Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is grow Omaha, the only radio show that talks
about economic development, construction, business expansion, and all of those
things that make Omaha a great place to live or visit.
Grow Omaha on News Radio eleven ten KF Baby, Well, good.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Morning, and welcome to the show. Jeff Beiles here at
your service. We're broadcasting live from the KFAB Penthouse studio
high above Dundee Day. It is a Dundee Day here
in beautiful downtown Dundee, and that is when people take
their kids and their strollers and their pets to Underwood
Avenue and they have an outstanding time and they eat
(00:35):
carnival food and enjoy a carnival atmosphere and everyone loves
it except the people who come to grow Omaha can't
park in their normal parking spot. But other than that,
if you're in the area, stop by Underwood Avenue in
the heart of downtown Dundee. It looks like a lot
of fun out there. At any rate, we want to
thank you for being a part of the show here today,
and we also want to thank Cheer Athletics and Dingman's
(00:58):
Collision Center because they're the two tie sponsors of our show.
Cheer Athletics is the nation's number one all star Chaerjim
and Dingman's is your frequent consistent Best of Omaha Award
winner for Autobody and Mechanical Services. Under Now, without any
further ado, it's time to bring on my co host,
a legendary real estate deal maker and a fine representative
(01:21):
of nai NP Dodge Commercial real Estate, Trenton Maggot.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Good morning everyone, and good morning Jeff. I appreciate it. Well,
I've got some good news.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yes, we have a Brad Williams construction video update ready
to go.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
We do these a few times a year.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Brad Williams is an outstanding videographer and photographer and really
has his pulse on Omaha construction projects like no one else.
And you can see the latest Brad Williams Groamaha Construction
Update video by going to Gromaha dot com, click on shows, Shows,
shows on the navigation bar, and the construction video will
(01:56):
be one of your drop down options. Trenton, we had
the Commercial real Estate Summit yesterday and every year when
we have that, you know, I just get a nice
little you know, our nice big view, I should say,
of what's happening in the commercial Real Estate World.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, kidos to Jerry Slevski, Christ Menzinger and the whole
team Planet who helps them put it on thirty six
annual CRE summit about eight hundred to one thousand people
at Chi House Center. You and I were invited to
kind of do a mini grow Omaha open the conference broadcast,
(02:32):
if you will, in front of that group, and we
got to interview the mayor for the first time.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So basically Trent and I did a spoof, like we
pretended it was a grow Omaha show live on location.
And you know, last night at the end of the conference,
I was at the cocktail bar and I talked to
several people that thought it was real. They thought we
were really broadcasting on KFAB and I kept saying, that's
not possible because that was the Scott Vorhe show and
(02:57):
Scott would't yield us time like that.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I thought, you're gonna so we didn't see the dump
button for Trenton.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
That's true, it would have been too risky.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
While with that, we're going to go into our News
of the Week, which is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage.
They are the premier mortgage brokerage in Nebraska and they
help you. What doesn't matter whether you want to get
an FHAVA conventional loan. They do some specialty loans. The
thing is Eagle Mortgage is a mortgage broker, which means
(03:25):
they are not beholden to just one bank. They work
with lots of banks, outstanding banks, banks that have great
lending solutions for home buyers. So if you're thinking about
making the plunge and buying a new house, and by
the way, late summer fall actually a very good time
to do that, just talk to Holly or one of
her team members. You can find Eagle Mortgage in person
(03:46):
at one hundred and fourteenth in Davenport or online at
Eagle Mortgage Company dot com, Trenton. We have something that
you and I have been kind of expecting and waiting
for in the development world and Frank surprised it hasn't
happened earlier, but we have an out of town developer
based in Scottsdale, Arizona, now plans to do a very
(04:10):
upscale condominium project in West Omaha. This would be part
of Heartwood Preserve, the five hundred acre mixed use super
development west of Boystown. The developers Raymond Partners, like I
said earlier out of Scottsdale, Arizona. They're looking at three
six story buildings, very attractive. They would surround an outdoor
(04:32):
courtyard with a very resort looking pool, big time upscale stuff.
They would have a doorman, underground parking. Really kind of
an upscale condo project in West Omaha. And you and
I have been saying for a long time, kind of
surprised this hasn't happened already.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
It looks very elegant. I'd liken it to those people
who know on eighty fourth Street the Swanson Towers, which
was built decades ago. This would be a modern version
of that. You know some people that travel quite a
bit that need to have a concierge service type of thing.
