Mutual of Omaha breaks ground on new 44-story headquarters in downtown Omaha
A $600 million downtown skyscraper. A $220 million casino. Several large mixed-use developments. Those massive projects made 2022 a record-breaking year for tax-increment financing loans in Omaha.
Upward of $159 million in tax-increment financing, or TIF, was approved in 2022, according to the city’s annual TIF report approved by the Omaha City Council Tuesday. The amount far exceeds recent year totals.
The $159 million was totaled from 23 redevelopment agreements approved by the Omaha City Council, a key step in the city’s TIF application process. The count does not include redevelopment plans approved by the City Council, a step that happens before an agreement is considered.
Used in Omaha since 1980, TIF is a financing tool regularly sought in local development efforts.
Proponents of the economic incentive champion it as a tool to encourage private investment in areas in need of housing and revitalization.
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Critics contend that the incentive is used too generously and is too often granted for developments that don’t contribute to civic improvements or affordable housing needs.
Despite the criticism, TIF use is on the rise.
From 2015 to 2021, total TIF approvals averaged $42.3 million per year.
Since 2000, the highest single-year total was in 2016. Thirty projects yielded nearly $70 million in TIF loans that year.
In 2022, a single TIF approval nearly matched that total. A $68.6 million allocation for a downtown Mutual of Omaha skyscraper was last year’s largest.
The Mutual project, now estimated to cost $600 million in all, is set to reshape Omaha’s skyline and bring the Fortune 500 company to the former site of the W. Dale Clark Library at 14th and Douglas Streets in the heart of downtown.
Of Mutual’s more than $68.6 million total TIF request, roughly $62.7 million will go toward project expenses. The rest would be for capitalized interest.
An Omaha casino project accounts for the second-highest TIF amount at $17.5 million.
Warhorse Gaming Omaha — a subsidiary of Ho-Chunk Inc., the economic development arm of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska — got the green light in 2021 for a planned $220 million renovation and expansion of the current Horsemen’s Park campus near 60th and Q Streets.
Other major 2022 TIF projects include:
The Shirley Tyree Theatre, a $6.4 million project that would renovate a dilapidated building on North 24th Street into a theater, received $354,672 in TIF.
The Dizzy Mule development in Millwork Commons proposes a mix of commercial space and apartments and was allocated $5,041,588 in TIF.
A 19-unit townhouse development near 54th and Leavenworth Streets received $1.65 million.
An allocation of $10.7 million was given for construction of a five-story residential building and rehab of a historic building for residential and commercial use near 48th and Dodge Streets.
Under TIF, the developer of a city-approved project takes out a loan to help cover eligible redevelopment expenses tied to a project. The loan is paid back, generally over a 15- or 20-year period, by using the increased property taxes that are generated on the new development.
Normally, all property tax payments go to support schools, city and county government and other local tax-reliant bodies. But during the TIF period, the proceeds from tax payments are divided: Some tax money goes to local governments based on the valuation that existed before the improvements; the rest of the taxes, based on the added valuation from those improvements, are used to repay the TIF loan.
After the loan is repaid, all of the property taxes collected on the improved property start flowing to those local governments.
Not included in the city’s 2022 TIF report is a nearly $80 million TIF loan for the redevelopment of Crossroads — the largest TIF loan ever allocated in Omaha.
Although the Crossroads redevelopment plan won city approval in 2021, it wasn’t counted in the 2021 or 2022 TIF report because the project’s redevelopment agreement had not yet been approved.
The Crossroads request is scheduled to come before the Omaha City Council for a vote Tuesday.
Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of April 2023
City Council President Pete Festersen stands next to the empty seat belonging to Councilman Vinny Palermo at City Hall on Tuesday.Â
Former Nebraska head football coach Frank Solich visits Memorial Stadium in Lincoln on Friday.
The main room in a mid-century architecture time capsule home that is being sold, along with its furnishings in an estate sale in Bellevue.
Riley McCauley visits the Genoa Indian Industrial School Museum in Genoa, Neb., with his class from Omaha Nation High School, in Macy, Neb., visit , on Tuesday. Most of the students have family members who attended the federal boarding school for Native children, which closed in 1934.
Students from Omaha Nation High School, in Macy, Neb., look at a model of the campus while visiting the Genoa Indian Industrial School Museum in Genoa, Neb., on Tuesday. Most of the students have family members who attended the federal boarding school for Native children, which closed in 1934.
Millard West's Korey Cozad tags out Millard South's Cam Kozeal at home to end the top half of the fifth inning during the Metro conference final on Wednesday.
Millard South's Cam Kozeal fields a high throw as Millard West's Ben Sterbens steals second base in the fourth inning during the Metro conference final on Wednesday.
The sun rises over Heartland of America Park, still under construction, on the RiverFront in downtown Omaha on Thursday.
A truck and a bald eagle head away from a wildfire near N.P. Dodge Park on Thursday.
Flames can be seen at a wildfire near the marina at N.P. Dodge Park on Thursday.
A National Guard Blackhawk helicopter drops water on a wildfire south of Lake Waconda, near Union, Nebraska on Monday. The wildfire, which started Saturday in Iowa, jumped the Missouri River and started Nebraska on fire.
Cullen Ritz, 7, watches a National Guard helicopter scoops up water from Lake Waconda to fight a wildfire near Union, Nebraska on Monday. The wildfire, which started Saturday in Iowa, jumped the Missouri River and started Nebraska on fire.
Ashland firefighter Adam Peterson throws a smoldering chunk of wood onto a pile while performing "mop-up duty" just south of Lake Waconda on Monday. The wildfire, which started Saturday in Iowa, jumped the Missouri River and started Nebraska on fire.
Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule answers a question for the media on Tuesday.
Nebraska's Joshua Fleeks talks to the media after practice on Tuesday.
A cyclist crosses north across Dodge Street on the Dodge Street pedestrian bridge early on Friday.
The Great Hall of the Durham Museum is full of scaffolding as workers work to restore the ceiling on Thursday.
The Great Hall of the Durham Museum is full of scaffolding as workers work to restore the ceiling on Thursday.
One of the sculptures in the Durham Museum is covered with plastic during renovations on Thursday. Many of them had already been moved to accommodate work in the Great Hall.
Sunlight filters through storm clouds onto a wind turbine south of Stuart, Iowa, as severe weather rolls through the midwest on Tuesday, April 04, 2023.
Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda (82) catches the ball in a Nebraska football spring practice in Lincoln on Tuesday.
Cam Do–a-Mu–oz, a freshman, and hundreds of other students walk out of school on Transgender Day of Visibility outside Omaha Central High School on Friday. Students are protesting LB574 and LB575 in the Nebraska Legislature, which would ban certain gender-affirming care for youth and would prevent trans youth from competing in girls sports, respectively. "Equality before the law" is the Nebraska state motto.
