Push on to find owner for landmark building

There's a new push to find a buyer for the former Northern Natural Gas headquarters at 2223 Dodge St., a structure that is both a problem that needs solving and an asset for a city that loves corporate expansion.

Currently the largest vacant office building in Nebraska, it's in immaculate condition, said James Fitl, president of Mid City Bank of Omaha, the owner.

With more than four football fields' worth of usable space, plenty of off-street parking and nearly four acres of land, the building carries a $10.95 million price tag, reduced by $1 million over the past year and less than its purchase price of 20 years ago.

Clients looking for large office space in the Midwest have visited the building in recent years, said Rod Moseman, a vice president with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

“It's a resource that perhaps competing cities don't have,” Moseman said. “It's an important part of our inventory, and having an inventory is a plus for the area.”

The 15-story building overlooks Joslyn Art Museum's new sculpture garden and Creighton University to the north, the Midtown Crossing development to the west and, to the east, the Missouri River and the central business district.

From some offices, you'd be able to watch the 2011 College World Series, although you'd need a good telescope to see who's on first.

“I think it's the greatest view in town,” said John Lund, whose Lund Co. real estate firm is listing the building. “This is a very big deal for Omaha. This is a large asset in a very significant corridor, Dodge Street. It's a landmark building.”

It's ready for occupancy almost immediately, Lund said.

Constructing an equivalent building might cost $40 million and take at least two years. An appraisal once put its value at $19 million if it were filled with tenants.

Lund said the silver trim and boxy style are in vogue again. “It's stately. It's retro.”

Preservation officials are reviewing an application to list the building, designed by the John Latenser & Sons architecture firm of Omaha, on the National Register of Historic Places. The designation would help it qualify for tax incentives and other benefits.

Workers recently removed the last bits of asbestos from the building, Lund said, so it's free from the insulation material that was widely used at the time of construction but later deemed a health hazard.

There's a fully equipped cafeteria on the sixth floor, and 200 of the parking spots are covered. The top two floors, where executives once presided over more than 2,000 high-salaried engineers and other employees, are linked by a spiral staircase.

Northern Natural was one of Omaha's flagship corporations, the headquarters of a multistate pipeline system that transported natural gas from the South and Canada into northern U.S. markets. Its CEOs were community leaders, and its jobs were highly coveted.

Northern occupied the structure until the 1980s, when the company was renamed InterNorth Inc. and built a new headquarters a block west and across Dodge Street, now occupied by Physicians Mutual Insurance Co.

In 1984 InterNorth acquired Houston Natural Gas Co., whose CEO, the late Kenneth Lay, became InterNorth's CEO and led an internal transfer of control to Texas interests.

The company renamed itself Enron Corp. and moved nearly all of its jobs to Houston.

Enron collapsed amid a financial scandal in 2001. In 2002, Northern Natural was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s MidAmerican Energy Holdings division and now has offices at 103rd and Pacific Streets.

First National Bank, meanwhile, leased much of the old Northern Natural building for its growing credit card business. First National moved out when it completed its office tower at 16th and Dodge Streets in 2002.

“They left it in pristine condition, and it still is,” Lund said of the bank tenants. “It just needs someone who wants to be there on a daily basis and conduct their business there.”

Mid City Bank, which had financed an earlier purchase of the building, bought it in 2001 at a sheriff's auction for $11.8 million and has carried the building on its books ever since.

Fitl, the bank president, said several potential buyers have contacted him over the years, and he's talking with two prospects now.

“It looks pretty good,” he said.

Lund said the building could be owned and occupied by a single business or purchased by investors and leased to a single tenant or several medium-size tenants. There's a study under way to see if the building could be used for residences or a mixture of offices and residences.

One evening last winter, the building's exterior was lit for a potential buyer. Lund's office got a spate of calls from people who saw it and wondered what was happening, an indication, he said, of the high level of interest in seeing the building put to good use.

“Everybody realizes this is a great building in a great part of Omaha.”

Contact the writer:

444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com