Gold’s Building demolition process underway

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The future of the Gold’s Building in downtown Lincoln has been uncertain for years, but now it’s showing physical signs of progress in the form of demolition.

A busy bus station right outside means lots of eyes have been peering in as that demolition gets underway. With broken windows and piles of materials inside, despite the looks, developers say that’s just part of the plan.

“We’re doing selective demolition in this northeast corner but very little in this northeast corner most of it is happening on the south side and that entire southside building will come down here in the next 90 days,” said Mike Works, the owner of the building.

Right now, demolition is in the first phase on the northern side of the building. The plan is to create a Hampton Inn with over 100 hotel rooms. The other space on that side, which makes up six stories, Works said they hope to fill with shops and restaurants.

“On the first floor we have 20-foot ceilings and huge space for restaurants and retail and that’s really what we think and hope will happen our timing is we’ll start construction on this building sometime in the fall of 2022,” Works said.

Some other sections of the building are set to fully come down but they aren’t ready to say yet what the plan is for that south side.

“What we’re putting there will be a much larger, much more impressive building that we’re excited to unveil but we can’t quite do it yet,” Works said.

At nearly 100 years old, the building is ingrained into the downtown skyline and Works said keeping some of that iconic architecture is important in this redevelopment.

“It’s obviously a historical and beautiful building we kept what we think and what most people think is the very attractive portion of the building which is the six-story piece that was the original building, built back in 1924,” Works said.

In total, the first phase is slated to cost about $24 million. The second developers said they hope to roll out the plans in the coming months.

Copyright 2022 KOLN. All rights reserved.