Grow Omaha 5-18-2024

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is grow Omaha, the onlyradio show that talks about economic development,
construction, business expansion, and allof those things that make Omaha a great
place to live or visit. GrowOmaha on News Radio eleven ten. Ka,
Baby, Well, good morning,and welcome to the show. Jeff
Beal's here at your service. Weare brought to you today by Dingman's Collision

(00:23):
Center along with Cheer Athletics, thenation's number one all star Cheer Jim,
Glad you've joined us. You won'tfind another show in the metro area that
talks about real estate, construction,business expansion, anything related to the metro
becoming more vibrant, more prosperous,and a great place to work, live
and play. All Right, withall that said, time to bring on

(00:44):
my co host, a man whois a legendary real estate deal making machine
and all around good and well knownfellow Trenton Maggott. Good morning everyone,
Good morning Jeff Well, Good morningTrent, and I've got some very good
news for you today. Love it. That good news is the twenty twenty
four construction update video by Brad Williamsdropped last night, so you can see

(01:08):
this. Brad does these videos periodicallythey're sponsored by Leader Construction. It's only
seven and a half minutes long,so you can get through it pretty quickly.
It'll feel like it's about two minuteslong because it's so fun to watch
it. But he goes through andhe looks at all these different construction projects
around the area and shoot some videoand explains them, and you got to

(01:29):
go watch it. And the wayyou can see it go to grow Omaha
dot com, click on shows showson the navigation bar and then there'll be
a dropdown of all of our radioshows. At the bottom of says construction
update. So navbar shows construction Update. You can enjoy seeing. That's a
lot of fun to watch. It'llsave you a lot of gas or electronic
vehicle energy, and he explains it. Sometimes there's drones, sometimes there's videos,

(01:57):
and it's a great resource you cankind of track what's going on in
the metro area. Well before weget into the news that do want to
give you a little bit of aplug for what's coming up. We're going
to be talking about growth and developmentin Council Bluffs and Potawatamee County. Our
guests will be the Mayor of CouncilBluff's Matt Walsh, along with Paula Hazelwood.
She is the CEO of Advance SouthwestIowa, which is the Economic Development

(02:22):
Corporation for Potawatamee County. But beforewe get into that, let's do our
News of the Week, which isbrought to you by Eagle Mortgage Eagle Mortgage
Company dot com. They know mortgagesand if you've checked the calendar recently,
you know it's May and so we'rereally coming into that prime time home buying
season. If you're thinking about enteringthe fray, one of the first things

(02:46):
you want to do is get ahold of Eagle Mortgage. You can call
them, you can email them,you can stop by the office at one
hundred and fourteenth in Davenport, butyou want to sit down and meet with
them talk about your situation. They'renot a bank. They can shop the
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(03:07):
pre approval letter. Then go outand hopefully find your dream home. But
they'll coach you and they'll work withyou all the way. And we believe
in them highly and recommend Eagle Mortgage. Okay, Trenton looking at the news.
First up, the Children's Nebraska hasheld a topping out ceremony this week
for the Behavioral Health Wellness Center mentalhealth hospital that Children's is constructing on the

(03:32):
west side of its campus right aroundeighty fifth and Dodge south side. One
hundred and ten million dollars, fourstory building. And this thing's going to
be spectacular and desperately needed. That'sa big one. And the governor was
in, Governor Pillen and Mayor Stothardand they all it's kind of a tradition
where they take the last beam,the last piece of steel, and a

(03:53):
lot of dignitaries and stakeholders sign thebeam with well wishes and they put it
up. And then the Omaha streetCar Authority approved the procurement of six actual
street cars themselves. You can't havea streetcar system if you don't have the
things that roll on the tracks.And this will be a forty one million

(04:14):
dollar purchase. They also approved sixand a half million dollars for spare parts
and tools and all the things thatyou need to have. The manufacturer is
based in the Nation of Spain,Espanya, and this is the same company
that provided modern street cars for KansasCity and Cincinnati and Trent. When you
hear stories like this, it's gettingcloser. It's becoming reality. Do you

