Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Grow Omaha, the only radio show that talks
about economic development, construction, business expansion, and all of those
things that make Omaha a great place to live or visit.
Grow Omaha on News Radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, good morning, and welcome to the aforementioned Grow Omaha Show.
Jeff Beal's here at your service, and we are proud
to be brought to you today by Cheer Athletics, which
is the nation's number one all star Cheerjim along with
Dingman's Collision Center Best of Omaha Award winner for Auto
body Care. This is the only show in the metro
(00:37):
area that talks about what we discuss, and that is
the growth and development of the city. We like real
estate development, construction, economic development, really anything related to Omaha
becoming more vibrant, more prosperous, and more successful. Without any
further ado, it's time to bring on my co host,
a man who is a legendary real estate deal maker
(00:58):
from nai NP Dodge Commercial Real Estate.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Trenton Maggot, Good morning everyone, Good morning, Joe.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, good morning to you and happy early Thanksgiving and
to you.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Are you good this guys?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Are you getting excited for Thanksgiving? I?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Am my go go some friend's house, going to my
sister's house, and we're going to live it up.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You know, Thanksgiving makes me think of eating a lot
of calories. And what I'm going to say next is
not necessarily a Thanksgiving option. But we have a gro
Amaha Eats restaurant review. Yes, written by Chris Corey. You
are correct, sir. Our gro Maha Eats restaurant reviews are
always brought to you by All Makes, legendary office furniture
(01:37):
and office technology provider. We're located at twenty fifth and
Farnham Street. Thanks to All Makes for making this possible.
Jeff Kavit, Jamie Zetzman and their team of people do
such a great job there. Well what is it? What
are we reviewing this week? It is fancy one. It
is it's Pivot Prime. Pivot Prime is the restaurant that
(02:00):
is brought to you by the owners of Salted Edge,
Greg Young, and it is in the former Mahogany Prime space.
Mahogany may recall moved a little bit to the southwest
and that made that building available. Beautiful restaurant building, Pivot Prime.
Pivot Prime renovated it thoroughly. I actually went there for
dinner on anniversary, my anniversary which was November seventh, and
(02:25):
we had a great experience.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
So since we're talking about today and Chris wrote this
fabulous review for it, I'm glad I got my reservations
for tonight already.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Are you really going there tonight?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh fantastic. You'll have a great dinner. And then if
you're deciding what to order, just look at Chris's review
and Trent and you can find that by going to
grow Omaha dot com clicking on Reviews on the navigation bar.
There's a drop down menu and just hit eats eats
and not only can you see pivot Prime, but you
can see all of our gro Maha restaurant reviews on
(02:55):
there as well. All right, it is time to go
into our News of the week, the moment you've all
been waiting for. We've got a lot of things on
the docket, and you should know that it is brought
to you by Eagle Mortgage. Holly Schneidewin runs Eagle Mortgage.
He's got a team of mortgage brokers and support staff
over there that do an absolutely fantastic job. You can
pop in the office at one hundred and fourteenth and
(03:17):
Davenport or find them online at Eagle Mortgage Company dot com.
But the key thing to know about Eagle Mortgage is
they're one of your first calls if you think about moving.
You know, for most of us, we got to get
a loan when we buy a house, get your piece
of the American dream. And Eagle Mortgage is not a bank.
They are a mortgage broker, which means they can shop
a variety of banks and find the one that is
(03:39):
best suited to you. It's like having a mortgage consultant
in your corner looking for things in your favor. Like
we said, Eagle Mortgage Company dot Com or one hundred
and fourteenth and Davenport, Trenton. We only on this show
cover happenings in the nine county combined Metropolitan Statistical Area
(04:00):
of Omaha, Nebraska, but we are going to make an
exception today because Nebraska learned a very painful economic development
lesson this week. Tyson Foods, the largest beef producer or
rather beef processor, i should say, in the United States
and one of the largest food companies Fortune five hundred
(04:21):
company in America, announced that it will close its Lexington,
Nebraska beef processing plant, and we might think, Okay, why
are we talking about this. This plant employs three thousand
people out the population of Lexington, Nebraska is eleven thousand,
three hundred people. So this would be the equivalent of Omaha,
(04:45):
the city of Omaha, not the metro area. The city
of Omaha losing one employer that employed one hundred and
thirty thousand people. I'll leave a mark. It's devastating. And
this plant opened thirty five years ago. It was IBP
I will be Processing YEP, which later got bought by
Tyson many many years ago. And at the time it
(05:06):
replaced a new Holland plant that had closed. And so
you worry a lot about the families involved, the small
businesses and Lexington that depended on these workers. But this
is a big deal. In fact, it even made the
Wall Street Journal yesterday because the Wall Street Journal said,
this is one of the largest single beef processing plants
(05:28):
in the United States of America. Why is it closing?
Tyson chalked it up to the significantly lessened size of
the cattle herd, the cattle supplying the United States. But
I think the painful lesson here is that we as
a state we as a city, we as a metro area,
can never ever stop recruiting. It's kind of like what
(05:51):
I say in my sales consulting world. A lot of
people know I do sales training. Never ever take your
foot off the gas. And some people say, well, we
got low unemployment. Stuff like this can fall into your
lap when you least expect it. It's why the State
of Nebraska needs to be aggressive with incentives. It's why
we always have to be on the lookout for new
(06:12):
companies because you never know.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
There's an upside to this though, too. What is that
you've got a very skilled and trained workforce, three thousand
of them. It sounds like with a facility that would
be great for any kind of food processing, might have
to be retrofitted or whatever. The question is, is there
another company either currently around here, somewhere in the United
(06:37):
States or somewhere abroad that will snap this up? Yes, hopefully.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And the concern is they would be very unlikely to
employ that number of people again, but certainly we hope
and for the people of Dawson County, we really hope
that that would be the case.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
For example, a couple of years ago, Spencer Morris and
I in our office listed in Snyder, Nebraska, a facility
that Omaha Steaks had greatly taken care of and they're
making flays mostly. It was their one facility outside of
the metro area, and we went far and wide with it,
(07:15):
and we were lucky to find Wonder Meets and they
were like they make meat for I think Jersey Mikes
or something like that. Within thirty days, they we kept
all the ammonia systems on and everything. We closed that
deal with in about sixty days. And although a lot
of the employees in Snyder got other jobs, most of
them came back and that thing got turned on and
(07:38):
it's rock. And so let's hope, you know, this is
smaller facility, but let's hope that this big facility in
Lexington can do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
All right, let's turn our attention back here locally to
the Omhi area. Good news for the people of southwest Omaha.
The City of Omaha intends to use surplus Keino money
to tear down a long vac hotel southwest of one
hundred n eighth and L Street. If you are at
all familiar with that area, you know exactly what I'm
(08:06):
talking about. This thing has been an iesar and the
city went ahead with the demolition orders a while back,
but the problem was, it's so expensive to tear these
buildings down. The city just didn't have the funds to
do it because actually a lot of buildings that the
city needs to tear down each year. And so and
Don Roe, who is the city councilman for that district,
(08:30):
has worked tyrestly on this ass have a lot of
city administrators, and looks like someone in the city finance
department came up with an idea that, hey, we apparently
have just enough excess city revenue that comes from Keino
gambling to get this done. So it appears hopefully that
what has become not only an iesore but a public
(08:51):
safety issue of southwest of Hunter Nathanell could be gone to.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Fire department training project as well. Well, you know, I thought,
maybe you know, they already thought of that idea. But
it's awfully expansive.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
It's kind of a rambling building, so maybe that maybe
that might not work. But hey, I always love your
creativity and I'll put a good word in for your idea.
So last week we talked about the Beam, which was
a sixteen story apartment building project that was to be
the next door neighbor of the new Omaha Children's Museum
(09:24):
on the north side of Heartland America Park. We mentioned
last week that the Children's Museum is not going to happen,
at least for the time being, and so that left
the beam in question. We were trying to get some
information on that with New Style Development, weren't able to
do that by the broadcast time last week. Now it's
kind of looking like that project is very much up
(09:44):
in the air as well.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, and it sounds like, based on a quote in
Nebraska Public media that New Style Development may have been
kind of blindsided by this sudden change at the Omaha
Children's Museum. But fortunately, it does look like New Style
will be reimbursed more than four million dollars for infrastructure
work that it had started on the facility. I noticed
(10:08):
last I think it was Monday, maybe Sunday or Monday.
