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.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Ka Baby, Well, good morning, and welcome to the show.
Jeff Beal's here at your service. Happy super Bowl weekend,
get ready for those parties tomorrow, and don't listen to
those dietitians that just like to say, here's how you
can eat healthy for the super Bowl. You have my
permission to eat whatever the hell you want tomorrow during
(00:34):
that super Bowl party. This is Grow Omaha, the only
show in the metro area that focuses on real estate, construction,
really anything related to Omaha becoming bigger, more vibrant, and
more prosperous. Thank you to our sponsors. They are Dingman's
Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics. And now it's time
(00:56):
to introduce my co host, a man who, as of
Friday night, was the three time winner as the nai
NP Dodge Commercial Real Estate Company Top Producing Broker, Trenton Maggott.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Thanks Jeff, thanks for the recognition and it was a
surprise to me as well. But I do appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, just so people understand that means that you're the
highest performing broker inn AI and P Dodge. And for
those people that are new to the show, Trent and
I are. Trent and I are both part of the
NP Dodge family. NAI NP Dodge is the commercial real
estate arm of the company, and we've been with them
for about nine years. And you know, Trenton, you've won
(01:39):
that award probably the majority of those nine years I have.
I don't want you to get fat headed. I'm already
fat headed, but fat body too.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
But I appreciate all the people in our office, deb
Grave or Fearless leader Jeff Beals, who does a lot
to run the organization as well with her and a
lot of colleagues, and we collaborate on a lot of projects.
And I don't think we do enough talking about what
our day job is because there's a lot of people
that listen to our show get all this free content.
(02:09):
They get our newsletter which comes free every Thursday afternoon.
Jeff hits a button after spending many many hours along
with the collaborators and our eight writers.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
And so everything we do.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
We want people also to know that if you have
any business, real estate need, whether it's investment sales, whether
you're looking for space leasing, any real estate advice you
want in the commercial world. Give Trenton Maggot a call
because I do this show because I like it. I
like to pay it forward. Jeff and I are building
(02:41):
a little media company with a lot of help from
other people.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
But my day job is transactional. Yeah, and obviously does
a good job of it. Takes good care of his clients.
So try and not vouch for you things. I got
to vouch you, guys. I've been waiting years to be
able to vouch for you. So we don't have a
restaurant review this week because we do them every other week.
Chris Corey is our restaurant reviewer. All Makes the Office
(03:06):
and Furniture Technology Company sponsors it. But you can read
any and all of our restaurant reviews even when it's
an off week by going to grow Omaha dot com
and clicking on reviews on the navigation bar. And one
other piece of housekeeping, we have launched a grow Omaha
LinkedIn page. We've been posting links to our articles and
(03:30):
our content on Facebook and Twitter x for many, many years,
but we just did LinkedIn, so you can interact with
us there as well.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
But by the way, congratulations, we've surpassed forty thousand Facebook followers.
Almost yeah, I say forty thousand. I know you click
on and it's probably a little bit less.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh is it say forty thousand? Okay, because I thought
this morning it's still said thirty nine.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Let me see here.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But we're very fortunate. And the newsletter goes out to
how many people Joe.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
A little over twenty three thousand people are getting the
newsletter And if you're not one of those, just two
things you could do send an email to news at
grow Omaha dot com saying that you want to be
part of it, or you can sign up for it
at Growomaha dot com.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It takes about two minutes and it's free. All of
our content is free on all mediums, and we appreciate
it and we're getting great feedback and we sometimes accept
constructive criticism and if you don't hear back from us,
then we noted it and we just decided not to respond.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And with that, we're going to go into our News
of the Week, which is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage.
Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. Their office is located on
one hundred and fourteenth Street, just a couple blocks south
of West Dodge Road, and they are open normal business hours,
but you can also interact with them online either way
you want to talk to them if you're thinking about
(05:00):
buying your next piece of the American dream. We are,
of course in February now, so this is that time
of year when people are really starting to think, Okay,
I got to look for a house. We've been thinking
about moving and got to look for a house. One
of the first things you want to do is sit
down with a mortgage broker at Eagle Mortgage. Keep in mind,
they are not a bank, They're not beholden to a bank.
(05:21):
They work with a variety of banks, so they match
you with the best lending solution for you, and they
really take the time to get to know you and
figure out your unique situation before they match you up
with the most ideal lender possible. Like I said, you
can find them in person one hundred and fourteenth and
Davenport or online at Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. Well,
(05:45):
starting off today, the Harney Street bridge over Interstate four
eighty is now closed and it will remain closed for
about a year. It'll open late this year when it
is completely rebuilt. Kind of needed to have it anyway,
as it was over sixty years old. But what sped
it up is the streetcar project. Very exciting Trenton because
(06:06):
this is one of the first visible signs that we
are really getting close to construction and getting these bridges
started means that it's not that far away before we
actually start to see tracks laid in concrete.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Part of it they delayed for a week. I'm not
sure which part it was. And then I want people
to know that the property I've listed at twenty nine
oh nine, the EB and Sun's Painting building on the
south side, right by the on ramp, is still for sale.
Four thousand square feet right by the church, easy access
drive door, some office space, nice little building for anybody
(06:41):
that has a business or wants a little investment. So
give trent a call for that one. Go ahead, Joe
for clarification. They did delay the actual start of the work,
but it is still closed.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
It is already closed and that's just Harney Street.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Next year twenty twenty six, they'll do Farnham Street because
the street bound the street car will go westbound on
Farnham and eastbound on Harney, So in two years we'll
have two new bridges there, but only one closure per year.
All right, Moving right along, Omaha's office to residential conversion
pipeline ranks near the top of America's largest real estate markets.
(07:18):
This according to rent Cafe. So they did a report
on adaptive reuse of office space and it showed that
Almaha's gross number of office to apartment conversion units in
the twenty twenty five pipeline ranks sixteenth out of our
ranks sixteenth out of all of the major cities in
(07:38):
the country, with almost thirteen hundred units in place. So
this would include projects like the FNBO Main Bank Building
and the Duo, and then some smaller projects as well.
New Style Development is the company behind most of those units,
and they of course are doing both the Duo and
the FNBA Main Bank builduilding. Nationally, the twenty twenty five
(08:02):
pipeline will be record breaking with seventy thousand apartment units
created out of former office space. Olmaha right and play
there at number sixteen. So basically what that tells you
is we've got more office unit to apartment unit redevelopment
activity going on than most of the cities that are
(08:23):
bigger than us.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Totally understandable, Jeff, and I wonder if they exclude I
know what the title says, but I wonder if they
exclude industrial, old multi story industrial buildings, because a lot
of those are easier to convert because they're larger open spaces.
Sometimes office buildings might have a lot more columns, might
have different uses. So in any event, it's totally understandable.
