Grow Omaha 6-28-2025

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.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, and welcome to the show. Jeff Beals here
at your service. We are brought to you by Dingman's
Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics and nations number one
all Star Cheer Jim. And this is the only show
you're going to find anywhere in Omaha that talks about
what we discuss, and that is making Omaha bigger, more vibrant,
more prosperous. We talk about construction, real estate development, we

(00:36):
just talk about good things in the community in general
as well. Great show planned as always, and before we
get into that great show, I want to introduce my
co host, a legendary real estate deal maker in the
flesh and all around interesting fellow from NAI P Dodge,
Trenton mad Good Good morning everyone, Good morning, Jef Well,
good morning. It is it is the middle of summer.

(00:58):
It is hot and humid out there, and I have
this theory about the way the year goes and here
in Omaha as soon as the College World Series ends,
which it did last Sunday, the rest of the year
goes like a I mean the years now that the
College World Series. Now that the College World Series is over,

(01:18):
the year is over. I mean, it's going to be
Christmas and New Year's before you know. We're halfway through
this year. It's crazy. I know, are your goals halfway done? Oh?
At least sixty? Yeah, me too. And with that we'll
go into our News of the week, which is brought
to you by Eagle Mortgage. Holly Schneidwin and her team
over at Eagle Mortgage, due and outstanding job. You know,

(01:39):
buying a house is a big deal for most people.
It's the most expensive thing you ever purchase, and you
want to make sure you get it right. If you
go meet with Holly or one of her outstanding mortgage brokers,
they'll listen to you, figure out what you need. And
keep in mind they are not a bank. They are
mortgage brokers, which means they shop the market and pick
the best bank for you. They're not beholden to any
one of them all Fhava, they do all of it.

(02:02):
Give give them a shout. You can stop by the
office hundred and fourteenth in Davenport. Or go online Eagle
Mortgage Company dot com Trenton. We had on groundbreaking earlier
this week. Metropolitan Community College is going to build the
Sarpee County campus. It'll be southeast of one hundred and
forty fourth and Highway three seventy. Not a small campus,

(02:25):
it'll be one hundred and forty four acres. This will
be the college's fourth full service campus, but the first
one they've built since nineteen eighty. So why did they
choose that location? Well, there's a lot of growth in
Sarpee County. The other thing to keep in mind. As
a community college, you know, they serve businesses and the

(02:46):
need for businesses a lot of employment around there.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
So that location one hundred and forty fourth Highway fifty
in a Highway three seventy prime. It's even better now.
But they got it right at the right time. There's
a number of people look at Do you remember who
they bought it from?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
I don't. I think it was Union Pacific. Oh didn't
Union Pacific though own the land where Google is. I
think Union Pacific owned land where Google is currently located,
if I remember it correctly. But I don't know. Yeah,
we we'll verify that, ladies and gentlemen. But if I
remember correctly, Up was going to do some sort of oh,
data center and warehousing and stuff like that out there,

(03:22):
but land prices with all the big d so they've
what do you think they voted for ten years? Maybe
it's been a long time. Yeah, but I mean, you know,
and kudos to them. I mean they're they're trying to
think ahead and and and really uh you know, find
you know, the perfect.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Well Amazon distribution center. A church owned that land, and
King of King's Lutheran Kings, King of Kings, our Lady
of A eighty and affectionately.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
No our lady of I six or are you thinking
of our lady of ICE six eighty? No, our lady
of this is our le I eighty. The one in
old Mill is our lady of I six eighty. Okay, yeah,
we Catholic kids growing up always called community Church our
Lady of I six's eighty. But I didn't know King
of Kings was our Lady of I eighty. Profecially back
to the news. So but they made a fortune. They

(04:10):
were going to build a huge church and they ended
up selling it in a couple different tranches and good
for them, it's God's money. Well, with that, we have
some other exciting news. Heritage Omaha is the group that
has made so many things possible philanthropically in our community.
They are currently teamed up with Project for Public Spaces

(04:32):
working on Omaha's first year round indoor, permanent public market,
and we know this is going to be at the riverfront.
They have been conducting surveys, gathering public input as to
what this market should look like, what should be in it.
They've also had meetings with would be vendors who would
be tenants inside this public market. Well, Thursday night they

