Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Ka Baby, Well, good morning and welcome to the show.
Jeff Beiles here at your service. Glad that you have
joined us on this icy road morning. If you are
out and about today, be careful. Main roads are not
too terribly bad, but the side roads are still a
little bit dodgy. At any rate, we are brought to
you by Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics, the
(00:36):
nation's number one all star cheer jim My co host
Trenton Maggot has the weekend off. We allow him to
do that every once in a while. And in his
stead we have a familiar voice, Brad Williams of Brad
Williams Photography and e NA Consulting, a civil engineering firm.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Good morning, Brad, Hey, Good morning Jeff.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, before we go any further, I do want to
give you a chance to promote a cool event you
have scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. It's an annual deal and
a lot of our Gromaha listeners who have gotten to
know you over the years might be interested in attending.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah, so the last four years I've done it's called
Beer with Brad. It's a holiday pop up, so I'll
have all my photography prints ready to hang photos, everything
that I would normally have it in art fair, but
instead at a tent and the art fair in this ice.
Tomorrow afternoon they will be in the party room at
the Casual Pint eighty seventh the Pacific Countryside Village. So
you can come in, order yourself a beer and then
(01:33):
browse prints, do some holiday shopping, relaxed environment. You might
bump into some other gro Maha people there.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I know I'm going to be there.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, it's a good time. And you know Lou that
used to be on Gromha a lot, He'll be there
hanging out and so there'll be a be a fun time.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's a chance for you to see a lot of
Brad's amazing photography and it is truly amazing. It's available
for display or for sale, and then it's always a
good time. Beer with Brad tomorrow one a countryside.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Yeah, and you you don't have to buy anything. You
can just come in and look, it's no big deal.
And I have a little bit of everything, so small
little prints that you could quickly get and give to someone,
or if you need a big piece for the wall,
I'll have a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, I'm looking forward to it and hopefully some of
the GIRLMHA listeners will come join us tomorrow one to
five beer with Brad at the Casual Pint in Countryside Village. Well,
let's go straight into our news, Brad, And as everyone knows,
our news is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage Eagle
Mortgage Company dot com. And I got to tell you
I had the privilege last night of attending the Eagle
(02:37):
Mortgage Christmas Party. I always love the Eagle Mortgage Christmas Party.
Todd Schneider Wind is married to Holly Schneider Wind. They
own it to Holly runs the place, and Todd and
I are longtime friends, and you know they're a longtime
sponsor here. Todd and I actually work together Nai and
p Dodge doing commercial real estate. And my wife has
(02:57):
a mortgage broker license, doesn't really do it much anyway,
or it's always been a part time thing and she
just kind of does it in case she wants to
do it again sometime in the future, but she has
her license with the Schneidewins at Eagle Mortgage. This is
such a great, great company. But last night we got
together and it was tricky with the ice getting to
the restaurant, but had a great time. Well more importantly
(03:18):
than that, though, if you were thinking about buying a house,
and a lot of people are, you know, it's we're
at the end of the year. Some people are thinking, Hey,
twenty twenty five, that's the year I'm going to go
get a new house. One of the first things you
want to do is contact Eagle Mortgage. You can see
them in person at one hundred and fourteenth in Davenport
or online at Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. That's Eagle
(03:40):
Mortgage Company dot com.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
All right, Brad.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
The big news this week it was announced that FNBO
plans to sell its twenty two story nineteen seventies era
Main Bank building to New Style development for redevelopment.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Yeah, that's kind of been a rumor that we've been
here in for the last six months or so, you know,
the better part of this year. And I guess why
we heard the rumors. I was still a little bit
surprised to see this announcement come out, but it's going
to be cool. It'd be it probably have some awesome views.
I've been up to the Press Club a couple times
and that you can pretty much see all of downtown
and surrounding areas from up there. So I think it's
(04:20):
going to be a really cool project when it's done.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, I agree, New Style wants to turn it into
three hundred apartment units. The Press Club that Brad just
mentioned will stay, and they will be a tendant like
they always have been on the top floor, but then
you'll have the apartments on most of the floors. Now,
it's my understanding that New Style will really invigorate the
(04:42):
bottom two floors and those are going to be commercial,
And I think that makes a lot of sense because
with all of those, you know, if you've got three
hundred apartments, you'll probably have about four hundred and fifty
people living in there, so you'll actually have some people
there that could be customers to the retail on the
bottom two floors.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah, and the bottom two floors are also connected to
the DoubleTree hotel next door and to the south. They're
connected by tunnel to the first National Bank tower, So
there's more than just those four hundred and fifty people
that are going to be in there on a daily basis.
So I think it really could be kind of a
hub for the area.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Oh yeah, definitely. And you may be wondering why is
this even happening. Well, FNBO has moved all of their
people out of that building. When they opened the tower
in the early two thousands, they had the towerful and
that building, well, they don't need as many people down
there because of work from home and hybrid schedules and
not as much square footage per worker as there.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Used to be. And so.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You know, in these types of buildings, it's hard to
get a fifty three year old building and turn it
into suitable space for modern office work. You know, we
need higher ceilings than we used to have because of
all the technology and office buildings, so turning these things
into apartments makes an awful lot of sense. It's not
easy to do, though, and that's one of the reasons
we're quite forty here in Omah that we have New
(06:01):
Style Brad that has a great track record of these
types of conversions.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
I would say New Style has done a great job
turning some buildings that people probably would never have touched
into some great apartments that seem to do really well.
We have got a lot of questions on their social
media about whether they're going to remodel the xterior or
the building, and as far as we know, we haven't.
Hasn't been decided and there's no announcement on that yet.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, the impression I get is it's very early in
the process. In fact, I'm not even sure that the
deal has gone through yet, and so you know, it's
probably My guess is that New Style is probably determining
a lot of those things, you know with the duo.
You know they're doing the duo which were the two
Central Park plaza towers. Those had to replace that, They
(06:49):
needed to replace all the windows on that project, and
they're doing that. Who knows. My guess is they probably
would have to. I mean, it's a fifty three year
old building.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, I would guess that too. I sit next to
a window an eight nineteen eighties office building. Let me
tell you, on a windy day, there's a little draft.
So I can't imagine living in a situation like that.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Well, could you imagine if there was a way to
engineer it so that you could have some balconies or
something like that. I imagine it would be cost prohibitive.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
But it would be cool. Wouldn't that be something if
you could do that, or at least for part of it.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Yeah, I imagine rooftop deck something like that.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, so we'll keep our eye on that.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
No timeline on the project for sure, other than the
fact that the apartments could be open by twenty twenty six.
According to a World Herald article, this would be about
an eighty million dollar project, which is no small number.
And this also fits in because of where it's located.
It'll be yet another one of those projects that benefits
(07:45):
the street cards in that streetcar area of influence, which
is another plus with it because we are already about
double the amount of projected development within the streetcar zone
and the thing is barely even started construction so far.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I know people are a little concerned or upset about
the whole tiff financing for the street car, but I mean,
being this far ahead of projections already, it seems like
there's it's just there's so many good signs that it's
all gonna work out really well.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, Yeah, it's really really encouraging. And this is just,
you know, one of a parade of downtown projects that
keep giving us a lot of reason for optimism that
downtown will continue to grow and grow and keep moving
in a very positive direction. So a little further west
eighty fourth and L Street, we have steel that has
gone vertical on the food Bank for the Heartland new building. Brad,
(08:40):
this is the old H and H Chevrolet location.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, they completely leveled the site and started a brand
new building. Foundation works probably been underway for a couple
months now, and then just this week the steel went up.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
We have a picture of it on gromha dot com
if you want to see what that looks like. But yeah,
that's that is no small project. We're talking see one
hundred and five thousand square feet. So that is not
your run of the mill food bank building. That's the
size of a major warehouse distribution the area. Okay, So
then we have another story out of Council Bluffs. We
(09:15):
have a developer planning to turn about fourteen acres of
greenfield space into a two hundred and eighty apartment unit.