(08:48):
There is a big question mark in the office market
where a lot of people think that the work from home,
the work out of a cafe or whatever is here
to stay. So it's not going back to twenty nineteen levels,
and so there's a lot of people aren't gonna wait
to find out what happens or how people are gonna
get back to the office. So they've just accepted it,
(09:10):
and they're saying, Okay, we have shortage of apartments, we
have shortage of condos. We're gonna do some adaptive reuses
and hope for the best.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I'm pretty sure it does not include those old brick
warehouses to which you referred. It is truly office building,
and we're fortunate in Omaha that a lot of our
office buildings that are no longer considered cutting edge for
office use actually lend themselves well to retail conversion. Like
if you look at the Duo towers, they're more rectangular
(09:44):
than square. Exactly, same thing with the old F and
BO Main Bank building at sixteen twenty Dodge more rectangular
than square. If you had, let's say you had an
office building with a massive, full square block floor plate, think.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You could do that. You couldn't turn those into apartments.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Sometimes you'll see, well, they'll do like an interior kind
of like the up Square, where you'd have an atrium,
big atrium in the middle of it, and then in
interior hallways they kind of exposed.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, because I know they were saying, like in New
York City, a lot of those those office buildings are
so have such big floor plates that they can't really
convert them in apartments, and a lot of them will just
be torn down.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Apartments have to have windows, whether they open or not.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I believe so Epley Airfield broke its all time passenger
record last year. We've already reported that, and if you
don't recall, it was almost five point two eight million
passengers went through the Epley terminal last year, and so
I'm sure a lot of people are saying, hey, that's cool,
broke their all time record.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
We like seeing that.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
We thought it might be interesting to share with Gromaha listeners.
How that compares to some other medium sized metro areas
like Omaha, And so we put together a list of
set several mid sized metros whose airports had less traffic
than Omaha's did in twenty twenty four. So keep in
mind Omaha five point two eight million. How does that
(11:12):
compare Buffalo, New York less than Omaha, no way five million,
Memphis four point nine million.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Yes, Memphis has.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Probably what three or four hundred thousand more people than
the Omaha metropolitan area, and it does. Buffalo, New York
metro has about two hundred thousand more people than Omaha.
So both of those trailing. Louisville bigger than Omaha, but
fewer passengers at four point eight million, Reno, Nevada four
point eight million, Oklahoma City quite a bit bigger than Omaha,
(11:44):
but only four point six million passengers. Grand Rapids, Michigan
just a smidge bigger than Omaha, Very very close four
point one seven million, Tulsa right about Omaha size, maybe
just a smidge bigger, only three point two five million.
We were way more traffic than nearby Des Moines, Iowa,
(12:05):
which only had three point one point eight million, and Wichita,
Kansas less than two million.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Okay, So are those people that are visiting Omaha?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Are those Omahans they're getting the heck out of here
during the winter and coming back? Do they break it
down on whether it's visitors to Omaha or people from
Omaha leaving and coming back.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Well, both of those are factored into every airport.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
But you know what I'm saying, Yeah, Omaha Omaha.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Of course, you know, Omahans have a lot of disposable incomes,
so they do travel and do vacation at at a
respectable rate, my guess would be higher than the average
metro area. But you also have to keep in mind
too that for its size, Omaha as a shocking number
of corporate headquarters, so you get a lot of business
traffic into the city for that. We also, and we're
(12:53):
going to report on this later in the show when
we talk about tourism numbers. Last year, a lot of
conventions and sports traffic coming into Omaha as well.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Yeah, and I don't want to be a negative ned
because we're pro Omaha, but at the same time, it's
interesting and obviously we want to increase the visits to Omaha,
bring the money here for tourists and business and all
kinds of things rather than just flying out, spending money
and coming back.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Well, and you can make the argument that we like
both because if Omahon's are flying out a lot, it's
a good sign that there's a lot of disposable income.
And I think it's I think it's good for the
populace of a city to be well traveled, and I
think Omaha people are well traveled partly because we live
in the center of the country and partly because our
cost of living is low enough that people here can
(13:39):
afford to travel and.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
We get ideas for our built environment as well. Amen.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well, speaking of how Omaha stacks up, the city ranks
number eight among the nation's top cities for growth in
cybersecurity employment also in the growth of wages. This is
according to an organization called Upwind, which examined forty four
US cities that are known for a lot of cybersecurity presence,
(14:04):
and they looked at growth from twenty two to twenty
twenty three. Omaha had a ten point six percent increase
in wages during that year and a five point eight
percent increase in employment that put us at number eight.
Like I said, the top five were Indianapolis, Raleigh, North Carolina, Cleveland,
Kansas City, and sack San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I almost said Sacramento, but it was San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And finally we've got a cool piece of news related
to architecture and design. The iconic Saint Cecilia Cathedral has
started a campaign to construct a new outdoor plaza and
memorial garden right outside the cathedral's doors. This according to
(14:50):
the Catholic Voice, it'll be an eight point two million
dollar project. And here's something really cool about it. It
fulfills the original of famous Omaha architect and designer Thomas Kimball,
who designed the cathedral and died in nineteen thirty four
and didn't even get to see the cathedral finished, and
(15:12):
the gardens and the plaza that he had part of
it are still not finished.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
It's his designs and now it's finally getting finished. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Leoy Daly is doing the final design for modern but
it's all based on Thomas Kimball's vision. And for those
of you that are not big Omaha history of ficionados,
many many, many of the great Omaha buildings in history
were designed by.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Thomas Kem, John Lettenzer, others. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Great, we had some great architects in those early days.
All right, that's your news of the day, which is
brought to you by Eagle Mortgage. We're going to take
our first break, and when we come back, Trent and
I are going to talk about a really big news
item that happened this week. What's going on with the
Good Life District in Gretna. It's getting more and more
fascinating each and every time the Gretna City Council has
(15:59):
a meeting. So that's coming up. Don't miss it. You're
listening to Grow Omaha, brought to you by Cheer Athletics
and Dingman's Collision Center on News Radio eleven ten kfab Well,
good morning, and welcome back to the show. Jeff Bele
sitting next to Trenton Maggot. We're brought to you by
Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics that is the
(16:21):
nation's number one all star cheer gym. What is All
Star Cheer. Well, there's a very competitive sport that is
gaining tremendous popularity and in fact, in twenty twenty eight
it'll actually be part of the Olympic Games. And if
you want to get your kid involved in that outstanding
way to compete and develop not only physical fitness, but
(16:41):
leadership and communication teamwork skills, go to Cheer Athletics. It
is the Cadillac of All Star cheer gyms. There are
about twelve or fifteen of them around the country, and
the one we really care about is right here in
Papilion southwest of Highways fifty AM and three seventy Cheer
Athletics Caomaha dot com. Well, we are going to talk
(17:06):
a little bit about Gretna. Trenton attended the Gretna City
Council meeting earlier this week. And before you start saying
things like well, he must not have a social life,
know this, there's a lot of drama going on in
Gretna right now with this good Life District. Trent I'll
give a quick overview of where we're at and then
(17:28):
you can kind of fill in what you saw and
heard at the meeting.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
Is that's so fair? Absolutely all right.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So the Gretna Good Life District was created by Rod Yates,
owner of Nebraska Crossing, who intended to build a massive project,
and in fact, recently he said that project would be
possibly five billion dollars four thousand, five hundred acres would
be called Collegiate Crossing. I would have nothing less than
(17:57):
a National Hockey League arena, the US Olympic Volleyball headquarters,
massive youth sports complexes, and office, retail, hotel, entertainment and
residential buildings. But there was a problem. Rod and the
City of Gretna saw things a little bit differently. So
Rod then pulls out of the Good Life District tells
the Nebraska Department of Economic Development that he thinks the
(18:20):
project is no longer viable, but Gretna wants to keep its.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Good Life District.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
They have other developers in the area, so Gretna is
trying to save this district so it can develop some
pretty cool projects. Keep it in mind, these Good Life
Districts were created in order to bring transformational real estate
developments that provide a whole bunch of retail and entertainment
opportunities to Braskan's and pull a substantial amount of their
(18:47):
revenue from out of state visitors. Well, during this week's
Gretna City Council meeting, another developer by the name of
Woodsonia Real Estate, which controls land just west of Nebraska
Crossing but inside this Good Life District, came to the
council Trenton, You were there.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
And what did they say? What did they present?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Okay, So, Jeff, I think there was a great recap
and this has been going on for about two years.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Rody H.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Johanna Boston part of Nebraska Crossing. Frank Crachiu was originally
the partner on that and Rod took it over four
hundred fifty thousand square foot more or less. Very nice mall,
brings in a lot of traffic and he has that
and he might have.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
A little bit more land, but it doesn't have a
lot of land.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Wood Zonia has about they control about one hundred and
fifty acres, maybe more on some other plots, they said
during the presentation which they gave. And Mohol has about
eighty acres over there that they won for twenty years.