(04:56):
had the general public and a lot of downtown enthusiasts
community people showed up for this thing and it was
very interesting. As I've been told, our nonprofit writer Mark
Champion was there. And the big news is that they
revealed what you and I kind of already pretty much new,
but it's been confirmed. The actual site would be southeast

(05:20):
of what is this state Farnham, and so right to
the west of this site would be the relatively new
Brickline apartments. Right to the north of the site would
be the skate Ribbon part of Heartland of America Park
and to the east would be the lake. And I'm
told that the idea that the organizers have for this

(05:41):
would be to make it very architecturally impressive.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
But it's got to be vertical art, don't they want?
Do we know if this is gonna be a for
profit or not for profit? It'll be a nonprofit public market.
Now the vertical part would be people.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Pay to be vendors in there, obviously, sure, but the
organization be nonprofit, as they often are. And we've talked
about this and other shows in the past, but there
are great public markets in America, like Philadelphia's Reading Terminal,
Pike Place in Seattle I love. I love the one
in Milwaukee because I think it's sized right for Omaha.

(06:15):
But what I'm hearing is that this would be a
very impressive building architecturally. You bring up the verticality, if
that's a word, condos or apartments, which would be for
profit SOLF. But we don't know for sure if there's
going to be anything on top of it, although you
and I both hope there is.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
I'm told it's about fifteen thousand feet, so it's not
it's just a little bit bigger than maybe than a
Walgreens or a CBS.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
And you for a public market in that space could
have a hell of a lot of vendors.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Imagine a butcher shop, you know, meet counter, that kind
of stuff, seafood, small restaurants.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's the old market and the farmer's market indoors, yeah,
year round.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
And they got the parking garage there at the brickline slash.
What's they with the a Mercantile.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
The Mercantile is the overall name of the district that
is the north part of the CONAGRAA campus.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
So this is overlooking heartland of American Park correct overlooking
the lake.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
It's kind of it almost looks like a little bit
of a peninsula that sticks out into the lake if
you will.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
I haven't looked it up, but it's either owned by Hines,
who has the Brookline, or Conagri.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Still Heines is the developer that's doing the Mercantile, or
at least they have been, and then ConAgra has been
the owner until they sell off pieces of land. Well,
we have an interesting little statistic that might give us
insight into the Omaha economy, the Omaha culture, in the
local housing market, the Omaha Metro area experienced a fifty

(07:48):
three percent increase in renters, people who rent their homes
at age sixty five or over. This is from twenty
thirteen to twenty three. This is part of a study
by point two homes that analyzed the seventy five most
populous US metro areas. So Omaha's growth of renter's age

(08:12):
sixty five and over of fifty three percent Are you
ready for this? Trenton, YEP, nearly double the national average
of twenty nine point four percent. And when you look
at just single family houses renting single family houses as
opposed to apartments or anything like that, Omaha had the
number one biggest increase in renter's age sixty five. So

(08:35):
are what do we make of that? That's my question.
I guess I'll give my first dabt, and I'm curious
what you think. My first reaction is negative, because in general,
I certainly like the idea of people in their older
years owning property, and so part of me doesn't like
to see this. I suppose if there's one positive I

(08:56):
could take out, it means that real estate values are increase.
You've seen in population is increasing. But I don't know.
I'm a little concerned by it.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
I think, so when you start, you start when people
graduate from college. We have a more transient population of
all ages, I think. And so when people aren't uh,
they don't have to sell their house, they're not sitting
down roots as much as ownership. And I know it's
a trend. I know people can work everywhere, and and

(09:26):
we we all know people that love to travel six
months in Thai, you know, in Thailand, in six months
in South America, whatever, And.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
So Trent MutS to spend six months in Thailand, go
ahead here, what could possibly go wrong? Exactly? Sorry to interrupt.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
So I think that we it's gonna change cities and
it already has.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah. And if some of this is because people want
flexibility in life and mobility and life, great, I applaud that.
If some of it is because we're a growing market,
and you hate to see people's rent go up, but
it's a sign of a healthy market, that's good. But
to go to have double the national average and be
number one in the country, it means that maybe things

