Grow Omaha 5-3-2025

Episode Transcript

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. Ka Baby, Well, good.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Morning and welcome to the show. Jeff Beils here at
your service. We are the only show in the metro
area that talks about business expansion, real estate, construction, economic development,
really anything related to Omaha becoming more vibrant and more prosperous.
Thank you to Our show sponsors are title sponsors. They
are Cheer Athletics, the nation's number one all star Cheer

(00:37):
Jim along with Dingman's Collision Center for metro area locations. Well,
my co host Trenton Maggot has the weekend off, and
in his place we have a very familiar voice, Brad Williams,
owner of Brad Williams Photography and with E and A
consulting a civil engineering firm. Good morning, Brad, welcome back, Hey,

(00:58):
good morning, Thanks for having me back, Thanks for always
be in here. You know, everyone knows Brad because he's
on a lot of times as a guest host and
whenever we do our call in show. But don't get
your hopes up. We're not taking calls today because we
have so much news to share with you. First of all,
we do want to acknowledge it is Berkshire Hathaway Weekend,

(01:19):
which means that forty thousand people are in and around
CHI Health Center Omaha today from numerous countries across the globe.
It's my understanding that hotel occupancy last night was way
in the mid ninety percent range. So Berkshire Hathaway Weekend,
Brad is one of our two super Bowls, along with

(01:39):
the CWS.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, speaking of the hotel occupancy. When I left to
come here this morning, there was a family from out
of town standing at the street corner up the street
from my house. All we're in their Berkshire passes, waiting
for Uber to come pick him up.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
So someone in your neighborhood is cashing in on the
hospitality industry this weekend. Good for them. I like the entrepreneur. Well, hey,
we've got a couple of new sections in Grow Omaha,
and we started these just about two or three weeks ago.
They are nonprofit news and Arts and culture. Nonprofit news,

(02:14):
arts and Culture. They are in both the newsletter which
comes out every Thursday, and they have their own sections
online at gromaha dot com. And we also have two
new sponsors we'd like to mention. One of those sponsors
is Watkins Concrete Block. They are the title sponsor on
the homepage at gromaha dot com. And then also SPA Collective.

(02:34):
SPA is spelled spaw like a combination of a SPA
and a petspa because it is a dog grooming business,
and they are the sponsor of the arts and Culture section.
SPA Collective located at one hundred and eighth and Q Streem. Well,
let's go straight into our News of the week. It
is brought to you as always by Eagle Mortgage. It

(02:55):
has been brought to you by Eagle Mortgage for nearly
ten years and we have appreciate Eagle Mortgage being such
a loyal part of the gromha Show and you'll appreciate them.
If you're looking to buy a new house, you know
it's the American dream right now, and it's spring, so
a lot of people are getting serious about that, So
stop by Eagle Mortgage. It can help you with traditional
fha VA loans, some specialty loans as well. Holly Schneidwin

(03:19):
and her team at Eagle Mortgage will do a good
job for you. They're located at one hundred and fourteenth
in Davenport, or online at Eagle Mortgage Company dot com.
All right, Brad, a couple fairly big stories this week.
The first one, Gamescape by Cinemark and indoor entertainment attraction,
will be the first tenant at the eight hundred and

(03:40):
fifty million dollars Crossroads redevelopment. This is according to Woodbury Corporation.
They're the Salt Lake City based developer which has taken
over the Crossroads and has big plans for it. The
soon to be constructed building we expect to be We
think it's going to be ninety two thousand feet because
that's what Woodbury said back in December when they took over.