And there's other big time developers. There's probably about ninety
something different owners over there. Okay, So this whole thing
(19:58):
Rod spent two years putting this together, talking up the
other developers. Give him credit for it and the vision.
You got to have vision to do anything like this.
Where something went off the tracks, I think was the
Transformation Act they passed. Two thousand acres is what it's allowed.
There's a plot, you know, there's boundaries of this thing.
(20:21):
And then for whatever reason, after he got the application approved,
Radiates has the application, he started saying that this should
be bigger more than two thousand acres. Was three thousand,
then it was like three five hundred. It's gone up
to forty five hundred. But it's not part of the
Transformation Act legislation. So basically what happened was they gave
(20:47):
a term sheet to the city and they have big
demands for the city and really probably unconstitutional, and it
just wasn't viable for the city. And I think that
the city council and the mayor had no choice but
to be amicable. But they did the right thing and
denied it.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
And then.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
The head of Woodzonia came in and said, well, I
still want this to go. The mayor, who's very capable
of keeping decorum and keeping things rational. Mike Evans said
we still want this, and so the city council wants it.
Woodzonia comes in and says, yeah, it's opened to other developers.
We can trull some other land. We want to do
(21:29):
this now to be fair, you can have you can
put a great presentation together, and they gave a presentation.
It shows a travel center called Wali's, which there's only
two others in the country, so it's not a huge
chain or anything like that. They show fifty thousand square
(21:51):
foot truck and travel center, family center, two hundred gas pumps.
Now it has competition there and that's huge. I mean,
you can put all this stuff. They also have a one
hundred and twenty five thousand square foot or Ecuve one
hundred and twenty five million dollar covered amphitheater with an
(22:11):
international group that would see fifteen thousand people, a Jack
Nicholson designed golf course.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
What else they have with JW. Marriott JW.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Marriot hotel, so which would Omaha would probably be one
of the smallest markets to have if they pulled that.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Mind you, they couldn't get a JW. Marriott downtown by
the convention center. So you can put all this stuff
together and chase tax dollars and we're we're called grow Omaha.
We like this, but there's a difference between putting all
this on paper just so you can get incentives and
things like that, and have it actually happen.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
So there are.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Safeguards in the legislation that if they don't develop so
much and they don't build so much and do the
transformational projects, they're going to get that money.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And then Rod Yates comes back and says, everything I
just created, they gave him pretty much what he wanted,
but for whatever reason, since the city of La Vista
wouldn't do his huge project, excuse regret, no sorry. Then
then he he tendered back his application that was approved,
(23:23):
opening the doors for another applicant, which we assume might
be with Zonia. And then Rod has another legislative bill
through another legislator for Beau Baird Beau Ballard of Lincoln
is the senator, okay, and said, now I want to
do one thousand acres.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
We don't know how much land he controls. Rod's very capable.
We don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
As a friend of ours, we don't know why he
switched sizes and things like that, but it's it's anybody's
guess what's gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
And then the governor comes in.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Governor Pillon says, you know this five million we attributed
to this in the budget and the two point seventy
five percent sales tax. Even though there's a project in
Grand Island, even though there's a project in Bellevue, this
water park that looks pretty cool, and one out on
one hundred and ninety second and West Ye Road, maybe
(24:17):
we should just scrap this whole thing.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
So the folks that have these.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Other projects and the people in La Vista are fighting
to keep this alive. I think it makes sense for
La Vista. Hopefully people can get back on track and
work it out, and there's room for everybody in that project.
But deals have to make sense, and it's not a
huge area, so to think that, you know, if you
(24:42):
do five thousand acres or whatever it is, you're gonna
need another million people.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
So to sum it.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
All up, the good Life Districts are still here, gretin
us trying to save theirs. Even though the original applicant
pulled out. The original applicant is now pushing legislation through
the leglegislature which may or may not pass, that would
allow him to do the development through a different mechanism
and not be part of the Gretna Good Life District
(25:09):
or the City of Gretna. Even meanwhile, the governor is
looking to end the Good Life District, even though a
lot of people have already invested in these districts. If
you're confused, you're not alone. And while we have to
break for the news today, know that we are going
to continue to follow this story and as it comes
(25:29):
and goes and develops or possibly dies, we will keep
you informed and up to date. And with that we'll
break for the news and want to appreciate everyone being
with us. It'll be just a few minutes we'll be back.
But the show's brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center
and Cheer Athletics on news Radio eleven ten KFAB and
welcome back to the show Jeff Beal's and Trenton Maggot
(25:50):
Here in the KFAB studio, we're brought to you by
Cheer Athletics along with Dingman's Collision Center. We've known the
Dingman family for a very long time and Trenton works
with them from a real estate perspective. I tend to
bring my damaged cars to them.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Either way. They do a.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Great job, the great people, and we know you'll love
working with them. To four metro area locations. They got
one in southwest Omaha one hundred and twentyeth and Maple
Papillion Saddle Creek Road in Midtown. I'll do a great
job Dingman's Collision Center. Well, it's time for our Not
All Companies Commercial real Estate Development Spotlight of the Week,
(26:30):
in which we talk about happenings in or near one
of the many, many Nottal Companies projects in Omaha. And
let me tell you, Nottle Companies has a lot of them.
Exarbon Village, River's Edge on the Council Bluff's Riverfront, Builders
District in North downtown Steel Ridge, in the Papilion Gretna
(26:51):
area along Interstate eighty, Village Point West Medical Center, and
so many other buildings and projects that Nodel Companies has
done for the years. Really, they're known for building special
places and spaces. Are also known for headquarters buildings and
really cool office buildings and awesome retail centers. Not All
Companies does a great job. You can learn more about
(27:12):
them at not All Companies dot com. So we're going
to talk about two not all companies places and spaces today.
The first one is InterRail Food Hall and Sammy's subs.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
That's hard to say.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Sammy's Sub Sandwiches is one of the relatively new offerings
in that restaurant incubator known as the InterRail Food Hall.
They are now offering a sub sandwich that is inspired
by the Ruben sandwich, which was invented many decades ago
in Trenton's grandfather's great grandfather's hotel, the Blackstone in Midtown. Also,
(27:51):
this is going to be a very big year for
North Downtown. Of course, not all companies has the Builders District,
which is right west of Charles Field. Brad Williams last
week on the show reported that construction is getting close
to starting on a parking garage in the Builders District
at fifteen fifteen California. But that's just one of many
(28:11):
projects in that overall North Downtown area. In the nearby
Milwork Commons, you've got three apartment buildings under development, the Frame,
the Nova, and the Dizzy Mule. Plus we should start
to see the Milwork Hotel start renovations this year. They're
getting their own parking garage and Creighton University has three
construction projects right along Coming Street. So North down Town
(28:34):
is on fire and fuego in a very good way.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
We're excited about that.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Hopefully some of these parking garages be ready for I'm
not sure, but for the College World Series.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Maybe the twenty twenty six College World Yeah, there you go,
but yeah, that'd be awesome. And that is your novel
company's commercial real estate development spotlight of the week. Got
some good news for you. We have now launched grow
Omaha Sports. We're in the sports reporting business. Gromaha Sports
is written by Cole Young. You love Cole. He's a
(29:06):
great guy and as his last name indicates, he's a
young guy. Played football for the University of Nebraska. Carney
big sports fan and he's right knows. Right now, Gromaha
Sports is only on our newsletter. We might put it
on the website here eventually, but right now, if you
want to see it, you got to pull up the newsletter.
