Little Italy / Bohemia / Avanti Apartments

10TH & PIERCE STREETS

In Planning Phase

Little Italy was historically the home to the city's Italian population. Little Italy was the source for much of Omaha's bootlegging during Prohibition, many laborers for the Union Pacific railroad, and the Santa Lucia Procession, which started in 1924 and continues annually.

Little Bohemia or "Bohemia Town" is a historic neighborhood in the city. The neighborhood is bounded by South 10th Street on the east and South 16th Street on the west. Originally Little Bohemia's population was predominantly Czechoslovakian. Today, the Little Bohemia is more culturally diverse.

Avanti, the Italian word for onward or forward, is the proposed 19-unit residential community to be built on an acre currently occupied by a few boarded-up structures and lots.

The name nods to the property’s cultural roots as well as the rebirth of an urban corridor filling with new residences, restaurants and businesses.

Across 10th Street from the $7 million Avanti project site, for instance, is a future public market in an old streetcar barn, the new BLUEBARN Theatre and Boxcar 10 building that contains luxury apartments and a pizza parlor.

To the south are under-construction row houses. To the north is the former Burlington Station-turned-KETV studios and an old mail terminal being renovated to an office and retail complex.