OMAHA- Downtown Omaha would see a stunning new high-rise corporate headquarters and the long-discussed midtown streetcar line would become a reality — with no projected tax increase — under a blockbuster development plan announced by Mutual of Omaha and Mayor Jean Stothert.

Mutual of Omaha will reshape the downtown skyline with its planned skyscraper headquarters that could become the city’s tallest. An architect’s concept rendering depicts a glassy 40-plus story building rising above the block currently occupied by the downtown library at 14th and Douglas Streets.

The tower would sit along the route of a three-mile city streetcar line that would run from the University of Nebraska Medical Center to Omaha’s riverfront. The mayor said rides on the streetcar will be free.

Stothert said vetted projections show the $225 million costs of building the streetcar system would be completely paid for by using tax-increment financing, harnessing the new property tax dollars generated by new developments along the line.

Those new developments would include not only the new Mutual headquarters but the sizable redevelopment of Mutual’s current midtown campus once the company vacates it to move its 4,000-employee Omaha workforce downtown.

Plans call for construction to begin on both projects by next year, with both open and functioning by 2026.

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