(04:03):
They didn't know, they didn't say the name of it
back then, but they said a ninety two thousand square
foot entertainment center. Now, this Gamescape is a new concept.
It's from Cinemark, which is a major theater chain. Heretofore
haven't been in Omaha, but they're based in Dallas. All
over the place, hundreds of theaters, but this is a
new concept. The only one that currently exists is in

(04:25):
El Paso, Texas. This is expected to be the only
one in Nebraska.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah, it's great to see something new to Omaha like
this to be a real draw to that Crossroads area.
You know, there's so many people in this town that
have been waiting for years and years for Crossroads to
finally get going and to have a major destination. It's
going to be a very good anchor for them.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, what a great choice for an anchor tenant and
this place to get you an idea about what it's
all about. It'll have a full blown movie theater in it,
but it'll also have a full bowling alley, a game arcade,
laser tag, there'll be a full service restaurant in there.
So it'll be quite a place maybe kind of you know,
think about that new spare time business that's in Lakeside

(05:06):
Western Road, but with movie theaters. Yeah, replace the mini
golf of movies. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a nice addition,
and we expect to get more and more announcements from
Woodbury about Crossroads as we go along. Groundbreaking for Gamescape
is expected to occur in June. Well. Other big news

(05:26):
item after thirty years of existence. Some Meristar casino Riverboat
in Council Bluffs is making some big changes. The first
change is no more riverboat. The casino will move to
on land casino services in a building, and the other
big changes. After this two hundred million dollar renovation project

(05:50):
is done, it won't be a Maristar anymore. It's going
to become a Hollywood casino, which is the top casino
brand from Pen Entertainment.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Big changes happening there. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised it
took so long. You know, Haras they got rid of
their boat pretty quick after that, was allowed to move
everything on shore, and Mayer Stars seem to keep it.
And you know, I think with the new competition in town,
it's probably spurned some changes to modernize and attract a
new generation of people over there.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah. I think you hit it right on the head there.
Now that there is a full casino gambling in Omaha
with Warhorse Casino, I'm sure they have to up their game.
It's been so long since I've gone into a casino.
I didn't even realize they were still using the boat
because I kind of thought they were like Haras and
it had moved to the on Land casino. But in

(06:42):
an article that Isaiah Ong wrote for us in Girlmaha
dot com, he said that it hasn't been announced where
the boat will go. So I imagine at some point
they'll float it down the river and it'll be used
for something else, somewhere else. I thought.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
I remember when Hares got rid of theirs, it just
went to the scrap yard. So I don't know what
kind of mark there is for US riverboats.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well, you know, there might be a glut of them
because people are not using them for casinos like they
like they used to. But time will tell. Another big
real estate development is in the very early stages. It's
called Gretna Crossing. Now Gretna Crossing is not to be
confused with the Gretna Crossing Park in Gretna. This is

(07:22):
the Gretna Crossing shopping center and it'll be on the
southwest corner of one hundred ninety second and Highway three
seventy in Gretna. It will be developed by the Learner Company,
highly respected local real estate company that really focuses on retail.
This is a seventy acre site half a mile of

(07:43):
frontage along Highway three seventy ultimately expected to have up
to five hundred thousand square feet of retail space. The
project is expected to create one hundred I'm sorry, fourteen
hundred permanent retail and service jobs, and no groundbreaking data
has been set because it's really early, Brad. I think
the story here from a Gromaha perspective is this highway,

(08:06):
this West Highway three seventy corridor is absolutely blowing up. Yeah,
it's exploded.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
You know, Hive was kind of the first to develop
out there, and since they started, i mean you go
from there all the way almost to two hundred four Street. Now,
it's just everything is under development and it seemed to
be no end in sight to it right now.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, because that world's greatest highv and indoor amusement park
that you've referenced has quite a few businesses that have
already been developed around to it. And then the Greton
Landing thing that you mentioned is just to the west.
We reported in late February that Nodel Companies is going
to do a development within a development at Greta Landing,
thirty one acre mixed use with a pretty large office

(08:47):
building component. Now, the one negative we've heard about Greta landing.
Is there are rumblings out there that Fleet Farm may
or may not happen.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
Now, yeah, there was a real estate brochure that showed
that lot was on the market. No official comment from
Fleet Farm, but you know, usually the realtors know what's
going on and they might be shopping that around to
see what they could.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, my guess is if it is indeed true that
Fleet Farm doesn't go there, if I were ahead of
that project, I would probably go after a target, a
Lows or a home depot. I think any of those
would make sense there.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
And then when I was I was looking on the
county website after this Learner announcement came out just to
the east, I noticed that CHI owns a bunch of
land there too, So no announcement on that. But you know,
when if they own the land, there's a possibility that
they could build a CHI facility out there too.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, and there have been rumblings about that for many
many years, that they might do a suburban hospital out there.
But that Brad said, though, none of that has been confirmed.
So don't go saying, hey, Stanchi Health is building they
they just owned the land. That's us just kind of
spitballing and projecting if you will. Cool project downtown making

