OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Avanti is what a developer is calling a proposed town house community slated for an acre currently occupied by a few boarded-up structures and lots in Omaha’s Little Italy neighborhood.

The Italian name marks the neighborhood’s cultural roots as well as the rebirth of an urban corridor filling with new residences, restaurants and other businesses.

Avanti is an Italian word for onward or forward – a direction that residents of the old neighborhood appreciate. One of them, Nancy Calinger said that, “You can’t imagine how thrilled I am to see my neighborhood come alive again.”

Calinger, a retired teacher, raised two children in the area with former husband Walt Calinger, a former Omaha mayor.