(04:39):
remember talking about this for the lastYou know, we've been on this show
for twenty years and we've talked aboutit for a lot longer than half.
Well, I'm twenty years ago wewould say to people, Omaha needs some
public transit on rail downtown in agrocery store. We're getting one of those.
Yeah, And rumor has it thatthe other one might be around the
corner as well. We'll still beon the air, ladies and gentlemen,

(05:02):
that's our plan. Additionally, thestreet Car Authority approved procurement of items requiring
long lead times, like bridge girdersto replace the Harney Street bridge in the
Farnham Street Bridge over I four eighty, So a lot of that stuff is
really coming along and it's getting close. Okay. Pickleball courts are coming to
Lewis and Clark Landing one of thethree riverfront parks, and this will be

(05:28):
an area just north of the KeiwitLuminarium. It's essentially the final piece of
the original three hundred million dollar riverfrontpark plan, and Trenton, I know
and am confident you'll get out thereand play pickleball it opens, you know
it. You can't have enough pickleballcourts. I'll take you on, okay,
just as long as it wasn't likethat day when we were in high

(05:50):
school and you beat me in likepool and foosball and like ring toss all
you got me back when you wentto college and you were in a fraternity
and you had a foosball table,and I came back from New Orleans a
two lane I didn't stand a chanceof foosball anymay I practice. I practiced
foosball for an entire semester. Dida little bit of studying too, but
practiced foosball for an entire semester,just so I could beat Trent when he

(06:11):
came back from for a winter break. Everybody loves knowing that District sixty six
plans to demolish the existing Westgate Schoolbuilding at seventy eighth and Haskell Street and
construct a new building. Not shockingnews, because schools are rehabbed and rebuilt
periodically in the city. But Isay this one in particular because while Westgate

(06:34):
School was constructed in nineteen fifty seven. It was demolished destroyed in the famous
May sixth, nineteen seventy five tornadoTrenton. This is proof that you and
I, speaking of how we've knowneach other since we were kids, are
becoming old men, because you andI were in kindergarten when that tornado hit,
and that was a brand new school. No, it's already been interesting.

(06:58):
My alma mater, Oak up onCenter Street that's been replaced, Swanson's
been replaced. I'm not sure ifthey've done a couple others, but this
falls in line with the rest ofthem. Yeah, it's a District sixty
six really is doing a good jobof keeping their elementary schools current and like
Prairie Lane. I went to twoDistrict sixty six elementary schools, one of

(07:18):
them Prairie Lane. They rebuilt thatschool not that long ago, and so
yeah, they're doing a good jobof keeping everything fresh and up to date.
Construction at Epley Airfield really coming alongnicely. I was over there a
couple few days ago, and itappears to me that the superstructure that will
hold up the glass roof canopy overthe pick up drop off area appears to

(07:43):
be all there now, and there'sa lot of work still doing on the
drive because they're modernizing the drop offand pick up lanes, adding one it's
gonna be a lot lot better.And the other thing is terminal work is
full bore ahead. We've talked afew weeks ago about how well they've removed
some of the concrete on the northside and the east side of the airport
building to get ready for the bigexpansion. I noticed I came through on

(08:07):
what was it Tuesday night turned Wednesdaymorning, a little after midnight, and
they're like taking stuff already out ofthe inside of the terminal, even HVAC
work, So that thing is fullspeed ahead coming along nicely. Kudos to
everyone down there because they've made duringthe construction going in the parking garage for

(08:28):
drop off and pick up, they'vemade it really smooth. I just I
think the Airport Authority does an allround outstanding job. I mean, it's
just really well. Everything about itis just very well managed. And this
construction project so far seems to bevery impressive with the way it's just thought
through and the way it's being executedso far. Billion dollar project. All

(08:50):
right, finally progress on the BabyBob Bridge, which is a bridge to
a bridge if you think about it, but at any right it connects the
Bobcarey Missouri River Estrian Bridge to Northdowntown Charles schwab Field and if you haven't
seen it lately, it's awesome lookingproject. Brad Williams has done amazing job

