the building is gone, View all 2 images in gallery.
revealing the building’s original Movie times powered by Zap2it brick facade. Enter your Zip code below to see local movie listings: BLACKSTONE BIZ: ZIP Code continue
You could be forgiven for seeing it NOW OPEN: See more movies, trailers and show times » as a metaphor for the Sullivan's Bar, 3929 Farnam St.: An old bar neighborhood. in a new spot. Classic atmosphere with plenty of seating and a shuffleboard table recovered from the old 49’r Lounge. Now Across the street, where the open. bookstore once sat, the stylish Mula Mexican Kitchen & Tequileria, 3932 Farnam St.: Streetstyle Mexican cuisine and Mula Mexican Kitchen & craft tequila cocktails. Now open. Tequileria (3932 Farnam) Archetype Coffee, 3926 Farnam St.: A occupies the corner. Next door, modern, minimalist cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. Now open. READ THIS Archetype Coffee (3926 Farnam) Farnam House Brewing Company, 3558 draws a growing clientele of Farnam St.: Brew house serving craft beers caffeineseekers. (house and guest taps) and a diverse lunch and dinner menu. Now open.
Along the same block, the COMING SOON: Scriptown Brewing Company Scriptown Brewing Company, 3922 Farnam St.: A rustic tap room opening with four to six (3922 Farnam), Pranam Yoga house beers, including brewmaster John Fahrer’s awardwinning Muddy Mo Amber studio (148 S. 39th St.) and Nite Ale. Opening late September or early Owl restaurant and bar (3902 October. Farnam) are all scheduled to open Pranam Yoga Shala, 148 S. 39th St.: Vinyasa yoga studio with an outreach this fall. and community service program. Opening November. There’s more. Kleveland Clothing Nite Owl, 3902 Farnam St.: Bar and restaurant offering lunch, dinner and late (3906 Farnam), a boutique night food options. Opening November. offering affordable, “upcycled” Kleveland Clothing, 3906 Farnam womenswear and menswear, St.: Boutique offering affordable, “upcycled” Brothers find artistic inspiration in clothing and accessories for women and great movie quotes and song should open in November, and men. Opening November. lyrics developers say a wine bar, bike ALSO ON THE WAY:
shop, florist and vintagestyle A wine bar, bike shop, florist and barbershop New movies and TV shows http://www.omaha.com/go/businessisboominginfarnamsblackstonedistrict/article_82073faf79ec50b5a1c7871819133584.html 2/11 6/16/2015 Business is booming in Farnam's Blackstone district Omaha.com: GO Arts & Entertainment barbershop all should open this should all open near 40th and Farnam Streets in the coming months, according to GreenSlate fall. Development’s Matt Dwyer and Jay Lund. The expected openings are in November. But perhaps the most significant Additionally, owners of the Benson Brewery plan to change will come over the next two create a nanobrewery — a scaleddown months when the stretch of microbrewery to test new recipes — at 3921 Farnam from 36th Street to 42nd Farnam St., opened as a tap room once a week. The expected opening is spring 2015. Street returns to twoway traffic for the first time in decades.
Work on the $677,000 street project, which also calls for new streetlights and amenities to make the area more pedestrianfriendly, streaming on Netflix and Amazon is scheduled to begin Sept. 9 and be completed by midNovember. More than $160,000 of the cost is covered by private sources, including donations from UNMC, Mutual of Omaha, Kiewit Corp. and Greenslate Development. Public funding will come from various city funds, including $78,000 raised through property and business owners within the Blackstone Business Improvement District.
The conversion comes with another cost — some onstreet parking along Farnam Street is being eliminated. But business owners in the area generally see the plan as essential to the district’s longterm success. ZZ Top's coming back to “We want this to be an amazing district,” said Brad Iwen, board president of the Nebraska Blackstone BID. “We want people to make this a destination.”
There was a time, long ago, when no one would have questioned the area’s potential.
In the early 20th century, the neighborhood — spanning Dodge Street on the north to Leavenworth on the south — attracted some of Omaha’s wealthiest families. Mansions sprung up all around Farnam Street. The avenue gave rise to a thriving business district with a streetcar line running through it.