What's interesting about this is that it is right south
of the Sam's Club and Council Buffs Metro Crossing shopping center,
four story buildings, four of them all together. And you know,
(09:36):
this is kind of a just kind of a forgotten
area that was built around as time went by.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, this particularly lot, I think has been vacant, so
to say. I mean, there's not like it's been farmland
or anything. But this is another project in that whole,
like Lake Banawa area, that has been either under construction
or announced in the past year. And I think just
the proximity to Interstate twenty nine, with all their new
shops being around there, I think you're just going to
(10:01):
see more and more of these residential projects in that area.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
The Council Bluffs has been very actively trying to create
some more residential development in the area and this is
another sign of that. And then finally out in Valley, Nebraska,
we've got sixty four acre development at two hundred and
sixty fourth and Miggs Street.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
It's going to be.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Called Valley Landing and the grading and excavation work as
well underway. There's going to be a lake in the
middle of it. A lot of that out in Valley
because the water table is so high. But we know
the first occupants that are confirmed will be a d
C West athletic complex presumably for the DC West schools.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And a Fairway grocery store. So Valley continues to grow.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
There's another athletic complex going right across the highway, so
Valley's quickly turning into the sports complex capital of eastern Nebraska.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I think yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Definitely a lot of youth sports out there and ladies
and gentlemen. So that is your Egle Mortgage news of
the week. You can learn more about Eagle Mortgage at
Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. We're going to take our
first break at the hour and when we come back,
we're going to bring on Eric Miller. He's a senior
transit planner with fhu's Omaha office and he's also our
(11:18):
transportation writer on Gromaha dot com. Eric's a great guy,
really understands what's going on in the transit and transportation world,
and you're going to enjoy listening to him. We're going
to talk to him a little bit about streetcar stuff,
bus rapid transit. One of the first questions we're going
to ask him is how on earth does street cars
work when it's raining ice outside, so stay with us.
(11:40):
Eric Miller is coming up. We have Brad Williams in
for the vacationing Trenton Maggot. The show's brought to you
by Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics, and we'll
be back in a moment right here on news Radio
eleven ten kfab and welcome back to Drew Omaha. Jef
Beal sitting next to Brad Williams, bubstituting for Trenton Maggot.
(12:01):
We're allowing him to take a well deserved weekend off
Brad of course, with Brad Williams Photography and EENA Consulting,
a civil engineering firm based here in Omaha. We're brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. Chair
Athletics is the nation's number one all star cheer Jim
(12:22):
and that is soon to be an Olympic sport. Great
opportunity for your kids or grandkids to get involved. Learn leadership,
learn competition, develop lifelong friends, and develop an awful lot
of great memories. Chair Athletics Omaha is located in Papillion
near Highways fifty and three. Seventy and we highly recommend
cheer athletics. All right, we've got our friend Eric Miller
(12:45):
with us on the hotline today. Eric is senior transit
planner with FHU, a company that does a lot of
transit engineering and planning around the country, and he, of
course is in their Omaha office. And Eric is also
the writer of grow Omaha dot COM's transportation column.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Eric, good morning, and welcome back to the show.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Good morning, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
That's good to have you back.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And first of all, before we go much further, why
don't you, for those people who haven't read your column
on our website, tell people what they can find if
they check out your transportation articles.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Absolutely, so, I must admit it's definitely transit biased because
that's the profession that I'm in. That's what I've focused on,
and what I try to do is bring everybody up
to speed on what's going on with transit issues in
the Omaha area, and you know, including the streetcar project
and other other projects that are going on, and then
(13:42):
also just some thoughts on other things that apping nationally
and how that could influence what we're doing here in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
So, Eric, you brought up, you know, transportation issues here
in Omaha, and today we're having a lot of transportation
issues with the weather outside what you tell our listeners
how how icy weather would affect a street car.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Yeah, that's a very timely topic. And and one of
the you know, kind of the main advantages that we
like to promote about rail transit is just the fact
that it is mostly in all weather mode, that you know,
there's not a lot that'll will stop it from running.
And so usually when we have events like this, and
I should uh mention for for people that might not know,
(14:29):
I have a lot of background working for the Regional
Transportation District in Denver, and we have an extensive light
rail system fairly similar technology to what's proposed for the
street car. On days like this, we just want to
make sure that we keep the trains running because we
want to make sure that we have the rail safe.
And then also where there's overhead cat andary wire, which
(14:49):
is where the cars get their power from above the cars,
that that's staying clear and that there's not ice building
up and in slick spot we have what are called
sanders on the trains where there's little boxes of sand
and the vehicles are smart enough to automatically release the
sand under the wheels when there's traction needed, so to
(15:13):
keep them from slipping, and then also to get you
some traction for getting going. So those are the two
main things that we do on weather like this that
helps keep them running.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I don't think a lot of people realize that trains
have the capability of doing that.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
That's all trains being dating all the way back to
the steam engine. Rails are always slicked, even if it
like a rainy day. So the sand has been around
forever and it works perfect.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
It's steel on steel.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
So yeah, if it was weather, I see that that
would be an issue. Right. So Eric, tell us a
little bit about your company and what involvement you may
have in Omaha transit.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Yeah, absolutely so. Our company, SAHU is headquartered in Denver,
and so that's where I started working for them, was
in the Denver office, and then decided to move to
Omaha and try to you know, promote more work here
and and gets as there are more projects coming up
and so some of the things that that we've been
focusing on are and you know, my experience most transit planning,
(16:18):
so that's you know, planning view future corridors that are
coming up, and then also on one of my special
teas is doing the operations work for it, figuring out
how these are going to run, you know, how much
they're going to cost, uh, you know, the operators that
we need to staff them with, and then how are
we going to get the funding that sort of thing.
There's there's a lot of intricate things that come in,
(16:39):
but we've currently got some work in Omaha Council Busts
and Lincoln for the transit agencies there. So that's that's
been really very interesting.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
So just so the listeners know, you grew up here,
you have a very uh long time history with know,
you know a lot about the history of the area
in the street car, So it's not like you're coming
in and just learning about our our city. How about
giving us an update on the current work. I see
that the bridges are kind of the next thing on
(17:09):
the list for you know, we've been doing the utilities
for a while now, now they're going to start looking
at a couple bridges.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Yeah. Yeah, So, and as I mentioned, I'm involved a
little bit in new Omaha streetcar work. Obviously, HDR has
a lot of that work, but I've been helping out
with some of the operations stuff, and it's getting very
exciting because it's really getting real. You've probably noticed the
utility work that's going on out there. In twenty twenty five,
we'll get into more of the serious construction work. The
(17:39):
mainline track construction will begin in twenty twenty six. But
what we're going to see this year in twenty twenty
five that's kind of a big deal, is the replacement
of the Harney Street Bridge over I four eighty, and
so that's to allow the streetcar track to go over
the bridge. And this bridge is designated for replacement within
five to ten years anyways, and so this is a
(18:00):
good time to replace it for the streetcar. And then
next year we'll have the Farnham Street Bridge replaced in
twenty twenty six, so those are kind of the big
mainline projects that you'll you'll start seeing out there.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
We're talking with transit planner Eric Miller with FHU and Eric,
so it'll take two years to completely rebuild the Harney
and Farnham Bridges over Interstate four eighty. Will we see
other actual streetcar construction and other parts of the three
and a half mile route while those are going on,
(18:34):
where we see any steel rails going into concrete before
the two bridges are done, No, not yet.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
That'll like I said, that'll start in twenty twenty six,
and then you know, ongoing is the utility works that
I mentioned. But what will be really interesting is down
by the Chi Health Center. You'll start to see the
vehicle maintenance facility take shape just kind of right there
underneath the I four eighty just to the north, squeezed
in there between the I four eighty overpass and ditch
(19:02):
I Health Center, which is called the Mecha lot A
the parking lot right now, and we're doing the site
prep work right now for that. The bids are due
for the actual construction of it this week, so we'll
mount soon. Who gets that, and that'll get started here
soon and that'll go through twenty twenty six, and our
(19:24):
vehicles will start arriving in twenty twenty seven, so we'll
have the vehicle maintenance facility done just in time for that,
so it'll be exciting.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Oh okay, so I was down there about a week
ago and saw all that dirt work there. That's just
site prep that's not building the actual.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Building, right, Yeah, just some basic site prep including utilities
and getting the parking area rearranged in the curb and
gutter stuff, and then we'll get into the real construction
early next year.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
And we're on this timeline, do the streetcar stops start
coming into play with the construction.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Along the station? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Yeah, those yeah, and yeah, they're called stops or stations,
you know, with the streetcars, or they're more like like
what you'd see kind of like an orbit bus stop,
you know, definitely more than your traditional just bus stop sign,
but not as extensive as you know, like a light
rail station. And they're space culture together than light rail lines,
(20:24):
so usually we call them stops. Those will probably start
coming up in late twenty twenty six early twenty twenty seven,
along with the rest of the line. For anyone that's
been to Kansas City recently, if you go down Main
Street you can see their construction which is quite extensive.