(09:11):
taking pictures of that and memorializing iton our Facebook page. Yeah, go
take a look at him. Hehas four pictures that he shot what just
a couple few days ago and reallygives you a good idea. So just
go to Facebook and search for Gromhaand you'll see Brad's photos there. They're
still saying October for a completion date, but gosh, to me, it
seems like it's ahead of schedule forthat. But we'll see. It's pretty

(09:33):
cool. And that's your news ofthe week, which is brought to you
by Eagle Mortgage. Eagle Mortgage Companydot com. Going to take our first
break of the hour, and whenwe come back, we're going to bring
on Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh alongwith Paula Hazelwood, CEO of Advance Southwest
I'm We're going to talk about growthand development in Council Bluffs and Potawatamee County.

(09:54):
You're listening to Jeff Beal's and TrentonMaggot on Crow Omaha, brought to
you by Dingman's Collision Center and CheerAthletics on News Radio eleven ten Kfab.
Listen on our free iHeartRadio app forall your music, sports talkin podcasts.
Free never sounded so good in NewsRadio eleven ten KFAB and iHeartRadio station and

(10:18):
Girl Maha back on the Air.Jeff Bils and Trenton Maggot at your Service
were brought to you by Dingman's CollisionCenter along with Cheer Athletics. Cheer Athletics
is the nation's number one All Starcheer Jim All Star is a type of
competitive cheer and generally is considered kindof the best for the all around experience

(10:39):
for the young athletes. But theOmaha location of Chaer Athletics is located in
Papilion, just southwest of Highways fiftyand three seventy. Trent and I know
the owners personally outstanding people who arevery committed to developing kids, giving them
a great experience learning them communication,the leadership skills competition. These kids that

(11:03):
participate in chair Athletics have amazing levelsof fitness and we highly recommend it.
If you're interested to just go toCaolmaha dot com, CAAs and Chair Athletics
Caomaha dot com and you can getyourself started. Well, we have with
us Matt Walsh, Mayor of CouncilBluffs, and Paula Hazelwood, who is
the CEO of Advance Southwest Iowa,the economic development Corporation in Potawatamee County.

(11:28):
Mayor and Paula, Welcome to theshow. Good morning, Good to have
you both with us. And Iguess I like to start these conversations out
with a big broad question, andthat is the thirty thousand foot view of
the state of growth and development andCouncil Bluffs. And since we'll start specifically

(11:50):
with Council Bluffs, we'll have themayor first and then Paula will have you
kind of talk county wide, butMayor your thirty thousand foot view of the
state of growth and development in CouncilBluff. You know, I think things
are going really well right now.We've got a lot of activity, but
the state of Iowa in and ofitself needs to figure out their tax structure.

(12:15):
Nebraska's going through the same thing withproperty taxes, especially on commercial buildings
are high. It's a long storythat goes back to ten thirty one tax
exchanges in investors putting money in agriculturalground and farm bureau complaining and it just
snowballed and somebody's got to get ahold of it and figure it out.

(12:37):
We have worked really well on ourincome tax structure, and I think we're
very competitive for commercial income taxes.So as a practitioner of commercial real estate
in Iowa and particularly Council Bluffs,I have noticed that the real estate taxes
can be a lot higher in countsof Bluffs than in Omaha. However,

(12:58):
didn't they do something five ten yearsago on apartments where they transitioned them so
they were considering apartments to be commercialbuildings, and you really got to go
back to the story of why itgot so high. But they uncoupled apartments
from commercial and put it at theresidential rate and that reduced. What they

(13:22):
do is they roll back the percentvaluation of your property that's taxable. Currently
it's about forty six percent so theydid it over like ten year period.
Yeah, and it's fully implemented nowand so And actually I dealt with an
apartment developer on a tiff question,and I said, I don't think we

(13:43):
need to subsidize the TIF level wehad previously because now residential apartment complexes have
been reduced down in their taxable value. But so I did the analysis for
him, and there's an intangible inthere, and that's how the assessor treats
the valuation. And I think theDouglas County assessor is a little softer on

