- Demolition has begun on a long-abandoned hotel near 108th and L Street in Omaha
- The city is spending more than $300,000 in public funds to tear down the privately owned site
- The contractor expects the site to be completely demolished by the end of June
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) – After years of waiting, this abandoned hotel site near 108th and L is finally seeing demolition work begin. I'm Jeremy Fredricks speaking with neighbors who tell me they've been looking forward to this.
Shane Nixon lives near the abandoned hotel. He tells me that he avoids having to look at it.
"If I didn't feel like really wanting to look at the building itself, I would take the long way around and enjoy the scenic route," Nixon said.
But despite his aversion, Nixon agreed to walk with me to the site. That's because demolition began on Saturday.
"Here we are seeing it," 3 News Now's Jeremy Fredricks said.
"Yes, it's crazy looking at it now and knowing that eventually the building will be completely leveled," Nixon said.
Nixon tells me that he's been waiting for this moment since he moved here more than a year and a half years ago.
It's been kind of an eyesore," Nixon said.
3 News Now has been covering this site for years. The site is owned by Newport Blue Impact, which had fought the city's attempts to tear down the site until the Omaha City Council agreed to spend more than $300,000 of its own money to demolish it.
I spoke on the phone with Rick Shurts, who heads the company in charge of the demolition. He tells me that he plans to work Monday through Saturday from about 8 in the morning until 6 or 7 o'clock at night. That's until it's gone.
When it's finally leveled, neighbors believe the area will improve. Matthew Ellis says that he won't walk his dog Rex around the area at night.
"You don't go that way because there's always a chance of running into a vagrant or an unknown, unsafe experience," Ellis said.
From Jared Meisinger's patio, he can see the hotel, peeking over the fence. He tells me that he's looking forward to the day when he won't see that.
"Yes, that'd be a big relief, um, big thing I don't have to kind of look at anymore," Meisinger said.
Shurts tells me that he expects by the end of June, the rest of the site will look like this, completely demolished.
