Most Lincoln shopping centers from 1966 get bulldozed. Meadowlane's is getting resurfaced. That single decision, made official when the City Council voted to declare the property blighted and substandard so its owner could tap tax-increment financing, is the reason your summer here still looks like your last one, only tidier. If you have lived in Meadowlane for a while, this is the season to pay attention. The bones of the neighborhood you chose are being reinforced, not replaced.
What the vote at 70th and Vine actually means
Hampton Enterprises owns the roughly 67,000-square-foot Meadowlane Shopping Center at 70th and Vine and has been planning what a Journal Star reporter described as a face-lift for a few years now. The proposed work is modest and cosmetic: resurfacing of columns and exterior walls, repairs to the roof, new signage and improved lighting. The price tag runs more than $1 million on mostly exterior upgrades to the roughly 67,000-square-foot center, most of which was built in 1966.
Getting there required a paperwork step that unsettled a lot of longtime neighbors. The City Council approved a request from the city to declare the Meadowlane Shopping Center blighted, a necessary step to get tax-increment financing to help pay for renovations. Councilman Bennie Shobe put it plainly at the hearing, calling "blighted" "one of those incendiary words" that conjures fears of tanking property values, but it's a tool that has the opposite effect. The city's redevelopment plan lays out the technical case: all three structures in the Area are 40+ years of age. The average age of commercial structures in the Area is an estimated 52 years.
The part that produced about two dozen letters of opposition from nearby residents was not the strip mall work itself. It was a footnote about the Phillips 66 on the corner. Consultants floated apartments as a possible future use for that parcel, and neighbors read it as a plan. It is not. Hampton does not own the site, and the property was included in the redevelopment area so that it would qualify for TIF if the owner, Whitehead Oil, sought to redevelop the site in the future. Translation for the porch conversation: nothing is happening to the gas station right now. The visible change this summer is paint, roofing, and signage on the L-shaped center itself.
Who you are actually walking to
The tenant list that will benefit from the exterior refresh is the reason the walk from Meadowlane Drive to 70th Street still makes sense as a weekly habit. A quick reference:
| Storefront | What it is | Why it stays on the list |
|---|---|---|
| Honest Abe's Burgers | Burger counter | The Meadowlane location of the local chain |
| Great Wall | Sit-down Chinese | Been there long enough your parents remember it |
| Lincoln Vintage Vinyl | Records and stereo repair | In addition to selling vinyl records, they buy, sell and service stereo equipment. |
| Ace Hardware | Neighborhood hardware | The reason you do not drive to Menards on a Saturday |
| Randy's Roundhouse Train Store | Model trains | Genuinely uncommon anywhere else in Lincoln |
| Franklin's Treasures and Treats | Candy and gifts | Franklin's Treasures and Treats sells a variety of toys and gift items. |
| Set the Bar Fitness and Nutrition | Small-group training gym | Local trainers, functional workouts |
| Scoops | Ice cream | Newer; opened in the center |
| Sower Books | Independent bookstore | See below |
When Scoops opened, its owner Mike Bretta told the Journal Star that the property manager told him when he signed the lease that Hampton was planning on doing some upgrades aimed at "sprucing the place up and making it look nice." That was the tenant's read on the same news the neighborhood was arguing about. Worth remembering when the scaffolding goes up.
The Sower Books factor
The single most interesting thing to happen to the shopping center in the last two years is not the TIF vote. It is the arrival of a small independent bookstore in a strip mall that most people had written off as a 1960s time capsule. Sower Books opened at 914 70th St. in the Meadowlane Shopping Center, run by owner Tory Hall. The store, in the Meadowlane Shopping Center, also sells artwork made by local creators, postcards and toys. The name pulls double duty: the name "Sower Books" was inspired by the Nebraska State Capitol's iconic sower statue and Octavia Butler's dystopian novel "Parable of the Sower."
Read the tenant mix in order and a pattern shows up. Records, a train store, a bookstore, a candy shop, a hardware store, a gym, an ice cream counter. This is not a food-court strip. It is a bench of small owner-operators who chose a 1966 center over a newer power center farther east. The exterior work is aimed at keeping them there. Ann Post, the attorney representing Hampton, told the Council the point of the redevelopment is to keep tenants in the shopping center.
Dinner within a mile
If you widen the walk to a fifteen-minute one, the neighborhood dining map covers most of what a summer week asks for. Lincoln's tourism office rounds it up plainly: Meadowlane offers a wide array of cuisine, from scrumptious baked delicacies at Le Quartier, savory Kansas City style barbeque at Phat Jack's BBQ, to plant-inspired comfort food at Rutabagas. Cosmic Eye Brewing sits in the same orbit for a slow Friday.
A useful thing to notice this summer: the vintage record store, the bookstore, the bakery, and the brewery are all within the same short drive, and none of them are chains. That is not the default for a mid-century Lincoln neighborhood. It is a choice the tenants and their landlord are actively defending.
The Holmes Lake half of the routine
The other anchor of a Meadowlane summer sits south down 70th Street. Holmes Lake Park is a regional park located off South 70th Streets and Pioneers Boulevard. Various shelters, ballfields, playground, and nearby Holmes Golf Course and Hyde Observatory. The lake itself is not permitted for motorboats. However, nonmotorized boats like canoes, kayaks, sailboats, and windsurfers are allowed. That single rule is why the water looks the way it does on a July evening.
A few things to file for the season:
- The paved multi-use loop is the workhorse. Walkers, cyclists, and inline skaters share it, and a pedestrian bridge on the west side extends the route across the lake.
- The Hyde Memorial Observatory hosts free public viewing. Its winter hours run Saturday evenings from 7 to 10 p.m. from November through March, which means summer nights currently rely on posted event dates rather than a standing weekly window. Check before you drive over.
- Nebraska Game and Parks runs periodic Community Fishing Night events at Holmes Lake, hosted by Nebraska Game and Parks, held at venues across the state each spring and summer. Loaner rods, bait, and instruction are free.
The park's man-made lake is the center feature of Holmes Park and is a Lincoln favorite for non-motorized boating, picnicking, and fishing. None of this is news. What is worth naming is the walking distance. A Meadowlane resident can leave the porch, cover the Meadowlane Shopping Center errands, sit on a bench at Holmes Lake, and be home before the ice cream melts on a summer Saturday. Very few Lincoln neighborhoods offer that geometry.
One thing to notice if you have lived here a while
The blight designation was decided in a Council chamber, but the reason it matters is a pattern you can see from your front step. Neighborhoods with 1960s commercial spines usually go one of two ways. The center gets replaced with a bigger, newer format aimed at drive-in traffic from farther out, or the center goes dark. Meadowlane's is doing neither. The tenants are largely independent. The renovation is cosmetic and additive. A new bookstore chose the address in the last two years. A new ice cream shop signed a lease on the promise of the same facelift the neighborhood spent letters worrying about.
If you own a home here, this is the summer to walk the block you have not walked in a while. The exterior work will change what your Saturday errand loop looks like for years. It is worth seeing what it looked like before.
When you are ready to talk about your own place inside all of this, Selling Sisters is a phone call away. Schedule a consultation and we will meet you at the porch.