(10:11):
prices are growing.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Every wonder I wonder what the statistics are for the
length of occupancy in rental houses, in rental apartments and
the length of state people own a house.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Good question. Well, Trenton, let's finish this news segment by
talking about Come and Go. We know that most of
those gas stations are converting to Maverick, which is the
Salt Lake City Company which purchased Iowa based Come and
Go not more about two years ago for about two
billion dollars. But the problem is apparently there were three

(10:46):
that they didn't want or couldn't have, or who knows
what the case is. So Omaha based Megasaver has completed
the acquisition of three of these Come and goes one
hundred and forty fourth and Q one hundred and ninety
second the West Center Road and sixty eighth the Cornhusker Road.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, they're definitely growing as well. And if you if
you find the conversation at gromha facebook page, people have
always made fun of the name Come and Go out
for obvious reasons, and if not, Jeff will explain it
right now. But people gave their their take on what
the name should have been or could have been. What

(11:23):
was your favorite?

Speaker 2 (11:25):
I'm going to plead the fifth on that and just
say there's an old saying in US history that says,
a chicken in every pot and a megasaver on everyone.
The one I didn't get was that somebody said nut
and bolt. And with that, we've got your News of
the week, brought to you by Eagle Mortgage Eagle Mortgage
Company dot com. Going to take our first break of
the hour, and when we come back, we're going to

(11:46):
bring on Jay Lund. He was with Greenslate Development, played
a key role in Midtown development Blackstone area. But we're
going to talk about the Catalyst, a very cool project
on the Edge District part of the University of the
Raska Medical Center campus. So stay with us. You're listening
to grow omahads. Brought to you by Cheer Athletics and
Dingman's Collision Center on News Radio eleven ten Kfab.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
Make Kfab the number one preset on our free, new
and improved iHeartRadio app. Free never sounded so good news radio.
We live in ten Kfab and iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Station and welcome back to the show. Jeff Beal sitting
next to Trenton Maggot. We are brought to you by
Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. No restaurant review from
Chris Corey. This week, because they're every other week, and
you had one last week, so be patient. It'll be
back next week. Now Chris is here in the studio
and he won't tell us what it's going to be
next week, so we have to wait until it is published.

(12:44):
But we are going to go into our interview that
we have scheduled this week. We've invited Jay Lund. He
is the head of Greenslate Development, which has been responsible
for so many projects in the Blackstone and Midtown areas,
and today we're going to start off talking to Jay
about a very exciting project that just was completed. It's

(13:05):
the renovation of the one hundred plus year old steel
factory west of University of Nebraska Medical Center now called Catalyst. Jay,
welcome back to the show.

Speaker 5 (13:15):
Thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
Now, I think you've been on what five or six times?
Your dad, Jay John One, has never been on the show. Yeah,
I lost track. I'm not sure how many times have been.
I thought he'd been on before. Jason Fisher's been on
there pretty much. We're trying to have everybody but our
friend John lenn who's listening.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
That Thanks Trenton, and so let's get into our conversation
about the catalyst. Jay, this is part of what the
University of Nebraska Medical Center and you guys are calling
the Edge District. We'll talk about that in a moment,
but kind of give us the thirty thousand foot view
of the catalyst.

Speaker 6 (13:53):
Yeah, it's a project that I've been working on in
one way or another. I think about, gosh, almost ten
years just kind of looking at that overall site. I'm
sure you guys have kind of been tracking it. Not
an easy site, no, No, I mean I remember when
I first got into the business over twenty years ago,
actually touring the building when it was still they were

(14:15):
still casting you know, steel molds in there, and I
think it was Jim Maynor had you know, his whole
analysis of the valuation and this and that. So it's
been it's been trying to be assembled for a long time.
Back in twenty sixteen, we were a part of a
master planning exercise. About four years ago, there was an

(14:38):
RFP that went out to say, hey, what could this be?
And it was an old building that actually different folks
along the way had wanted to tear down multiple times,
and I had encouraged them to see what it could
be if it was saved. Long story short, we ended

(14:59):
up partnering with folks out of Denver, Cobol and Company.
They had built a building in the Rhino neighborhood called Catalyst.
This was about eight years ago and it's an office
building at the end of the day, but it's really
much more than that.