The very first edition came out in just this past
(29:26):
Thursday's newsletter And if you don't get the newsletter, you
can just go to Gromaha dot com, click on newsletter,
then click on the most recent edition, which was February sixth,
and then you can scroll down and see Cole Young's
inaugural first Grow Omaha Sports call him. Well, we've got
some good news about visitors to Omaha, Trenton. As we
(29:47):
reported earlier, twenty twenty four was a record breaking year
for tourism. But we've got a few little pieces of
specifics for you and one hotel revenue last year in
Omaha two hundred and eighty two million dollars, and all
together tourists spent one point five billion dollars in Omaha
(30:09):
in twenty twenty four. That is a five percent increase.
Nice and according to Visit Omaha, which is the local
Convention of visitors bureau, that traffic is driven by, of
course business travel, but also conventions and a lot of
youth sports competitions. And in that spirit, we've got some
very cool news about a massive youth sports event taking
(30:33):
place in Omaha next week. From Thursday February thirteenth to Monday,
February seventeenth, Omaha will welcome the A six President's Day Classic.
The twenty first year Omaha has hosted this volleyball event,
and it's one of the largest tournaments in the country.
Demand for this volleyball event next week in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Never been higher.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
The tournament this year has reached its maximum capacity of
five hundred and seventy two teams registered. They are going
to bring in thirteen thousand attendees traveling from all across
the United States and Canada. The players are age fifteen
to eighteen, so high school girls. They're competing in three venues.
They'll have courts inside chi Hel Center, Omaha Union Bank
(31:17):
and Trust Sports Complex in Far West Omaha, and the
Iowa West Field House in Council Bluffs. There'll be college
recruiters there. More than ten thoy one hundred hotel rooms
are booked. So next week, if you see a lot
of volleyball players, say hey, we are glad that you
are here in Omaha. Have fun and spend a lot
of your parents' money.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Absolutely, that's a great event. All right.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Well, with that, we're going to take our final break
of the day, and when we come back, it'll be
time for your Perkins Chritzer Construction Lightning Round, in which
we talk about a lot of things in a very
short period of time.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
I'm looking at the list, it's really long.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Stay with us, you're listening to Grow Omaha, brought to
you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics on News
Radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
And welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
It is time for your Perkins krits Er Construction Lightning
Round in which we talk about a lot of things
in a very short period of time. Thank you to
Perkins Kritzer Construction for making this possible. They are a
full service general contractor and they do projects big, medium
and small. They do it all. They are under the
leadership of our good friend Dave Kretzer. And Wow, what
(32:26):
a team Dave has assembled at Perkins Chritzer Construction. You've
got superintendents, you've got laborers, you've got project managers. Many
of these people have individually been in the industry for
thirty or more years. And it doesn't matter. Like let's
say you know you want to build an office building
or retail building, boom, no problem, Perkins Chritser Construction. If
(32:46):
you just want to do interior buildout for a new
retail business that you're opening, a restaurant business that you're opening, Boom,
Perkins Chritzer Construction. You can find out more by going
to their website, pe dash C construction dot com.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
All right, here we go.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Interior renovations are nearly done at Cilantro's Mexican Bar and
Grills new space near Oakview Mall. They had been at
one hundred and forty fourth and F and now they're restarting.
I went in took a picture of it because I
happened to be in the area earlier this week. Smaller
than what they had, but it looks pretty nice.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
You know what I say? We need more Mexican restaurants.
You're darn tutin.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And speaking of Mexican restaurants, East La del Mar will
open a third location. We just mentioned that earlier. But
where is it going to be? Shadow Lake Town Center
in Papilion. They currently have locations near one hundred and
thirty second and Center in the original one near thirty
six and Q in South oh These are not small restaurants, ladies, No, no,
(33:44):
and not small portions of food.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
You can have multiple Kingsanias at the same time at
these restaurants.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
It's a what do you call buffets? Troughs Tenue Otro
Sushi and Ramen will open in mid February at twe
hundred and forty fourth and West Center Road. They are
replacing Panda House Chinese restaurant. So you don't see that
every day, a restaurant going from Chinese to Japanese. But
it's going to be happening at one hundred and forty
(34:10):
fourth just a little bit, just a little bit southwest
of one hundred and forty fourth and Center. Cheddars Scratch
Kitchen open this past week Monday, the third of February
to be exact. It's in the parking lot on the
north side of Village Point Shopping Center. Of course, they
had an existing one at one hundred and twentieth and
l Did you know Trenton that Cheddars is part of
(34:31):
Darden Restaurants, which also has all of Garden, Longhorn and Ruthsgriss.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Wow, you're a pretty smart guy.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Dumpling Empire is expanding with a second location one hundred
and fifty eighth in West Maple Road. They're taking over
a former Dickey's Barbecue pit next to Wingstop. Home Grown
the breakfast and lunch eatery featuring locally sourced dishes. They
are opening or no, they're open already. Thirty five fifty
(34:58):
five Farnham Street. That's the Blackstone Plaza building. Why is
that building famous Trenton because that's where one Buffet.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Is, That's where Warren Buffett's office is.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
So I'm not guaranteeing that if you go have breakfast
or brunch at Home Grown that you'll see the Oracle
of Omaha, but least you'll know you're in the same building.
They're based out of Wichita, Kansas. They now have twelve
locations in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, and most importantly Nebraska.
Rally Coffee Company has opened a second location one hundred
(35:28):
and seventy eighth then Highway three seventy in Gretna. Original
location is in north downtown. This one's a little hard
to say. La Meet Choakana Plus Nebraska. Sure, La Meet
Choacana Plus Nebraska will hold a soft opening today February
eighth for its second Omaha location. It'll be inside the
(35:52):
East La del Mar restaurant on thirty sixth Street, along
with a lot of Kinsianias, and the existing one is
in the other Isla del Mar restaurant. No word on
whether they'll go to the third East La del Mar.
The Spice and Tea Exchange plans to open in April.
Between Chico's and Garbo's at Village Point. Really cool tea
(36:13):
and spice place, locally owned. I met the owner. Can't
wait for a depen I love Tea. Cabin Coffee has
opened its first Nebraska location at ninety ninth and Portal
Road in Papilion. Don't hold it against them, but they're
out of Iowa.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Just kidding.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
They've got twenty four locations. Turn's going to hold it
against them. Twenty four locations in eight states. The closest
previously existing ones are in Winterset, Iowa and Savannah, Missouri.
Box Lunch, a national specialty retailer holding a grand opening
event coming up.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Very various.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Actually, I think I lied to you. It was February
first and second. How you missed it. But you can
still go to the place. It's located. Located in the
West Roads and finally on the border. Mexican Grill and
Cantina in Papelion closed out of business, so they are
no more.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
And that's it. I'm Jeff Biles and I'm Trenton Maggot.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You've been listening to grow Omaha, brought to you by
Dingman's Collision Center.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
And Cheer Athletics.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
We'll chat with you next week at nine o'clock 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.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Ka Baby, Well, good morning, and welcome to the show.