But they're talking about a million just been a million
(05:13):
dollars to three million dollars for condos in West Omaha,
and conceivably and planned. There are a lot of amenities
around there, all the trees, the trails, the shops, all
that kind of stuff. The question is can the market
will people pay that, or will they take two million
(05:34):
dollars and go build a big ass house somewhere.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I'd say the market absolutely can handle that. I've got
an inklean that there's a pent up demand for upscale
condo projects like this in West Omaha.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
It'll be interesting to see. But you're right.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
The prices start at nine hundred and ninety five thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Nine hundred, so a million US tax.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
They should have made it nine hundred ninety nine thousand,
nine hundred ninety nine, like an upscale version of the
House of Nines.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I like that, but very different from the old House
of nine h But anyway, so it goes up to
two point eight million dollars homeowners association dues they slap
on a little extra eight hundred and sixty five to
fifteen hundred bucks a month, so it's not for the
fate of heart or the light of wallet.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, but I think it's a product. Obviously we don't
have and not everybody wants a yard and detached housing.
And I'm sure they've done some market studies and your
time will tell. But the one thing we can always
count on is the grow Omaha followers to get on
our Facebook page and tell us what they really think.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And then I do want to mention before we press
on though from that story, is that if you're wondering
where in Heartwood Preserve would this be. It's going to
be on the far west part of it on you know,
so Heartwood Preserve. Part of it is south the Pacific.
Part of it's north of Pacific. This would be on
the part that is between Civic and Dodge. It would
be on the west side of Applied Parkway, or immediately
(07:04):
south of Valmont's global headquarters. Trying a couple quick news
items before we get into our big interview today. We
have Dushen Academy, which is actually Dushene Academy of the
Sacred Heart, private Catholic all girls school, building a forty
three million dollar athletic Facility's that's pretty impressive for one
(07:29):
high school, and it's coming along and looking pretty good.
And then a little bit of business news. Airlight Plastics
is renovating its corporate headquarters at sixty one to ten
Abbott Drive, a little bit west northwest of Eppley Airfield.
This is a one million dollar thing just to kind
of keep that company moving in the right direction into
(07:49):
all three print. You know, there wasn't anything about that
in the news information that we received. They're into plastics,
but I don't think they three print their stuff, do they?
I think that's I think they. I think they manufactured
the good old fashion way and then mutual Omaha Skyscraper
coming along. We have noticed that the pieces and parts
(08:14):
for the next and final crane extension are now on site.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
The crane is at.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
About seven hundred feet above the ground now it's going
to get up to about seven hundred and forty seven
hundred and fifty something in that range, and we expect
that should be happening any day now.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
For a six hundred and seventy seven foot high.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Structure, certainly fun to look at the launch office and
a good addition to the skyline. Well, let's wrap up
the news of the week brought to you by Eagle Mortgage.
Going to take our first break of the hour, and
when we come back, we have Heath Mellow. He is
the President and CEO of your Greater Omaha Chamber. We
love having Heath on the show because we can ask
him about all sorts of economic development in Omaha. Business questions,
(08:56):
real estate questions. It's always a good time. You're going
to learn a lot, you're gonna have fun, So stay
with us. Heath Mellow coming up. You're listening to Grow Omaha,
brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics
on News Radio eleven ten Kfabe and welcome back to
the show, Jeff Beiles and Trenton Maggot at your service.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
We're brought to you by Cheer.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Athletics, the nation's number one all star cheer Jim along
with Dingman's Collision Center, which has four metro area locations
taking care of your autobody needs and some mechanical services
as well. We have with us today our good friend
Heath Mello. He is the President and CEO of the
Greater Omaha Chamber, stops by a few times a year
(09:35):
just to kind of update us on some economic development
issues and growth and development happenings in town. Heath, good morning,
and welcome back.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Good morning, gentlemen. It's always great to be with you.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Well, it is great to have you here too.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And you know, yesterday, you know, Trent and I were
talking a little bit earlier about the commercial real estate
summit taking place. Yesterday you closed that summit with a
panel of three experts and the topic was all right. Now,
Omaha metro area has finally surpassed the long awaited goal
of one million population. Where does it go from here?
(10:10):
For those that couldn't go to the conference, you want
to give the sixty second synopsis.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Sixty second synopsis it was. It was a quick victory
lap in the sense of us hitting that million resident milestone,
but really it was where is economic growth opportunities for
us as a metro region. And we had three great panelists.
