Mayor Steele provides update on negotiations with Woodsonia regarding Good Life District

See the complete press conference here.

GRAND ISLAND — Mayor Roger Steele provided an update on the negotiations with Woodsonia Real Estate regarding the Good Life District.

In August 2024, Mayor Roger Steele said Grand Island was the first community in the state to approve a Good Life program. Only five are available in the state, through the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

In the August 2024 public vote about the Good Life District project, 5,044 people voted for the program, and 2,415 people voted against it.

After the Dec. 9, 2025, Grand Island City Council meeting, it appeared that Woodsonia Real Estate was a few months away from launching its work on the Good Life District Veteran’s Village project.

However, city began seeking requests for proposals (RFPs) for the project. The City Council has not publicly discussed the Good Life District project since the Dec. 9 meeting.

Spencer Schubert, Communications Manager for the city, issued a statement from the city in the evening on April 7 regarding the city’s work with Woodsonia Real Estate.

“At this time, the city is unable to provide public comment regarding Woodsonia or any related matters due to active Request for Proposals (RFP) processes. As outlined in the City’s procurement policy, we do not comment publicly on open RFPs to ensure the integrity and fairness of the process,” the statement from the city said.

Mitch Hohlen, Director of Development with Woodsonia Real Estate, commented April 8 about the project.

Hohlen said that Woodsonia Real Estate thought that the city was ready to proceed working with Woodsonia Real Estate after the Dec. 9, 2025, City Council meeting.

Hohlen said that the last that Woodsonia Real Estate heard from the city was at the end of February. He believes that the status with Woodsonia Real Estate was discussed in March City Council executive session. At the end of March, the city notified Woodsonia Real Estate that it would not discuss the Good Life District project with Woodsonia, Hohlen said.

Mayor Steele held a press conference on Wednesday, April 22 to provide an update on the Good Life District and ongoing negotiations with Woodsonia.

Steele said he wanted to clear up misconceptions to make sure factual information was available to the citizens of Grand Island.

Steele said he was contacted three years ago by Woodsoina if they would gift the former veterans home property to them for development. Steele said this was not possible as the law requires fair market value for the land.

Steele said they have engaged in hours of negotiations with Woodsonia and engaged with numerous outside experts to assist them. Steele said that throughout the negotiations, Woodsonia would raise the prospect of the city gifting them the land or giving them the money to acquire it.

“This request was always refused,” Steele said.

Last fall, Steele said he asked for Woodsonia’s “best and final offer,” which was delivered to the Grand Island City Council. He said by this point he felt that negotiations were “wasting time.”

After December 2025, Steele said city legal counsel advised they felt the negotiations were going backwards. Steele said they were actively negotiating with Woodsonia up until March.

Woodsonia submitted their new “best and final offer” and was received by the city on March 5. In this offer, they proposed one dollar for 150 acres of land, Steele said.

“An offer of one dollar for the city’s land is ridiculous,” he said.

City staff met with Woodsonia on March 25 and informed them that their final offer did not meet the standards set out by Good Life District program, the law or the authority given out by the city council. Steele said they did not have the authority to accept their March 5 offer.

“So, the city is moving forward to build city infrastructure, including dirt work, the sports complex and the aquatic center, these are all city owned projects,” Steele said.

Moving forward with these city projects, the city sought requests for RFPs and were bound by the ethics rules of opening bidding and the city would not take any actions to give an advantage to any one bidder.

The final date to receive bid dates for the RFPs is May 6.

 After the March 25 meeting, Steele said Woodsonia replaced their March 5 offer with another new proposal which they asked to present directly to the city council, this updated proposal was received on April 5.

In the April 5 proposal, Woodsonia offered $10,000 per acre for the city’s land.

“I am happy to know Woodsonia has made an offer for the land that is plausible. I am convinced that we have a serious offer, because on March 25 I told Woodsonia we were moving forward with the project,” Steele said.

However, Steele noted that Woodsonia’s best and final offers have usually meant that things move forward for awhile and then regress. “These tactics have prevented more productive negotiations,” he said.

Steele did note that in the April 5 proposal, Woodsonia contains “provisions that could kill the city’s development of the Good Life district and leave the citizens with no remedy and no development – no sports complex, no aquatic center and no money in the bank for development.”

Steele said one provision in the proposal would give Woodsonia the right to terminate all agreements with the city while still keeping all of the land and $10 million in cash payment before a single structure has been built.

“That is not acceptable,” Steele said.

Steele said the city council is set to discuss Woodsonia’s April 5 offer at their regular meeting on Tuesday, May 12.

It was noted that the Nebraska Department of Revenue has taken over the collection of Good Life funds and revenue has become inconsistent. This has reduced the city’s bonding capacity and it may take a year to see how the revenue collections stabilize.

The drop off in revenue collected by the state has prevented the city from meeting some of Woodsonia’s funding requests, Steele said.

“We have encountered a lot of delay during our negotiations with Woodsonia, but we must deliver progress to the citizens. Consider the fact that Kearney already has buildings in its Good Life district and Bellevue broke ground in its (Good Life) district over one year ago,” Steele said.

“Our negations are making us lag behind, we are talking when we should be building,” Steele said.

Steele said that his preference was that any negotiations take place in opening meetings of the city council so that there are no misconceptions.

 Mitch Hohlen, Director of Development with Woodsonia Real Estate, was present at the press conference and said he felt that some of Steele’s comments were not accurate.

Hohlen said that he felt the process had not been fully transparent and asked Steele what he could commit to.

Steele restated his preference to negotiate in opening meetings, but there are times where the council must meet in closed executive sessions, such as in the case of real estate negotiations.

He said the council would discuss Woodsonia’s latest offer at their May 12 meeting.