They're going to open their their extension along Main Street
next year. But yeah, that's that all kind of comes
(20:46):
together with the mainline track construction at the same time.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Okay, Eric, we're going to have you if you don't
mind stay with us. We have to take our middle
of the show break for the news. There's a few
other things we want to chat with you on the
other side.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Okay, yeah, absolutely looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Okay, this is We've got Eric Miller with us, senior
transit planner with FHU and Omaha and also the writer
of our transportation column on grow Oomaha dot com. Got
to take our middle of the show break. We've got
Brad Williams in here substituting for Trenton Maggot. We're brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics, and
we'll be back in a moment right here on news
(21:24):
Radio eleven ten KFAB and welcome back to the show,
Jeff Biels.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
At your service.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Trenton has the weekend off, and so in his stead
we have Brad Williams of Brad Williams Photography and e
and a consulting. Brad does a lot of stuff for
us at GROMHA and probably the most common is substitute host.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
But at any rate, we're.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics.
Dingman's has four metro area locations. Take such good care
of your car, you know. If it's a big accident, Yep,
they do that. If it's a fender bender, no problem.
If it's just scratches and they'll fix that too.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
I'm gonna guess they have a busy week coming up
this week.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Oh my gosh, I didn't even think about that after
last night. Dingman's better be ready to work over time
coming Monday. Yep, Oh my goodness. Yeah, they probably are
going to have to. Hey, we've got our Nodel Companies
Commercial real Estate Development spot Bight of the Week, brought
to you appropriately enough by Not All Companies. This is
when we talk about things happening in or around one
(22:24):
of Nodel's many area developments, and they've got a lot
of them. Xarbon Village Builders, District Village, Point West, Medical Campus,
Steel Ridge, River's Edge and Council Bluffs. Not All Companies
is one of those firms that has played a huge
role in making Omaha what it is today, and today
we talk about perhaps their best known development, Xarbon Village
(22:48):
and at ex Sarbon Village, we have a new bank
that is called First State Bank. The actual address is
sixty four fifty seven Francis Street, and this is right
in the d l Are building. And I tell you, Brad,
x Sarbon Village, they just keep getting better and better
and better.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, we seem to end up there quite a bit.
There's always something going on or just visiting one of
the restaurants down there, but it's just it's a great
place for the whole family.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And First State Bank is based out of Lincoln and
serves a lot of southeast Nebraska and now x Sarbon Village.
And that is your Nodel Company's commercial real estate development
spotlight over the week. You can find out more about
Nodel by going to Nodelcompanies dot com. Well, we have
Eric Miller with us. He is our columnist who writes
(23:38):
about transportation on the Gromaha website. He's also senior transit
planner at FHU in the Omaha office. And Eric, I
wanted to talk to you a little bit about what
might come next.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
You know, we.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Currently have this streetcar system terminating on the west at
about thirty ninth Street, and we keep hearing that it
could be extended into the mediciner sooner rather than later.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Anything new on that front, I haven't.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Heard anything recently, but my understanding is that we're still
working to get that going so that we can open
that at the same time as the rest of the line.
Because it's not a very far extension. It's just a
little tricky one because we have to figure out some
grading issues and where exactly we want to stop so
that it works well for the un MC campus. So
this going to be a really really good one to
(24:29):
have because there's a lot of employment there, a lot
of need to have a good transit into that site,
and so that's something that we want to try to
take care of you here in the next few years
before we open and so we can can extend it
into there.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
So you brought up the grading issues in Farnham Street
right there is pretty steep. Is there a maximum grade
for streetcars? So we're going to as this line extends
different parts of town. Is that something we're going to
have to take into account where these lines go.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Absolutely, I mean are some places that that we've got,
you know, steep rail transit, Like there's there's a section
in Salt Lake City that comes to mind over by
the University of Utah Stadium. But generally you want to
stay under five percent grade. That's ideal, especially when you
have days like today or you know, you're slipping more
and things like that. Otherwise, if you get past that,
(25:20):
then you're looking at cable car technology or something else.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
So yeah, so Eric, you know, we keep talking about, okay,
what would come next? You know, do we go north Omaw,
do we go south Omaw zoo, do we go airport?
And then of course Council Bluffs really is interested in
extending the line over the river away to their downtown.
And lately, if you look at a lot of commercial
(25:45):
real estate development news coming out of Council Bluffs, a
decent amount of it is on what they call this
First Avenue Trail, which is essentially where their streetcar line
would go. It's almost like some of these developers are
had you their bets, so that might happen in Countiluff someday.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
Absolutely. And I should mention that one of my recent
articles covered some potential extensions, and I should note that
a lot of these extension options that are kind of
close into downtown could also be good, like BRT options
where we could see something kind of like in orbits.
You have to decide on the right technology, just like
any transit corridor in Council Bluffs. They're very much interested
(26:26):
in the streetcar. We're currently doing what's called a Planning
Environmental Linkages Study, which is kind of a pre environmental
study that follows the Federal Transit Administration's guidance so that
we can seek federal funding to build that corridor. And
so we're following all the steps and as part of that,
we have to start from scratch and say, Okay, we
(26:47):
just want to connect downtown Omahon downtown Council Bluff, How
should we do it and where should it go? And
so we have to We've had a public outreach meeting
that we've had in October, and we kind of have
to let the study follow. That can't come out and
say let's put a street car on First av even
though that's what the city absolutely wants. We kind of
have to take a step back and then make sure
that that is what makes sense and what comes out
(27:09):
of out of this alternative analysis that we're going to
be getting into this year, which we'll look at the
different options. We're going to look at the costs and
how it meets all the project goals and things like that.
But very exciting to get to this point, because we're
getting closer and closer to a potential extension there in
the Council Bluffs.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
So what kind of environmental study do you have to
do when you have a strip of land that was
railroad tracks from the eighteen hundreds all the way up
till about five six years ago when they finally ripped
them out to put railroad tracks back. And what kind
of why I guess I don't understand why so many
studies on the impacts would need to be done.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
Absolutely, and that is definitely one of the hurdles and
what makes transit projects takes so long these days than before.
And it's not it's it's probably less saying like let's
see what the environmental impacts are, but more like making
sure this is what the community wants and this makes sense.
