Local property developers Robert and Will Scott won two of the Downtown Lincoln Association’s Downtown Impact Awards at DLA’S annual meeting and awards luncheon Tuesday.   

The 34-year-old Scott twins were named on a third of the nominating ballots submitted, and in four categories, said Polly McMullen, presidetn of the association.  

The Scotts won in a new award category, the Downtown Young Entrepreneur Award for their redevelopment work.

Their projects include the AR720 Building at Seventh and O streets, the McElvie Building at 14th and P and the City Bank & Trust at 10th and P.  They are developing the former Plaza 4 Theatre space in partnership with the National Arbor Day Foundation and recently purchased the Cornhusker Printing, Color Court and Peanut Butter Factory buildings at 9th and M. 

Their company, WRK, LLC, also won the Significant Development Award, $1 Million and Above, for The McElvie Building, the top to bottom renovation of the former Runza Building at 14th and P Streets. Robert and Will Scott of WRK LLC brought new uses and an improved streetscape to an important downtown corner. 

Other DLA awards:

The Downtown Business Leadership Award was presented to one of the fastest-growing employers in Lincoln, Nelnet. The education finance company has been a tenant of the former Miller & Paine department store building at 13th and O since July, 1989. Now occupying over 110,000 square feet, Nelnet purchased the property this fall.

The Residential Development Award went to Hawley Terminal Inc. for University Sky Suites. The transformation of the former Lincoln University Club space atop the University Towers building at 13th and P is on of downtown Lincoln’s latest residential development, adding 12 custom-built condominiums in the two and a half levels of the former private dining club.

Russ and Gwen Bayer, who purchased a historic building at Eighth and Q in 1988, won the Significant Development Award, Under $1 Million. The award, for a mixed-use project in the heart of the Historic Haymarket, was presented to the Bayer Family Partnership for the Port Huron/Huber Manufacturing Building.

Maggie Pleskac owner of Maggie’s Vegetarian Wraps won the Entrepreneurial Retailer Award, one of two new award categories this year. As the owner of a Haymarket dining spot, now in its sixth year, Maggie Pleskac has grown a business based on her commitment to serving fresh, healthy food produced by local vendors. Maggie is a board member of Open Harvest and has helped develop markets for immigrant farmers who are new Lincoln citizens through the Community CROPS program.

DLA gave two Downtown Champion Awards: Lynnie Green, General Manager of John Q. Hammons’ Embassy Suites Hotel for the past six years.  Green, who is leaving Lincoln soon to manage a hotel in Glendale, Arizo,  has led her hotel to numerous national awards and honors, while also serving on the boards of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, Visitors Promotion Committee, the Downtown Lincoln Association and Downtown Action Team.

Another Downtown Champion, Dallas McGee, assistant director of Lincoln’s Urban Development Department, has played a role in successful redevelopment projects throughout downtown and the Haymarket since 1976.  DLA said he has created tax increment financing districts, facilitated public-private partnerships and redevelopment agreements and helped start a a variety of projects: from Embassy Suites and the Old Federal Building to the Grand Theatre and numerous Haymarket developments.