Jeff Beal's here at your service. Happy super Bowl weekend,
get ready for those parties tomorrow, and don't listen to
those dietitians that just like to say, here's how you
can eat healthy for the super Bowl. You have my
permission to eat whatever the hell you want tomorrow during
(00:34):
that super Bowl party. This is Grow Omaha, the only
show in the metro area that focuses on real estate, construction,
really anything related to Omaha becoming bigger, more vibrant, and
more prosperous. Thank you to our sponsors. They are Dingman's
Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics. And now it's time
(00:56):
to introduce my co host, a man who, as of
Friday night, was the three time winner as the nai
NP Dodge Commercial Real Estate Company Top Producing Broker, Trenton Maggott.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Thanks Jeff, thanks for the recognition and it was a
surprise to me as well. But I do appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, just so people understand that means that you're the
highest performing broker inn AI and P Dodge. And for
those people that are new to the show, Trent and
I are. Trent and I are both part of the
NP Dodge family. NAI NP Dodge is the commercial real
estate arm of the company, and we've been with them
for about nine years. And you know, Trenton, you've won
(01:39):
that award probably the majority of those nine years I have.
I don't want you to get fat headed. I'm already
fat headed, but fat body too.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
But I appreciate all the people in our office, deb
Grave or Fearless leader Jeff Beals, who does a lot
to run the organization as well with her and a
lot of colleagues, and we collaborate on a lot of projects.
And I don't think we do enough talking about what
our day job is because there's a lot of people
that listen to our show get all this free content.
(02:09):
They get our newsletter which comes free every Thursday afternoon.
Jeff hits a button after spending many many hours along
with the collaborators and our eight writers.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
And so everything we do.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
We want people also to know that if you have
any business, real estate need, whether it's investment sales, whether
you're looking for space leasing, any real estate advice you
want in the commercial world. Give Trenton Maggot a call
because I do this show because I like it. I
like to pay it forward. Jeff and I are building
(02:41):
a little media company with a lot of help from
other people.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
But my day job is transactional. Yeah, and obviously does
a good job of it. Takes good care of his clients.
So try and not vouch for you things. I got
to vouch you, guys. I've been waiting years to be
able to vouch for you. So we don't have a
restaurant review this week because we do them every other week.
Chris Corey is our restaurant reviewer. All Makes the Office
(03:06):
and Furniture Technology Company sponsors it. But you can read
any and all of our restaurant reviews even when it's
an off week by going to grow Omaha dot com
and clicking on reviews on the navigation bar. And one
other piece of housekeeping, we have launched a grow Omaha
LinkedIn page. We've been posting links to our articles and
(03:30):
our content on Facebook and Twitter x for many, many years,
but we just did LinkedIn, so you can interact with
us there as well.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
But by the way, congratulations, we've surpassed forty thousand Facebook followers.
Almost yeah, I say forty thousand. I know you click
on and it's probably a little bit less.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh is it say forty thousand? Okay, because I thought
this morning it's still said thirty nine.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Let me see here.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But we're very fortunate. And the newsletter goes out to
how many people Joe.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
A little over twenty three thousand people are getting the
newsletter And if you're not one of those, just two
things you could do send an email to news at
grow Omaha dot com saying that you want to be
part of it, or you can sign up for it
at Growomaha dot com.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It takes about two minutes and it's free. All of
our content is free on all mediums, and we appreciate
it and we're getting great feedback and we sometimes accept
constructive criticism and if you don't hear back from us,
then we noted it and we just decided not to respond.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And with that, we're going to go into our News
of the Week, which is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage.
Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. Their office is located on
one hundred and fourteenth Street, just a couple blocks south
of West Dodge Road, and they are open normal business hours,
but you can also interact with them online either way
you want to talk to them if you're thinking about
(05:00):
buying your next piece of the American dream. We are,
of course in February now, so this is that time
of year when people are really starting to think, Okay,
I got to look for a house. We've been thinking
about moving and got to look for a house. One
of the first things you want to do is sit
down with a mortgage broker at Eagle Mortgage. Keep in mind,
they are not a bank, They're not beholden to a bank.
(05:21):
They work with a variety of banks, so they match
you with the best lending solution for you, and they
really take the time to get to know you and
figure out your unique situation before they match you up
with the most ideal lender possible. Like I said, you
can find them in person one hundred and fourteenth and
Davenport or online at Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. Well,
(05:45):
starting off today, the Harney Street bridge over Interstate four
eighty is now closed and it will remain closed for
about a year. It'll open late this year when it
is completely rebuilt. Kind of needed to have it anyway,
as it was over sixty years old. But what sped
it up is the streetcar project. Very exciting Trenton because
(06:06):
this is one of the first visible signs that we
are really getting close to construction and getting these bridges
started means that it's not that far away before we
actually start to see tracks laid in concrete.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Part of it they delayed for a week. I'm not
sure which part it was. And then I want people
to know that the property I've listed at twenty nine
oh nine, the EB and Sun's Painting building on the
south side, right by the on ramp, is still for sale.
Four thousand square feet right by the church, easy access
drive door, some office space, nice little building for anybody
(06:41):
that has a business or wants a little investment. So
give trent a call for that one. Go ahead, Joe
for clarification. They did delay the actual start of the work,
but it is still closed.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
It is already closed and that's just Harney Street.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Next year twenty twenty six, they'll do Farnham Street because
the street bound the street car will go westbound on
Farnham and eastbound on Harney, So in two years we'll
have two new bridges there, but only one closure per year.
All right, Moving right along, Omaha's office to residential conversion
pipeline ranks near the top of America's largest real estate markets.
(07:18):
This according to rent Cafe. So they did a report
on adaptive reuse of office space and it showed that
Almaha's gross number of office to apartment conversion units in
the twenty twenty five pipeline ranks sixteenth out of our
ranks sixteenth out of all of the major cities in
(07:38):
the country, with almost thirteen hundred units in place. So
this would include projects like the FNBO Main Bank Building
and the Duo, and then some smaller projects as well.
New Style Development is the company behind most of those units,
and they of course are doing both the Duo and
the FNBA Main Bank builduilding. Nationally, the twenty twenty five
(08:02):
pipeline will be record breaking with seventy thousand apartment units
created out of former office space. Olmaha right and play
there at number sixteen. So basically what that tells you
is we've got more office unit to apartment unit redevelopment
activity going on than most of the cities that are
(08:23):
bigger than us.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Totally understandable, Jeff, and I wonder if they exclude I
know what the title says, but I wonder if they
exclude industrial, old multi story industrial buildings, because a lot
of those are easier to convert because they're larger open spaces.
Sometimes office buildings might have a lot more columns, might
have different uses. So in any event, it's totally understandable.