Bill torson the CTO from Scott Data, Amy Thompson, campus
(10:36):
director of Campus Development from You and mc overseas the
Edge District their their innovation district, and Michael Young, the
managing partner of grit Road Partners oversees a lot of
ag tech venture capital, and all three of them in
their respective spaces really focusing on AI, medtech and ag
tech really focused on how is Omaha on the metro
(10:56):
region going to become more of an innovation hub for
the future. Realizing that a lot of our economic growth
is going to be tied to technology, our professional services,
even some of what I would say are our foundational
UH industries such as manufacturing is going to be connected
to technology moving forward, and we're going to have some
(11:18):
unique opportunities to grow different sectors connected to those sectors
moving forward?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
How do you think we're positioned for that? I mean,
you know, we when I sat through that panel and
thoroughly enjoyed it, and you know, we heard terms like
med tech and we heard the term artificial intelligence a
great deal, and Bill talked about how you know we're
so well connected, but of course we have some other
challenges too. You know, when when you think about you know,
(11:45):
economy being the chief economic developer, if you will, of
this area, how are we doing when it comes to
being prepared for that technology explosion in business?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
And what do we need to do still?
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Well, you know, I think that's that's a that question,
Jeff is kind of was the premise of what we
what we announced I would say earlier this year around
AI and how the Chamber can start to position the
region to be to really be a leader in the
AI space. We we announced a partnership with Scott Data
(12:20):
uh to to really initiate how we can really I think,
put more AI at front and center with existing companies
by giving them some free resources, some free workshops, some
some partnership integration with Scott Data. You know, for folks
who don't know, Scott Data is a data center technology
center that was founded by Walter Scott about twenty five
(12:41):
years ago and really be able to utilize their their
high powered AI technologies for the good of Omaha's economy. Simultaneously,
what we're also identifying and seeing as not just giving
our own Omaha business community this resource of all of
this AI technology and training and not but it's also
(13:01):
we're seeing our ability to recruit AI companies that want
to come to Omaha. And I think that's the unique
synergy that we're seeing is giving this opportunity to our
existing employers, but also these new companies that are saying, hey,
I want to be close to a region that is
really leaning in in this space, that that's not afraid
and not fearful of what AI is doing to different sectors.
(13:23):
And we're starting to see a little bit of fruits
of that labor over the last couple of months.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
And I think that's great. And I think Walter Scott
certainly was a visionary and that was one of the
fastest computers back of the day, and I assume they've
kept kept up over the years. But we live in
a world where AI is growing faster than anybody thought.
Probably you got Mark Zuckerberg with Meta offering a billion
(13:48):
dollars to the most creative minds of the world. We
can't do that, but we could do. And you know,
we're a community with a lot of unbelievable stakeholders, philanthropic
organizations and foundations. And what I'd like, what I'd like
to see is it's great that we have a four
hundred million dollar beautiful park. And we need parks, we
need concert venues, we need educational opportunities, but we really
(14:12):
need And the kind of the theme of the day
throughout the CIRA summit was we need bodies, and we
need we need, we need to retain people.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And the mantra was I thought.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
It was good. Uh Mary Ewing said stay here, and
I think we need to I think we need to
build on that. But I would love to see some
of the heritage Omaha. Some of the other people look
at it and say, Okay, maybe when we're recruiting these
these top talent and maybe just get them over the
top is maybe maybe it's a twenty twenty five thousand
(14:43):
dollars forgivable loan you come to Omaha, which brings family
and kids and people stay here and grow talent here
and and if you if you are you're employee here
and you pay taxes here for four or five years something,
that loan is forgivable. And and as anybody approached the
Chamber on incentives like that, because we're very competitive with other.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
Markets, Trenton, you you you're stealing some of some of
my thunder I was going to talk about later. So
you are, you're hitting a home run right out of
the gate, which is, you know, we talk a little
bit about We've been been talking about this the last
four or five months, which is, you know, how do
we make Omaha more competitive overall in the talent and
talent attraction and business attraction space. And when it comes
(15:26):
to the talent attraction space, there's two things. One, we're
going to be launching what we call a back you know,
back to the future kind of initiative, what we kind
of say, you know, kind of trying to recruit people
back to Omaha who are from Omaha, realizing that they
haven't been in Omaha for ten years, they have been
in Omaha for fifteen years, they're in an age range
between thirty to thirty nine that we're trying to recruit
(15:49):
them to come back as a boomerang where we feel
that Omaha is a different community than it was when
they left college or when they left from high school,
because we know that population challenge is still a very
real issue and talent attraction is very very important. The
other aspect, though, is a public policy initiative that we've
(16:09):
been working on called Omaha Competes, which is really trying
to flip the script a little bit in terms of
what we're going to have to do when it comes
to public policy and what Trent just said, talent retention
as well as talent attraction. Other states, other cities have
really been very aggressive in their ability to attract new
people to their communities and retain new and retain people
(16:32):
in their communities. They've done that through loans, They've done
that through forgivable they've been done forgivable payments to housing stipends.
