Sitting at 72nd and Dodge Street is 40 acres of dirt – an eyesore for the average Omahan commuter. 

The Crossroads, a mall and living center similar to an Aksarben and Village Pointe combination, was originally set to be done in late 2024 or early 2025. However, little progress has been made visually, other than mounds of piled-up dirt. 

The Register reached out to Lockwood Developments and the City of Omaha to determine if construction will be finished within the 2024-2025 timeframe, but they did not respond. In the Omaha Daily Record, they relay that the completion of The Crossroads is projected to be in 2027. 

Additionally, the price to revamp The Crossroads has grown to $862 million. Originally, the project was going to cost $553.8 million. The majority of this increase in funds is for the demolishing of the garage in the northeast corner of the property, which could fulfill the parking needs the city wants on the property but does not fit the “aesthetics,” City Council President Pete Festersen told the Omaha World-Herald.  

The Crossroads is also being paid for through tax increment financing (TIF); this is a redevelopment tool created by the Legislature in the 1980s. Normally, tax payments go to help maintain schools and other public organizations that rely on tax increments for funding. TIF redistributes tax funding to help pay for other projects. 

Once The Crossroads finally does see its completion, Central students and the community will benefit from this new area to hang out with friends and family. The delay in the production of The Crossroads makes it so that current high school students at Central will not be able to experience this mall and area to hang out during their high school career, but students in high school in 2027 and 2028 will hopefully find this place to be somewhere where they can hang out and interact with their community.