I was downtown on one of my Gromha tours and
I went by there and there was this huge mogul
of landscaping, decorative landscaping that had been graded in there.
I'm like, Okay, that's not usually done. If there's going
to be construction breaking ground anytime soon, right.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And kudos to Marry and Todd heastand that you know,
they took the risk and the city should treat them fairly.
But they've done more for the downtown skyline and for
the renovation and remodeling of existing structures than anybody has.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And I do want to say two people who are
very excited about the continued growth and construction downtown as are,
we don't allow that to get you down. The fact
that there was a market for the Beam, a sixteen
story building built overlooking the park is still a good thing.
That market is still there. This potential stoppage, it's not
(11:01):
for sure, but this potential stoppage of the Beam is
related to a certain circumstance. I think the long term
odds for a significant sized, significant height residential building downtown
is still very very.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Good, and I wouldn't be surprised if New Style did
something similar or put another match project with it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And we keep hearing of other developers that are seriously
considering residential projects in the downtown and North Downtown. Are
a lot of rumors floating around with that, so hopefully
just a temporary setback and nothing too terribly serious. Well,
you may recall a couple weeks ago we had the
Salvation Army on the show and they ended up talking
(11:47):
about a cool project that was going to be available
during the Christmas season out in Valley where you could
drive your car through. And turns out we've got another
one of those that is happening as well. This one
will be in Bellevue. It's going to take place in
falcon Wood Park. This is in the south part of Bellevue,
(12:10):
really close to the Platte River, and it's going to
be called Frosty Nights Christmas Village and Lights at Falconwood Park.
Really cool stuff. I'm looking at some photographs that our
friend Patrick Wyman of Omaha Exploration posted. He also writes
the history column for a Girl Omaha. This thing's eighty
acres you can get in. There's like little temporary shop
(12:32):
set up, and he compares it to like the Christmas
version of a pumpkin patch at Halloween. So something that
you might want to look into. And then finally we
got some big news that dropped yesterday. Union Omaha announced
plans for a new soccer stadium in North Downtown. You
might be thinking, wait, wasn't that already. Originally they had
(12:54):
wanted to build us on the lawn by Gallup, and
then that fell through the the parties to the real
estate deal weren't able to come to an agreement. Now,
the plan is to put a one hundred and fourteen
million dollars stadium on land north to northeast of Charles
Schwab Field. This is about twenty acres owned by Union
(13:14):
Pacific Railroad. Up doesn't use this anymore except for the
little track where they bring the commemorative trains and often
for the College World Series, occasionally other things as well.
And the hope is to break ground in twenty twenty six,
open in twenty twenty eight. Hines, the big time real
estate developer would be involved.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
With Mercantile and all that down there.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, so that's some serious credibility there. It would be
integrated into millwork commons a lot. They're looking for a
lot of collateral development. One of the tricky things here
is that they intend to use turnback financing through the
Sports Assistance Act. A lot of entities are chasing that
right now, and there seems to be some hostility toward
(13:59):
that coming out of the Governor's mansion. So we're going
to keep our eye on that. But it would make
a lot of sense because these incentives like that really
tend to be a net positive and not a cost.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Interestingly, Jeff, some sources like Nebraska Examiner, and it may
have to do with the infrastructure around there, they're saying
it's one hundred and forty million dollars. Then on top
of that, they're predicting that there'd be four hundred million
dollars on this twenty acre site of additional investments. So
you're talking about five hundred and forty million dollars on
(14:30):
twenty acres. And this is over and above what's going
on at Creighton millwork Commons with the Boti Hotel and
the other stuff they're doing there, and then also the
Civic Square property if that gets up and going. And
so this is our urban core that is just going gangbusters.
(14:50):
And I understand people's consternation saying, Okay, there's a lot
of money. Should the city be involved in this? And
you see this all the time, and you were heavily
involved twenty five years ago with the questioner at the time,
or we didn't we didn't have the name of the
rena in Convention Center, and so time will tell on
this stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, we all see a lot of momentum in North
Downtown and this would be a no brainer to keep going,
building off of the amazing things that are happening in
Milwark Commons and the Builders district. But good to see
this moving forward at some level.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
It goes in front of the city City Council on
Tuesday for the land contract.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, and very interesting and really quick. It would kind
of related to all of this would be kind of
a land swap. We would see the city own this thing,
but it would be leased to an entity that would
have the soccer team and as part of the deal,
Union Pacific would buy back the site of its old
headquarters building that the city currently owns. And so we
(15:53):
were out of time for this segment, but it'd be
kind of fun to see what could happen big.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
This four months ago on the show.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
With the Norfolk Southern and everything else. All Right, that's
your news of the week. We're out of time for
more news, but we've got a lot more show to go.
In a little bit, we're going to bring on Alec Gorinsky.
He is the senior vice president of Economic Development for
the Greater Omha Chamber. We're going to talk about Nebraska
and Omaha's economic competitiveness. Important issue. Stay with us. You're
(16:20):
listening to Grow Omaha, brought to you by Dingman's Collision
Center and Cheer Athletics on News Radio eleven ten KFAB
and welcome back to the show. Jeff Biles here at
your service, sitting next to Trenton Maggot. We're brought to
you by Dingman's Collision Center with four soon to be
five metro area locations, as well as Cheer Athletics, the
nation's number one all star Cheerjim in papilion near Highways
(16:43):
fifty and three seventy. We have with us today Alec Gorinsky.
He's the senior vice president of Economic Development at the
Greater Omaha Chamber, and we're going to talk about economic development.
You may have heard there are a couple of studies
that came out earlier this year talking about Nebraska falling
behind some competing states and Omaha falling behind. And we've
(17:03):
been concerned about brain drain around here for some time,
so we thought we should talk with Alec about economic
competitiveness and just kind of get his take on all this.
First of all, Alec, welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Thanks glad to be here, longtime listener, first time callers.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
First time, first time interviewee. But now we're glad you're here,
and we're very proud of everything that you and your
colleagues do at the Chamber. You guys work very, very hard,
and we know it's challenging work, not for the least
of reasons what I just mentioned out there, But why
don't you kind of give us the thirty thousand foot overview,
(17:38):
if you will, of what corporate recruitment and economic development
and Omaha's competitiveness visa vias other cities is like from
the thirty thousand foot view.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Sure, I mean, if you think about the role of
economic development, businesses are constantly evaluating, you know, contraction and expansion,
whether it be businesses that are here or businesses elsewhere.
They're evaluating where they're going to grow or if they
need to decrease their presence, and our job is to
help them evaluate Omaha as an opportunity to grow from
within or grow into or for companies who have to
(18:10):
make contraction decisions, help them understand why there's advantages to
Omahon why that contraction shouldn't necessarily take place here. So
it's a marketing job, and it's a sales job to
a large extent. And the primary things that we can
get into the weeds on this, the primary things that
companies want to talk about is talent talent availability, which
is complex and nuanced. It isn't as simple as we
(18:30):
have a low unemployment rate. They want to talk about
speed to market, particularly for industrial opportunities, and there's a
lot of utility and energy dynamics as it relates to there.
Of course, they want to talk about incentives and what
are the tools that we as a city or we
as a state are offering to help support their expansion
from within or into our market. And then there's a
lot of other things, softer things a'll say, but still
(18:51):
very important, like quality of life and just making sure
that you know, we are a vibrant, exciting place that
their employees are going to want to come to or
their employees are going to want to stay. So we
help companies, We identify companies and we help them evaluate
Omaha as a viable option.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Are we as competitive as we were five and ten
years ago?
Speaker 4 (19:08):
You know, that's a really complex question as it relates
to site readiness and speed to market historically been very
competitive because we have several what we call go ready
certified sites, things that we've de risked the sites and
we've done all the utility planning and some of the
master planning and things like that on there, and so
it really takes some of the time out where some
of the challenges is that they the demand for energy
(19:32):
is so high, and we've got very good utilities here.