Speaker 5 (15:15):
It's a community.

Speaker 6 (15:17):
Theirs was specifically based around their anchor was uc Health,
and then they created this community around all these innovators
and folks that wanted to be under the same roof
with one another.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
So the crane is still in there, one of the cranes,
and what is one hundred and something years.

Speaker 6 (15:34):
Old that the building itself was built over so many
different decades that the crane, I think we date the crane.
That particular crane that we kept. It's a twenty ton
gantry train that we left in place. We think is
like from the forties or fifties.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
And what's the square footage of this it's one.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
Hundred and seventy thousand square feet And.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
So it's called the Catalyst And there are several un
MC related funk in there, a coffee shop, Big Grove
brewery coming very soon, right, Yeah, So.

Speaker 6 (16:07):
First of all, you have to see it to believe it, right.
So there's a lot of cool office buildings in Omaha,
but this is just very unique and the fact that
it was one hundred year old steel plant and a
lot of that old architecture was reclaimed but surrounded by
new architecture. So the coffee shop's open, that's public, so

(16:28):
you can come into You don't have to have an
appointment or be invited to come see the building and
go get a coffee. I think they're open Monday through
Friday right now. The brewery itself is scheduled to open
I believe the first week of August, and that'll also
be a public they're the same group that's running the

(16:48):
coffee shop. So Big Groves out of Des Moines, Big restaurant, Chris.
You'll have to get in there at some point, eleven
thousand square foot restaurant, a sixty five hundred square foot patio.
If you haven't seen there, their beers in the grocery store.
If you haven't seen pictures that. There are other breweries
in Des Moines and Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, you'd have

(17:12):
to you have to check it out.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
So the Catalyst is not just medical. It's it's it's
an office building with heavy medical related adjacent type of businesses.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Give us an idea of the mix.

Speaker 6 (17:25):
Yeah, so that's actually a little bit of a misnomer.
There is no medical functions in the building.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
It's just you and MC. So there's it's it's general office.

Speaker 6 (17:36):
The med Center occupies about thirty percent of the building
and then we have the rest. Something that's incredibly unique
about the building is that close to fifty percent of
the space and building is common area. So folks in
the real estate business would kind of refer to that
as as like a load factor on what you would

(17:57):
pay rent on. We don't charge a fifty factor, but
the tenants get the benefit of that. So so we
share the building with the med Center. And then just
real quickly, the concept is everything from a three hundred
and fifty dollars a month desk to one thousand dollars
a month private office and then up up from there,

(18:18):
so all the way up to tradition, you know, up
to seven ten thousand square foot office spaces and that,
and that's really the kind of the unique factors. You
can come in and rent a desk for three hundred
and fifty dollars or a thousand bucks a month, and
you really have the benefit of this world class facility
with all these with all these common areas, and really

(18:38):
the biggest point is is that you're running into people
when when you are filling your coffee or you're getting
clever free kimbucha on tap and and we call it
serendipitous collisions there.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
I like that term. So, so the three hundred and
fifty dollars a month desk is co working space, right.

Speaker 6 (18:56):
Correct, Yeah, there's multiple coworking areas that are mixed mixed
into the building.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
And the un MC functions that are in there. Correct
me if I'm wrong. These are the groups that take
un MC research and technology and privatize it.

Speaker 6 (19:12):
That's you to MED and they just moved in a
few weeks ago. The other spaces that the Med Center
have in the building or sort of their final users
are to be determined.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
So it's part of the Edge district. That's the name
now for the un MC campus west of Saddle Creek Road.
The core building is under construction. They're looking great, but Jay,
there's a lot more planned for that for that district.
I don't know what else in that district you would
be involved in versus the med Center. But what else

(19:48):
do you see happening around the Catalyst? Maybe in the
next couple of years.

Speaker 6 (19:53):
Yeah, So it's about twenty five thirty acres if you
look at from Dodge to Levenworth as sort of a triangular.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
The Saddle Creek or is this correct?

Speaker 6 (20:01):
Yes, all west is Saddle Creek and then forty eighth
Street on the on the west is sort of the
western border of the edge literally. And you know, we're
also just about to bring online a new parking garage
that we as a City of Omaha parking garage that
is directly across from the Catalyst. So seven hundred and
fifty star garage set to open almost at the exact

(20:23):
same time.