They've done it through a variety of different efforts and
initiatives that candidly, we just don't do in Nebraska. We
don't do in Omaha.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And it's not for lack of ability either, No.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
It's just that it's something that we've never really looked
at our economic development programs and incentives through a people lens,
and so part of our Omaha comp effort is really
trying to look at the talent component of economic development
so that we can fill those talent gaps and those
talent needs the same way we're out trying to attract
(17:11):
businesses and helping businesses grow, We're looking at that workforce
talent component the same way.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
We're talking with Heath Mellow, President and CEO of the
Greater Omaha Chamber. Heath, the last time you were on
the show, it was spring, So it's been a little
while and since that time, we've had a couple of
epic announcements affecting Omaha business. One of those, the more recent,
was the Union Pacific Norfolk Southern merger that'll create America's
(17:40):
first true transcontinental railroad, and fortunately Omaha is going to
be the headquarters of that combined company. Some thoughts on
this merger and what we as a community and an
economy can do to really capitalize on.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
It, Jeff, I will tell you I use the word
historic every time ask me about the Union Pacific Norfolk
Southern merger, because I think it's incumbent upon not just
me in the Chamber, but everyone in the business community
to reinforce how amazingly big this opportunity is for the
(18:15):
Omaha region and for the state of Nebraska. We will
never see a deal of this magnitude in an industry
like this in our lifetime. Again, the largest merger of
this kind in the transportation industry ever, and to have
it happen here in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm just saying that
(18:36):
out loud for people, for listeners at home to grasp
that is truly unbelievable. And yes, when you talk about
an eighty five billion dollar merger between two well known
transportation companies, you know, having Union Pacific call Omaha home,
keep calling Omaha home is something that we have to
(19:00):
continue to reinforce and and to really share that with
more and more people. But I emphasize that the biggest
issue is is truly what opportunities may exist for us
moving forward. And I think that is the biggest thing
that you know that that excites me at the end
of the day, is you know, when you're able to
see something of this magnitude occur, It's it's ensuring that
(19:24):
you're supportive of a company like Union Pacific. Uh, this
is going to take a little bit of time, and
they've been very clear that there's a process and they're
gonna they're going to want to to make sure they
remain great uh community stewards during this process. Uh. They
need the business community support during this process as well,
uh the overall greater Omaha community support during this effort.
(19:48):
And so for us to keep reminding everybody, this is
something that just doesn't happen. Uh, you don't typically see
you know, this occur in a lot of folks lifetimes,
and so I just want to reinforce that there's a
lot of opportunity that will happen over the next few years.
But just trying to reinstill that optimism and that excitement
(20:09):
day in and day out for people, because you know,
when we just just to just to throw this out there,
after a merger of this magnitude, to think that Omaha
literally will become the epicenter of transportation in our country
and the businesses in the industries that will come out
of that. To think about the economic development opportunities that
(20:31):
could come from there is limitless, and I mean it's
truly like to think about that of all of the
potential transportation industry companies and opportunities research things that would
come that would follow a merger of the size is
truly unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And on top of that, you got Burlington, Norland Santa
Fe's parent company, Berkshire Hathaway. Sure Hathaway located here as well. Yeah,
I mean, it's truly amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Well, and it's funny you should mention that because we
got to take a But when we come back, we're
going to ask Heath about the other epic business announcement
that happened locally since he was here, and that is
the big change in Warren Buffett's life in Berkshire Hathaway's life.
So we'll get that after the break. But we are
interviewing Heath Mellow, President and CEO of the Greater Omaha Chamber.
(21:20):
You're listening to Jeff and Trenton on Grow Omaha. Thank
you to our sponsors, Cheer Athletics and Dingman's Collision Center.