(10:00):
a step forward, the City Council approved a tiff application
for a multifamily apartment project at twenty two to twenty
six Howard Street. Now, originally they were going to call
this project Jefferson Place, but it's now been called renamed
The Mueller. That is the last name of the project developers,

(10:20):
Brian and Lee Mueller. This is more than a nine
and a half million dollar project, going to be a
four story building that will fill out just a quarter
acre site. It'll have thirty four residential units in at
ground floor parking. Really cool project. Brian and Lee Mueller
are an interesting store. I actually met them for a
coffee a couple few weeks ago. They're going to be

(10:40):
on the show this summer. But they moved here from
Boston because they saw so much potential in the Omaha
real estate market and they want to do really cool
urban projects and this is one of their first ones.
It actually fills in a little nice open space in
a cluster of a lot of old brownstones and a
recently completed five story building.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
And is this another project we can contribute to the
street car?

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah? Absolutely, it's yet another streetcar project because it is
clearly within that five block development zone and many, many
billions of dollars worth of real estate projects are to
come along that zone. It'll really create a lot of wealth,
a lot of jobs, and a lot of opportunity and
badly needed residences in the urban core. Well. Our final

(11:27):
story of this week's news report takes us up to
North Saddle Creek. Omaha City Council President Pete Festerson announced
that there will be a groundbreaking for the five million
dollar revamp of a big chunk of North Saddle Creek.
This is going to take place the groundbreaking Monday morning,

(11:49):
and the project will increase walkability and pedestrian safety by wading,
widening sidewalks, adding a ten foot pedestrian and bike path
on the north side of the street. And it will
all so improve an upgrade a dangerous five way intersection
which is known as the Peanut. This is that roundabout
that is literally in the shape of a peanut, and

(12:12):
it'll it'll just be a lot better for the traffic
to flow through there.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
It's hard to believe that the Peanut is already getting changed.
I mean, it seems like they just built that not
that long ago. Yeah, it's still relatively new.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, but it's a.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Ton of potential in that part of town. I mean
around that Saddle Creek and area.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, the Peanut is at about fiftieth Street. So this
is the part that most people on the on saddle
crank they think of going by the Med Center. This
is you got to go up towards Hamilton and then
you veer to the northwest. We're talking about that the
Arga Peffer's Home in that kind of stuff. Exactly when
you think of that area, I think is Sergeant Peffers

(12:49):
and home in But there's a new coffee shop going
in there, a new restaurant, so there's already a lot
of momentum in that space. So a lot to look
forward to. All Right, that's your News of the week,
which is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage Egle Mortgage
Company dot Com. We're going to take our first break
of the hour and when we come back, we're going
to have one of our business feature segments, and this

(13:10):
week we're featuring Core Bank. They are a thriving bank
with a beautiful headquarters just west of Village Point. We
have John Serell and David Hartman from Corebank that are
going to join us, so stay with us. You're listening
to Grow Omaha brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center
along with Cheer Athletics. We have Brad Williams here substituting
for Trenton Magan and we'll be back after this right

(13:31):
here on News Radio eleven ten Kfaby and welcome back
to the show. Jeff Beils here sitting next to frequent
contributor Brad Williams, who is substituting for Trenton maggod today
brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics.
We want to introduce you today to Core Bank, outstanding
local Omaha bank, one of our key Grow Omaha sponsors,

(13:53):
and they are the topic of today's business feature we
have with us officers of the bank, Sorel and David Hartman.
Good morning, gentlemen, and welcome to the show. Good morning,
good morning, Well thanks for being here you guys, and
I guess we'll just start as we always do with
the thirty thousand foot view question. Give us an overview