Speaker 5 (20:24):
As Big Grove Brewery. So that'll be that'll be nice.

Speaker 6 (20:27):
I think that's going to be when Big Grove Brewery
opens and the garage opens, those are all public things
that you know, for the first time, I think the
public is going to be interacting with with that part
of campus that they never have before. So that garage
will I think ultimately get wraps and more than the mercantile,
I think you could see hotels, I think you could

(20:48):
see a lot of things.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
All right, we're going to take our middle of the
show break for the news, but when we come back
more with Jay Lund, head of Green Slate Development, We're
going to talk about some some other issues related to
black Baxtone Midtown and a very impressive project on the
site of the old WWT television studio. So stay with us.
You're listening to Jeff Beals and Trenton Maggot on grow Omaha.

(21:11):
We're brought to you by Cheer Athletics and Dingman's Collision
Center on news Radio eleven ten KFAB.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
Continuing a century of service and we're just getting started.
This is today's news Radio eleven ten KFAB.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
And welcome back to the show. Jeff Beiles and Trenton
Maggot at your service. We're brought to you by Cheer Athletics,
the nation's number one all star cheer Jim. They are
located near Highways fifty and three seventy in Papilion and
a great way to get your kid or a grandkid
involved in something special that will make them a better person.
We're also brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center. They

(21:50):
have four metro area locations famous for their body work
on your cars Best of Omaha Award winner, but they
do have some mechanical service as well that are absolutely outstanding. Well,
it's time for our not Companies Commercial real Estate Development
Spotlight of the Week, in which we talk about projects
in or around one of Not All Companies many projects

(22:11):
in the local area. Not All Companies is you know,
they're doing top notch development and they've been doing it
for decades and decades. It doesn't matter whether you're talking
about places like the Builders District or Sarbon Village or
if you're talking about buildings. Ever been to the HDR
headquarters building. That's a No All Companies project at any rate.

(22:31):
A good team and under the great leadership of our
good friend Jay Nodel, who is also a very good
community steward making good things happen in our area. So
trying to think about what was going to be the
Notle Company's report for today pretty easy because back on Monday,
Not All Companies were part of a press conference along

(22:52):
with Nebraska Medicine and the City of Gretna to announce
a one hundred and twenty five thousand square foot three
stone major health center Nebraska medicine health center that will
be in part of the Gretna Landing development. Gretna Landing
is northwest of one hundred and ninety second and Highway
three seventy in Gretna, which means that it is just

(23:14):
west of the world's greatest high v and amusement park
in that area, just anyway, a lot of retailers, and
that a long three seventy. This will be set further
back to the north, and this one hundred and twenty
five thousand square foot medical building will be part of
a thirty one acre mixed use development that aut All
Companies is doing within Greta Landing. So this is the.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Area where Fleet Farm who's been flirting with Omaha. They
own two sites, one on West Maple and Abou one
hundred and eighty third and one here, but it sounds
like they're not doing their projects. Excuse me, And it's
anyone's guess what's going there. I'm told that there's a

(23:55):
somebody that has it under contract on West Maple, but
I don't know who it is, and I'm guessing it
would be a place for like a target or something
like that. At one hundred and ninety second and three seventy.
But time will tell.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
And there's your Nodel Companies Commercial real Estate Development Spotlight
of the week. You can learn more about nodel companies
by going easily enough to Nodelcompanies dot com. Well, we
are talking with Jay Lund today. He is head of
Greenslate Development. We talked about his project, their project the
Catalyst on unmc's Edge District campus, but we want to

(24:30):
go a little bit further east. Jay. Earlier this spring
we announced a project that you guys are undertaking to
redevelop the former WOWT television space into a five story building.
Well now that old TV station is being demolished.