(08:48):
There is a big question mark in the office market
where a lot of people think that the work from home,
the work out of a cafe or whatever is here
to stay. So it's not going back to twenty nineteen levels,
and so there's a lot of people aren't gonna wait
to find out what happens or how people are gonna
get back to the office. So they've just accepted it,
(09:10):
and they're saying, Okay, we have shortage of apartments, we
have shortage of condos. We're gonna do some adaptive reuses
and hope for the best.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I'm pretty sure it does not include those old brick
warehouses to which you referred. It is truly office building,
and we're fortunate in Omaha that a lot of our
office buildings that are no longer considered cutting edge for
office use actually lend themselves well to retail conversion. Like
if you look at the Duo towers, they're more rectangular
(09:44):
than square. Exactly, same thing with the old F and
BO Main Bank building at sixteen twenty Dodge more rectangular
than square. If you had, let's say you had an
office building with a massive, full square block floor plate, think.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You could do that. You couldn't turn those into apartments.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Sometimes you'll see, well, they'll do like an interior kind
of like the up Square, where you'd have an atrium,
big atrium in the middle of it, and then in
interior hallways they kind of exposed.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, because I know they were saying, like in New
York City, a lot of those those office buildings are
so have such big floor plates that they can't really
convert them in apartments, and a lot of them will just
be torn down.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Apartments have to have windows, whether they open or not.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I believe so Epley Airfield broke its all time passenger
record last year. We've already reported that, and if you
don't recall, it was almost five point two eight million
passengers went through the Epley terminal last year, and so
I'm sure a lot of people are saying, hey, that's cool,
broke their all time record.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
We like seeing that.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
We thought it might be interesting to share with Gromaha listeners.
How that compares to some other medium sized metro areas
like Omaha, And so we put together a list of
set several mid sized metros whose airports had less traffic
than Omaha's did in twenty twenty four. So keep in
mind Omaha five point two eight million. How does that
(11:12):
compare Buffalo, New York less than Omaha, no way five million,
Memphis four point nine million.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Yes, Memphis has.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Probably what three or four hundred thousand more people than
the Omaha metropolitan area, and it does. Buffalo, New York
metro has about two hundred thousand more people than Omaha.
So both of those trailing. Louisville bigger than Omaha, but
fewer passengers at four point eight million, Reno, Nevada four
point eight million, Oklahoma City quite a bit bigger than Omaha,
(11:44):
but only four point six million passengers. Grand Rapids, Michigan
just a smidge bigger than Omaha, Very very close four
point one seven million, Tulsa right about Omaha size, maybe
just a smidge bigger, only three point two five million.
We were way more traffic than nearby Des Moines, Iowa,
(12:05):
which only had three point one point eight million, and Wichita,
Kansas less than two million.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Okay, So are those people that are visiting Omaha?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Are those Omahans they're getting the heck out of here
during the winter and coming back? Do they break it
down on whether it's visitors to Omaha or people from
Omaha leaving and coming back.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Well, both of those are factored into every airport.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
But you know what I'm saying, Yeah, Omaha Omaha.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Of course, you know, Omahans have a lot of disposable incomes,
so they do travel and do vacation at at a
respectable rate, my guess would be higher than the average
metro area. But you also have to keep in mind
too that for its size, Omaha as a shocking number
of corporate headquarters, so you get a lot of business
traffic into the city for that. We also, and we're
(12:53):
going to report on this later in the show when
we talk about tourism numbers. Last year, a lot of
conventions and sports traffic coming into Omaha as well.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Yeah, and I don't want to be a negative ned
because we're pro Omaha, but at the same time, it's
interesting and obviously we want to increase the visits to Omaha,
bring the money here for tourists and business and all
kinds of things rather than just flying out, spending money
and coming back.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Well, and you can make the argument that we like
both because if Omahon's are flying out a lot, it's
a good sign that there's a lot of disposable income.
And I think it's I think it's good for the
populace of a city to be well traveled, and I
think Omaha people are well traveled partly because we live
in the center of the country and partly because our
cost of living is low enough that people here can
(13:39):
afford to travel and.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
We get ideas for our built environment as well. Amen.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well, speaking of how Omaha stacks up, the city ranks
number eight among the nation's top cities for growth in
cybersecurity employment also in the growth of wages. This is
according to an organization called Upwind, which examined forty four
US cities that are known for a lot of cybersecurity presence,
(14:04):
and they looked at growth from twenty two to twenty
twenty three. Omaha had a ten point six percent increase
in wages during that year and a five point eight
percent increase in employment that put us at number eight.
Like I said, the top five were Indianapolis, Raleigh, North Carolina, Cleveland,
Kansas City, and sack San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I almost said Sacramento, but it was San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And finally we've got a cool piece of news related
to architecture and design. The iconic Saint Cecilia Cathedral has
started a campaign to construct a new outdoor plaza and
memorial garden right outside the cathedral's doors. This according to
(14:50):
the Catholic Voice, it'll be an eight point two million
dollar project. And here's something really cool about it. It
fulfills the original of famous Omaha architect and designer Thomas Kimball,
who designed the cathedral and died in nineteen thirty four
and didn't even get to see the cathedral finished, and
(15:12):
the gardens and the plaza that he had part of
it are still not finished.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
It's his designs and now it's finally getting finished. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Leoy Daly is doing the final design for modern but
it's all based on Thomas Kimball's vision. And for those
of you that are not big Omaha history of ficionados,
many many, many of the great Omaha buildings in history
were designed by.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Thomas Kem, John Lettenzer, others. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Great, we had some great architects in those early days.
All right, that's your news of the day, which is
brought to you by Eagle Mortgage. We're going to take
our first break, and when we come back, Trent and
I are going to talk about a really big news
item that happened this week. What's going on with the
Good Life District in Gretna. It's getting more and more
fascinating each and every time the Gretna City Council has
(15:59):
a meeting. So that's coming up. Don't miss it. You're
listening to Grow Omaha, brought to you by Cheer Athletics
and Dingman's Collision Center on News Radio eleven ten kfab Well,
good morning, and welcome back to the show. Jeff Bele
sitting next to Trenton Maggot. We're brought to you by
Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics that is the
(16:21):
nation's number one all star cheer gym. What is All
Star Cheer. Well, there's a very competitive sport that is
gaining tremendous popularity and in fact, in twenty twenty eight
it'll actually be part of the Olympic Games. And if
you want to get your kid involved in that outstanding
way to compete and develop not only physical fitness, but
(16:41):
leadership and communication teamwork skills, go to Cheer Athletics. It
is the Cadillac of All Star cheer gyms. There are
about twelve or fifteen of them around the country, and
the one we really care about is right here in
Papilion southwest of Highways fifty AM and three seventy Cheer
Athletics Caomaha dot com. Well, we are going to talk
(17:06):
a little bit about Gretna. Trenton attended the Gretna City
Council meeting earlier this week. And before you start saying
things like well, he must not have a social life,
know this, there's a lot of drama going on in
Gretna right now with this good Life District. Trent I'll
give a quick overview of where we're at and then
(17:28):
you can kind of fill in what you saw and
heard at the meeting.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
Is that's so fair? Absolutely all right.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So the Gretna Good Life District was created by Rod Yates,
owner of Nebraska Crossing, who intended to build a massive project,
and in fact, recently he said that project would be
possibly five billion dollars four thousand, five hundred acres would
be called Collegiate Crossing. I would have nothing less than
(17:57):
a National Hockey League arena, the US Olympic Volleyball headquarters,
massive youth sports complexes, and office, retail, hotel, entertainment and
residential buildings. But there was a problem. Rod and the
City of Gretna saw things a little bit differently. So
Rod then pulls out of the Good Life District tells
the Nebraska Department of Economic Development that he thinks the
(18:20):
project is no longer viable, but Gretna wants to keep its.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Good Life District.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
They have other developers in the area, so Gretna is
trying to save this district so it can develop some
pretty cool projects. Keep it in mind, these Good Life
Districts were created in order to bring transformational real estate
developments that provide a whole bunch of retail and entertainment
opportunities to Braskan's and pull a substantial amount of their
(18:47):
revenue from out of state visitors. Well, during this week's
Gretna City Council meeting, another developer by the name of
Woodsonia Real Estate, which controls land just west of Nebraska
Crossing but inside this Good Life District, came to the
council Trenton, You were there.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
And what did they say? What did they present?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Okay, So, Jeff, I think there was a great recap
and this has been going on for about two years.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Rody H.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Johanna Boston part of Nebraska Crossing. Frank Crachiu was originally
the partner on that and Rod took it over four
hundred fifty thousand square foot more or less. Very nice mall,
brings in a lot of traffic and he has that
and he might have.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
A little bit more land, but it doesn't have a
lot of land.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Wood Zonia has about they control about one hundred and
fifty acres, maybe more on some other plots, they said
during the presentation which they gave. And Mohol has about
eighty acres over there that they won for twenty years.