You just kind of have to to go through that
(28:09):
and and just you know, note everything so that the
FTA is in agreement. That so just takes a little
bit of time. But this is we're trying to do
this a little bit faster than other studies, so to
try to get through that red tape a little bit.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
So a lot of the listeners probably don't know this,
but Eric and I have gone way back and we're
both really into railroad history and we know a lot
about the road history of Omaha and talk about how
many rail lines that criss crossed the Omaha metro area
that were ripped out that would be perfect for you know,
if they if they kept the rideways intact for light
rail and and stuff like that. It's it's interesting to
(28:49):
see now we're going backwards and putting some of these
things back in.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, some of that, some of our blank trails now, Eric, yep.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
And I you know, one of the things I like
to do for recreation is go running, and I'll go
running on a lot of these old rail trails and
sometimes I think like, oh, this would be a cool
transit extension through here. This is how this could make sense,
and that sort of thing. It's fun to think about.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Well, and aren't we talking about a possible It might
not be rail, it might be b RT, but which
is bus round and transit? Aren't we talking about an
extension from the North Omaha Transit Center on Aims down
to midtown, like in the Saddle Creek areas and that
kind of on the drawing board.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Yes, Yeah, that's called the belt line and that's that's
one of those that I mentioned. Could be either bus
or streetcar kind of depending on you want to do
this analysis and figure out what the community wants, what
makes sense, and do a cost analysis. But yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Well, Eric, we appreciate you joining us, and we also
appreciate you writing these columns for grow Omaha dot com
And for those people that haven't read them, you're really
missing out. Eric is one of the foremost experts on
transit in the Omaha area and a very good writer.
Will you will be a lot smarter after reading one
(30:07):
of his columns and the current one and all of
the past ones are available on grow Omaha dot com.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Eric, appreciate you joining.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Us and thanks for all the good work you're doing
and making Omaha better connected. You bet.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it and
thanks thanks for all that you do as well.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Well.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
That's our good friend, Eric Miller, senior transit planner with
FHU in the Omaha office. We're going to take our
final break of the hour and when we come back,
it's going to be the Perkins Chritzer construction lightning Round.
I'm looking at the list and there's a lot on it,
a lot of restaurant news, retail news. You don't want
to miss any of it. Stay with us. You're listening
to Jeff Biehl's and Brad Williams in for Trenton on
(30:47):
grow Omaha, brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and
Cheer Athletics on News Radio eleven ten k Fibby. It's
the Perkins christ cir Construction Lightning Round in which we
talk about a lot of things in a very short
period of time. Thank you to Perkins Kreutzer Construction for
making this possible. In fact, I just talked with Dave Kreutzer,
(31:08):
the Grand Poobah over there this week.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Brad.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
That's Brad Williams. He's substituting for Trenton Maggot this week.
But yeah, I talked with Dave Kreuzer this week, Brad,
and he told me, he said, Hey, there's going to
be some big news coming out on one of Perkins
Kreischer's construction projects, and that is Miracle Hills Shopping Center.
This is the one on the west side of one
hundred and fourteenth Street that has gone through the extensive renovation.
(31:32):
And we told you earlier that Draftkad and Funny Bone
and Hawaiian Brothers are all going there, he said. Dave said,
the big news there is that Perkins Chreischer Construction is
going to be starting renovations and build out very soon
for the triumphant return of Guitars and Cadillacs. This was
a place like back in the day. You're old enough, yeah,
(31:56):
back in the day Guitars and Cadillacs was an old
mill South real popular, real big country western dance bar,
nightclub type place, and they went out of business in
three and now this is oh. I think there's like
a Marriott Town Place hotel there now and a hair place.
But this was big, This was big back in the day.
(32:19):
They're coming back. They will be in a space that
was once occupied by Cilantros in Miracle Hills and it
looks like opening should be late spring or early summer.
And that is your Perkins Chritzer Construction construction announcement for
the day. If you want to learn more about Perkins Scritcher,
just go to p dash Sea Construction or at pdash
(32:42):
seed Construction dot com.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
So, judging by the comments on our Grolmaha Facebook page,
I think there's a lot of people looking forward to
going back and reliving their glory days once this place reopens.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Glory days.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Some of those people don't quite have the dexterity, balance
and flexibility they had when Guitars and Cadillacs was open.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
The first time.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
They'll want to go home at ten.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
We'll see how they do it, and they're going home
at ten. Hey, Brad, we got some construction progress with
the Baby Bob Ridge nort Downtown.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
The railings are finally going on. So hopefully by the
time this ice melts and warms up in a couple
of weeks and you'll be able to go from Tenth
Street all the way up and over the Baby Bob,
the Big Bob and over in the Council Bluffs.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
It's getting really, really close. Hey, the former Red Lobster
restaurant in Metro crossing Manawa Power Center area of Council
Bluffs is becoming an I Hop. So just when you
thought a building couldn't go any lower than Red Lobster,
I Hop, says, hold my beer, No, just kidding. There's
nothing wrong with Ihop or Red Lobster.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Same company though, right I believe they have the same
parent company. Don't quote man, that would make sense.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
On the other side of the restaurant spectrum from I
hop is Pivot Prime, a new steakhouse concept that is
going into the old Mahogany Prime State Cows Building one
hundred and thirty sixth in California, just north of Dodge
and Pivot Prime will be from the same owners as
Salted Edge, the very popular restaurant in West Shores. What
(34:13):
is that fourth two hundred and fortieth and Dodge. I'm
excite in that range basically where Dodge Street turns. Yeah,
so that is going to be a real nice addition
to that area. Santoro Restaurant officially announced a February opening
date eighty six oh one West Dodge Road. This is
the restaurant owned by Jesus Rivera. He's the guy that
(34:35):
ran Rivera's Mexican Food at one hundred and twentieth in Blondo,
which was very, very popular and a lot of people
were quite broken up when Rivera's went out of business.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
It's kind of coming back. Yes, I'm really looking forward
to this one. I like the new location. Jesus and
I go way back back in the guitars and Cadillac days.
We worked next door together at Yoursani's. You're kidding, Yeah,
so you worked He worked for Gasani's and he he
was the kitchen manager. Really, I started there. What'd you
do at Grassani's waited tables bartending?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Really?
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I just went there and ate the little bread that
warmed on top of those count those candles.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yeah, great bad and the Tomo super the two things
people want back.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
We've got Corn Coast Brewing, a Lincoln based brewery, plans
to open a tap room in La Vista. The exact
address is one oh seven one seven Virginia Plaza. This
will be next to Hot Works and near both Cross
Strain and Pint nine Breweries.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Another stop on the Pintagon bike tour over there, but
really looking forward to this one. They make some great beers. Really,
if you're into those hazy East Coast New England IPAs
it's you're going to want to check this place out.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, a lot of people excited about this one. Coming
up to Omaha, Tacoia l Ray is taking over a
former Windy's restaurant forty one sixty one South eighty fourth Street.
Renovations are currently underway. The original Tacoia l Ray is
at twenty fourth and Q and South O good solid
Mexican place, authentic serves breakfast. I've been there several times.
(36:06):
They also have a lot of food trucks around town,
so that'll be a nice readaption, reuse and adaption to
the old Wendy's. Speaking of food trucks, Burning Bridges Food
Truck will open its first brick and mortar location, or
just did yesterday one hundred and forty fifth and Center
in the former Sinful Burger space, So we got a
(36:29):
restaurant in there.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Now.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I feel like a food truck with the name Burning
Bridges has a Trenton joke written all over it.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
If only was here to tell us, But unfortunately the
music's played, which means we're going to have to stop
it right there. Trenton will be back next week. But Brad,
I really appreciate you sub it.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
In this week.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
Yeah, I always enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Brad Williams with Brad Williams Photography and Ena Consulting.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Be sure to stop by.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Pint nine, I'm sorry, Casual Pint and Countryside tomorrow from
one to five and see Brad.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
That's it for this week. Have a great week.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We'll chat with you next week at nine o'clock right
here on news radio eleven ten k fab
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.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Ka Baby, Well, good morning and welcome to the show.