(14:07):
valuation than the Potawatamee County assessor.And how do you balance that out?
Because, as you know, appraisalsnot a science, it's an art.
Yeah. And from a commercial realestate standpoint, that's certainly a consideration,
whether it's base rent, taxes,insurance, when they're writing a check to

(14:28):
the landlord, that's certainly a consideration. And in order to retain tenants,
we've got to keep those operating expenseslower. But especially when you break them
out and you say here's here's yourlease, but here's your cam charge,
and that cam charge jumps out likea sword. Yeah, Especially taxes Paula,
Let's talk a lot little bit aboutthe economic conditions and the state of

(14:50):
growth and development and Pottawatamee County ingeneral. So this is my eighth year.
This is my eighth year as theCEO for Advance Southway Syla Corporation,
and I've consistently been pleased with thedevelopment and the growth that we've experienced.
When I first accepted this job,we really only covered Council Bluffs. It

(15:11):
was just me, one employee.But in twenty eighteen, we were asked
by the county to actually take overthe economic development for the full county,
and so I have an employee thatcovers the rural communities out there. But
we have consistently stayed busy, andeven when COVID hit, we had about
fifty projects in our active pipeline.We track everything as you can imagine as

(15:33):
economic developers, and I kept kindof waiting for it to level out or
even decline a little bit, andit never really did. We got even
busier during COVID, the three yearsthat people were really working, you know,
from home, we got even busier. And the projects that we had
in our pipeline, we didn't haveone of them that fell off, I
mean, and some of them weare actually still working on. So we're

(15:54):
diverse, and we've got a goodmix of industry verticals, which I'm super
happy be about. And you know, partially our projects are coming to us
differently these days, so we workwith a lot of site selection consultants as
you can imagine, but we havegotten more and more leads directly from our

(16:15):
real estate community, which we appreciate, but then also the end user directly.
So the tides have changed somewhat ineconomic development from when I first started.
So, Paul, your primary responsibility, your focus is on Potawatamee County
and Council Bluffs, but you're partof select Greater Omaha and you're part of

(16:36):
the Omaha Chamber affiliation as well.Explain how that works and what makes our
metropolitan area unique when it comes toeconomic development. Correct, So we are
part of the Greater Omaha econ EconomicDevelopment Partnership and have been since twenty thirteen,
which is a two state, eightcounty regional economic development initiative, and

(16:56):
so we primarily advance south with IowaCorporation primarily focuses just on Potawanamee County,
but we interact with all of ourpartners within the organization and really you know,
we focus not only on new tomarket projects but also obviously growing our
existing business space here. And soyou know, when we have projects come

(17:18):
in to the Omaha Chamber, it'sit's kind of a mixed bag because some
companies only want to be in Nebraska. Other companies are open obviously to be
in for Iowa and Nebraska to beconsidered. So it just depends on the
project. How we interact with ourother partners, specifically the Omaha Chamber,
but we collaborate on a day today basis, and a win for Iowa

(17:40):
is a win for Nebraska. Ye. Absolutely, the Mayor and I were
just talking about that on the rideover. I means we are a region
for a purpose, We share workforce, the commutes are very very easy.
We have a lot of amenities youknow, that are available in Omaha and
Council Bluffs and some of our ruralcommunities, partner communities, and so we
want to celebrate all of those jointlyand obviously be able to you know,

(18:02):
talk openly about you know, what'sin each area. But yes, that's
absolutely congred What are some of theeconomic development announcements that have occurred, just
a couple of them in Potawatamee Countyover the last couple of years. Ye,
that stand out to you. Iwould say one of the biggest ones
that we worked on, and Ibelieve we started working with them in twenty

(18:22):
twenty, late twenty twenty, maybeearly twenty twenty one, but ice Cap
Cold storage facility was one of them, and they we started working with them,
and as you know, kind ofthat warehouse distribution verticals changed a little
bit during COVID, still seeing youknow, a little bit of various trends
with that. But ice Cap actuallycame in started working with us and with

(18:45):
the city, and you know,I'd always like to preface every project that
I work on, specifically in councils, the city staff, the mayor and
his team are obviously involved with Butwe started working with them. We had
a couple of challenges to overcome,but they ended up buying Areil Serve site
in Councils for a two phase project, and so they began their construction.

