Omaha streetcar delay drags on; businesses form alliance to seek city help
The Omaha streetcar project is now nearly two years behind schedule, and business owners and residents say the extended construction has started to threaten their ability to stay open. They pointed to noise, dust, and road closures tied to the project, and they said the economic hit is lasting longer than expected as the streetcar’s completion date moves toward 2028.
At an information session in January, about 20 neighborhood business owners and residents asked city officials questions about what the “heaviest construction year” would mean for the Capitol District and downtown. Among the concerns raised were how traffic and pedestrian access would work when streets close, and how much longer businesses would have to endure disruption.
In the hotel conference-room discussion, Connie Winkler said she had had enough of the delays, torn-up streets, and restaurant closures in her neighborhood, and she told city officials she might not live to see the project finish. Organizers say two years of construction have disrupted lives and livelihoods for workers and residents across downtown and midtown, with business owners describing plummeting sales for restaurants and bars along the route.
City officials involved with the project have pointed to disputes with the Metropolitan Utilities District, according to the reporting. The city said MUD caused about a year of delay by demanding extra work on water and gas infrastructure at the city’s expense, while MUD leaders said their utility work did not increase in scope and that they had tried to accommodate an aggressive streetcar schedule while protecting ratepayers.
As the timeline stretches, affected businesses are banding together. A new Streetcar Impact Alliance of streetcar-impacted business owners met for the first time Monday and compiled demands to take to City Hall, including a push for a direct grant fund, targeted tax breaks, and free parking along the route, organizers said.
Some businesses described steep sales declines tied to access problems and construction obstacles. Addy’s Sports Bar and Grill, for example, said its downtown location is down about $300,000 in sales and has fewer servers since heavy construction picked up, and the owner Tim Addison said even crowds for events such as Creighton basketball games and pro volleyball matches have fallen to “less than half a crowd.” Addison also said the restaurant must contend with a block-long strip of missing road and orange barricades at its 10th Street front door.
The reporting also described what officials say is the deeper source of the delay: a months-long dispute over which utility work MUD should perform and who should pay for it. The two agencies previously brokered an agreement under which MUD would pay $7.6 million for upgrades to its water and gas infrastructure under the track, while the streetcar authority would cover the rest with bond revenue. City Public Works Director Bob Stubbe said later months saw MUD add more extensive and expensive work to the scope, including extending replacement farther away from the rails than the original agreement contemplated.
The conflict also included disputes over replacement of a 48-inch water main under Turner Boulevard. A deputy city attorney wrote that the city needed to ensure the district did not continue engineering additional expenses that would affect the schedule, describing the project as already almost a year behind and noting that only utility work had been done to date. MUD’s cost cap position was also described in the reporting, with MUD saying it would not pay more than the $7.6 million amount it negotiated to limit ratepayer impacts.
MUD and city leaders each blamed different factors for the lag. MUD President Mark Doyle said the utility’s scope did not increase and said the Turner Boulevard water main needed replacement because the city chose to work on a sewer near it, while MUD attorney Mark Mendenhall denied in emails that the utility had added unnecessary work and characterized the city’s allegations as a distraction from the cost cap. Doyle also said delays tied to a stoppage in May were the city’s responsibility, after MUD pulled one of its two gas crews along the route on May 13 and the sides later settled on a payment process in July.
The reporting described how former Mayor Jean Stothert and city officials disagreed on the delay’s extent, with Stothert saying it made sense to do some extra utility work to prevent large water or gas mains from breaking under the streetcar but that MUD kept leveraging the city for more work and money. Stothert said MUD bore primary responsibility for nearly two years of delay, while Stubbe put the figure at around a year, and Doyle strongly denied MUD caused any delays.
In city leadership, Mayor John Ewing said discussions about extending the streetcar timeline emerged soon after he took office and that he pushed back against a 2029 target. Ewing said weeks into his term the city agreed to cover a $5.3 million water main replacement on Turner Boulevard, and city and MUD leaders now meet regularly and have a working relationship, Ewing and Doyle said.
Business owners said the latest efforts to mitigate disruption have not been enough to keep them afloat. Clark Ross, who owns Mercury bar, said sales at his bar fell 20% last year and that he had to lay off staff, and he described the construction as injuring his business while the city did not offer comparable relief. Ross launched the Streetcar Impact Alliance this month after describing the project as having hit businesses “like another pandemic,” and he said his group would try to move from “impacted to organized.”
Other businesses described access problems as key drivers. At Long Dog Fat Cat in Midtown Crossing, manager Justin Domina said sales fell 18% last year and that poor access to parking was the main driver, adding that the store’s lease ends in 2027. At Nosh Restaurant and Wine Lounge, the new owner Jamie Costine said construction complications affected the restaurant’s first year, including losing water for multiple lunch services after crews broke a water line and dealing with a dumpster placed in front of the restaurant during the holidays.
Omaha officials have highlighted efforts that range from running Ollie the Trolley to distributing “passport” booklets encouraging visits to impacted businesses. The reporting also said the Greater Omaha Chamber distributed $1 million from an anonymous donor to businesses in Blackstone and Midtown Crossing, and that a spokesman declined to detail the source of the money, how much individual businesses received, or how the funds were allocated.
Ewing said he understood the frustration but said the city’s ability to respond is constrained, including by legality around providing funds to private businesses. He said his goal was to help businesses survive to benefit from a completed streetcar, while the alliance’s organizers said they want the city to provide financial support that could prevent more closures before the line opens in 2028.
The streetcar’s delay has also affected how optimistic owners feel about whether the project will improve their business. Addison said he wants the streetcar to succeed but that uncertainty about when it will open makes it difficult to plan, and he said the prospect of putting so many livelihoods on the line for a hope about completion “scares the hell out of me.”