Jeff Beiles here at your service. Glad that you have
joined us on this icy road morning. If you are
out and about today, be careful. Main roads are not
too terribly bad, but the side roads are still a
little bit dodgy. At any rate, we are brought to
you by Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics, the
(00:36):
nation's number one all star cheer jim My co host
Trenton Maggot has the weekend off. We allow him to
do that every once in a while. And in his
stead we have a familiar voice, Brad Williams of Brad
Williams Photography and e NA Consulting, a civil engineering firm.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Good morning, Brad, Hey, Good morning Jeff.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, before we go any further, I do want to
give you a chance to promote a cool event you
have scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. It's an annual deal and
a lot of our Gromaha listeners who have gotten to
know you over the years might be interested in attending.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah, so the last four years I've done it's called
Beer with Brad. It's a holiday pop up, so I'll
have all my photography prints ready to hang photos, everything
that I would normally have it in art fair, but
instead at a tent and the art fair in this ice.
Tomorrow afternoon they will be in the party room at
the Casual Pint eighty seventh the Pacific Countryside Village. So
you can come in, order yourself a beer and then
(01:33):
browse prints, do some holiday shopping, relaxed environment. You might
bump into some other gro Maha people there.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I know I'm going to be there.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, it's a good time. And you know Lou that
used to be on Gromha a lot, He'll be there
hanging out and so there'll be a be a fun time.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's a chance for you to see a lot of
Brad's amazing photography and it is truly amazing. It's available
for display or for sale, and then it's always a
good time. Beer with Brad tomorrow one a countryside.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Yeah, and you you don't have to buy anything. You
can just come in and look, it's no big deal.
And I have a little bit of everything, so small
little prints that you could quickly get and give to someone,
or if you need a big piece for the wall,
I'll have a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, I'm looking forward to it and hopefully some of
the GIRLMHA listeners will come join us tomorrow one to
five beer with Brad at the Casual Pint in Countryside Village. Well,
let's go straight into our news, Brad, And as everyone knows,
our news is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage Eagle
Mortgage Company dot com. And I got to tell you
I had the privilege last night of attending the Eagle
(02:37):
Mortgage Christmas Party. I always love the Eagle Mortgage Christmas Party.
Todd Schneider Wind is married to Holly Schneider Wind. They
own it to Holly runs the place, and Todd and
I are longtime friends, and you know they're a longtime
sponsor here. Todd and I actually work together Nai and
p Dodge doing commercial real estate. And my wife has
(02:57):
a mortgage broker license, doesn't really do it much anyway,
or it's always been a part time thing and she
just kind of does it in case she wants to
do it again sometime in the future, but she has
her license with the Schneidewins at Eagle Mortgage. This is
such a great, great company. But last night we got
together and it was tricky with the ice getting to
the restaurant, but had a great time. Well more importantly
(03:18):
than that, though, if you were thinking about buying a house,
and a lot of people are, you know, it's we're
at the end of the year. Some people are thinking, Hey,
twenty twenty five, that's the year I'm going to go
get a new house. One of the first things you
want to do is contact Eagle Mortgage. You can see
them in person at one hundred and fourteenth in Davenport
or online at Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. That's Eagle
(03:40):
Mortgage Company dot com.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
All right, Brad.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
The big news this week it was announced that FNBO
plans to sell its twenty two story nineteen seventies era
Main Bank building to New Style development for redevelopment.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Yeah, that's kind of been a rumor that we've been
here in for the last six months or so, you know,
the better part of this year. And I guess why
we heard the rumors. I was still a little bit
surprised to see this announcement come out, but it's going
to be cool. It'd be it probably have some awesome views.
I've been up to the Press Club a couple times
and that you can pretty much see all of downtown
and surrounding areas from up there. So I think it's
(04:20):
going to be a really cool project when it's done.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, I agree, New Style wants to turn it into
three hundred apartment units. The Press Club that Brad just
mentioned will stay, and they will be a tendant like
they always have been on the top floor, but then
you'll have the apartments on most of the floors. Now,
it's my understanding that New Style will really invigorate the
(04:42):
bottom two floors and those are going to be commercial,
And I think that makes a lot of sense because
with all of those, you know, if you've got three
hundred apartments, you'll probably have about four hundred and fifty
people living in there, so you'll actually have some people
there that could be customers to the retail on the
bottom two floors.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah, and the bottom two floors are also connected to
the DoubleTree hotel next door and to the south. They're
connected by tunnel to the first National Bank tower, So
there's more than just those four hundred and fifty people
that are going to be in there on a daily basis.
So I think it really could be kind of a
hub for the area.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Oh yeah, definitely. And you may be wondering why is
this even happening. Well, FNBO has moved all of their
people out of that building. When they opened the tower
in the early two thousands, they had the towerful and
that building, well, they don't need as many people down
there because of work from home and hybrid schedules and
not as much square footage per worker as there.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Used to be. And so.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You know, in these types of buildings, it's hard to
get a fifty three year old building and turn it
into suitable space for modern office work. You know, we
need higher ceilings than we used to have because of
all the technology and office buildings, so turning these things
into apartments makes an awful lot of sense. It's not
easy to do, though, and that's one of the reasons
we're quite forty here in Omah that we have New
(06:01):
Style Brad that has a great track record of these
types of conversions.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
I would say New Style has done a great job
turning some buildings that people probably would never have touched
into some great apartments that seem to do really well.
We have got a lot of questions on their social
media about whether they're going to remodel the xterior or
the building, and as far as we know, we haven't.
Hasn't been decided and there's no announcement on that yet.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, the impression I get is it's very early in
the process. In fact, I'm not even sure that the
deal has gone through yet, and so you know, it's
probably My guess is that New Style is probably determining
a lot of those things, you know with the duo.
You know they're doing the duo which were the two
Central Park plaza towers. Those had to replace that, They
(06:49):
needed to replace all the windows on that project, and
they're doing that. Who knows. My guess is they probably
would have to. I mean, it's a fifty three year
old building.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, I would guess that too. I sit next to
a window an eight nineteen eighties office building. Let me
tell you, on a windy day, there's a little draft.
So I can't imagine living in a situation like that.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Well, could you imagine if there was a way to
engineer it so that you could have some balconies or
something like that. I imagine it would be cost prohibitive.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
But it would be cool. Wouldn't that be something if
you could do that, or at least for part of it.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Yeah, I imagine rooftop deck something like that.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, so we'll keep our eye on that.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
No timeline on the project for sure, other than the
fact that the apartments could be open by twenty twenty six.
According to a World Herald article, this would be about
an eighty million dollar project, which is no small number.
And this also fits in because of where it's located.
It'll be yet another one of those projects that benefits
(07:45):
the street cards in that streetcar area of influence, which
is another plus with it because we are already about
double the amount of projected development within the streetcar zone
and the thing is barely even started construction so far.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I know people are a little concerned or upset about
the whole tiff financing for the street car, but I mean,
being this far ahead of projections already, it seems like
there's it's just there's so many good signs that it's
all gonna work out really well.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, Yeah, it's really really encouraging. And this is just,
you know, one of a parade of downtown projects that
keep giving us a lot of reason for optimism that
downtown will continue to grow and grow and keep moving
in a very positive direction. So a little further west
eighty fourth and L Street, we have steel that has
gone vertical on the food Bank for the Heartland new building. Brad,
(08:40):
this is the old H and H Chevrolet location.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, they completely leveled the site and started a brand
new building. Foundation works probably been underway for a couple
months now, and then just this week the steel went up.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
We have a picture of it on gromha dot com
if you want to see what that looks like. But yeah,
that's that is no small project. We're talking see one
hundred and five thousand square feet. So that is not
your run of the mill food bank building. That's the
size of a major warehouse distribution the area. Okay, So
then we have another story out of Council Bluffs. We
(09:15):
have a developer planning to turn about fourteen acres of
greenfield space into a two hundred and eighty apartment unit.