We've got a very good partner in OPPD who's an
active part of our regional partnership. But you know, a
lot of these projects, especially the industrial projects, which is
the lie and share of what we see lately. Over
the last twenty one months, so all of twenty twenty
four and yet today or yeah, twenty twenty four and
so far this year, we've seen about one hundred and
(19:54):
sixty five hundred and seventy qualified opportunities. I'd say all
but about three or four of those have been industrial
in nature. So that's where you're seeing the market looking
to expand. And back in the day it used to
be we need one mega wat of power, we need
two megawats of power. We're seeing more and more that
are five to twelve and then thirteen and above, and
so you know, it's not as much of a capacity
(20:16):
problem here. What it really is is the supply chain
to build the substations and to build the infrastructure to
the sites takes a really long time. And so it's
going to take a company three years, four years, five
years to be able to get up an operational here,
and that's not always the dynamic and other states. So
that's a challenge when it comes to competitiveness. The other
challenge when it comes to competitiveness is that in some
(20:37):
states their incentives are just a little bit more favorable
than ours. We all have good and ours are not
terrible by any means. I don't want to cast terrible
dispersions on them, but their performance based incentives in some states,
they're just able to write bigger checks upfront and help
those companies really see greater advantage and greater opportunity there.
(20:59):
So those are a couple of places where we're challenged.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Speaking of those incentives, Alec, if you could get whatever
you wanted from the state of Nebraska, what would you
like to see improved with our state's incentive package right now?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
I would say two things. Primarily, again, I think performance
based incentives are the right thing if you're going to
give away public money, and I shouldn't characterize it that way,
but if you're going to invest public money in economic
activity and economic development, you certainly should get something out
of that, big capital investments, job creation, good wage growth
in your region, or whatever the case may be. But
the challenge is is that the timeline it takes to
(21:34):
get those is so far down the line, and so
there has to be some mechanism and there currently is,
but it's small and hard to access. So there has
to be some mechanism to monetize that upfront so that
particularly some of these smaller firms are able to access
capital sooner and help make that investment in their future.
And so there's you know, we have a revolving loan
fund in our state. It's kind of small. You repay
(21:55):
it with your incentives in future years. If we could
increase the investment there, that would go a long way.
The other thing is we call it a closing fund.
A lot of states have big closing funds where they're
able to just write a big check. It usually goes
to utilities and infrastructure. And things like that that if ultimately,
if the company doesn't, you know, if the outcome isn't
what you realize, there's still good value to the site
(22:18):
and that site can still be a viable option for
another company in the future. So if we had a
stronger closing fund, I think that'd be really good. One
thing that we're working on right now, though, as it
relates to a specific project, that I think is really positive,
is helping the incentives not only create jobs, but helping
the incentives. And this is an idea we're working on
with the legislature, hopefully helping the incentives recruit people here
(22:42):
because there's this relationship between obviously the ability to land
a project and grow a company here and their ability
to retain talent. And so if we can incentivize that
company that much more, if they're able to bring in
new to Nebraska tax payers, that would go a long
way as well. And then the final thing I'll say
is if there could you know some mechanism to help
(23:04):
us address this this this supply chain and this infrastructure
and this equipment for energy so that we can have
a better speed to market for some of these industrial
projects that will go a long way as well.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
That's good stuff. When it comes to workforce, you have
people that you know, Creighton does a good job of
retaining a lot of their students here. I know there's
a major push to that as well as un l
U n L. So you have retention of talent and
then attracting new talent. Is enough being done to stop
(23:35):
the brain drain? And then also to recruit people? What
have other places done that we're competing with and what
should we be doing to get them to come here,
bring their families here, bring their parents and friends to
grow our population.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Yeah, you know, I think there always could be more
that we could be doing around talent retention and talent recruitment.
The data tells us that where people are leaving are
predominantly the ages of like twenty six to thirty five
or so when people turn thirty five to thirty nine,
that's where you see the positive net migration into our city.
And so there's clearly an opportunity there. One thing that
(24:15):
we're investing in right now is something that we call Internally,
we call it back to Omaha. Externally, the campaign is
called Back for the Future, targeting those boomerang individuals in
communities that already have positive net migration with our city
where you know, certainly we lose some people to the
city to those different cities like places like Denver and
Los Angeles in parts of Arizona even but we have
(24:38):
even greater migration into our community from those places. And
there are several factors that contribute to that. But we're
only investing, you know, you know, maybe one hundred thousand
dollars or something like that into this campaign, and that's
only going to go so far, and so there needs
to be more that we can invest in in trying
to sell Omaha, particularly to those individuals that are already
demonstrating that they have a willingness and a propensity whether
(24:59):
they're at an age, demographic or a stage in their
life to come to Omaha or come back to Omaha.
There was a great story, I can't remember the article
it was in, but it was about just that scenario
where people are leaving some of these big cities and
wanting to come back to a place like Omaha, and
other cities are doing this as well, but at a
much bigger pace, in a much bigger investment.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
All Right, we're talking with Alec Gorinsky senior vice president
in charge of Economic Development at the Great Rama Chamber.
Going to take our middle of the show break for
the news, but when we come back, a lot more
questions with Alec about Omaha's competitiveness and what we're doing
to recruit companies and employers and capital and talent to
the metro area. You're listening to grow Omaha. Brought to
you by Dingman's Collision Center and Sheer Athletics on News
(25:40):
Radio eleven ten KFAB and welcome back to the show.
Jeff Biehls and Trenton Maggot are here in the KFAB studio.
We're brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center, which is
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(26:27):
All right, we've got a nol company's commercial real estate
development Spotlight of the week, brought to you by who Well,
not all companies, of course, you can find information about
them on the website Nodelcompanies dot com. But they've been
a big part of the Omaha development community for a
very very long time and will be for a very
long time in the future. J Nodel runs things over there.
(26:49):
His son Sam Nodel is very heavily involved in the
business and they've done so many different projects. And during
this segment we always talk about things happening in or
around one of their projects, and we thought today we're
going to give you a quick roundup of all of
the things we've mentioned in the last few weeks happening
in Xarbon Village. There are a lot, of course, Xarbon
Village being a Nottle Companies project, So just to summarize it,
(27:11):
Grand Patisserie opening a second location. The first one is
out at one hundred and forty fourth and Center. They're
getting close to opening Marigold's Mercantile, cool home goods store
going into the former Booknook Space, Breakfast Club a popular restaurant,
a breakfast only restaurant out of Des Moines, Iowa, going
(27:31):
into the Jones bro Space interior build out already underway.
And then Red Door Wood fired Grill, a very popular
restaurant out of Kansas City, will be going into the
former Spirit World Space right there on the corner sixty
seventh and Center. So a lot of things to do
in Xarbon Village coming up here pretty quick. And that
(27:53):
is your Nottle Company's commercial real estate development Spotlight of
the week. Well, we have Alec Gorensky with us for
a few minutes. He is a senior vice president of
Economic Development at the Greater Omha Chamber, so in his
position responsible for recruiting companies, retaining companies, promoting the Omaha
metropolitan area. And Alec and the previous segment, you mentioned
(28:14):
a lot of projects that are out there, and you
said the vast majority of them are industrial in nature.
We know that individual projects are highly confidential in your world,
but can you give us kind of an overview of
what kinds of industrial companies or projects are looking at
us right now.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Yeah, and what they rhyme with, Yeah, that's a good one. So,
you know, like I mentioned, you know, over the last
you know year and you know, twenty twenty four and
twenty twenty five. So far this year, about one hundred
and seventy five qualified opportunities, and I would characterize those
as traditional economic development opportunities, and a large majority of
those are going to be industrial in nature, huge power
(28:50):
users in many cases, big employers, big demand on sites
and utilities and things of that nature. One thing I'll
say that we don't have a ton of it. Our
pipeline is data centers. We've got a couple, but a
lot of those data centers are we just refer right
onto OPPD because power is such a fundamental attribute of
what they're looking for, and we'd rather OPPD work those
for a little bit first, until they become a little
bit more real, and then maybe we can talk about those.
(29:10):
So our pipeline and our que is not predominantly data centers.