Speaker 6 (24:48):
Uh yeah, right now, so if you drive both, yeah,
the buildings about half down, so kind of kind of
fun to see that. A little fun fact there was
a historic mural mosaic tile from ww same as the
one down at the Peregrine Hotel. Oh well, and we

(25:09):
were able to save a little bit of it physically,
but we did get a full high resolution scan of
that mural and we're going to reproduce that inside of
the new complex. Or excited about now you're running this
project by yourself, right yeah? Just me yep, nobody else
is helping it.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Well, you know, you're pretty you're a pretty self self
reliant guy. So when the TV studio is down and
gone because WWT moved just to the west to part
of the Blackstone Plaza building, what are you going to
build there? What's it going to look like, what's it
going to be called? And what will happen inside it?

Speaker 6 (25:47):
Yeah, we did a press release. When was that you
were there, Jeff. It's five story building. It's one hundred
and eighty five apartments. It's podium style building, so it's
it's which means it's garage, and then you have four
stories of apartments above. It's gonna have a swimming pool
highly immenitized.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
You know.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
Class A is the pool on top. The pool is
in the back.

Speaker 6 (26:15):
It's a U shaped building and and the pool would
yeah be on the on the south side.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
It's amazing how you guys can build this stuff on
smaller lots. But this one, is this a couple.

Speaker 6 (26:24):
Of acres or this is more land than really I
think we've ever had to build except with except for Catalyst,
which already had a building on it. It's an acre
and a half of land. It goes all the way
from Farnham to Harney. And yeah, for for Blackstone or
for anything we've ever done in that area, that's that's

(26:45):
about almost double what we've ever had.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
You're not used to the luxury of space and Blackstone.

Speaker 5 (26:49):
Yeah, it almost feels like a suburban project to us.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
Now when when you say podium with above ground parking,
but it's below the it's it's open on the sides,
but you do do you go down for a basement
parking as well?

Speaker 4 (27:03):
Well?

Speaker 6 (27:03):
The way that the grade kind of works there as
Farnham as lower than Harney, so it kind of provides
sort of like a natural place for the garage to
live sort of half underground.

Speaker 5 (27:13):
Okay, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
So Jay, this building, this live story building just east
of the Blackstone Plaza tower, we'll be on the streetcar
line and you've played a big role in getting this
street car off the ground, and maybe talk to us
a little bit about how that street car had an
impact on you guys deciding to build this building and

(27:37):
what you see happening in that area once it's open. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (27:41):
Absolutely, It's hard to believe when I started Modern street
Car Advocates that was all the way back twenty seventeen,
So I can't believe it's been longer.

Speaker 5 (27:52):
Actually it's felt longer.

Speaker 6 (27:57):
So it's been a long journey, you know, talking about
the benefits of the project, and and it's still elicits
a lot of emotional responses when you when you bring
it up really in any room. But the project is
happening and the construction. If you haven't been down there,
it's very apparent that it's going on. And everybody knows that.

(28:22):
I'm a big advocate and I and I see the benefit.
It really comes down to density, and.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Give us it.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
I know it could go for an hour, but give
us a two or three minute explanation of why that's
so important and it's not just for ridership. Give us
why you're such a proponent of the street car.

Speaker 6 (28:41):
Well it's hard to synthesize, really, but I think if
if you wanted being to boil it down, it comes
down to density. And it's it's the permanency of the
rail that some people will say, you know, people have
said in the past, well that's what makes it bad.
And I would argue, as a real estate developer, that's
exactly what makes it great because those rails can't move.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
And when he says density, ladies, gentlemen, he's talking about
more people there both at night and during the day,
and going vertical, which doesn't tax the infrastructure like roads,
fire schools, So it just keeps more people in that area.

Speaker 5 (29:22):
Yeah, and it's land use.

Speaker 6 (29:24):
And so I think when anyone travels to great cities,
it seems like they always come back and they say.

Speaker 5 (29:31):
I walked everywhere. I loved it.