(14:16):
of the bank, where it came from, and what it's
all about.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
Sure, Sure, it's a locally owned, privately held bank, the
Scott family in Omaha on us and our big focus
is on the business segment, and we have a very
robust mortgage and construction residential along with a wealth company
as well.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
And the headquarters is located just a little bit west
of Village Point, beautiful building and that's still and it's
been a few years now, but still a relatively new
place for the bank.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
Yeah, we moved out there in December of twenty eighteen
and we take three three floors of the building and
are currently trying to lease the top space.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
So well, we we sometimes know what people it would
be a nice place to be a nice place to
have an office, that's for sure. So what types of
clients are most ideal for a core bank And and
since we're talking about on grow Omaha, maybe focus a
little bit more on the business to business side of

(15:24):
the bank. Uh, maybe kind of let us know who
you look for and and what's just right for the bank.

Speaker 5 (15:31):
You know, we really specialize on all types of businesses,
small business owners. There's a lot of definitions around small
business owners. But we also work with probably thirty plus
home builders in the community and have done that for
a number of years. A lot of real estate investment,
multi family builders. We're trying to get to get in

(15:55):
on the front end to do the construction hopefully then
then the filling up and going to the secondary market
once they're filled up.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
But we really focus on the small business owner. We're
talking with John Sorell and David Hartman from Corebank here
in Omaha, and David, you talked about real estate and
that's certainly a big focus area for us here on
grow Omaha. This real estate market around here has been
pretty exciting. I mean, yeah, it's a little bit tougher

(16:24):
because some rates have gone up compared to what they
were a couple few years ago. But you know, just
there's so many projects going on. Give us an overview
about what the lending environment like is like right now
for real estate and can we keep this momentum going
for the foreseeable future.

Speaker 5 (16:41):
You know, overall, it's still pretty active. There's still plenty
of projects going on as you As you referenced, I
met with a developer earlier this week and we discussed
specifically multi family because I'm always going in the back
of my head, going when do we at a saturation
point on multi family, and he is pretty resolute to
the fact that it's not going to happen for a while,

(17:01):
that we still are going to need that those units
coming out of the ground because folks are just not
moving into the creation of single family homes as quickly
as they were maybe fifteen twenty years ago. They're staying
in apartments where they can pick up the phone and
call and have somebody else do the do the maintenance.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah, we've talked about a few times on the show that,
especially downtown the market. I mean, there are some of
these apartments are ninety ninety five percent at least, and
it seems like they can't build them fast enough right now.

Speaker 5 (17:32):
Yeah, what has been surprising to me is the growth
of apartments out west because in my theory, in my
mind was always that there needed to be someplace to shop,
someplace to get your groceries, you know, And certainly the
first ones out of the ground were the ones near
our office up on you know, one hundred and eighty
fifth in Dodge, which is like a small community, and

(17:55):
you know, I guess it's those.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
The old scenario.

Speaker 5 (17:57):
If you build it, they will come, Because certainly we
have put some grocery stores said rather services around them.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Are you seeing the faster or hotter than the retail
right now or oh most definitely definitely. Yeah. You know,
it's interesting David that you talk about multi family development
and how hot that's been. There was a study that
came out late last year that identified Omaha as one

(18:24):
of the ten most competitive rental markets for residential units,
and it took into account both apartments and also single
family rental homes. But this survey said, and I'll be
honest with you, I've had maybe a little bit of
a tough time believing this. I haven't tried to rent
a residential unit a long time. But the statistic was

(18:47):
there are thirteen potential tenants competing for every one available
residential rental unit in town. Yeah, we had our occupancy
as only in the high nineties. Still you would think
if there were thirteen of them, the occupancy would be
like one hundred percent with a long way. But suffice

(19:10):
it to say, there are still a lot of people
looking for good rental units right now.