But there's equipment manufacturing in there. There is chemical manufacturing
in there. We've had a decent specialization here in chemical manufacturing.
There's also a good amount of food manufacturing in there.
So we've got a handful of projects that are evaluating
our region that are food manufacturing in nature, food processing
in different ways, and you know, those are those can
(29:32):
be characterized as good jobs. They're big employers, you know,
not the like the Tyson thing that that you were
talking about before. You know, they're not reaching three thousand
quite yet, but you know they can be five hundred
to twelve hundred employers and there's there's some potential good
opportunities there and they're you know, decent wages for our
region as well. So that's kind of what we're looking at.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
The other thing I'll mention too is that we're also
looking at emerging sectors and so you know, we've got
a high a low total, a low quantity, but a
high specialization in software and technology, and specialization is what
some of our audience looks for. Do you have a
density of the talent that can do that kind of work.
So when it's you know, if you can find software
(30:12):
and sales together, there's a high specialization there that we
could be a really good market for some of these
emerging technology firms, whether it be an ag tech, defense tech,
even life sciences, insurance tech and fintech, things that are
very adjacent to existing industries that we have here where
they have strategic partnerships. And so we've also got another
we've really just started this work over the past couple months.
(30:33):
We've got another ten prospects there. We actually landed a company,
a small tech firm out out of Oklahoma. Amigafi is
their name. They're doing some AI solutions and they've they've
located at the Scott Data Center there and they're small
to start with, but you know some of those small
tech startup firms, they have the propensity to grow into
something quite substantial. So we're looking at that as well.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Alec, before we let you go, I did want to
bring up Union Pacific. You got the the merger in
play with Norfolk Southern. UP has already announced that the
headquarters will remain here. Of the hopeful lea to be
combined companies, what can we do now as a market
to try and maximize the number of Norfolk Southern jobs
(31:16):
that might come to Omaha.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
Absolutely so, again, just to reiterate what you said, just
really grateful for up's commitment to Omaha and Nebraska, particularly
as it relates to its headquarters. But this is a
huge opportunity for Omaha, and this is a huge opportunity
for Nebraska. You know, Norfolk Southern employees a significant number
of individuals, and in addition to bringing some of those
jobs here, it would be idealistic to bring some of
those people here as well and contribute to our overall
(31:39):
population growth goals. I think one of the most important
things that we can do, and one of the things
that we're leaning into is really being a welcoming community
to those individuals that are going to be evaluating Omaha
as a place that they could potentially come to and
live and raise their family here. You know, as a region,
we're actively talking to actively talking to Union Pacific about
(32:00):
what that possibility looks like and what we may need
to do from perhaps, you know, to to enhance some
of our statewide programs to be a benefit not just
to them, but for other companies that maybe look like
them and they perhaps they're facing similar circumstances. So that's
going to be really important. But when it comes to
recruiting their people here, there may be you know, they're
coming from Atlanta and they may not be too familiar
(32:20):
with Omaha and so we're going to have to do
a full court press to not only, you know, help
help those individuals see the opportunity that is Omaha for
themselves and their families, but also when they come here,
be a really welcoming community to those individuals and make
them feel right at home here. And we know that
people always feel that way once they get here. They
always say, holy cow, I had no idea, and we
(32:41):
just need to reinforce that identity.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Trick is getting them here.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Well, Alec, we appreciate you joining us and thanks for
talking with us about some very very important things for
Omaha's future.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Yeah. Absolutely, it's it's exciting work, it's important work, and
I love Omaha and I get to be Omaha's chief salesperson.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
That's Alec Grenzky, Senior Vice President, OMHA Chamber in charge
of Economic Development, going to take our final break, and
when we come back, it'll be your Perkins Chritzer Construction
Lightning Round. You're listening to GROAMHA, brought to you by
Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics on news radio eleven
ten kfab. It's the Perkins Chritzer Construction Lightning Round, which
(33:17):
we talk about a lot of things super fast. Thanks
to Perkins Chritzer Construction for making this possible. They are
an outstanding general class A contractor here in Omaha serving
all of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Now, don't be
thinking they only do restaurants in retail. A lot of
times we talk about their projects because that's what we
(33:37):
talk about a lot of during this segment. But Perkins
Chrisser Construction can build you anything. They can build an
office building, a shopping center, a warehouse, a new building
for your church. I mean, they can do it all.
And it is under the steady hand and leadership of
Dave Kreitzer. They've got their office right over in Miracle Hills,
that shopping center that they built and renovated and have
(34:00):
built out a lot of the space. And you can
find out more about Perkins Chritzer Construction by going to
PA DASHC construction dot com. That's PA dash sconstruction dot com. Hey,
Omaha Street Car Authority is hosting an open house December
eleventh and five point thirty at the Durham. This would
be your chance to ask questions of the construction team.
It's all Q and A no formal presentation. You can
(34:21):
pop in any time between five thirty and seven thirty
details on our most recent transportation column on Gromaha dot
com by Eric Miller, Trenton. And you can now fly well,
at least as of May twenty first, you can fly
NonStop from Omaha to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Oh yeah, we
used to go down there from two Lane in New Orleans.
(34:42):
Oh when you were going to college. Yeah, but you drove.
You didn't take a NonStop flight back in those days.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Beaches.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Once this starts up on May twenty first, Epley will
now have thirty five NonStop destination, So that's going in
the right direction. Speaking of Epley, Thanksgiving holiday traffic next
week projected to be up three two point four percent
over last year, So get there early with all the
construction going on. Busiest days, Trenton of the Thanksgiving weekend
(35:08):
number one Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Number two the Sunday following Thanksgiving,
and number three Monday the day after that. Those are
your three business all right. Restaurant News North Italia celebrated
its grand opening on Thursday of this week in Village Point.
This marks the brand's first Nebraska location. Closest existing previously
(35:31):
existing locations Kansas City and Denver, so a nice name
catch for the metro area. Bora Bora Juice is opening
a second Omaha location. It's going to be on the
northeast corner of two hundred and fourth in West Maple Road.
Bora Bora Juice is based in Kuwait. Of all places
they have juice as smoothies, coffees, waffles, crapes. They have
(35:53):
an existing location at one hundred and thirty second and
West Maple While back we reported Veno is going to
open a second wine store in the Shops of Legacy.
The exact address twenty eight thirty five South one hundred
and seventieth Plaza. All they have is it gonna be
called Vino mos Mas Vino Mosque Squared and it's in
the former Cellar forty four space. I love how you
(36:16):
laughed at your own joke there. That's pretty good. Yeah, Chris,
you got to kick out of that, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
All right.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Prairie Coast Candle Company will celebrate the grand opening of
its first retail store front in Waterloo on Saturday, December thirteenth.
They were like an online company here in Olma, but
now they're going they've gone to the retail side. Got
a couple of closings. Pizzeria Davlow closing its doors at
(36:43):
one hundred and forty fourth and fort on December sixth,
and then Coppel Mexican Cuisine is actually closing earlier than
we originally reported last week.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
It's going to be November twenty third that they're going
to replace with a different restaurant. Owner called that.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, Oh okay, we hope, so you know, and a
lot of times people will say, oh, I hate to
hear about these restaurant closures. On Gromha we report restaurant closures,
but keep in mind, for every restaurant that we report closing,
we've got about five and a half new ones opening.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
And if that space has a hood and a grease trap,
someone will sign a lease.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Somebody will because there's always a group of people looking
for another place for restaurant tours. And then we have
an event hall opening at fourteen twelve Howard Street. That's
a storefront just west of the Old Market by the
owners of Billy Frogs. It's going to be called clover
Leaf House. Music is playing, which means we are finito
hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I'm Jeff Beils and
(37:40):
I'm Trenton Maggot. You've been listening to Grow Omaha, brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center, Cheer Athletics, and Perkins
Kretzer Construction. We'll chat with you next week at nine
right here on news Radio eleven ten kfab
This is Grow Omaha, the only radio show that talks
about economic development, construction, business expansion, and all of those
things that make Omaha a great place to live or visit.
Grow Omaha on News Radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, good morning, and welcome to the aforementioned Grow Omaha Show.