What's interesting about this is that it is right south
of the Sam's Club and Council Buffs Metro Crossing shopping center,
four story buildings, four of them all together. And you know,
(09:36):
this is kind of a just kind of a forgotten
area that was built around as time went by.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, this particularly lot, I think has been vacant, so
to say. I mean, there's not like it's been farmland
or anything. But this is another project in that whole,
like Lake Banawa area, that has been either under construction
or announced in the past year. And I think just
the proximity to Interstate twenty nine, with all their new
shops being around there, I think you're just going to
(10:01):
see more and more of these residential projects in that area.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
The Council Bluffs has been very actively trying to create
some more residential development in the area and this is
another sign of that. And then finally out in Valley, Nebraska,
we've got sixty four acre development at two hundred and
sixty fourth and Miggs Street.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
It's going to be.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Called Valley Landing and the grading and excavation work as
well underway. There's going to be a lake in the
middle of it. A lot of that out in Valley
because the water table is so high. But we know
the first occupants that are confirmed will be a d
C West athletic complex presumably for the DC West schools.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And a Fairway grocery store. So Valley continues to grow.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
There's another athletic complex going right across the highway, so
Valley's quickly turning into the sports complex capital of eastern Nebraska.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I think yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Definitely a lot of youth sports out there and ladies
and gentlemen. So that is your Egle Mortgage news of
the week. You can learn more about Eagle Mortgage at
Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. We're going to take our
first break at the hour and when we come back,
we're going to bring on Eric Miller. He's a senior
transit planner with fhu's Omaha office and he's also our
(11:18):
transportation writer on Gromaha dot com. Eric's a great guy,
really understands what's going on in the transit and transportation world,
and you're going to enjoy listening to him. We're going
to talk to him a little bit about streetcar stuff,
bus rapid transit. One of the first questions we're going
to ask him is how on earth does street cars
work when it's raining ice outside, so stay with us.
(11:40):
Eric Miller is coming up. We have Brad Williams in
for the vacationing Trenton Maggot. The show's brought to you
by Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics, and we'll
be back in a moment right here on news Radio
eleven ten kfab and welcome back to Drew Omaha. Jef
Beal sitting next to Brad Williams, bubstituting for Trenton Maggot.
(12:01):
We're allowing him to take a well deserved weekend off
Brad of course, with Brad Williams Photography and EENA Consulting,
a civil engineering firm based here in Omaha. We're brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. Chair
Athletics is the nation's number one all star cheer Jim
(12:22):
and that is soon to be an Olympic sport. Great
opportunity for your kids or grandkids to get involved. Learn leadership,
learn competition, develop lifelong friends, and develop an awful lot
of great memories. Chair Athletics Omaha is located in Papillion
near Highways fifty and three. Seventy and we highly recommend
cheer athletics. All right, we've got our friend Eric Miller
(12:45):
with us on the hotline today. Eric is senior transit
planner with FHU, a company that does a lot of
transit engineering and planning around the country, and he, of
course is in their Omaha office. And Eric is also
the writer of grow Omaha dot COM's transportation column.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Eric, good morning, and welcome back to the show.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Good morning, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
That's good to have you back.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And first of all, before we go much further, why
don't you, for those people who haven't read your column
on our website, tell people what they can find if
they check out your transportation articles.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Absolutely, so, I must admit it's definitely transit biased because
that's the profession that I'm in. That's what I've focused on,
and what I try to do is bring everybody up
to speed on what's going on with transit issues in
the Omaha area, and you know, including the streetcar project
and other other projects that are going on, and then
(13:42):
also just some thoughts on other things that apping nationally
and how that could influence what we're doing here in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
So, Eric, you brought up, you know, transportation issues here
in Omaha, and today we're having a lot of transportation
issues with the weather outside what you tell our listeners
how how icy weather would affect a street car.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Yeah, that's a very timely topic. And and one of
the you know, kind of the main advantages that we
like to promote about rail transit is just the fact
that it is mostly in all weather mode, that you know,
there's not a lot that'll will stop it from running.
And so usually when we have events like this, and
I should uh mention for for people that might not know,
(14:29):
I have a lot of background working for the Regional
Transportation District in Denver, and we have an extensive light
rail system fairly similar technology to what's proposed for the
street car. On days like this, we just want to
make sure that we keep the trains running because we
want to make sure that we have the rail safe.
And then also where there's overhead cat andary wire, which
(14:49):
is where the cars get their power from above the cars,
that that's staying clear and that there's not ice building
up and in slick spot we have what are called
sanders on the trains where there's little boxes of sand
and the vehicles are smart enough to automatically release the
sand under the wheels when there's traction needed, so to
(15:13):
keep them from slipping, and then also to get you
some traction for getting going. So those are the two
main things that we do on weather like this that
helps keep them running.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I don't think a lot of people realize that trains
have the capability of doing that.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
That's all trains being dating all the way back to
the steam engine. Rails are always slicked, even if it
like a rainy day. So the sand has been around
forever and it works perfect.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
It's steel on steel.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
So yeah, if it was weather, I see that that
would be an issue. Right. So Eric, tell us a
little bit about your company and what involvement you may
have in Omaha transit.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Yeah, absolutely so. Our company, SAHU is headquartered in Denver,
and so that's where I started working for them, was
in the Denver office, and then decided to move to
Omaha and try to you know, promote more work here
and and gets as there are more projects coming up
and so some of the things that that we've been
focusing on are and you know, my experience most transit planning,
(16:18):
so that's you know, planning view future corridors that are
coming up, and then also on one of my special
teas is doing the operations work for it, figuring out
how these are going to run, you know, how much
they're going to cost, uh, you know, the operators that
we need to staff them with, and then how are
we going to get the funding that sort of thing.
There's there's a lot of intricate things that come in,
(16:39):
but we've currently got some work in Omaha Council Busts
and Lincoln for the transit agencies there. So that's that's
been really very interesting.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
So just so the listeners know, you grew up here,
you have a very uh long time history with know,
you know a lot about the history of the area
in the street car, So it's not like you're coming
in and just learning about our our city. How about
giving us an update on the current work. I see
that the bridges are kind of the next thing on
(17:09):
the list for you know, we've been doing the utilities
for a while now, now they're going to start looking
at a couple bridges.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Yeah. Yeah, So, and as I mentioned, I'm involved a
little bit in new Omaha streetcar work. Obviously, HDR has
a lot of that work, but I've been helping out
with some of the operations stuff, and it's getting very
exciting because it's really getting real. You've probably noticed the
utility work that's going on out there. In twenty twenty five,
we'll get into more of the serious construction work. The
(17:39):
mainline track construction will begin in twenty twenty six. But
what we're going to see this year in twenty twenty
five that's kind of a big deal, is the replacement
of the Harney Street Bridge over I four eighty, and
so that's to allow the streetcar track to go over
the bridge. And this bridge is designated for replacement within
five to ten years anyways, and so this is a
(18:00):
good time to replace it for the streetcar. And then
next year we'll have the Farnham Street Bridge replaced in
twenty twenty six, so those are kind of the big
mainline projects that you'll you'll start seeing out there.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
We're talking with transit planner Eric Miller with FHU and Eric,
so it'll take two years to completely rebuild the Harney
and Farnham Bridges over Interstate four eighty. Will we see
other actual streetcar construction and other parts of the three
and a half mile route while those are going on,
(18:34):
where we see any steel rails going into concrete before
the two bridges are done, No, not yet.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
That'll like I said, that'll start in twenty twenty six,
and then you know, ongoing is the utility works that
I mentioned. But what will be really interesting is down
by the Chi Health Center. You'll start to see the
vehicle maintenance facility take shape just kind of right there
underneath the I four eighty just to the north, squeezed
in there between the I four eighty overpass and ditch
(19:02):
I Health Center, which is called the Mecha lot A
the parking lot right now, and we're doing the site
prep work right now for that. The bids are due
for the actual construction of it this week, so we'll
mount soon. Who gets that, and that'll get started here
soon and that'll go through twenty twenty six, and our
(19:24):
vehicles will start arriving in twenty twenty seven, so we'll
have the vehicle maintenance facility done just in time for that,
so it'll be exciting.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Oh okay, so I was down there about a week
ago and saw all that dirt work there. That's just
site prep that's not building the actual.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Building, right, Yeah, just some basic site prep including utilities
and getting the parking area rearranged in the curb and
gutter stuff, and then we'll get into the real construction
early next year.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
And we're on this timeline, do the streetcar stops start
coming into play with the construction.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Along the station? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Yeah, those yeah, and yeah, they're called stops or stations,
you know, with the streetcars, or they're more like like
what you'd see kind of like an orbit bus stop,
you know, definitely more than your traditional just bus stop sign,
but not as extensive as you know, like a light
rail station. And they're space culture together than light rail lines,
(20:24):
so usually we call them stops. Those will probably start
coming up in late twenty twenty six early twenty twenty seven,
along with the rest of the line. For anyone that's
been to Kansas City recently, if you go down Main
Street you can see their construction which is quite extensive.
