Two separate developers. Two separate proposals. One community caught in the middle, being taxed for its own displacement.
An existing Business Improvement District controlled by a developer who lives in Bennington. Local businesses are legally required to fund it. No community representation, no transparency, no accountability.
Read moreDeveloper Mitch Hohlen of Woodsonia is seeking $21 million in public TIF and EEA subsidies to demolish seven businesses at Saddle Creek Plaza for luxury apartments. No affordable housing. Final hearing June 2.
Read moreThe two projects sit at opposite ends of N Saddle Creek Road, roughly half a mile apart, squeezing the corridor from both directions.
| North end: N. Saddle Creek BID1501 N Saddle Creek Rd — Sgt. Peffer's, Global Foods, Auction Mill, and neighboring businesses | South end: Family Fare / Saddle Creek Plaza820 N Saddle Creek Rd at 46th & Cuming — seven businesses and refugee services |
Final hearing June 2. Once construction begins, these businesses will be displaced.
The Family Fare lot at the south end of the Saddle Creek corridor is at the center of the Saddle Creek Marketplace proposal: 223 luxury apartments and 67,000 square feet of retail, developed by Mitch Hohlen of Woodsonia. The developer is seeking $9 million in Tax Increment Financing and $12 million in Enhanced Employment Area designation, an occupation tax, totaling $21 million in public subsidy on a $110 million project. There is no affordable housing in the proposal.
The developer is not paying for this out of pocket. The Omaha community subsidizes the destruction of businesses that have served this neighborhood for years. Parts of our neighborhood carry a HUD food desert designation. Family Fare is one of the only grocery stores serving this community. The people being displaced help fund the mechanism of their own displacement.
Hearings: May 21 and June 2. The May 21 hearing is on the TIF and EEA agreements. June 2 is the final vote. After that, construction can begin.
Mayor Ewing can veto this deal or require that it include the community benefits Begley and Festersen promised us: affordable housing, food access, relocation support for displaced businesses. Email the mayor and council now.
Tax Increment Financing and Enhanced Employment Area designation redirect future tax revenue away from public services, schools, and infrastructure, and toward subsidizing a private development project. These are new taxes on the area that the community did not ask for and was not consulted about. They benefit one developer. The neighborhood pays.
Our coalition met directly with Council Members Pete Festersen and Danny Begley before the votes. They told us they would try to include affordable housing units, food access requirements, and business relocation support in the TIF agreement. None of it appeared in the final agreement. What did appear was a new provision preventing renters in the affected area from contesting property tax increases. They did not try. They made it worse.
The loss of these businesses is not abstract. Family Fare is one of the only accessible grocery stores in an area already facing food access challenges. The other businesses provide culturally relevant foods and services that many neighbors cannot access elsewhere.
Omaha Center for Refugee and Immigrant Services: this organization provides essential support for immigrant and refugee neighbors. It exists in this community because this community needs it.
Our position: We oppose this proposal in its current form. No public tax incentives should subsidize the demolition of functioning community businesses in an area facing food access challenges. We support intentional, community-led development that solves real problems rather than creating new ones. We are calling on every city council member to vote NO on June 2.
An existing Business Improvement District that has operated without community input since its creation.
The N. Saddle Creek Business Improvement District was created without meaningful input from the longstanding local family businesses and residents it claims to serve. It is led by a developer who lives in Bennington, not in Saddle Creek, and who stands to gain financially from the decisions the BID makes. His wife, his tenant, and one other absentee property owner complete the leadership. That fourth member has left her building in the corridor to deteriorate for over ten years and stands to benefit financially from the TIF designation. There is no authentic local representation — only people who profit from the BID's existence.
Grammercy Park Collective, formed in 2022 specifically because residents had no other avenue to oppose this development.
The BID developer and his wife also own multiple vacant and deteriorated lots in the corridor. Her business has been vacant for over two years. That vacancy and deterioration helps qualify the area for Tax Increment Financing. In plain terms: the BID leadership is deliberately holding properties in disrepair in order to qualify for public subsidies they then receive. This is what it looks like to be taxed for your own displacement.
Multiple ordinances affecting this corridor were introduced by Council Member Pete Festersen and advanced while the mayor was out of town, signed off by the council president rather than subject to normal mayoral review. The council president at the time was Festersen himself. His successor, Danny Begley, has continued to approve decisions despite documented neighborhood opposition.
On his campaign website, Pete Festersen says he has "renovated the Benson, Dundee and Florence Neighborhood Business Districts and will complete North Saddle Creek this year." He lists North Saddle Creek as an accomplishment. He also claims to have "cut property taxes" — while average residential property taxes in Omaha have increased 30 to 40 percent under his leadership. The cuts he references have disproportionately benefited corporate real estate owners, not residents or small businesses.
Completing North Saddle Creek, in practice, has meant a BID controlled by an outside developer, mandatory assessments with no accountability, a public road closed for private gain, and ordinances advanced while the mayor was out of town. That is the record behind the claim.
Our position: The N. Saddle Creek BID should be dissolved. Local businesses are required by law to fund it and have received nothing in return except disruption and exclusion. Any future district must have genuine community governance, transparent finances, and leadership that actually lives and works in Saddle Creek.
Local journalists have covered this story. Read what they found.
These are two separate developers and two separate proposals. But they share a structure: public money, tax incentives, and mandatory assessments are being used to subsidize private development that displaces the existing community rather than serving it.
At the north end, a developer controls the BID, collects assessments from local businesses, and uses the resulting influence and public tools to advance his own interests. At the south end, a different developer proposes to use $21 million in public subsidies to demolish seven businesses for luxury apartments that the existing community cannot afford.
Together, these two projects are closing in on Saddle Creek from both ends. The corridor is being remade, not for the people who live and work here, but for those who see profit.
Every neighbor who shops at Family Fare, eats at Tawakal or China Buffet, relies on Global Foods for cultural groceries, or depends on the refugee services in that strip mall is affected by this. When those businesses close, the people who used them do not automatically find alternatives. Parts of our neighborhood already face food access challenges. Losing Family Fare and the cultural food businesses around it makes that worse, not better, for everyone who lives here.
The loss of affordable housing is a loss for the whole city. The corruption of public tax tools into private subsidy machines is a loss for every taxpayer. This is everyone's fight.
We are for intentional, community-led development that solves real problems. We are for investment that serves the people already here. We are for a Saddle Creek where neighbors have access to food, opportunity, and the institutions that reflect who they are.
Public roads stay public. Tax dollars serve the public. Development decisions include the public. Saddle Creek runs deep. We will not pay for our own displacement.
Email city council, attend the hearing, and help us stop the demolition of seven Saddle Creek businesses.