Jeff Beal's here at your service, and we are proud
to be brought to you today by Cheer Athletics, which
is the nation's number one all star Cheerjim along with
Dingman's Collision Center Best of Omaha Award winner for Auto
body Care. This is the only show in the metro
(00:37):
area that talks about what we discuss, and that is
the growth and development of the city. We like real
estate development, construction, economic development, really anything related to Omaha
becoming more vibrant, more prosperous, and more successful. Without any
further ado, it's time to bring on my co host,
a man who is a legendary real estate deal maker
(00:58):
from nai NP Dodge Commercial Real Estate.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Trenton Maggot, Good morning everyone, Good morning, Joe.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, good morning to you and happy early Thanksgiving and
to you.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Are you good this guys?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Are you getting excited for Thanksgiving? I?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Am my go go some friend's house, going to my
sister's house, and we're going to live it up.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You know, Thanksgiving makes me think of eating a lot
of calories. And what I'm going to say next is
not necessarily a Thanksgiving option. But we have a gro
Amaha Eats restaurant review. Yes, written by Chris Corey. You
are correct, sir. Our gro Maha Eats restaurant reviews are
always brought to you by All Makes, legendary office furniture
(01:37):
and office technology provider. We're located at twenty fifth and
Farnham Street. Thanks to All Makes for making this possible.
Jeff Kavit, Jamie Zetzman and their team of people do
such a great job there. Well what is it? What
are we reviewing this week? It is fancy one. It
is it's Pivot Prime. Pivot Prime is the restaurant that
(02:00):
is brought to you by the owners of Salted Edge,
Greg Young, and it is in the former Mahogany Prime space.
Mahogany may recall moved a little bit to the southwest
and that made that building available. Beautiful restaurant building, Pivot Prime.
Pivot Prime renovated it thoroughly. I actually went there for
dinner on anniversary, my anniversary which was November seventh, and
(02:25):
we had a great experience.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
So since we're talking about today and Chris wrote this
fabulous review for it, I'm glad I got my reservations
for tonight already.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Are you really going there tonight?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh fantastic. You'll have a great dinner. And then if
you're deciding what to order, just look at Chris's review
and Trent and you can find that by going to
grow Omaha dot com clicking on Reviews on the navigation bar.
There's a drop down menu and just hit eats eats
and not only can you see pivot Prime, but you
can see all of our gro Maha restaurant reviews on
(02:55):
there as well. All right, it is time to go
into our News of the week, the moment you've all
been waiting for. We've got a lot of things on
the docket, and you should know that it is brought
to you by Eagle Mortgage. Holly Schneidewin runs Eagle Mortgage.
He's got a team of mortgage brokers and support staff
over there that do an absolutely fantastic job. You can
pop in the office at one hundred and fourteenth and
(03:17):
Davenport or find them online at Eagle Mortgage Company dot com.
But the key thing to know about Eagle Mortgage is
they're one of your first calls if you think about moving.
You know, for most of us, we got to get
a loan when we buy a house, get your piece
of the American dream. And Eagle Mortgage is not a bank.
They are a mortgage broker, which means they can shop
a variety of banks and find the one that is
(03:39):
best suited to you. It's like having a mortgage consultant
in your corner looking for things in your favor. Like
we said, Eagle Mortgage Company dot Com or one hundred
and fourteenth and Davenport, Trenton. We only on this show
cover happenings in the nine county combined Metropolitan Statistical Area
(04:00):
of Omaha, Nebraska, but we are going to make an
exception today because Nebraska learned a very painful economic development
lesson this week. Tyson Foods, the largest beef producer or
rather beef processor, i should say, in the United States
and one of the largest food companies Fortune five hundred
(04:21):
company in America, announced that it will close its Lexington,
Nebraska beef processing plant, and we might think, Okay, why
are we talking about this. This plant employs three thousand
people out the population of Lexington, Nebraska is eleven thousand,
three hundred people. So this would be the equivalent of Omaha,
(04:45):
the city of Omaha, not the metro area. The city
of Omaha losing one employer that employed one hundred and
thirty thousand people. I'll leave a mark. It's devastating. And
this plant opened thirty five years ago. It was IBP
I will be Processing YEP, which later got bought by
Tyson many many years ago. And at the time it
(05:06):
replaced a new Holland plant that had closed. And so
you worry a lot about the families involved, the small
businesses and Lexington that depended on these workers. But this
is a big deal. In fact, it even made the
Wall Street Journal yesterday because the Wall Street Journal said,
this is one of the largest single beef processing plants
(05:28):
in the United States of America. Why is it closing?
Tyson chalked it up to the significantly lessened size of
the cattle herd, the cattle supplying the United States. But
I think the painful lesson here is that we as
a state we as a city, we as a metro area,
can never ever stop recruiting. It's kind of like what
(05:51):
I say in my sales consulting world. A lot of
people know I do sales training. Never ever take your
foot off the gas. And some people say, well, we
got low unemployment. Stuff like this can fall into your
lap when you least expect it. It's why the State
of Nebraska needs to be aggressive with incentives. It's why
we always have to be on the lookout for new
(06:12):
companies because you never know.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
There's an upside to this though, too. What is that
you've got a very skilled and trained workforce, three thousand
of them. It sounds like with a facility that would
be great for any kind of food processing, might have
to be retrofitted or whatever. The question is, is there
another company either currently around here, somewhere in the United
(06:37):
States or somewhere abroad that will snap this up? Yes, hopefully.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And the concern is they would be very unlikely to
employ that number of people again, but certainly we hope
and for the people of Dawson County, we really hope
that that would be the case.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
For example, a couple of years ago, Spencer Morris and
I in our office listed in Snyder, Nebraska, a facility
that Omaha Steaks had greatly taken care of and they're
making flays mostly. It was their one facility outside of
the metro area, and we went far and wide with it,
(07:15):
and we were lucky to find Wonder Meets and they
were like they make meat for I think Jersey Mikes
or something like that. Within thirty days, they we kept
all the ammonia systems on and everything. We closed that
deal with in about sixty days. And although a lot
of the employees in Snyder got other jobs, most of
them came back and that thing got turned on and
(07:38):
it's rock. And so let's hope, you know, this is
smaller facility, but let's hope that this big facility in
Lexington can do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
All right, let's turn our attention back here locally to
the Omhi area. Good news for the people of southwest Omaha.
The City of Omaha intends to use surplus Keino money
to tear down a long vac hotel southwest of one
hundred n eighth and L Street. If you are at
all familiar with that area, you know exactly what I'm
(08:06):
talking about. This thing has been an iesar and the
city went ahead with the demolition orders a while back,
but the problem was, it's so expensive to tear these
buildings down. The city just didn't have the funds to
do it because actually a lot of buildings that the
city needs to tear down each year. And so and
Don Roe, who is the city councilman for that district,
(08:30):
has worked tyrestly on this ass have a lot of
city administrators, and looks like someone in the city finance
department came up with an idea that, hey, we apparently
have just enough excess city revenue that comes from Keino
gambling to get this done. So it appears hopefully that
what has become not only an iesore but a public
(08:51):
safety issue of southwest of Hunter Nathanell could be gone to.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Fire department training project as well. Well, you know, I thought,
maybe you know, they already thought of that idea. But
it's awfully expansive.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
It's kind of a rambling building, so maybe that maybe
that might not work. But hey, I always love your
creativity and I'll put a good word in for your idea.
So last week we talked about the Beam, which was
a sixteen story apartment building project that was to be
the next door neighbor of the new Omaha Children's Museum
(09:24):
on the north side of Heartland America Park. We mentioned
last week that the Children's Museum is not going to happen,
at least for the time being, and so that left
the beam in question. We were trying to get some
information on that with New Style Development, weren't able to
do that by the broadcast time last week. Now it's
kind of looking like that project is very much up
(09:44):
in the air as well.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, and it sounds like, based on a quote in
Nebraska Public media that New Style Development may have been
kind of blindsided by this sudden change at the Omaha
Children's Museum. But fortunately, it does look like New Style
will be reimbursed more than four million dollars for infrastructure
work that it had started on the facility. I noticed
(10:08):
last I think it was Monday, maybe Sunday or Monday.