Towering over it all was the luxurious Blackstone Hotel at 36th and Farnam Streets, a symbol of grandeur whose latecentury decline reflected a larger slide in the area.
Those wealthy homeowners either died or moved west. Traffic followed, with Opening band named for free Farnam turning into a oneway route out of downtown. Mansions were carved Memorial Park concert into apartment buildings. Businesses closed.
By the time Bill Baburek opened the Crescent Moon Ale House across the street from the old Blackstone Hotel in 1996, the area was a couple decades into its downfall.
“I think people for a long time forgot this neighborhood,” he said.
Still, Baburek was encouraged by his proximity to Mutual of Omaha and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, big employers that could provide a lunch crowd and happy hour clientele. He continued to build his craftbeer empire in the area, opening the adjoining HuberHaus German Bier Hall, Max & Joe’s Belgian Beer Tavern and Beertopia store over the past decade.
The rise of Midtown Crossing, Mutual of Omaha’s mammoth mixeduse development to the east, provided a boost for business. But the area to the west Omaha news anchor's slipup http://www.omaha.com/go/businessisboominginfarnamsblackstonedistrict/article_82073faf79ec50b5a1c7871819133584.html 3/11 6/16/2015 Business is booming in Farnam's Blackstone district Omaha.com: GO Arts & Entertainment remained largely dormant and disconnected. makes it on 'Fallon'
A handful of businesses — Brothers Lounge, McFoster’s Natural Kind Cafe, Sullivan’s Bar and Victor’s Gyros — drew people to the area. But the district was less a destination than a “drivethrough zone,” Baburek said. “Up until now, I don’t think there was any connectivity.”
Now, with his own beercentric businesses, the new Farnam House Brewing Company (3558 Farnam) and the forthcoming Scriptown a few blocks west, Baburek looks forward to collaborating with his neighbors and promoting the area as a beer district.
Tony Thomas, a coowner and brewmaster of Farnam House Brewing, is on board. He’s also excited to be part of an area with a long history. Thomas learned, for example, that his microbrewery was once home to a company called Crandell Furs. The same basement vault that’s great for making beer was used in the 1950s Review: This is a bar worth and ’60s as a climatecontrolled space to store furs. staying up for
“It’s cool to find out what used to be in the spaces and why they look the way they do underneath all the makeup,” he said. “When you spruce it up, you can turn it into a beautiful place.”
***
That, in essence, has been the guiding principle for Jay Lund and Matt Dwyer, whose Greenslate Development partnership is behind several of the redeveloped properties making up the new Blackstone District.
The duo are developing multiple buildings in the area, including the properties housing Mula, Archetype and Scriptown, the future site of Nite Owl, Pranam Yoga and Kleveland Clothing, and the row of businesses on the southwest corner of 40th and Farnam anchored by Black Squirrel Tattoo. They’re also restoring a row Review: A highenergy of 107yearold townhouses on Harney Street to the south, and they intend to homecoming for Imagine Dragons build a 50unit apartment building with streetlevel retail to the east along the singer Farnam corridor.
Lund and Dwyer say even they’re surprised by the pace of their plans, but they saw an opportunity to build something special.
Their intentions for the area — restoring the character of the buildings and filling them with locally owned businesses — has caught on. Archetype owner and operator Isaiah Sheese said he looked at spaces downtown and midtown but ultimately was attracted to the Blackstone District because of his fellow tenants.
“Mula had signed a lease doing craft tequila and tacos, and Scriptown had signed doing craft beer,” Sheese said. “There was a promise of people who were going to give it a run.”
Noah Mock and his wife, Katie Timperley Mock, will open Nite Owl, a restaurant and bar that will serve lunch, dinner and latenight food. Both Omaha natives, the More than 200 Omaha groups share passions at Meetup.com couple moved back 1½ years ago after living in Portland and Austin. Almost immediately they started looking for a place to open a business, including spots in 10 ways to rock Junkstock this Benson, Dundee, the Old Market and along 10th Street. weekend
“This seemed like a better fit for us,” Mock said. “We had to decide if we wanted to go somewhere where it was already developed or jump onto something that is brand new. This is more our style. We wanted to be part of a community.”