Speaker 6 (29:33):
You could walk everywhere, right, Yeah, you go to New York,
you go to Chicago, you say, gosh, it was so fun.
All we did is we walked everywhere. So that's what
people want. And really it comes down to land use.
So if you were to walk the streetcar route today
and literally physically walk the route from fortieth Street all
the way downtown, and when you're on foot, you're gonna notice,

(29:56):
at least from a real estate developer point of view.
But I think think really anyone could say, gosh, there's
a lot of waste in land on this corridor, and
it's really these old parking lots that were you know
in the seventies, eighties, nineties, you know, all these buildings
just got torn down and turned into parking lots, and
that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to turn

(30:16):
parking lots that are used a fraction of the time
back into buildings that are vibrant, paying taxes and create
the community, walkable community that everybody wants.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah, and already off to a great start and it'll
only get better. And you're so right. When people travel,
they love those walkable districts. You know, no one goes
to a big city on vacation comes home and said,
I saw the best super target in a Cleveland suburb
I've ever seen in my life. You know, they care
about the urban areas. And with that, Jay, when you

(30:51):
look at at the Blackstone District, which has been your baby,
what's next for it in terms of building? I mean what,
you know, what what types of what types of projects
might we see in the Blackstone in the coming year
or what's a missing well.

Speaker 6 (31:06):
I think that the building that we just brought on,
another large project that came on at the same time
as catalysts really, which is funny how long these things take,
is thirty seven West Farm And so that's another public
private partnership that has a parking garage that works in
conjunction with the streetcar flagship has a new and flagship

(31:28):
if you haven't seen it, they just open the other day.
It's a very cool space called Revival House. It's a
it's a tiki bar, U super fun, has garage doors
on the front, so it feels very open in big city.
You know, Blackstone proper if you kind of think about it,
is really about thirty fifth to forty first and it's
and it's mostly built. There's there's a couple little lots

(31:49):
here and there, but the big opportunity and kind of
quote Blackstone or Midtown is the mutual of Omahak Campus.
And I think when they move into their new tower,
that's going to open up a lot of acreage of
Again you're looking at empty parking lots and what could
this land be? And I think that we all know

(32:10):
there's a higher and better use.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Well. Well, Jaylund, we appreciate you joining us today and
giving us an update on the Catalyst and Midtown issues
in general, and kudos to you and your colleagues for
all the good work you're doing in Midtown.

Speaker 6 (32:22):
Thanks a lot for having me. Love what you guys do.
Love your weekly email. I get excited to read it
every you.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
Hear that, Ladies and gentlemen, Jay Lund approved. All right,
grow dot com and sign up for the newsletter. It's free.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
All right, Jay, thank you so much. That's jayn Greenslate Development.
Going to take our final break of the hour, and
when we come back, it'll be the Perkins chrits Er
Construction Lightning Round, in which we talk about a lot
of things really fast. So stay with us. You're listening
to Grow Omaha, brought to you by Dingman's Collisions Center,
Chair Athletics and the aforementioned Perkins Chritser Construction on News
Radio eleven ten k f Abe.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
The weather turns bad, turn on news Radio eleven ten
kfab and the Pyramid Contractor Severe Weather Center and be
informed in the storm.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
It's here Perkins Kretzer Construction Lightning Round, in which we
talk about a lot of things in a super short
period of time. It is brought to you by Perkins
Critcher Construction. They are a top notch class a general
contractor serving the entire metro area and beyond Eastern Nebraska,
Central Nebraska, a lot of Western Iowa wherever. They just

(33:32):
do a fantastic job and you could use them to
build out an office space. You could build out retail
space and a shopping center, or you could have them
build the entire office building or the entire shopping center.
They do it all. Dave Kreutzer is the lead over there,
and we talked to Dave regularly. You know, he keeps
us up to date with some of the cool projects

(33:53):
they're doing. And Dave's got a great team. So if
you're looking for a company to help you with your
next construction process, you just need Perkins Chritser Construction website
is pe dash c construction dot com. All right, Trent,
a lot of things to talk about. Another hotel is
coming to the Mid America Center Entertainment District and Council Bluffs.