I was downtown on one of my Gromha tours and
I went by there and there was this huge mogul
of landscaping, decorative landscaping that had been graded in there.
I'm like, Okay, that's not usually done. If there's going
to be construction breaking ground anytime soon, right.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And kudos to Marry and Todd heastand that you know,
they took the risk and the city should treat them fairly.
But they've done more for the downtown skyline and for
the renovation and remodeling of existing structures than anybody has.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And I do want to say two people who are
very excited about the continued growth and construction downtown as are,
we don't allow that to get you down. The fact
that there was a market for the Beam, a sixteen
story building built overlooking the park is still a good thing.
That market is still there. This potential stoppage, it's not
(11:01):
for sure, but this potential stoppage of the Beam is
related to a certain circumstance. I think the long term
odds for a significant sized, significant height residential building downtown
is still very very.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Good, and I wouldn't be surprised if New Style did
something similar or put another match project with it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And we keep hearing of other developers that are seriously
considering residential projects in the downtown and North Downtown. Are
a lot of rumors floating around with that, so hopefully
just a temporary setback and nothing too terribly serious. Well,
you may recall a couple weeks ago we had the
Salvation Army on the show and they ended up talking
(11:47):
about a cool project that was going to be available
during the Christmas season out in Valley where you could
drive your car through. And turns out we've got another
one of those that is happening as well. This one
will be in Bellevue. It's going to take place in
falcon Wood Park. This is in the south part of Bellevue,
(12:10):
really close to the Platte River, and it's going to
be called Frosty Nights Christmas Village and Lights at Falconwood Park.
Really cool stuff. I'm looking at some photographs that our
friend Patrick Wyman of Omaha Exploration posted. He also writes
the history column for a Girl Omaha. This thing's eighty
acres you can get in. There's like little temporary shop
(12:32):
set up, and he compares it to like the Christmas
version of a pumpkin patch at Halloween. So something that
you might want to look into. And then finally we
got some big news that dropped yesterday. Union Omaha announced
plans for a new soccer stadium in North Downtown. You
might be thinking, wait, wasn't that already. Originally they had
(12:54):
wanted to build us on the lawn by Gallup, and
then that fell through the the parties to the real
estate deal weren't able to come to an agreement. Now,
the plan is to put a one hundred and fourteen
million dollars stadium on land north to northeast of Charles
Schwab Field. This is about twenty acres owned by Union
(13:14):
Pacific Railroad. Up doesn't use this anymore except for the
little track where they bring the commemorative trains and often
for the College World Series, occasionally other things as well.
And the hope is to break ground in twenty twenty six,
open in twenty twenty eight. Hines, the big time real
estate developer would be involved.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
With Mercantile and all that down there.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, so that's some serious credibility there. It would be
integrated into millwork commons a lot. They're looking for a
lot of collateral development. One of the tricky things here
is that they intend to use turnback financing through the
Sports Assistance Act. A lot of entities are chasing that
right now, and there seems to be some hostility toward
(13:59):
that coming out of the Governor's mansion. So we're going
to keep our eye on that. But it would make
a lot of sense because these incentives like that really
tend to be a net positive and not a cost.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Interestingly, Jeff, some sources like Nebraska Examiner, and it may
have to do with the infrastructure around there, they're saying
it's one hundred and forty million dollars. Then on top
of that, they're predicting that there'd be four hundred million
dollars on this twenty acre site of additional investments. So
you're talking about five hundred and forty million dollars on
(14:30):
twenty acres. And this is over and above what's going
on at Creighton millwork Commons with the Boti Hotel and
the other stuff they're doing there, and then also the
Civic Square property if that gets up and going. And
so this is our urban core that is just going gangbusters.
(14:50):
And I understand people's consternation saying, Okay, there's a lot
of money. Should the city be involved in this? And
you see this all the time, and you were heavily
involved twenty five years ago with the questioner at the time,
or we didn't we didn't have the name of the
rena in Convention Center, and so time will tell on
this stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, we all see a lot of momentum in North
Downtown and this would be a no brainer to keep going,
building off of the amazing things that are happening in
Milwark Commons and the Builders district. But good to see
this moving forward at some level.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
It goes in front of the city City Council on
Tuesday for the land contract.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, and very interesting and really quick. It would kind
of related to all of this would be kind of
a land swap. We would see the city own this thing,
but it would be leased to an entity that would
have the soccer team and as part of the deal,
Union Pacific would buy back the site of its old
headquarters building that the city currently owns. And so we
(15:53):
were out of time for this segment, but it'd be
kind of fun to see what could happen big.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
This four months ago on the show.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
With the Norfolk Southern and everything else. All Right, that's
your news of the week. We're out of time for
more news, but we've got a lot more show to go.
In a little bit, we're going to bring on Alec Gorinsky.
He is the senior vice president of Economic Development for
the Greater Omha Chamber. We're going to talk about Nebraska
and Omaha's economic competitiveness. Important issue. Stay with us. You're
(16:20):
listening to Grow Omaha, brought to you by Dingman's Collision
Center and Cheer Athletics on News Radio eleven ten KFAB
and welcome back to the show. Jeff Biles here at
your service, sitting next to Trenton Maggot. We're brought to
you by Dingman's Collision Center with four soon to be
five metro area locations, as well as Cheer Athletics, the
nation's number one all star Cheerjim in papilion near Highways
(16:43):
fifty and three seventy. We have with us today Alec Gorinsky.
He's the senior vice president of Economic Development at the
Greater Omaha Chamber, and we're going to talk about economic development.
You may have heard there are a couple of studies
that came out earlier this year talking about Nebraska falling
behind some competing states and Omaha falling behind. And we've
(17:03):
been concerned about brain drain around here for some time,
so we thought we should talk with Alec about economic
competitiveness and just kind of get his take on all this.
First of all, Alec, welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Thanks glad to be here, longtime listener, first time callers.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
First time, first time interviewee. But now we're glad you're here,
and we're very proud of everything that you and your
colleagues do at the Chamber. You guys work very, very hard,
and we know it's challenging work, not for the least
of reasons what I just mentioned out there, But why
don't you kind of give us the thirty thousand foot overview,
(17:38):
if you will, of what corporate recruitment and economic development
and Omaha's competitiveness visa vias other cities is like from
the thirty thousand foot view.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Sure, I mean, if you think about the role of
economic development, businesses are constantly evaluating, you know, contraction and expansion,
whether it be businesses that are here or businesses elsewhere.
They're evaluating where they're going to grow or if they
need to decrease their presence, and our job is to
help them evaluate Omaha as an opportunity to grow from
within or grow into or for companies who have to
(18:10):
make contraction decisions, help them understand why there's advantages to
Omahon why that contraction shouldn't necessarily take place here. So
it's a marketing job, and it's a sales job to
a large extent. And the primary things that we can
get into the weeds on this, the primary things that
companies want to talk about is talent talent availability, which
is complex and nuanced. It isn't as simple as we
(18:30):
have a low unemployment rate. They want to talk about
speed to market, particularly for industrial opportunities, and there's a
lot of utility and energy dynamics as it relates to there.
Of course, they want to talk about incentives and what
are the tools that we as a city or we
as a state are offering to help support their expansion
from within or into our market. And then there's a
lot of other things, softer things a'll say, but still
(18:51):
very important, like quality of life and just making sure
that you know, we are a vibrant, exciting place that
their employees are going to want to come to or
their employees are going to want to stay. So we
help companies, We identify companies and we help them evaluate
Omaha as a viable option.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Are we as competitive as we were five and ten
years ago?
Speaker 4 (19:08):
You know, that's a really complex question as it relates
to site readiness and speed to market historically been very
competitive because we have several what we call go ready
certified sites, things that we've de risked the sites and
we've done all the utility planning and some of the
master planning and things like that on there, and so
it really takes some of the time out where some
of the challenges is that they the demand for energy
(19:32):
is so high, and we've got very good utilities here.
