GRETNA, Nebraska — An alternative multimillion-dollar retail and entertainment project surfaced Tuesday night as a potential lifeline for the embattled Gretna good life district once led by businessman Rod Yates. 

Drew Snyder of Woodsonia Real Estate revealed his vision to the Gretna City Council, showcasing signature features such as a 15,000-seat outdoor concert amphitheater and a multisport facility.

His hope, which was mirrored by the City Council, is to keep alive the 2,000-acre good life district designation and related state financial incentives previously approved by state officials for the creation of a unique destination.

The future of the Gretna district — the largest and most high-profile of five allowed under the state’s Good Life Transformational Projects law — has been up in the air since Yates asked to terminate his state-approved application that established the project site.

Officials at the Nebraska Department of Economic Development have given the city and other developers until Feb. 12 to submit evidence that a transformational project is still viable at the site and that the designation should not be dissolved. The district includes and surrounds Yates’ Nebraska Crossing shopping center at Interstate 80 and Highway 31.

Snyder, in partnership with Kansas City-based 635 Holdings, said he wanted to present his development and financial plan to the council before he submitted it to the DED.

His message: “State of Nebraska, don’t shut the district down. Keep this district intact, and let us move forward with these projects. Amazing things can happen.” 

‘Absolute needle-mover’

Snyder called the proposed $125 million outdoor amphitheater “an absolute needle-mover” for state tourism that would span 120 acres and host about 50 major concerts a year. 

Envisioned also across about 700 acres: a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course surrounded by housing; a St. James multisport facility, a JW Marriott hotel, a retail campus spanning 400,000 square feet and a giant Wally’s 200-pump gas station and travel center. 

Altogether, Snyder said, those pieces are projected to bring in up to about $700 million in total gross revenues a year, about 30% of that in sales from out-of-state visitors.

He expects to attract up to 7.5 million visitors annually, about 2 million of them from other states.

Tourism dollars and unique attractions are key components of good life districts and considered crucial to keeping the designation, said Gretna Mayor Mike Evans. 

While the City Council did not formally endorse the Woodsonia redevelopment plan Tuesday night, Evans said it is central to a separate package and economic development study the city will submit to the DED to prove the district is still viable and should retain its distinction.

Evans said that Woodsonia, as any other developer, would have to go through an approval process later if the district remained intact.

Moving parts

Other moving parts also could impact the future of the Gretna good life district — and possibly the three other state-approved districts in Omaha, Grand Island and Bellevue as well.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, who has raised questions about the good life district law, seeks to “reverse” the state’s sales tax diversion and clawback the public funds that had been carved out to help build out the good life districts.

Those changes, proposed in the governor’s two-year budget, would first have to be debated by the Nebraska Legislature. At least three different state lawmakers also have introduced good life district-related bills that could spur substantial changes.

Some lawmakers have criticized how the state incentive for the good life districts played out. The Legislature cut the state sales tax within approved districts from 5.5% to 2.75%, with the idea being that the difference would be recaptured to help pay for major development of the district. 

In the case of Gretna, as the process dragged on, about $2.2 million in taxes went uncollected and was essentially lost. The district did not see that money, as a special election needed to access the revenue was delayed.

City residents narrowly approved the district’s taxing authority in January. The affirmative vote allowed city officials to develop an economic development program, and the city, starting in March, will start recapturing the vacated state sales tax, Evans said Tuesday.

Yates ‘going 100 miles an hour’

Another factor in play is that Yates has not given up his pursuit of developing a mega sports-focused campus in the district that includes and surrounds his Nebraska Crossing shopping center, though he is seeking a different path and now has a slimmed down 1,000-acre version of his vision.

“We’re going 100 miles an hour,” Yates told the Nebraska Examiner on Tuesday. 

Yates said his team currently is working with State Sen. Beau Ballard of Lincoln, who has introduced legislation that provides Yates another shot at the project he has worked on for two years. 

The first phase would rise, Yates said, on property within the existing district boundaries, but it would be governed by different rules and incentives outlined in Ballard’s Legislative Bill 637, the Destination Nebraska Act.

Yates said he hadn’t heard details of other plans for the area and couldn’t comment on the possibility of co-existing with other developers in the general area.

He said he is awaiting the DED’s determination on whether to dissolve the Gretna good life district. “The more relevant question is where is the DED in all this?” said Yates.

One thing for sure, Yates said, is that his revised plan would not require approval from the City of Gretna, which rejected his earlier demands. Gretna officials said Yates’ terms were too risky for taxpayers and that he essentially wanted the city to use its power of eminent domain to forcibly acquire land from other property owners for his project.

Yates said he recently had a “town hall meeting” with property owners in his latest 1,000-acre quest, and was pleased with the reception.

Evans, on Tuesday, said there is room in the good life district for multiple developers and said he welcomes Yates to return to the negotiation table.

‘Let’s get the show on the road’

During his presentation, Snyder thanked Yates for his “vision and fortitude” that helped launch the good life district legislation.

He said his team — which has developed numerous multi-use projects in Nebraska, including the Topgolf Omaha development — already invested millions of dollars in preparing its plan and has partners and financial commitments in place. Woodsonia owns about 150 acres of the 700-acre campus it envisions. Snyder said the rest is under a contract to buy or in negotiations.

If DED gives the green light, he says, the proposed $400 million retail campus and 50,000-square-foot Wally’s gas and travel center would begin quickly. Wally’s, a national brand, is projected to pull in 2.5 million visitors a year who likely would shop and spend money at surrounding venues, Snyder said.

Anthony Montemarano, who owns a landscape company in the district boundaries, was among a few property owners who addressed the City Council. 

Montemarano said he has always been 100% supportive of seeing a transformational project rise at the site, and also was encouraged by Yates’ plan. He said he mostly wanted to understand “what was going on” and now feels like he is better informed.

“It appears as though we’re going to begin,” said Montemarano. “Let’s get the show on the road.”