They're going to open their their extension along Main Street
next year. But yeah, that's that all kind of comes
(20:46):
together with the mainline track construction at the same time.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Okay, Eric, we're going to have you if you don't
mind stay with us. We have to take our middle
of the show break for the news. There's a few
other things we want to chat with you on the
other side.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Okay, yeah, absolutely looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Okay, this is We've got Eric Miller with us, senior
transit planner with FHU and Omaha and also the writer
of our transportation column on grow Oomaha dot com. Got
to take our middle of the show break. We've got
Brad Williams in here substituting for Trenton Maggot. We're brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics, and
we'll be back in a moment right here on news
(21:24):
Radio eleven ten KFAB and welcome back to the show,
Jeff Biels.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
At your service.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Trenton has the weekend off, and so in his stead
we have Brad Williams of Brad Williams Photography and e
and a consulting. Brad does a lot of stuff for
us at GROMHA and probably the most common is substitute host.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
But at any rate, we're.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics.
Dingman's has four metro area locations. Take such good care
of your car, you know. If it's a big accident, Yep,
they do that. If it's a fender bender, no problem.
If it's just scratches and they'll fix that too.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
I'm gonna guess they have a busy week coming up
this week.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Oh my gosh, I didn't even think about that after
last night. Dingman's better be ready to work over time
coming Monday. Yep, Oh my goodness. Yeah, they probably are
going to have to. Hey, we've got our Nodel Companies
Commercial real Estate Development spot Bight of the Week, brought
to you appropriately enough by Not All Companies. This is
when we talk about things happening in or around one
(22:24):
of Nodel's many area developments, and they've got a lot
of them. Xarbon Village Builders, District Village, Point West, Medical Campus,
Steel Ridge, River's Edge and Council Bluffs. Not All Companies
is one of those firms that has played a huge
role in making Omaha what it is today, and today
we talk about perhaps their best known development, Xarbon Village
(22:48):
and at ex Sarbon Village, we have a new bank
that is called First State Bank. The actual address is
sixty four fifty seven Francis Street, and this is right
in the d l Are building. And I tell you, Brad,
x Sarbon Village, they just keep getting better and better
and better.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, we seem to end up there quite a bit.
There's always something going on or just visiting one of
the restaurants down there, but it's just it's a great
place for the whole family.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And First State Bank is based out of Lincoln and
serves a lot of southeast Nebraska and now x Sarbon Village.
And that is your Nodel Company's commercial real estate development
spotlight over the week. You can find out more about
Nodel by going to Nodelcompanies dot com. Well, we have
Eric Miller with us. He is our columnist who writes
(23:38):
about transportation on the Gromaha website. He's also senior transit
planner at FHU in the Omaha office. And Eric, I
wanted to talk to you a little bit about what
might come next.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
You know, we.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Currently have this streetcar system terminating on the west at
about thirty ninth Street, and we keep hearing that it
could be extended into the mediciner sooner rather than later.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Anything new on that front, I haven't.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Heard anything recently, but my understanding is that we're still
working to get that going so that we can open
that at the same time as the rest of the line.
Because it's not a very far extension. It's just a
little tricky one because we have to figure out some
grading issues and where exactly we want to stop so
that it works well for the un MC campus. So
this going to be a really really good one to
(24:29):
have because there's a lot of employment there, a lot
of need to have a good transit into that site,
and so that's something that we want to try to
take care of you here in the next few years
before we open and so we can can extend it
into there.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
So you brought up the grading issues in Farnham Street
right there is pretty steep. Is there a maximum grade
for streetcars? So we're going to as this line extends
different parts of town. Is that something we're going to
have to take into account where these lines go.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Absolutely, I mean are some places that that we've got,
you know, steep rail transit, Like there's there's a section
in Salt Lake City that comes to mind over by
the University of Utah Stadium. But generally you want to
stay under five percent grade. That's ideal, especially when you
have days like today or you know, you're slipping more
and things like that. Otherwise, if you get past that,
(25:20):
then you're looking at cable car technology or something else.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
So yeah, so Eric, you know, we keep talking about, okay,
what would come next? You know, do we go north Omaw,
do we go south Omaw zoo, do we go airport?
And then of course Council Bluffs really is interested in
extending the line over the river away to their downtown.
And lately, if you look at a lot of commercial
(25:45):
real estate development news coming out of Council Bluffs, a
decent amount of it is on what they call this
First Avenue Trail, which is essentially where their streetcar line
would go. It's almost like some of these developers are
had you their bets, so that might happen in Countiluff someday.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
Absolutely. And I should mention that one of my recent
articles covered some potential extensions, and I should note that
a lot of these extension options that are kind of
close into downtown could also be good, like BRT options
where we could see something kind of like in orbits.
You have to decide on the right technology, just like
any transit corridor in Council Bluffs. They're very much interested
(26:26):
in the streetcar. We're currently doing what's called a Planning
Environmental Linkages Study, which is kind of a pre environmental
study that follows the Federal Transit Administration's guidance so that
we can seek federal funding to build that corridor. And
so we're following all the steps and as part of that,
we have to start from scratch and say, Okay, we
(26:47):
just want to connect downtown Omahon downtown Council Bluff, How
should we do it and where should it go? And
so we have to We've had a public outreach meeting
that we've had in October, and we kind of have
to let the study follow. That can't come out and
say let's put a street car on First av even
though that's what the city absolutely wants. We kind of
have to take a step back and then make sure
that that is what makes sense and what comes out
(27:09):
of out of this alternative analysis that we're going to
be getting into this year, which we'll look at the
different options. We're going to look at the costs and
how it meets all the project goals and things like that.
But very exciting to get to this point, because we're
getting closer and closer to a potential extension there in
the Council Bluffs.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
So what kind of environmental study do you have to
do when you have a strip of land that was
railroad tracks from the eighteen hundreds all the way up
till about five six years ago when they finally ripped
them out to put railroad tracks back. And what kind
of why I guess I don't understand why so many
studies on the impacts would need to be done.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
Absolutely, and that is definitely one of the hurdles and
what makes transit projects takes so long these days than before.
And it's not it's it's probably less saying like let's
see what the environmental impacts are, but more like making
sure this is what the community wants and this makes sense.
