Creighton Medical Center to be renovated into apartments | Local

OMAHA — A 40-year-old teaching hospital in Omaha is set to become a mammoth apartment building with up to 700 units, open-air atriums, a rooftop pool and an enclosed retail corridor that looks out to a new lake.

NuStyle Development's plans to re-do CHI Creighton University Medical Center, adding a couple of floors, extending the midtown institution to 10 levels and 1 million square feet. The expansion would make the structure the metro-area's largest single building of market-rate apartments.

NuStyle officials said the redevelopment plan will cost about $90 million.

The surrounding area will include a pedestrian bridge connecting the area to the heart of the Creighton University campus, as well as trails linking to other nearby neighborhoods.

NuStyle officials say these elements — along with the 2.5-acre lake, fountain and sandy recreational area on the apartment complex site — are intended to help restore the neighborhood feel that was lost partly by Interstate construction decades ago.

"This NuStyle project is really going to serve as another great anchor to pull things together," said the company's broker, Ryan Zabrowski of Investors Realty.

City Councilman Chris Jerram said the details he's heard so far will relieve area residents.

"This has gone from a potential, 'Oh no, we're going to have this empty mausoleum,' to, 'Oh wow, we're going to have this wonderful redevelopment project,'" Jerram said. "It's transformative for that neighborhood."

Creighton's president, the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, said he is pleased with the medical center's future.

"This is a great day for Creighton and the surrounding community, especially with the wonderful connection to the nearby neighborhood that will be created with the planned construction of a pedestrian bridge."

Medical center President Kevin Nokels said construction is scheduled to begin after all patient services are relocated from the campus in June 2017.