Speaker 5 (19:14):
They are, you know, and we work with a lot
of folks that purchased one to four family homes and
turn them into rentals, and the demand for that product
is even higher than the new multi family because they
then maybe that's the next step to actually home ownership.
They have a yard, they're probably responsible for that. You know,
we had one of our one of the larger builders

(19:35):
in the community now, Dr Horton, basically built an entire
subdivision of rental homes and then spun them off to
the secondary market.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
There's at least four of those kind of neighborhoods going
up right now. Besides Dr Horton, there's at least another
two companies doing three different projects like that. It's kind
of the big trend right now, I think.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
Well, and that was another ranking that came out Brad
just a few weeks ago. Omaha was a top twenty
market for most build to rent construction, you know, basically
building things specifically for them to go to rentals. And now,
of course a lot of people are disturbed to hear
that for understandable reasons, because we do know that home

(20:18):
ownership tends to be really healthy for our society. But
on the other hand, it's also a sign that we
just have a lot of population growth that we need
to build these units for people that live here. And
want to live here.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
I think it's frustrating for there's a lot of people
out there that want to be homeowners that just can't
get into it right now. And it's kind of frustrating
to see these four rent neighborhoods coming up where they
think that that would be a great place to live,
but it's not what they're looking for.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah. Well, we have with us John Sorell and David
Hartman from Core Bank, and let's talk a little bit
about non residential real estate right now. What are you
guys seeing when it comes to the lending environment for office,
retail and industrial properties these days.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
Well, the industrial property has been really strong. That has
been a shining star in some of the real estate sectors.
We have an office down in the Phoenix Greater Phoenix
area and we have done a couple of very nice
projects down in that area. It's been very strong down there. Omaha,
same way, and the office we don't play in that

(21:25):
space a lot. We do, as David mentioned, have a
floor of space available in our building. But you know,
it's it's it's been strong here in Omaha. We also
have a market in Kansas City and it's shown in
Overland park a strong, you know, resiliency for that. Obviously,

(21:45):
the office in Phoenix is very high in terms of vacancy,
but here in Omaha we've managed that quite well.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
So what's the what's the deposit environment like? Lately? I
in my sales train a lot of gromha Is, I
do a lot of sales training, and I'm all over
the country and periodically all work with banks, and I
hear a lot of banks say, gosh, we have a
lot of people that want to take out loans, and
that's great, that's a big part about what we do,
but we also care a great deal about deposits and

(22:14):
what's the deposit environment like these days?

Speaker 4 (22:17):
That is a tough piece of business for us right
now in our industry. I think for so long there
was so low of rates and there wasn't a big
return on that. And now people during COVID and afterwards
and the rates going up the way they did, they
are looking for better rates and they're going outside the
traditional bank footprint to do that and going direct to

(22:40):
the treasury or going to money funds that maybe the
insurance isn't such a big play for them anymore. But
it's tough because we take in deposits and we loan
those back out in the community. And so that's been
our biggest limitation. The demand in Omaha is strong for lending.
We are you know, we could do it every day,

(23:02):
and we do it every day, but it's it's been
a challenge in the deposit side.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
So we've got to wrap up our conversation this business
feature with core Bank and gentlemen, I guess I'll ask
you what is it about core Bank that that makes
it stand out from the competition. We probably have a
lot of listeners here saying, you know, I'm I'm always
open minded about a different bank. Why should Why should
they come to Core Bank?

Speaker 5 (23:29):
You know, I think we support the community very strongly.
You know, when I was thinking about the name of
your show, growm what we do every day in the
in the customers that we serve, we're trying to grow
their businesses, We're trying to grow their families, We're trying
to grow their investment income. And you know, we are
very strong in providing two days of volunteer service to

(23:52):
every employee to go out into the community. So I
think we're just the great example of what community banks do.
And we try to live that every day.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Well, it's an outstanding organization. And John Sorell and David Hartman,
we appreciate you guys being here on gro Omaha today
and we also appreciate core Bank being one of our
key sponsors. Thanks for joining with us, for having us
our pleasure. That was John Sorell and David Hartman from
core Bank. We're going to take our middle of the

(24:24):
show break and that means we've got the news and
the weather, and when we come back, Brad and I
will have all sorts of things we want to share
with you, So stay with us. Much more to come.
You're listening to gro Omaha brought to you by Dingman's
Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics on News Radio eleven
ten KFAB and welcome back to the show. Jeff Beils

(24:44):
here in the KFAB studio high above Underwood Avenue and
beautiful downtown Dundee, sitting next to Brad Williams. He is
the owner of Brad Williams Photography and also with E
and A Consulting, a very respected civil engineering firm in Omaha.
Brad substitute duoding for Trenton, who's taken a couple weeks
off from the show, but he will be back next week.