And there's other big time developers. There's probably about ninety
something different owners over there. Okay, So this whole thing
(19:58):
Rod spent two years putting this together, talking up the
other developers. Give him credit for it and the vision.
You got to have vision to do anything like this.
Where something went off the tracks, I think was the
Transformation Act they passed. Two thousand acres is what it's allowed.
There's a plot, you know, there's boundaries of this thing.
(20:21):
And then for whatever reason, after he got the application approved,
Radiates has the application, he started saying that this should
be bigger more than two thousand acres. Was three thousand,
then it was like three five hundred. It's gone up
to forty five hundred. But it's not part of the
Transformation Act legislation. So basically what happened was they gave
(20:47):
a term sheet to the city and they have big
demands for the city and really probably unconstitutional, and it
just wasn't viable for the city. And I think that
the city council and the mayor had no choice but
to be amicable. But they did the right thing and
denied it.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
And then.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
The head of Woodzonia came in and said, well, I
still want this to go. The mayor, who's very capable
of keeping decorum and keeping things rational. Mike Evans said
we still want this, and so the city council wants it.
Woodzonia comes in and says, yeah, it's opened to other developers.
We can trull some other land. We want to do
(21:29):
this now to be fair, you can have you can
put a great presentation together, and they gave a presentation.
It shows a travel center called Wali's, which there's only
two others in the country, so it's not a huge
chain or anything like that. They show fifty thousand square
(21:51):
foot truck and travel center, family center, two hundred gas pumps.
Now it has competition there and that's huge. I mean,
you can put all this stuff. They also have a one
hundred and twenty five thousand square foot or Ecuve one
hundred and twenty five million dollar covered amphitheater with an
(22:11):
international group that would see fifteen thousand people, a Jack
Nicholson designed golf course.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
What else they have with JW. Marriott JW.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Marriot hotel, so which would Omaha would probably be one
of the smallest markets to have if they pulled that.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Mind you, they couldn't get a JW. Marriott downtown by
the convention center. So you can put all this stuff
together and chase tax dollars and we're we're called grow Omaha.
We like this, but there's a difference between putting all
this on paper just so you can get incentives and
things like that, and have it actually happen.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
So there are.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Safeguards in the legislation that if they don't develop so
much and they don't build so much and do the
transformational projects, they're going to get that money.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And then Rod Yates comes back and says, everything I
just created, they gave him pretty much what he wanted,
but for whatever reason, since the city of La Vista
wouldn't do his huge project, excuse regret, no sorry. Then
then he he tendered back his application that was approved,
(23:23):
opening the doors for another applicant, which we assume might
be with Zonia. And then Rod has another legislative bill
through another legislator for Beau Baird Beau Ballard of Lincoln
is the senator, okay, and said, now I want to
do one thousand acres.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
We don't know how much land he controls. Rod's very capable.
We don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
As a friend of ours, we don't know why he
switched sizes and things like that, but it's it's anybody's
guess what's gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
And then the governor comes in.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Governor Pillon says, you know this five million we attributed
to this in the budget and the two point seventy
five percent sales tax. Even though there's a project in
Grand Island, even though there's a project in Bellevue, this
water park that looks pretty cool, and one out on
one hundred and ninety second and West Ye Road, maybe
(24:17):
we should just scrap this whole thing.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
So the folks that have these.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Other projects and the people in La Vista are fighting
to keep this alive. I think it makes sense for
La Vista. Hopefully people can get back on track and
work it out, and there's room for everybody in that project.
But deals have to make sense, and it's not a
huge area, so to think that, you know, if you
(24:42):
do five thousand acres or whatever it is, you're gonna
need another million people.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
So to sum it.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
All up, the good Life Districts are still here, gretin
us trying to save theirs. Even though the original applicant
pulled out. The original applicant is now pushing legislation through
the leglegislature which may or may not pass, that would
allow him to do the development through a different mechanism
and not be part of the Gretna Good Life District
(25:09):
or the City of Gretna. Even meanwhile, the governor is
looking to end the Good Life District, even though a
lot of people have already invested in these districts. If
you're confused, you're not alone. And while we have to
break for the news today, know that we are going
to continue to follow this story and as it comes
(25:29):
and goes and develops or possibly dies, we will keep
you informed and up to date. And with that we'll
break for the news and want to appreciate everyone being
with us. It'll be just a few minutes we'll be back.
But the show's brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center
and Cheer Athletics on news Radio eleven ten KFAB and
welcome back to the show Jeff Beal's and Trenton Maggot
(25:50):
Here in the KFAB studio, we're brought to you by
Cheer Athletics along with Dingman's Collision Center. We've known the
Dingman family for a very long time and Trenton works
with them from a real estate perspective. I tend to
bring my damaged cars to them.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Either way. They do a.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Great job, the great people, and we know you'll love
working with them. To four metro area locations. They got
one in southwest Omaha one hundred and twentyeth and Maple
Papillion Saddle Creek Road in Midtown. I'll do a great
job Dingman's Collision Center. Well, it's time for our Not
All Companies Commercial real Estate Development Spotlight of the Week,
(26:30):
in which we talk about happenings in or near one
of the many, many Nottal Companies projects in Omaha. And
let me tell you, Nottle Companies has a lot of them.
Exarbon Village, River's Edge on the Council Bluff's Riverfront, Builders
District in North downtown Steel Ridge, in the Papilion Gretna
(26:51):
area along Interstate eighty, Village Point West Medical Center, and
so many other buildings and projects that Nodel Companies has
done for the years. Really, they're known for building special
places and spaces. Are also known for headquarters buildings and
really cool office buildings and awesome retail centers. Not All
Companies does a great job. You can learn more about
(27:12):
them at not All Companies dot com. So we're going
to talk about two not all companies places and spaces today.
The first one is InterRail Food Hall and Sammy's subs.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
That's hard to say.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Sammy's Sub Sandwiches is one of the relatively new offerings
in that restaurant incubator known as the InterRail Food Hall.
They are now offering a sub sandwich that is inspired
by the Ruben sandwich, which was invented many decades ago
in Trenton's grandfather's great grandfather's hotel, the Blackstone in Midtown. Also,
(27:51):
this is going to be a very big year for
North Downtown. Of course, not all companies has the Builders District,
which is right west of Charles Field. Brad Williams last
week on the show reported that construction is getting close
to starting on a parking garage in the Builders District
at fifteen fifteen California. But that's just one of many
(28:11):
projects in that overall North Downtown area. In the nearby
Milwork Commons, you've got three apartment buildings under development, the Frame,
the Nova, and the Dizzy Mule. Plus we should start
to see the Milwork Hotel start renovations this year. They're
getting their own parking garage and Creighton University has three
construction projects right along Coming Street. So North down Town
(28:34):
is on fire and fuego in a very good way.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
We're excited about that.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Hopefully some of these parking garages be ready for I'm
not sure, but for the College World Series.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Maybe the twenty twenty six College World Yeah, there you go,
but yeah, that'd be awesome. And that is your novel
company's commercial real estate development spotlight of the week. Got
some good news for you. We have now launched grow
Omaha Sports. We're in the sports reporting business. Gromaha Sports
is written by Cole Young. You love Cole. He's a
(29:06):
great guy and as his last name indicates, he's a
young guy. Played football for the University of Nebraska. Carney
big sports fan and he's right knows. Right now, Gromaha
Sports is only on our newsletter. We might put it
on the website here eventually, but right now, if you
want to see it, you got to pull up the newsletter.
