Omaha voters will decide on November 3 whether to approve $155 million in general obligation bonds for a joint police and fire headquarters, a project backers say will replace aging downtown facilities with a centralized administrative campus at the Crossroads development near 72nd and Dodge streets. The measure is one of two bond questions on the ballot pushed by a campaign called Building a Better Omaha, which argues that consolidating the departments' leadership under one roof will better serve a city that has grown far beyond its old boundaries.
According to KMTV 3 News Now, Building a Better Omaha is urging voters to approve the bond, arguing that moving the police and fire departments together simply makes sense for a city that has sprawled well past its mid-20th-century footprint. The group's chair, Nate Dodge, told the station that the headquarters represents an investment that will affect generations of Omaha residents. The proposed site would centralize both departments as Omaha continues to grow. Dodge noted that in 1970, the intersection of 72nd and Dodge marked roughly the western edge of the community, a boundary Omaha has since pushed far beyond.
While the ballot question asks voters for $155 million in borrowing authority, the total estimated cost of the project is actually $181 million, with the remaining $26 million drawn from previously authorized bonding capacity, according to Building a Better Omaha. The planned 275,000-square-foot campus would sit on 3.2 acres near 74th Avenue, Cass Street, and Chicago Street, and would house more than 300 administrative and command employees from both departments, the campaign's materials state.
Why City Leaders Say the Current Buildings Won't Cut It
Omaha police and fire are currently headquartered downtown, and both departments have said they need larger buildings to keep pace with the city's growth, per KMTV 3 News Now. The downtown police headquarters at 505 S. 15th Street was built in 1970 and lacks adequate ventilation, requiring regular asbestos testing, while the original Fire Division headquarters dates to 1966, according to Nebraska Public Media.
Omaha Mayor John Ewing Jr. has described the proposed headquarters as a purely administrative space, telling reporters in July that the building would not house rescue squads or responding fire engines. “It's an office building,” Ewing said, according to KMTV 3 News Now's reporting. That framing goes to the heart of a public debate the station highlighted: whether a new administrative building can meaningfully improve public safety outcomes, even as officials frame it as an urgent infrastructure fix rather than a direct crime-fighting measure.
Choosing Crossroads Over Downtown
City officials opted to relocate the headquarters to Crossroads rather than rebuild downtown because it was cheaper, per KMTV 3 News Now. Dodge said the move could also reduce costs tied to maintaining older, inadequate buildings, and suggested that the vacated downtown police headquarters could eventually return to the tax rolls and be redeveloped near the planned streetcar line, generating new tax revenue for the city once construction is finished.
The Crossroads site sits within a far larger, more than $860 million mixed-use development at 72nd and Dodge being built by Woodbury Corporation and WRK, according to Nebraska Public Media. The land was formerly home to the 1960s-era Crossroads Mall. Nebraska Public Media also reported that Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said in August that the department had looked to build a new headquarters for 15 years, underscoring that the push predates the current bond campaign by more than a decade.
Timeline and the Rest of the Ballot
If voters approve the measure, project design would run through late 2027, with construction beginning in January 2028 and completion expected by spring 2030, Nebraska Public Media reported. The Omaha City Council formally cleared the way for the vote in August when it approved Ordinance 44779 for the public facilities bond alongside a companion parks measure, Ordinance 44780, during its August 18 meeting, according to Building a Better Omaha.
Campaign officials and city leaders maintain that neither bond will require an increase in Omaha's property tax levy, since repayment is expected to draw on unused levy capacity that voters already authorized back in 2020. Voters will also face a separate $30 million bond question on the same ballot to complete a redevelopment of Tranquility Park at 120th Street and West Maple Road, which would add 16 synthetic-turf fields. Building a Better Omaha, the private committee pushing both measures, was established by the Greater Omaha Chamber under CEO Heath Mello and is chaired by Dodge, who also leads the real estate firm NP Dodge Company.