(25:06):
I want to give a big shout out to our
title sponsors. They are Cheer Athletics that is the nation's
number one all Star chair gym. They have fifteen locations
in the world, one of them right here in Omaha,
specifically southwest of Highways fifty to three seventy in Papillion
and then Dingman's Collision Center is the Best of Omaha

(25:27):
award winner all the time. They are the best place
to go if you get a scratch or a dent,
to need any sort of body work. They even have
mechanical services and for metro area locations. All right, it's
time for your Not All Companies Commercial real Estate development
Spotlight of the Week. This is when we talk about
activities in or around one of the Nodel Companies many

(25:50):
local projects. Nodel has been a developer in the Omaha
area for decades now, and they do projects all over
town and in a variety of other geographic markets across
the country. We mentioned earlier talking about three seventy during
the news that Nodel Companies is doing a thirty one

(26:12):
acre development as part of gret and the landing. But
for this report today we're going to focus on x
Sarbon Village. We have two things coming up at Xarbon Village.
Number one, First State Bank is going to hold a
grand opening at sixty four to fifty seven Francis Street
in Xarbon Village on May ninth, four to seven pm,
so congratulations to them. And then tomorrow is the first

(26:36):
of the season. The x Sarbon Farmers Market starts. That
will be every Sunday starting tomorrow through October twelfth from
nine am to one pm. So if you're in the
Xarbon areas dot I today you can go to the
farmers market in the Old Market. So Saturday's in the
Old Market Sundays at Xarbon Village. All right, Well, Brad,

(26:56):
I want to share a couple little restaurants that I
I went to this week. The first one was Santoro Restaurant.
This is owned by Jesus Rivera, who gained a lot
of fame owning Rivera's at one hundred and twenty throm Blondo.
They closed over a year ago. People loved the place,
they missed it. Santoro is different, but there are a

(27:19):
lot of things about Santro that reminded me of Rivera's,
namely the Salsa, which I always love. But they opened
I think it was Tuesday at eighty six to oh
one Dodge Street. This is the very long building that
essentially acts as a retaining wall for the Leo A
Daily behind and above it. But Santoro's on the far

(27:41):
east end, really close to where the mental health hospital
is under construction for children's and the space was actually
built to be the boiler room for that building back
when the building was built in the sixties, but they
don't use it for that, so they've turned into restaurants.
So the restaurant's kind of sunk and you go down
it is really cool.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
I had to try it. I loved Rivera's. I've known
Jesus for forever. And I saw the pictures that we posted.
I did not take those, but the pictures that we
posted on gro Omaha, and it looked like a beautiful place.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yeah. In fact, when we went, my wife and daughter
and I went Thursday night and we actually sat on
that patio and even though it was kind of chilly night,
we were comfortable because the patio sunken down there, so
there's really no wind coming in there, and it's just
a when you're on the patio, it kind of reminded
me of being in Mexico.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
And the patio is kind of sheltered by the building.
And in the summer it'll be great because it's on
the east side of the building, so you won't have
the sun on you. It's going to be a great place.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yeah, real nice addition to the Omaha restaurant lineup. Then
the other place I wanted to mention last night, I
had dinner at a place that Chris Corey reviewed several
weeks ago as part of our Grow Omaha Eats restaurant
review series, and it is Ruleman's in Ashland. Really enjoyed
and Chris told me, he said, when you go to Rulmans,

(29:02):
you'll be surprised how good the old Fashioned is for
the price. I would agree. I actually had the bacon
infused old fashioned chit ching. It was pretty darn good.
I'm thirsty. Yeah, So if you want to go out
and try it, it's a cool place. It's in Ashland,
about a five minute drive from Nebraska crossing probably what
maybe thirty five minutes from downtown Omaha unless there's a