(19:10):
Phase one was completed and then veryrapidly, it wasn't planned that quickly,
but very rapidly, then they launchedinto phase two and that construction is just
being cleaned or finished right which thelocation of that South twenty fourth Street or
no, they are actually off ofsixteenth Avenue over there, so kind of
where the Union Pacific railware yard iskind of over in that area off of

(19:32):
like twenty third. I was impressed. Another project was the Opus Buildings right
Interstate eighty I twenty nine, mayor, a couple of big warehouses that were
at least right away. Yeah,I think coming out at COVID, and
when businesses where edlers adversely affected,they were so used just in time inventory

(19:53):
ordering, having it on site acouple of days after they ordered it,
and when that couldn't happen coming outout of COVID, then there was a
reaction in the market to start buildingwhere housing and strategic areas that in.
Our advantage is that we are onInterstate eighty and twenty nine and so you
can go east, west or southout of Council Bluffs. That seems that

(20:18):
it's softened a little lately, butfor a while we had lots of logistic
companies. All Right, we're talkingwith the mayor of Council Bluffs, Matt
Walsh and Paula Hazelwood, CEO ofAdvanced Southwest Iowa Economic Development Corporation. We're
going to take our middle of theshow break for the news, but when
we come back, we're going totalk about housing projects in the Council Bluffs,

(20:40):
future growth plans, and maybe evenstreetcar crossing the river and growing into
Council Buffs. A lot more tocome. You're listening to Jeff and Trenton
on grow Omaha, brought to youby Cheer Athletics and Dingman's Collision Center on
News Radio eleven ten kfab Granpinions andfallout from Harrison Butker's commit instant speech and
which movies do you wish had asequel? We broke it all Down?

(21:03):
Had great conversation finding on the Emorysongerpodcast, pajakfb dot com. And welcome
back to the show, Jeff bilsitting next to Trenton Maggot. We're brought
to you by Cheer Athletics as wellas Dingman's Collision Center for metro area locations
for Dingman's by the Way one hundredand twentieth in Maple Downtown, Papillions,
Saddle Creek Road, Midtown and onehundred and forty fourth and el Forrticombe.

(21:27):
Time for our which we're excited tohear details about. That is time for
our commercial real estate development Spotlight ofthe Week, which is brought to you
by nol Companies. They are perhapsthe most famous real estate developer in town.
You know, they do a lotof projects nationwide, but here in
Omaha, Exarbon Village, Rivers Edgeand Council Bluffs, Village, Point Medical

(21:51):
Center in West doh and so manyother projects. They've done a lot of
headquarters buildings like Valmont HDR and countlessothers, and then e Sarbon Village,
you know, probably probably the mostfamous. But we have some news coming
out of the Builders District, whichis the Nodel Company's project just a little
bit west of Charles Schwabfield in Northdowntown. The Urban Land Institute Kansas City

(22:15):
Chapter is going to do a tourand showcase event on May twenty first for
the brand new four story office buildingthat Nodel Companies did in the Builders District.
The address is fifteen oh one MikeFahey Street and this is Nebraska's first
cross laminated timber building. Translated intoEnglish, that means there's actually wood supports

(22:37):
in there instead of just all metaland concrete, and you can see those
vertical, beautiful vertical wood supports whenyou're walking through the building. Also,
in the Builders District, which isthat area, like I said, north
of four eighty west of Charles Schwabfield, the Sauls Jewelry and loan buildings have
been vacated. Sauls has moved totwenty second in Harney and plans are in

(23:00):
the works to redevelop all that areaas part of the Builders District that's coming
along. It's very early, buteventually you'll see those old vacated Sols buildings
in north downtown. That means comingdown to the ground. And that's your
note Companies Commercial real Estate Development Spotlightof the Week. Thank you to not
All Companies for sponsoring us and youcan learn more about all that they do