You just kind of have to to go through that
(28:09):
and and just you know, note everything so that the
FTA is in agreement. That so just takes a little
bit of time. But this is we're trying to do
this a little bit faster than other studies, so to
try to get through that red tape a little bit.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
So a lot of the listeners probably don't know this,
but Eric and I have gone way back and we're
both really into railroad history and we know a lot
about the road history of Omaha and talk about how
many rail lines that criss crossed the Omaha metro area
that were ripped out that would be perfect for you know,
if they if they kept the rideways intact for light
rail and and stuff like that. It's it's interesting to
(28:49):
see now we're going backwards and putting some of these
things back in.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, some of that, some of our blank trails now, Eric, yep.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
And I you know, one of the things I like
to do for recreation is go running, and I'll go
running on a lot of these old rail trails and
sometimes I think like, oh, this would be a cool
transit extension through here. This is how this could make sense,
and that sort of thing. It's fun to think about.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Well, and aren't we talking about a possible It might
not be rail, it might be b RT, but which
is bus round and transit? Aren't we talking about an
extension from the North Omaha Transit Center on Aims down
to midtown, like in the Saddle Creek areas and that
kind of on the drawing board.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Yes, Yeah, that's called the belt line and that's that's
one of those that I mentioned. Could be either bus
or streetcar kind of depending on you want to do
this analysis and figure out what the community wants, what
makes sense, and do a cost analysis. But yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Well, Eric, we appreciate you joining us, and we also
appreciate you writing these columns for grow Omaha dot com
And for those people that haven't read them, you're really
missing out. Eric is one of the foremost experts on
transit in the Omaha area and a very good writer.
Will you will be a lot smarter after reading one
(30:07):
of his columns and the current one and all of
the past ones are available on grow Omaha dot com.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Eric, appreciate you joining.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Us and thanks for all the good work you're doing
and making Omaha better connected. You bet.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it and
thanks thanks for all that you do as well.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Well.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
That's our good friend, Eric Miller, senior transit planner with
FHU in the Omaha office. We're going to take our
final break of the hour and when we come back,
it's going to be the Perkins Chritzer construction lightning Round.
I'm looking at the list and there's a lot on it,
a lot of restaurant news, retail news. You don't want
to miss any of it. Stay with us. You're listening
to Jeff Biehl's and Brad Williams in for Trenton on
(30:47):
grow Omaha, brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and
Cheer Athletics on News Radio eleven ten k Fibby. It's
the Perkins christ cir Construction Lightning Round in which we
talk about a lot of things in a very short
period of time. Thank you to Perkins Kreutzer Construction for
making this possible. In fact, I just talked with Dave Kreutzer,
(31:08):
the Grand Poobah over there this week.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Brad.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
That's Brad Williams. He's substituting for Trenton Maggot this week.
But yeah, I talked with Dave Kreuzer this week, Brad,
and he told me, he said, Hey, there's going to
be some big news coming out on one of Perkins
Kreischer's construction projects, and that is Miracle Hills Shopping Center.
This is the one on the west side of one
hundred and fourteenth Street that has gone through the extensive renovation.
(31:32):
And we told you earlier that Draftkad and Funny Bone
and Hawaiian Brothers are all going there, he said. Dave said,
the big news there is that Perkins Chreischer Construction is
going to be starting renovations and build out very soon
for the triumphant return of Guitars and Cadillacs. This was
a place like back in the day. You're old enough, yeah,
(31:56):
back in the day Guitars and Cadillacs was an old
mill South real popular, real big country western dance bar,
nightclub type place, and they went out of business in
three and now this is oh. I think there's like
a Marriott Town Place hotel there now and a hair place.
But this was big, This was big back in the day.
(32:19):
They're coming back. They will be in a space that
was once occupied by Cilantros in Miracle Hills and it
looks like opening should be late spring or early summer.
And that is your Perkins Chritzer Construction construction announcement for
the day. If you want to learn more about Perkins Scritcher,
just go to p dash Sea Construction or at pdash
(32:42):
seed Construction dot com.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
So, judging by the comments on our Grolmaha Facebook page,
I think there's a lot of people looking forward to
going back and reliving their glory days once this place reopens.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Glory days.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Some of those people don't quite have the dexterity, balance
and flexibility they had when Guitars and Cadillacs was open.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
The first time.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
They'll want to go home at ten.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
We'll see how they do it, and they're going home
at ten. Hey, Brad, we got some construction progress with
the Baby Bob Ridge nort Downtown.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
The railings are finally going on. So hopefully by the
time this ice melts and warms up in a couple
of weeks and you'll be able to go from Tenth
Street all the way up and over the Baby Bob,
the Big Bob and over in the Council Bluffs.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
It's getting really, really close. Hey, the former Red Lobster
restaurant in Metro crossing Manawa Power Center area of Council
Bluffs is becoming an I Hop. So just when you
thought a building couldn't go any lower than Red Lobster,
I Hop, says, hold my beer, No, just kidding. There's
nothing wrong with Ihop or Red Lobster.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Same company though, right I believe they have the same
parent company. Don't quote man, that would make sense.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
On the other side of the restaurant spectrum from I
hop is Pivot Prime, a new steakhouse concept that is
going into the old Mahogany Prime State Cows Building one
hundred and thirty sixth in California, just north of Dodge
and Pivot Prime will be from the same owners as
Salted Edge, the very popular restaurant in West Shores. What
(34:13):
is that fourth two hundred and fortieth and Dodge. I'm
excite in that range basically where Dodge Street turns. Yeah,
so that is going to be a real nice addition
to that area. Santoro Restaurant officially announced a February opening
date eighty six oh one West Dodge Road. This is
the restaurant owned by Jesus Rivera. He's the guy that
(34:35):
ran Rivera's Mexican Food at one hundred and twentieth in Blondo,
which was very, very popular and a lot of people
were quite broken up when Rivera's went out of business.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
It's kind of coming back. Yes, I'm really looking forward
to this one. I like the new location. Jesus and
I go way back back in the guitars and Cadillac days.
We worked next door together at Yoursani's. You're kidding, Yeah,
so you worked He worked for Gasani's and he he
was the kitchen manager. Really, I started there. What'd you
do at Grassani's waited tables bartending?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Really?
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I just went there and ate the little bread that
warmed on top of those count those candles.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yeah, great bad and the Tomo super the two things
people want back.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
We've got Corn Coast Brewing, a Lincoln based brewery, plans
to open a tap room in La Vista. The exact
address is one oh seven one seven Virginia Plaza. This
will be next to Hot Works and near both Cross
Strain and Pint nine Breweries.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Another stop on the Pintagon bike tour over there, but
really looking forward to this one. They make some great beers. Really,
if you're into those hazy East Coast New England IPAs
it's you're going to want to check this place out.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, a lot of people excited about this one. Coming
up to Omaha, Tacoia l Ray is taking over a
former Windy's restaurant forty one sixty one South eighty fourth Street.
Renovations are currently underway. The original Tacoia l Ray is
at twenty fourth and Q and South O good solid
Mexican place, authentic serves breakfast. I've been there several times.
(36:06):
They also have a lot of food trucks around town,
so that'll be a nice readaption, reuse and adaption to
the old Wendy's. Speaking of food trucks, Burning Bridges Food
Truck will open its first brick and mortar location, or
just did yesterday one hundred and forty fifth and Center
in the former Sinful Burger space, So we got a
(36:29):
restaurant in there.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Now.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I feel like a food truck with the name Burning
Bridges has a Trenton joke written all over it.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
If only was here to tell us, But unfortunately the
music's played, which means we're going to have to stop
it right there. Trenton will be back next week. But Brad,
I really appreciate you sub it.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
In this week.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
Yeah, I always enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Brad Williams with Brad Williams Photography and Ena Consulting.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Be sure to stop by.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Pint nine, I'm sorry, Casual Pint and Countryside tomorrow from
one to five and see Brad.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
That's it for this week. Have a great week.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We'll chat with you next week at nine o'clock right
here on news radio eleven ten k fab
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com