(29:26):
big traffic jam or something like that. So it's easy
to get to and gosh, Ashland is really doing some
cool things. After dinner, we walked around downtown Ashland and
the shops are quaint, the buildings are historic and well preserved.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
Yeah, we were talking about that earlier, how they've done
a great job in downtown Ashland preserve and everything making
it just a historic looking small town downtown. It's really
nice and like you said, from anywhere in southwest Omaha,
Ashland is a very quick drive. You know, go down
to the La Malls and hang right on Highway six
and you're there in no time.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
Well, we're going to share a little bit of news
that's kind of about us, but I don't think you'll
mind us sharing it with you because it's basically a
recognition for grow Omaha and for everything gir Omaha has
been over the last twenty one years. And a lot
of that is because you listen to the show and
you read our articles and you subscribe to our newsletter.

(30:20):
But Trenton and I are going to be inducted as
the one hundred and eighty second face on the barroom floor.
This is a very cool tradition from the Omaha Press Club.
It goes back to nineteen seventy one, and this is
when the Press Club recognizes people in media like grow Omaha,

(30:41):
Trenton and Me who started the show. But then they'll
also sometimes recognize business leaders or celebrities from Omaha, politicians,
politicians and all that. So Trent and I are absolutely
thrilled and honored to be the one hundred and eighty
second face on the barroom floor at the Omaha Press Club.
And when they ever do this, they always have a
dinner in a ceremony and they have some people that

(31:01):
will roast the recipients. And guess who one of the
roasters is for us at a girl Omha, Trent and Me, Me,
Brad Williams, and h He'll be accompanied by Chris Corey.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah, Chris and I are going to be up there,
along with Scott Vorhees and Gary Settlemeyer. I am very
honored and completely nervous all at the same time. I
got a month to think about this, and I am
already losing sleep over it.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
He's got it. He's like, he knows so many things
to roast Trenton and Me about he can hardly even
come up with it. But if you want to find
out more about it. There's an article on groa Maha
dot com. It's titled Omaha Press Club to honor Gromaha
Founders's next face on the barroom floor and if you
feel like signing up for the event, it is the
evening of Thursday, May twenty second, if you decide to go.

(31:50):
Trent and I would love to see you there and
shake your hand and meet you. But we're really excited
about it, and thanks to the Press Club for choosing
us for this honor. Could not be happier. We could
not be more honored by this thing, and we're so
excited to make it happen. And Brad, thanks for being
one of our roasters along with Chris. I appreciate. It's
quite the honor, and it'll be awesome having Gary Settlemeyer

(32:13):
m see it and Scott vorhe's from Kfab also taking
a few shots at us.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
The company you will be joining in that one hundred
and eighty five faces is incredible. I mean, you're going
to be part of an incredible list of Omaha people.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Well, thanks for saying that. And in fact, Trent and
I went down there for an orientation lunch. We were
walking around and we saw some of the faces on
the wall, and I said, look at that, Trenton, Johnny Carson,
Bob Devanny, and Trenton Maggot. That's who we're kind of
hanging out with. That's quite the list, all right. Well,
with that, we're going to take our final break of
the hour and when we come back, Brad and I
are going to take you through the Lightning Round by

(32:47):
Perkins Chritzer Construction. And that's when we go through a
lot of things really fast. That's the list. There are
a lot of things on it, so stay with us.
You're not going to want to miss us. You're listening
to grow Omaha. Brad William's substituting for Trenton Maggot. The
sponsors are Dingman's Collision Center, Cheer Athletics, and Perkins Chritser Construction.
We'll be back in a moment on news Radio eleven ten. Okay, baby,

(33:11):
it's the Perkins Kritzer Construction Lightning Round in which we
talk about a lot of things really fast. Thanks to
Perkins Chritzer Construction for making this happen. They are the
company you want in your virtual rolodex because anytime a
project comes up, we need to build something. Oh, my goodness,
we're expanding. Oh geez, we have to have another location.
Just called Dave Kreitzer and his team at Perkins Chritser Construction.