Mock said he hopes Nite Owl will find a lunch crowd from daytime workers at UNMC and Midtown Crossing, a dinner crowd from the surrounding neighborhoods and a latenight crowd from bargoers and service industry types who often work until midnight or later. http://www.omaha.com/go/businessisboominginfarnamsblackstonedistrict/article_82073faf79ec50b5a1c7871819133584.html 4/11 6/16/2015 Business is booming in Farnam's Blackstone district Omaha.com: GO Arts & Entertainment
“We will be in one of the most densely populated parts of Omaha,” he said. “It was kind of a nobrainer.”
At Mula, owner Michael Sanchez and chef Hiomara van den Boogaart said UNMC has indeed generated a solid lunch crowd, with residents of the area making up the bulk of the dinner crowd.
“We’ve already started to see regulars coming back in,” van den Boogaart said. “It feels like a neighborhood place.”
The district stands to benefit from its proximity to Midtown Crossing. Sanchez believes it will also stand apart.
“Midtown Crossing was kind of a corporation’s approach to develop what was once a blighted area,” he said. “This is more of an organic, grassroots approach to what the neighborhood would want.”
***
The cumulative effect, former city planning director Steve Jensen said, is an area of town that’s coming full circle. Businesses repopulating a once vibrant corridor. Street changes producing a more walkable environment.
“Whenever you do that (return to twoway), it really does make those streets more viable for retail,” Jensen said.
The district could face a parking crunch, but Jensen said the corridor is a strong candidate for a future transit line moving people in and out of the area and reducing the need for parking spots. Tell us about your 'Seinfeld' love or 'No soup for you!' Not everyone will stick around to see what happens next. Victor’s Gyros (4007 Farnam) closed last week after more than 30 years in business. Owner Victor Metry declined to comment about the decision.
But for other longtime business owners, the recent surge of activity feels like vindication. Drew Davies planted his communications firm Oxide Design in the area in 2001, mostly because the rent was cheap and the location provided access to downtown, midtown and the Interstate.
Six years later, Davies faced a decision. Oxide had outgrown its space. He considered a move elsewhere before setting down roots in a larger bay down the block.
“I really did have some sense of hopefulness for the neighborhood,” Davies said. “It seemed like an area that had some potential.” This Omaha art show offers something special (and strange) Things got worse before they got better. Businesses closed. Trouble at the bar across the street. A shooting. There was a time when his wife didn’t like him working after hours in the neighborhood.
That’s all changed. Now Davies points to the coming twoway street conversion as the next milestone for the area.
“That’s the light switch that kind of turns the neighborhood on,” Davies said. “It will be the comingout party for the Blackstone District, and it’s going to be fun that it was relatively unexpected.”
At Sullivan’s Bar, Houlihan points to the area’s comeback as part of a larger trend throughout the country.
People want to see old neighborhoods come back, he said, particularly young Here's all the CWS food we're people. They want “culturally and architecturally rich” surroundings. They want going to sample to live closer to work, and they want things to do when they head home. http://www.omaha.com/go/businessisboominginfarnamsblackstonedistrict/article_82073faf79ec50b5a1c7871819133584.html 5/11 6/16/2015 Business is booming in Farnam's Blackstone district Omaha.com: GO Arts & Entertainment
Now when he looks out his window, Houlihan sees a district like that coming together. He points to neighbors like Iwen, whose photography studio is next door, who’ve shared a common vision.
Like Houlihan, Iwen is doubling down on the Blackstone. He recently announced plans to convert the former Pella Lutheran Church into an event center at 41st and Farnam Streets — preserving another building that had seen better days and giving it new life.
“This was almost nothing,” Iwen said of the area he moved into several years ago, “but I felt it could be something.”
Contact the writers: [email protected], 4024441056, twitter.com/kclogan; [email protected], 4024441069, 'The Martian' trailer debuts. Is it a twitter.com/SBHOWH blockbuster or an awards movie? Or both?
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