The very first edition came out in just this past
(29:26):
Thursday's newsletter And if you don't get the newsletter, you
can just go to Gromaha dot com, click on newsletter,
then click on the most recent edition, which was February sixth,
and then you can scroll down and see Cole Young's
inaugural first Grow Omaha Sports call him. Well, we've got
some good news about visitors to Omaha, Trenton. As we
(29:47):
reported earlier, twenty twenty four was a record breaking year
for tourism. But we've got a few little pieces of
specifics for you and one hotel revenue last year in
Omaha two hundred and eighty two million dollars, and all
together tourists spent one point five billion dollars in Omaha
(30:09):
in twenty twenty four. That is a five percent increase.
Nice and according to Visit Omaha, which is the local
Convention of visitors bureau, that traffic is driven by, of
course business travel, but also conventions and a lot of
youth sports competitions. And in that spirit, we've got some
very cool news about a massive youth sports event taking
(30:33):
place in Omaha next week. From Thursday February thirteenth to Monday,
February seventeenth, Omaha will welcome the A six President's Day Classic.
The twenty first year Omaha has hosted this volleyball event,
and it's one of the largest tournaments in the country.
Demand for this volleyball event next week in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Never been higher.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
The tournament this year has reached its maximum capacity of
five hundred and seventy two teams registered. They are going
to bring in thirteen thousand attendees traveling from all across
the United States and Canada. The players are age fifteen
to eighteen, so high school girls. They're competing in three venues.
They'll have courts inside chi Hel Center, Omaha Union Bank
(31:17):
and Trust Sports Complex in Far West Omaha, and the
Iowa West Field House in Council Bluffs. There'll be college
recruiters there. More than ten thoy one hundred hotel rooms
are booked. So next week, if you see a lot
of volleyball players, say hey, we are glad that you
are here in Omaha. Have fun and spend a lot
of your parents' money.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Absolutely, that's a great event. All right.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Well, with that, we're going to take our final break
of the day, and when we come back, it'll be
time for your Perkins Chritzer Construction Lightning Round, in which
we talk about a lot of things in a very
short period of time.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
I'm looking at the list, it's really long.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Stay with us, you're listening to Grow Omaha, brought to
you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics on News
Radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
And welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
It is time for your Perkins krits Er Construction Lightning
Round in which we talk about a lot of things
in a very short period of time. Thank you to
Perkins Kritzer Construction for making this possible. They are a
full service general contractor and they do projects big, medium
and small. They do it all. They are under the
leadership of our good friend Dave Kretzer. And Wow, what
(32:26):
a team Dave has assembled at Perkins Chritzer Construction. You've
got superintendents, you've got laborers, you've got project managers. Many
of these people have individually been in the industry for
thirty or more years. And it doesn't matter. Like let's
say you know you want to build an office building
or retail building, boom, no problem, Perkins Chritser Construction. If
(32:46):
you just want to do interior buildout for a new
retail business that you're opening, a restaurant business that you're opening, Boom,
Perkins Chritzer Construction. You can find out more by going
to their website, pe dash C construction dot com.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
All right, here we go.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Interior renovations are nearly done at Cilantro's Mexican Bar and
Grills new space near Oakview Mall. They had been at
one hundred and forty fourth and F and now they're restarting.
I went in took a picture of it because I
happened to be in the area earlier this week. Smaller
than what they had, but it looks pretty nice.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
You know what I say? We need more Mexican restaurants.
You're darn tutin.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And speaking of Mexican restaurants, East La del Mar will
open a third location. We just mentioned that earlier. But
where is it going to be? Shadow Lake Town Center
in Papilion. They currently have locations near one hundred and
thirty second and Center in the original one near thirty
six and Q in South oh These are not small restaurants, ladies, No, no,
(33:44):
and not small portions of food.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
You can have multiple Kingsanias at the same time at
these restaurants.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
It's a what do you call buffets? Troughs Tenue Otro
Sushi and Ramen will open in mid February at twe
hundred and forty fourth and West Center Road. They are
replacing Panda House Chinese restaurant. So you don't see that
every day, a restaurant going from Chinese to Japanese. But
it's going to be happening at one hundred and forty
(34:10):
fourth just a little bit, just a little bit southwest
of one hundred and forty fourth and Center. Cheddars Scratch
Kitchen open this past week Monday, the third of February
to be exact. It's in the parking lot on the
north side of Village Point Shopping Center. Of course, they
had an existing one at one hundred and twentieth and
l Did you know Trenton that Cheddars is part of
(34:31):
Darden Restaurants, which also has all of Garden, Longhorn and Ruthsgriss.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Wow, you're a pretty smart guy.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Dumpling Empire is expanding with a second location one hundred
and fifty eighth in West Maple Road. They're taking over
a former Dickey's Barbecue pit next to Wingstop. Home Grown
the breakfast and lunch eatery featuring locally sourced dishes. They
are opening or no, they're open already. Thirty five fifty
(34:58):
five Farnham Street. That's the Blackstone Plaza building. Why is
that building famous Trenton because that's where one Buffet.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Is, That's where Warren Buffett's office is.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
So I'm not guaranteeing that if you go have breakfast
or brunch at Home Grown that you'll see the Oracle
of Omaha, but least you'll know you're in the same building.
They're based out of Wichita, Kansas. They now have twelve
locations in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, and most importantly Nebraska.
Rally Coffee Company has opened a second location one hundred
(35:28):
and seventy eighth then Highway three seventy in Gretna. Original
location is in north downtown. This one's a little hard
to say. La Meet Choakana Plus Nebraska. Sure, La Meet
Choacana Plus Nebraska will hold a soft opening today February
eighth for its second Omaha location. It'll be inside the
(35:52):
East La del Mar restaurant on thirty sixth Street, along
with a lot of Kinsianias, and the existing one is
in the other Isla del Mar restaurant. No word on
whether they'll go to the third East La del Mar.
The Spice and Tea Exchange plans to open in April.
Between Chico's and Garbo's at Village Point. Really cool tea
(36:13):
and spice place, locally owned. I met the owner. Can't
wait for a depen I love Tea. Cabin Coffee has
opened its first Nebraska location at ninety ninth and Portal
Road in Papilion. Don't hold it against them, but they're
out of Iowa.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Just kidding.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
They've got twenty four locations. Turn's going to hold it
against them. Twenty four locations in eight states. The closest
previously existing ones are in Winterset, Iowa and Savannah, Missouri.
Box Lunch, a national specialty retailer holding a grand opening
event coming up.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Very various.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Actually, I think I lied to you. It was February
first and second. How you missed it. But you can
still go to the place. It's located. Located in the
West Roads and finally on the border. Mexican Grill and
Cantina in Papelion closed out of business, so they are
no more.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
And that's it. I'm Jeff Biles and I'm Trenton Maggot.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You've been listening to grow Omaha, brought to you by
Dingman's Collision Center.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
And Cheer Athletics.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
We'll chat with you next week at nine o'clock right
here on news radio eleven ten kfab
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