(33:34):
They will give you a beautiful building with the right budget,
with the right timeline, and they have the track record
to back it up. I've gotten to know so much
about Perkins Chritzer Construction over the last couple of years.
I've personally driven out to see their projects and the
completed buildings they've done, and I can vouch they are
a top notch class A general contractor. You can learn

(33:56):
more about Perkins Chritzer Construction by just going to their website.
It is p dash Sconstruction dot com. All right, well,
Brad Williams is here substituting for Trent. Let's just go
through a few things real fast. All right, Former Applebee's
by Oakview Mall is going to be class A Codigo,
Cochina and Tequila, so it looks like an upscale Mexican restaurant.

(34:17):
Interior renovations are underway. Boy, there is a long list
of former Applebees that are now something else.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
It's like the all the old taco bells back and
they remember all those with the three round windows in
the front. Yeah, now they're all subways and other Chinese
restaurants or something like that.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
The Daily, a fast casual sandwich shop, plans to open
this month at one hundred and twenty first in Westerner
Road in bel Air Plaza. Really cool concept. It's going
to feature emerging chefs who will rotate through the kitchen,
testing and refining their concepts before they move on to
open their own businesses. So this will be just adjacent
to the recently opened historic or prehistoric restort that is

(34:58):
in that area, Chick Bow, which is a Korean restaurant
in North Omaha. We announced a while back, several months
ago they were going to go to a space on
Howard Street in the Old Market. Not true, they're still
going into the Old Market, but now they're going to
go onto or into a space on Thirteenth Street that

(35:18):
used to be poke Boba House and before that was Julio's. Yeah,
I remember the Julios was there for a long time forever.
But apparently they decided that was a better space for them.
So Chick Bobow coming soon. The exact address is five
to ten South thirteenth Street. Got a new restaurant in
the heart of the South Omaha commercial district, right at
twenty fourth and Inn. That's going to open. It's called

(35:41):
La Casa del Poyo, And this is just part of
a whole big bunch of improvements that are going into
that public square there that's known as Plaza de la Raza.
It's not much of a plaza right now, but it's
going to be. They're going to take over a lot
of the parking lot that's on the west side of
the plaza and it's going to be a really cool
revamped public space. Is supposed to be getting underway here

(36:03):
pretty quick.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
The whole twenty four Street corridor is just so lively
and vibrant. I mean, out of any of the neighborhoods
in Omahall, they probably have the most foot traffic of
any of them. There's just always people down there. Yeah,
I would agree with that. It's got to be the
best street scene. And the shops they're always like put
merchandise out on the sidewalk. It's just kind of a
fun place to hang out. If you haven't done it
for a long time, give it a try sometime. Vix

(36:24):
Corn Popper has partnered with Godega Market at eleventh and
Howard and Old Market, So if you want to get
VI's Corn Popper popcorn, you can get it in the Godega.
Of course, Godega is also planning on going to Xarbon
Village later this year. Wild Chicken Grill has opened a
second location at eighty second and Giles in La Vista
La Vista Bonita as I like to call it, and

(36:46):
a former building that was once long John Silver's in
anw Early Bird opened earlier this week at Village Point
and the former Paradise Bakery space. And this is a
real cool sounding business. The Barker building at fifteenth and
Farnham is going to be home to the Reading Lounge,
which is going to take over a space that was
once the Omaha Lounge. And they're not only gonna have

(37:08):
alcohol there, but they're gonna have coffee and all that
looks like it'll be pretty cool awesome, And it still
has the old shoe store looking there right yeah allough all.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
It finished wood real Neat today there is a grand
open and grand opening and ribbon cutting for Nuestra Familia
Supermercado in South I'm off fifty first and Harrison Music's playing,
which means that Brad and I have to stop talking.
But Brad, thanks for being here today. Hey, thanks, I
really enjoy doing this. That is Brad Williams from E

(37:36):
and A Consulting and Brad Williams Photography. Trent will be
back next week. We appreciate you joining. This show's been
brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center, Perkins Chreutzer Construction,
and Cheer Athletics. We'll chat with you next week at
nine o'clock right here on news radio eleven ten KFAB