(23:23):
at not Alcompanies dot com. Wehave with us the Mayor of Council Bluffs,
Matt Walsh, and Paula Hazelwood,CEO of Advance Southwest Iowa, and
Mayor Walsh, I kind of wantto talk a little bit about city housing
projects that are underway in counts BLUs. Yeah, we like everywhere across the
country. Post two thousand and eightreal estate crash. We had an active

(23:48):
builders market prior to that, anda lot of people left the business.
And while we have people building homesand Council Bluss, not to the extent
that they were in unfortunationally at thispoint where we think we have about one
percent vacancy and rental property, whichis good for people that want to build
multifamily. They fill up quick,they're successful for people the interest rates a

(24:14):
little higher. But I don't thinkyou ever get a market where you can
be one hundred percent occupied in amatter of months after opening your doors.
But we also have a dearth ofowner occupied and so we need builders to
build. I was surprised the otherday I got a call from one of

(24:36):
the local media stations that said thatafter the Census Bureau that the population of
Council Bluss had gone down three hundredand forty one people. And I know,
you know, they did the censusduring COVID, and so they did
the mail out, but I knowpeople that were hired that were going to
work the census, doing the bootson the ground, door knocking to follow

(24:57):
up on those who didn't respond,and the response rates usually about fifty five
sixty percent to the first mailing,And so I went to research and the
Census Bureau reports ninety nine point ninepercent of the people returned their mailed out
requests, and I went, wow, you got to be a little more

(25:18):
creative with your thirty statistics are madeup. Yeah, I thought it was
thirty eight. Yeah, it couldbe thirty eight. Yeah. By the
way, not not to go offon a tangent with that, but I
saw that report as well, andit doesn't make any sense. I mean
the sense of Biro even said thecity of Gretna had to declining population.
It's the fastest growing city in thestate of Nebraska. That was. That

(25:42):
was That's important stuff because that's wheregenerally funding and state funding get allocated based
on population. You know, whenyou buy gas at the gas pump,
the state collects it and then reallocatesit back out to communities based on their
population. Both we've got less population, you get less money. It's a

(26:03):
bad scenario. Mayor. Let's talka little bit about the streetcar. Trent
and I have been talking about thestreet car a lot because we're so excited
about what it's going to do forpop repopulation of urban centers and commercial real
estate and residential real estate development.What do you think about We've we've heard
about these these plans to extend itinto council bluffs. Trent personally, Trent

(26:26):
and I love the idea. Whereare we at with that and what's the
feasibility long term? So, asyou alluded to earlier, it's been a
conversation that's gone on for a decade, if not decades, and we've been
on trips to look at other communitiesthat have put in streetcar Salt Lake,
Pittsburgh, Dallas, Kansas City,and without exception, we just got back

(26:52):
from North Carolina, without exception,it's like watering the desert. Residential high
housing grows because developers can give theirclients an amenity they can't get anywhere else,
and then those ancillary businesses that servedense populated areas, bars, restaurants,

(27:15):
dry cleaners pop up along the streetcarline. I think people misinterpret that
it's primarily at human transportation vehicle.It's an economic development vehicle that secondary provides
easy, convenient transportation to the surroundingneighborhoods and councilble US has a unique advantage,

(27:41):
we think in that when our foundingfathers platted the ground, they were
real creative. Everything north was ABCDFG, everything south was one, two,
three, four five Well. FirstAvenue, the first block off a broadway
served an industrial area that no longerexists with rail and so it was a
rail line never developed as a street. There's no longer industrial there, so

(28:04):
the railroad's abandon it, removed thetracks and we have a sixty six foot
wide clear span, so we don'thave to tear up streets put in new
infrastructure. People put in new infrastructurebecause they worry that after the street car
starts running they're going to have totear it up to fix something, so
they want to put in everything new. It's expensive, and we can do

(28:29):
it without the expense. The oneunusual expense, how do we get across
the river? And so where weare now as we're doing a pell study
planning environmental linkages. It's the firststep in recognizing whether or not we qualify
for federal funding. And Council BLUSSdoes not have as many affluent residence as