(34:15):
It'll be on a two point two five acre undeveloped
site next to Quaker Steak and Lube Restaurant. It'll be
an Echo Suite Extended Stay by Windom, four stories, one
hundred and twenty four rooms. Start construction by the end
of this year, completion in about a year and a half.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Isn't that that's right next to the Tesla Yes Repair Center,
the recently opened Tesla Yeah Revival House.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Our guest Jay Lund mentioned that it's part of that
thirty seven West Varnham building. The exact address is thirty
seven thirty seven Farnham Street, Blackstone District, part of Omaha
based Flagship Group. They opened on the twenty six, so
two days ago. The menu draws from the lost artific
exotic drinking culture with a rebellious twist. I don't know

(35:03):
what that almos got a fine drinking culture, but it's
pretty cool. And I popped in and saw it. They
had a kind of a media preview thing. I didn't
have a drink. It was a little early in the
day for me, but I would love to come back
and give it a try. They have one existing location
of Revival House in Des Moines, Iowa Meadow Lark Lounge
and Upscale neighborhood dive bar. Upscale. Yeah, I know, that's

(35:25):
the oxymor Yeah, pretty cool. It's opening soon in a
former VFW building thirty third and eleven War Street, just
west of the historic Alderman's Bar, and that's coming soon.
I was in that area after we received this brief
from our restaurant reporter Nicole, and so I popped my head.
I couldn't. I looked to the window because the door

(35:47):
was locked and it looks like it's coming along. Holy Grounds
Coffee House and Gifts plans to open this August in
a brand new building one hundred ninety fourth in Harrison Street.
The interior buildout is underway. Coffee shop and a gift
shop that will serve religious goods this building. So many
people have asked what's going in there, and we were
having a hard time figuring that out. We now know

(36:09):
it is Holy Ground's Coffeehouse and Gifts. Tacoia l Ray
has opened at forty one sixty one South eighty fourth
Street in a former Windy's Fast Food building. The original
Tacoia l Ray is at twenty fourth and Q and
South oh. They also have a bunch of food trucks
around town. Little Caesar's opening at fifty ninth and Aime Street.

(36:30):
Construction interior build out on that store will start pretty soon.
Here's another Tacorea. It is Anthony's Tacorea. It is in
Blair and it will open soon on twentieth Street up
in Blair in a former Jimmy Johns. A farmer's co
op has leased twenty five hundred square feet of space
at fifty eighteen Underwood Avenue, just in the shadow of

(36:53):
the kfab Penthouse studio. And this is it's gonna be
really cool. It's gonna be a seasonal that will showcase
fresh local produce in the summer and transform into a
Christmas market in the winter.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
Do you remember Tomato Tomato, I remember the name. So
it was at one hundred and fifty six kind of
in a flex space, and they did that as well.
And they used to have a Carolyn's cheesecake there which
is awesome, which you can get at like Pizia at
a couple other places.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Now, our colleague Eric Whistler from an AI inp Dodge
handle the lease of that farmer's co op. West Lake
Case Hardware will move later this summer from eighty four
to twenty five West Center Road to thirty four oh
one South eighty fourth Street in Westgate Plaza. They'll occupy
what used to be Tom Kelly's Tom Kelly's Bowling pro

(37:43):
Shop and a bakery and a barber shop, so on
the north side of Westgate Plaza. Until that happens, the
new location will continue to serve customers at eighty fourth
and Center and then the Omaha Public Library has chosen
Zen Coffee as the official in house cafe partner at
the future Central Library, set to open next spring at

(38:03):
seventy second and Dodge Trent In. That building is getting
close to complete.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Shells good. I just hope the birds stay away from
those perches.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
I hope they've thought about that. We have two closings
to share with you. We don't like to do it,
but we figure we've got to. The first one is
Village in has permanently closed its restaurant at thirty eight
oh nine Twin Creek Drive in Bellevue. The other Bellevue
location stays open, as well as locations in Omaha Papilion
and then Alva Yarta Mexican restaurant at one hundred and

(38:32):
twenty fourth and West Center Road in Westwood Plaza is
closing on July second. Their locations in Blair, Gretna and
La Vista will remain open. And we also have a
little bit of news about daycare and preschool buildings there
is there have been a lot of these upscale oh

(38:53):
my gosh drive throughs, and a lot of these upscale ones.
Another one under construction in the Coventry development near two
hundred and fourth and Q. All right, the music is playing,
which means that it's time for us to give up
the microphone for someone else. But we hope you have
a great week. I'm Jeff Beils and I'm Trenton Maggot.
You've been listening to Grow Omaha, brought to you by
Dingman's Collision Center, Cheer Athletics, and Perkins Chritzer Construction. We'll

(39:18):
chat with you next week at nine o'clock right here
on news Radio eleven ten KFAB