We've got a very good partner in OPPD who's an
active part of our regional partnership. But you know, a
lot of these projects, especially the industrial projects, which is
the lie and share of what we see lately. Over
the last twenty one months, so all of twenty twenty
four and yet today or yeah, twenty twenty four and
so far this year, we've seen about one hundred and
(19:54):
sixty five hundred and seventy qualified opportunities. I'd say all
but about three or four of those have been industrial
in nature. So that's where you're seeing the market looking
to expand. And back in the day it used to
be we need one mega wat of power, we need
two megawats of power. We're seeing more and more that
are five to twelve and then thirteen and above, and
so you know, it's not as much of a capacity
(20:16):
problem here. What it really is is the supply chain
to build the substations and to build the infrastructure to
the sites takes a really long time. And so it's
going to take a company three years, four years, five
years to be able to get up an operational here,
and that's not always the dynamic and other states. So
that's a challenge when it comes to competitiveness. The other
challenge when it comes to competitiveness is that in some
(20:37):
states their incentives are just a little bit more favorable
than ours. We all have good and ours are not
terrible by any means. I don't want to cast terrible
dispersions on them, but their performance based incentives in some states,
they're just able to write bigger checks upfront and help
those companies really see greater advantage and greater opportunity there.
(20:59):
So those are a couple of places where we're challenged.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Speaking of those incentives, Alec, if you could get whatever
you wanted from the state of Nebraska, what would you
like to see improved with our state's incentive package right now?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
I would say two things. Primarily, again, I think performance
based incentives are the right thing if you're going to
give away public money, and I shouldn't characterize it that way,
but if you're going to invest public money in economic
activity and economic development, you certainly should get something out
of that, big capital investments, job creation, good wage growth
in your region, or whatever the case may be. But
the challenge is is that the timeline it takes to
(21:34):
get those is so far down the line, and so
there has to be some mechanism and there currently is,
but it's small and hard to access. So there has
to be some mechanism to monetize that upfront so that
particularly some of these smaller firms are able to access
capital sooner and help make that investment in their future.
And so there's you know, we have a revolving loan
fund in our state. It's kind of small. You repay
(21:55):
it with your incentives in future years. If we could
increase the investment there, that would go a long way.
The other thing is we call it a closing fund.
A lot of states have big closing funds where they're
able to just write a big check. It usually goes
to utilities and infrastructure. And things like that that if ultimately,
if the company doesn't, you know, if the outcome isn't
what you realize, there's still good value to the site
(22:18):
and that site can still be a viable option for
another company in the future. So if we had a
stronger closing fund, I think that'd be really good. One
thing that we're working on right now, though, as it
relates to a specific project, that I think is really positive,
is helping the incentives not only create jobs, but helping
the incentives. And this is an idea we're working on
with the legislature, hopefully helping the incentives recruit people here
(22:42):
because there's this relationship between obviously the ability to land
a project and grow a company here and their ability
to retain talent. And so if we can incentivize that
company that much more, if they're able to bring in
new to Nebraska tax payers, that would go a long
way as well. And then the final thing I'll say
is if there could you know some mechanism to help
(23:04):
us address this this this supply chain and this infrastructure
and this equipment for energy so that we can have
a better speed to market for some of these industrial
projects that will go a long way as well.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
That's good stuff. When it comes to workforce, you have
people that you know, Creighton does a good job of
retaining a lot of their students here. I know there's
a major push to that as well as un l
U n L. So you have retention of talent and
then attracting new talent. Is enough being done to stop
(23:35):
the brain drain? And then also to recruit people? What
have other places done that we're competing with and what
should we be doing to get them to come here,
bring their families here, bring their parents and friends to
grow our population.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Yeah, you know, I think there always could be more
that we could be doing around talent retention and talent recruitment.
The data tells us that where people are leaving are
predominantly the ages of like twenty six to thirty five
or so when people turn thirty five to thirty nine,
that's where you see the positive net migration into our city.
And so there's clearly an opportunity there. One thing that
(24:15):
we're investing in right now is something that we call Internally,
we call it back to Omaha. Externally, the campaign is
called Back for the Future, targeting those boomerang individuals in
communities that already have positive net migration with our city
where you know, certainly we lose some people to the
city to those different cities like places like Denver and
Los Angeles in parts of Arizona even but we have
(24:38):
even greater migration into our community from those places. And
there are several factors that contribute to that. But we're
only investing, you know, you know, maybe one hundred thousand
dollars or something like that into this campaign, and that's
only going to go so far, and so there needs
to be more that we can invest in in trying
to sell Omaha, particularly to those individuals that are already
demonstrating that they have a willingness and a propensity whether
(24:59):
they're at an age, demographic or a stage in their
life to come to Omaha or come back to Omaha.
There was a great story, I can't remember the article
it was in, but it was about just that scenario
where people are leaving some of these big cities and
wanting to come back to a place like Omaha, and
other cities are doing this as well, but at a
much bigger pace, in a much bigger investment.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
All Right, we're talking with Alec Gorinsky senior vice president
in charge of Economic Development at the Great Rama Chamber.
Going to take our middle of the show break for
the news, but when we come back, a lot more
questions with Alec about Omaha's competitiveness and what we're doing
to recruit companies and employers and capital and talent to
the metro area. You're listening to grow Omaha. Brought to
you by Dingman's Collision Center and Sheer Athletics on News
(25:40):
Radio eleven ten KFAB and welcome back to the show.
Jeff Biehls and Trenton Maggot are here in the KFAB studio.
We're brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center, which is
the place you want to keep in mind if you
ever get an a fender bender or a good ador
ding or a serious accident. They take good care of
your car for metro area locations, and they're working on
a fifth one in Gretna that'll open early next year.
(26:03):
And then Cheer Athletics, which is the ideal place for
you to get your kids involved if you want them
to grow and develop in leadership, learn to be competitive,
amazing physical fitness experiences. Cheer Athletics is into the all
star cheer business which is becoming wildly popular worldwide, and
they are located in Papillion near Highways fifty and three seventy.
(26:27):
All right, we've got a nol company's commercial real estate
development Spotlight of the week, brought to you by who Well,
not all companies, of course, you can find information about
them on the website Nodelcompanies dot com. But they've been
a big part of the Omaha development community for a
very very long time and will be for a very
long time in the future. J Nodel runs things over there.
(26:49):
His son Sam Nodel is very heavily involved in the
business and they've done so many different projects. And during
this segment we always talk about things happening in or
around one of their projects, and we thought today we're
going to give you a quick roundup of all of
the things we've mentioned in the last few weeks happening
in Xarbon Village. There are a lot, of course, Xarbon
Village being a Nottle Companies project, So just to summarize it,
(27:11):
Grand Patisserie opening a second location. The first one is
out at one hundred and forty fourth and Center. They're
getting close to opening Marigold's Mercantile, cool home goods store
going into the former Booknook Space, Breakfast Club a popular restaurant,
a breakfast only restaurant out of Des Moines, Iowa, going
(27:31):
into the Jones bro Space interior build out already underway.
And then Red Door Wood fired Grill, a very popular
restaurant out of Kansas City, will be going into the
former Spirit World Space right there on the corner sixty
seventh and Center. So a lot of things to do
in Xarbon Village coming up here pretty quick. And that
(27:53):
is your Nottle Company's commercial real estate development Spotlight of
the week. Well, we have Alec Gorensky with us for
a few minutes. He is a senior vice president of
Economic Development at the Greater Omha Chamber, so in his
position responsible for recruiting companies, retaining companies, promoting the Omaha
metropolitan area. And Alec and the previous segment, you mentioned
(28:14):
a lot of projects that are out there, and you
said the vast majority of them are industrial in nature.
We know that individual projects are highly confidential in your world,
but can you give us kind of an overview of
what kinds of industrial companies or projects are looking at
us right now.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Yeah, and what they rhyme with, Yeah, that's a good one. So,
you know, like I mentioned, you know, over the last
you know year and you know, twenty twenty four and
twenty twenty five. So far this year, about one hundred
and seventy five qualified opportunities, and I would characterize those
as traditional economic development opportunities, and a large majority of
those are going to be industrial in nature, huge power
(28:50):
users in many cases, big employers, big demand on sites
and utilities and things of that nature. One thing I'll
say that we don't have a ton of it. Our
pipeline is data centers. We've got a couple, but a
lot of those data centers are we just refer right
onto OPPD because power is such a fundamental attribute of
what they're looking for, and we'd rather OPPD work those
for a little bit first, until they become a little
bit more real, and then maybe we can talk about those.