(28:56):
Omaha does, and so we willheavily rely on federal funding. If we
can do it, and it's nota given. We're studying it. We
think we can do it. Wehave a plan. We put in a
bike trail along that clear span thatif you look at it at the busy
intersections easily doubles at streetcar station stops. But it's a way's away, it's

(29:19):
yours. But it's worth the discussion. It's definitely worth a discussion if I
laughed. Somebody wrote a letter tothe editor the other day and said,
Counsel Blessed never changes anything. They'restill waiting for General Dodge to come back,
and now they want to put astreet car in and I'm going at
it. Aren't those contradictory terms.I'd be pretty impressed if General Dodge came

(29:40):
back. And so with the Dodgefamily, if I could speak on their
behalf. We got one minute left, Paula, I want you to kind
of maybe finish up with where we'regoing with future development in the counse Buffs
area and all the Pottawataby County.Well, we do have a lot going
on. Certainly we did recently completeI did a city county joint land use

(30:02):
study, which really gives us aroadmap, but the city is also has
added on top of that a sewerstudy, sanitary sewer studies, so marking,
you know, different paths for growth. I mean, obviously, you
know, being a river community,we only have a few areas that we
can grow in. So certainly lookingat those areas, and I do believe
we'll continue to chart the path foreconomic development in the future. But a

(30:26):
lot of really interesting and fun thingsgoing on right now, not only for
economic development but quality of life pieces. Obviously, as the mayor talked about
housing, all of that jointly goestogether to be a good economic development community
and region. So keep up thegood work, you two. And I
know you have teams behind you,but you've you've been dedicated. You've been
mayor since twenty eleven, correct,twenty thirteen, Okay, eleven years,

(30:52):
that's right, And but you've beeninvolved with the city council since what ninety
six? Yeah, so this ismy twenty ninth year. Looked at the
office. All right, well,we greatly appreciate both of you joining us.
Mayor Matt Walsh Council Bluffs and PaulaHazelwood of Advanced Southwest Iowa appreciate you
bringing us to date. We'll doit again in the future. Awesome,
Thanks so much for having us.Thank you all right, our pleasure.

(31:15):
Got to take our final break ofthe hour, and when we come back,
it'll be time for the Perkins ChritzerConstruction Lightning Round. I'm looking at
the list lot on there. It'llbe hard to get through all of it.
You're listening to grow Omaha, broughtto you by Dingman's Collision Center and
Cheer Athletics on News Radio eleven tenKFAB. News Radio eleven ten Kfab is

(31:37):
free and convenient on our iHeartRadio appFree never sounded so good from music,
sports, talk and podcasts. Andwelcome back to the show, Jeff Biels
and Trenton Maggot. Here it istime for your Perkins Chritzer Construction Lightning Round,
in which we talk about a lotof things in a short period of
time. Thanks to Perkins Chritzer Constructionfor making this possible. Well, last

(32:00):
week we told you that they wereworking on some Jersey Mike's locations. Well
they just opened a Jersey Mike's inMetro Crossing in Council Bluss Metro Crossing.
Is that huge retail development that issouthwest of the I twenty nine I eight
interchange. I guess the eastern ofthe two twenty nine interchange is there,

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and that Jersey Mikes is just oneof many projects that PC Construction does.
They do big, big projects likerenovating the Miracle Hills Park shopping center on
the west side of one hundred andfourteenth, and they do restaurants like the
aforementioned Jersey Mikes. And if you'rethinking about doing a construction project, you
want to work with Perkins Kreutzer Construction. Dave Kreutzer and his team there do

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a great job and we appreciate themmaking the Lightning Round possible. Well.
Ghost Donkey and Champong Lanes, twoconcepts from Omaha based Flagship Restaurant Group,
are coming to the brickline at theMercantile Building their tenth and Heartney Street opening
getting really close. I want tocongratulate Ink Well, that's a very cool
cocktail bar in Countryside Village. Theyappear to be opening a location in Chicago

