GRETNA, Nebraska — The man behind the Gretna area’s “Good Life District” said Friday that his $5 billion vision has grown to 4,500 acres, has a name now and could become a place where youth sports meets Disneyland.

If Rod Yates’ plan materializes, the site between the state’s two biggest cities would have indoor surfing, sky-diving, rock-climbing, horseback riding and more.

Collegiate Crossing, as it is to be called, would feature year-round athletic academies where high-schoolers train, live and attract college recruiters. That’s on top of professional sports teams and new-to-market retailers that would settle on the campus near Interstate 80 and Highway 31.

Yates told the Nebraska Examiner that his idea has grown so big that it’s probably beyond a partnership with the City of Gretna. To nudge the project along, he wants to team up instead with a larger governmental entity such as the State of Nebraska.

“It’s just too big, too massive, too much for any town or community to take on,” he said. “It’s taking too long … and it’s massively unfair to burden the city with this size of a project.”

Yates, owner of Nebraska Crossing outlets, talked about his latest strategy following the public release Thursday of documents that revealed the City of Gretna’s apprehension about “terms” that Yates wants the Gretna City Council to approve on Tuesday.

Advisers to the city, which would annex the district that is now mostly unincorporated agricultural land, have recommended against moving forward under the terms laid out by Yates’ team.

City administrator Paula Dennison, in a report to the council, said the staff was excited to continue to work on ways “to bring transformational development to Gretna” via the Good Life District legislation. But she said the current demands by Yates lacked detail and were not in the best interests of Gretna taxpayers.

Gretna Mayor Mike Evans stressed Friday that the city is supportive of the “Good Life District and the vision of Rod.” He said, “Our advisers’ and staff’s concerns are more with the terms.”

Read The Room

Yates said that he could tell for a while — by “reading the room” — that Gretna officials were uncomfortable with the scope and “responsibility for a project like this.”

“My fear always was I always had a big vision. I knew this thing could be bigger than Legends in Kansas City. I always felt the way it should be done is that it should go through the state because this is a state development. The Good Life bill is all about the state.”

Among his next steps, Yates said, is to request a change in state law that would allow his team to work with a county or state government, instead of Gretna, to access economic development incentives available to Good Life Districts.

Under the Good Life law, the state sales tax rate within a state-designated Good Life District is reduced from 5.5% to 2.75% — with the intention being that the difference in state revenue be used instead to help develop the district.

Yates said a governmental entity is needed as a “pass-through” to recapture that eliminated state revenue and direct it toward district development efforts, likely in the form of a local occupation tax or sales tax.

“We don’t have a partner yet. So it’s kinda just been frozen in no-man’s land,” he said.

Meanwhile, the state sales tax rate within that district’s boundaries has been cut in half since April. “We’re giving up millions of dollars and nothing is happening,” he said.

A document laying out Yates’ terms for the Collegiate Crossing project was forwarded to the Gretna City Council with signatures from Gov. Jim Pillen and K.C. Belitz, director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, as well as Yates, the master developer of the Good Life District that the DED approved in February.

Pillen spokeswoman Laura Strimple said Friday that the “term sheet” was reviewed by the DED and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office and “is a mechanism for demonstrating strong public support for the project.”

“It is up to local elected leaders in Gretna if they wish to join in that support, and the governor hopes all stakeholders engage in good faith for the benefit of the community,” she said.

Asked if Pillen would back a Yates-driven legislation change to allow a partnership with the state rather than Gretna, Strimple said Pillen’s staff is not currently reviewing any such proposals.

Yates said members of his team would be at Tuesday’s Gretna City Council meeting, and he hasn’t totally ruled out a partnership. “I don’t want to close any doors,” he said.

Reaction ‘Unbelievable’

Meanwhile, he said, his team has been marketing Collegiate Crossing to prospective tenants. He said the proposed area he’d like to develop has expanded, with demand from potential tenants, from an initial 2,000 acres to 4,500 acres. Yates does not own all that land, though. He said he has preliminary agreements to purchase about 1,000 acres.

Gretna officials have talked to at least one other property owner within the district boundaries who has development ideas for a sizable portion.

“The reaction to this project has been unbelievable,” said Yates. “We’ve got brands from three continents that are going to build in Nebraska — how cool is that?”

There has been a setback in his pursuit of the USA Volleyball’s training center for its Olympic team. Yates said previously he was close to a deal. But the USA Volleyball top official that Yates said he had been working with shifted positions, and Yates said he has to start discussions with his replacement.

Yates revisited the purpose behind the Good Life legislation that he inspired. It must meet certain requirements, investment and bring “transformational” new industry, retailers and tourism to the state.

He said his efforts to do that have only grown.

“Collegiate Crossing — it’s going to be the new front door to Nebraska,” he said.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/11/02/yates-thinks-his-5b-good-life-di...