(29:10):
So our pipeline and our que is not predominantly data centers.
But there's equipment manufacturing in there. There is chemical manufacturing
in there. We've had a decent specialization here in chemical manufacturing.
There's also a good amount of food manufacturing in there.
So we've got a handful of projects that are evaluating
our region that are food manufacturing in nature, food processing
in different ways, and you know, those are those can
(29:32):
be characterized as good jobs. They're big employers, you know,
not the like the Tyson thing that that you were
talking about before. You know, they're not reaching three thousand
quite yet, but you know they can be five hundred
to twelve hundred employers and there's there's some potential good
opportunities there and they're you know, decent wages for our
region as well. So that's kind of what we're looking at.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
The other thing I'll mention too is that we're also
looking at emerging sectors and so you know, we've got
a high a low total, a low quantity, but a
high specialization in software and technology, and specialization is what
some of our audience looks for. Do you have a
density of the talent that can do that kind of work.
So when it's you know, if you can find software
(30:12):
and sales together, there's a high specialization there that we
could be a really good market for some of these
emerging technology firms, whether it be an ag tech, defense tech,
even life sciences, insurance tech and fintech, things that are
very adjacent to existing industries that we have here where
they have strategic partnerships. And so we've also got another
we've really just started this work over the past couple months.
(30:33):
We've got another ten prospects there. We actually landed a company,
a small tech firm out out of Oklahoma. Amigafi is
their name. They're doing some AI solutions and they've they've
located at the Scott Data Center there and they're small
to start with, but you know some of those small
tech startup firms, they have the propensity to grow into
something quite substantial. So we're looking at that as well.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Alec, before we let you go, I did want to
bring up Union Pacific. You got the the merger in
play with Norfolk Southern. UP has already announced that the
headquarters will remain here. Of the hopeful lea to be
combined companies, what can we do now as a market
to try and maximize the number of Norfolk Southern jobs
(31:16):
that might come to Omaha.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
Absolutely so, again, just to reiterate what you said, just
really grateful for up's commitment to Omaha and Nebraska, particularly
as it relates to its headquarters. But this is a
huge opportunity for Omaha, and this is a huge opportunity
for Nebraska. You know, Norfolk Southern employees a significant number
of individuals, and in addition to bringing some of those
jobs here, it would be idealistic to bring some of
those people here as well and contribute to our overall
(31:39):
population growth goals. I think one of the most important
things that we can do, and one of the things
that we're leaning into is really being a welcoming community
to those individuals that are going to be evaluating Omaha
as a place that they could potentially come to and
live and raise their family here. You know, as a region,
we're actively talking to actively talking to Union Pacific about
(32:00):
what that possibility looks like and what we may need
to do from perhaps, you know, to to enhance some
of our statewide programs to be a benefit not just
to them, but for other companies that maybe look like
them and they perhaps they're facing similar circumstances. So that's
going to be really important. But when it comes to
recruiting their people here, there may be you know, they're
coming from Atlanta and they may not be too familiar
(32:20):
with Omaha and so we're going to have to do
a full court press to not only, you know, help
help those individuals see the opportunity that is Omaha for
themselves and their families, but also when they come here,
be a really welcoming community to those individuals and make
them feel right at home here. And we know that
people always feel that way once they get here. They
always say, holy cow, I had no idea, and we
(32:41):
just need to reinforce that identity.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Trick is getting them here.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Well, Alec, we appreciate you joining us and thanks for
talking with us about some very very important things for
Omaha's future.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Yeah. Absolutely, it's it's exciting work, it's important work, and
I love Omaha and I get to be Omaha's chief salesperson.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
That's Alec Grenzky, Senior Vice President, OMHA Chamber in charge
of Economic Development, going to take our final break, and
when we come back, it'll be your Perkins Chritzer Construction
Lightning Round. You're listening to GROAMHA, brought to you by
Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics on news radio eleven
ten kfab. It's the Perkins Chritzer Construction Lightning Round, which
(33:17):
we talk about a lot of things super fast. Thanks
to Perkins Chritzer Construction for making this possible. They are
an outstanding general class A contractor here in Omaha serving
all of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Now, don't be
thinking they only do restaurants in retail. A lot of
times we talk about their projects because that's what we
(33:37):
talk about a lot of during this segment. But Perkins
Chrisser Construction can build you anything. They can build an
office building, a shopping center, a warehouse, a new building
for your church. I mean, they can do it all.
And it is under the steady hand and leadership of
Dave Kreitzer. They've got their office right over in Miracle Hills,
that shopping center that they built and renovated and have
(34:00):
built out a lot of the space. And you can
find out more about Perkins Chritzer Construction by going to
PA DASHC construction dot com. That's PA dash sconstruction dot com. Hey,
Omaha Street Car Authority is hosting an open house December
eleventh and five point thirty at the Durham. This would
be your chance to ask questions of the construction team.
It's all Q and A no formal presentation. You can
(34:21):
pop in any time between five thirty and seven thirty
details on our most recent transportation column on Gromaha dot
com by Eric Miller, Trenton. And you can now fly well,
at least as of May twenty first, you can fly
NonStop from Omaha to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Oh yeah, we
used to go down there from two Lane in New Orleans.
(34:42):
Oh when you were going to college. Yeah, but you drove.
You didn't take a NonStop flight back in those days.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Beaches.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Once this starts up on May twenty first, Epley will
now have thirty five NonStop destination, So that's going in
the right direction. Speaking of Epley, Thanksgiving holiday traffic next
week projected to be up three two point four percent
over last year, So get there early with all the
construction going on. Busiest days, Trenton of the Thanksgiving weekend
(35:08):
number one Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Number two the Sunday following Thanksgiving,
and number three Monday the day after that. Those are
your three business all right. Restaurant News North Italia celebrated
its grand opening on Thursday of this week in Village Point.
This marks the brand's first Nebraska location. Closest existing previously
(35:31):
existing locations Kansas City and Denver, so a nice name
catch for the metro area. Bora Bora Juice is opening
a second Omaha location. It's going to be on the
northeast corner of two hundred and fourth in West Maple Road.
Bora Bora Juice is based in Kuwait. Of all places
they have juice as smoothies, coffees, waffles, crapes. They have
(35:53):
an existing location at one hundred and thirty second and
West Maple While back we reported Veno is going to
open a second wine store in the Shops of Legacy.
The exact address twenty eight thirty five South one hundred
and seventieth Plaza. All they have is it gonna be
called Vino mos Mas Vino Mosque Squared and it's in
the former Cellar forty four space. I love how you
(36:16):
laughed at your own joke there. That's pretty good. Yeah, Chris,
you got to kick out of that, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
All right.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Prairie Coast Candle Company will celebrate the grand opening of
its first retail store front in Waterloo on Saturday, December thirteenth.
They were like an online company here in Olma, but
now they're going they've gone to the retail side. Got
a couple of closings. Pizzeria Davlow closing its doors at
(36:43):
one hundred and forty fourth and fort on December sixth,
and then Coppel Mexican Cuisine is actually closing earlier than
we originally reported last week.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
It's going to be November twenty third that they're going
to replace with a different restaurant. Owner called that.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, Oh okay, we hope, so you know, and a
lot of times people will say, oh, I hate to
hear about these restaurant closures. On Gromha we report restaurant closures,
but keep in mind, for every restaurant that we report closing,
we've got about five and a half new ones opening.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
And if that space has a hood and a grease trap,
someone will sign a lease.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Somebody will because there's always a group of people looking
for another place for restaurant tours. And then we have
an event hall opening at fourteen twelve Howard Street. That's
a storefront just west of the Old Market by the
owners of Billy Frogs. It's going to be called clover
Leaf House. Music is playing, which means we are finito
hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I'm Jeff Beils and
(37:40):
I'm Trenton Maggot. You've been listening to Grow Omaha, brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center, Cheer Athletics, and Perkins
Kretzer Construction. We'll chat with you next week at nine
right here on news Radio eleven ten kfab
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