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in Chicago's Fulton Market neighborhood. Story'sCoffee plans to open a standalone drive through
location in the Blend Food Hall theformer Blend Food Hall. It is one
hundred and seventh and Q that wasa short lived drive through only place that
had a bunch of different restaurant conceptsinto it. Stories is taking it over.
Opening is planned for early July,depending on weather and permitting. Have

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Little King Delian subs plans to openthis spring really soon. It's getting quite
close near one hundred at southwest ofone hundred and forty fourth in Dodge in
the Heartwood Preserve area. This isright in front of the recently relocated Mahogany
Prime Steakhouse if you can picture thatin kind of that west of Boystown area.
Little King's already currently has six soOmaha location to see a resurgence it

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is. It reminds me of remindsme of being a kid going to Little
king there at number eleven Road StreetAmen A Foreign Taste. A Foreign Taste,
which is a fine dining restaurant atone hundred and forty second in Fort
Street, plans to transition to anevent's only venue starting June second. To
kick things off, the restaurant willhost its first pop up event with James

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Beard nominated chef Clayton Chapman on Maythirty first and June first. It's gonna
be a six course culinary event.Table Table Coffee Company moved a couple doors
to the west and the Old Market. They're now in the former Stokes Southwestern
Restaurant space at eleven twenty two HowardStreet. They previously were a couple doors

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to the east and Red Lobster suddenlyclosed. Dozens of locations nationwide, including
the Council Bluff's location at thirty fortyDial drive tastes are changing. Have you
noticed there's some national articles about thatthey've had struggles, but they've done this
all you can eat shrimp or lostor whatever they do. They underestimate it

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that their customers come in there andthey lose money on those campaigns. Those
chain restaurants of all stripes and varietyand sizes are typically struggling these days.
The Folding Warehouse, a mash upbetween football and bowling, is nearing completion
of construction two blocks north of ninetiethand fort It's in a fifty thousand square

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foot space thirty lanes of foling.You literally throw a football at the pins
instead of rolling a bowling balls toset them back. Up. That's why
I want to know, Glad it'snot you and me. Two full bars
and a dedicated meeting space. Thisis a really really cool thing, getting
very close to opening the Folding Warehouse. When it actually does open, we

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will keep you up to date onthat. Crumble Cookies opened yesterday at one
four oh seven South fifteenth Street inBellevue. People love those gourmet cooks.
Yeah, I know there's one inone hundred and sixty eighth and Center Maple.
I believe there's one in Papillion aswell that we reported on if I
remember quickly. Yeah, they're they'rereally uh, they're really spreading around pretty

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fast. An event center at tento oh two Dodge, So the north
west corner of tenth and Dodge Streetdowntown is finding new life as Capital Arcade.
This is going to be a kindof like an upper scale bar arcade
concept, kind of an arcade forgrown ups, if you will. It's
from the same people that own theFat Putter, which is a very popular

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indoor golf and lounge entertainment thing attenth and Capital Downtown. This new Capitol
Arcade is going to be eight thousandsquare feet and it's scheduled to open in
July. Who would have thought peopleare gonna love that place? Yeah,
I think guy's doing really well.And that guy is Tim is Tim Worley
if I've remember correctly. He alsohas a prehistoric putt which is in September

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going to open in the former Knobby'slocation in bel Air Plaza, which we'll
have a is it moots pizza?Is that who's going in there? I'm
not sure about that? Or isthat? Uh the other one? There's
one in not moods? Yeah,is ease? I don't know about that.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure. But pizza and indoor golf sounds
sounds pretty good. I think everyonewould would love that. Back Line Comedy

(37:27):
Club at sixteenth and Harney Street inthe the historic Key Line building is seeking
approval for a sidewalk patio. Sinceacquiring the building, Shamrock Development has made
a lot of updates and now asidewalk patio going in. That's a cool
place. Music's playing. We aredone. Hope everyone has a great week.
I'm Jeff Bils and I'm Trenton Maggott. You've been listening to grow Omaha,

(37:49):
brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center, Chair Athletics, and Perkins Kritzer
Construction. We'll chat with you nextweek at nine o'clock right here on news
radio eleven ten kfab