At the site of the now demolished Rick’s Cafe Boatyard, a 19,000-square-foot restaurant, would be a larger building that could include several shops or activities.

And Atkins said the concept would include filling in the area around the flood wall with dirt. Instead of walking through open spaces and running into a wall, people could walk up and over it without even knowing about the wall underneath.

The final version will almost certainly be different from Lamp Rynearson’s concept. The riverfront committee’s next step is to choose its own consultant, who will take those recommendations and other information about the riverfront and come up with a more specific proposal.

The Lamp Rynearson report doesn’t address the Gene Leahy Mall, but Omaha Parks Director Brook Bench said the park’s transformation would likely involve two tiers of shops and restaurants, one at street level and one by the water. He said it would be modeled after San Antonio’s popular Riverwalk district of shops and activities along the San Antonio River.

“It’s redoing the whole thing on a huge scale,” Bench said.

Stothert said the water would remain.