Back in a moment on news Radio eleven ten kfaebe and.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Jeff Beile sitting next to Trenton Maggot, and we are
brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center for metro area
locations Auto Body and Mechanical Services and Cheer Athletics. Omaha
location is located in beautiful Papilion, just southwest of Highways
fifty and three seventy. We're going to be going back
(21:52):
to our interview with Heath Mellow from the Great Omaha Chamber,
but first Trenton's going to bring us up to speed
with our not all Companies commercial real estate development Spotlight
of the Week.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Trenton, Let's talk a little bit about no Company.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Nottle Companies is a company that's been around for decades,
about five decades, and they have really helped build Omaha,
the skyline, a lot of places, a lot of mixed
use developments. Everybody knows Exurban Village where their headquarters are.
But they do a lot of other stuff other than
developments around the country. They do logistical projects. For instance,
(22:30):
they helped move the library from the Wdale Clark Library
to what is that forteen oh one Jones, I believe
that to the new Downtown branch now new Downtown branch
and their instrumental the temporary library for five years or
so over at Frederick Square, eighty fourth of Frederick and
their project oriented Jane Otto, their leader who was head
(22:56):
of the Urban Core Committee. He's very instrumental on the
street car committee. And they give their time, they give
their talent and check out not a companies dot Com
and they do a lot for Omaha that people don't realize.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, you would never expect that a development company we
chosen to handle the move of a library for logistical purposes.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
It's pretty impressive.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
And that went out to bid and I think that
maybe there's one other out of town company or something,
but they did a masterful job and so we appreciate
their partnership on the show. We appreciate their staff. We're
friends with a lot of the people over there, and
we wish them continue success.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Not all companies dot com And that was your nonel
company's commercial real estate development spotlight. We've got Heath Mellow
here today, President and CEO of the Great Ramaha Chamber.
And in the last segment, Heath, we talked about two
epic business announcements. One of them was the up Norfolk
Southern merger since you were on the show last the
other one is Warren Buffett stepping down as CEO. Obviously
(24:02):
that's a big deal for Warren and we're grateful for
everything he's done for our community. But selfishly we're also like, hey,
what comes what comes next for Omaha after the Oracle
of Omaha moves into the less influential day to day
chairman's job. So heath your thoughts on Warren and Berkshire, Hathway, Well, I.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Think, you know, it's obviously you know, it's it's an
unbelievable honor to have an American Titan of business call
Omaha's home the way Warren Buffett has done for so
many decades. And I think when when we all look
back at that Berkshire weekend when he made that announcement,
you know what it really reinforced how fortunate Omaha has
(24:46):
been for so long to not just to host the Berkshire,
the Berkshire shareholder meeting for years, to bring in so
much to the Omaha area, to highlight what is happening
in Omaha. Is we kind of call it Omaha being
like the the Woodstock of capitalism in terms of what
he has been able to do and highlight and show
(25:07):
the world in terms of what's happening here. I think,
are you know, we clearly you know believe and feel that,
you know, Berkshire is going to continue to have their strong,
their strong headquarter presence here. You know, Greg Abel it's
been shared while located in Des Moines, is going to
be commuting back and forth, you know, between his residence
(25:30):
there in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
In terms of his.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
He's got he's got a high school student uh uh.
You know, a son that's that's going to be starting
high school uh uh, and he's going to see him
through his high school there in Des Moines.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
He's a hockey player and so like to some extent, uh,
you know, he wants to to continue kind of that
that existing arrangement. And you know, as a community, we're
going to do everything we can to be as supportive
as possible of greg and his transition, uh and to
reinforce why Berkshire calls Omaha home.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
And it's poised for the future too, which is nice.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
I mean, I think that's just that's something that we'll
will continue to do as the chamber. That's going to
require the two of you and a host of other
folks in the community to reinforce that as Berkshire starts
to move into their next chapter.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Well, and Jeff and I are willing to do our
part to step it up.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Thank you, Trent. So, yeah, that was exciting and big news.
And then, you know, while we're on the topic of
Fortune five hundred companies in town. Two weeks ago, we
talked a lot about Mutual of Omaha on the show
when Jason Landaha was with us. He being ahead of
the company that is developing the Mutual Tower and will
(26:41):
be developing the current Mutual campus when they leave it
to move into their beautiful new tower a little over
a year from now. So he let's talk about that.
We love skyscrapers. We love skyscrapers on this show, a
little bit of topics thoughts, comments on where Mutual is
right now with their our construction, and what you hope
(27:02):
to see with their current Midtown campus someday.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Well, I think everyone everyone who drives anywhere near Midtown
or downtown seas uh the progress being made with Mutual's
new headquarters tower. Uh excited to see that start to
to to get finalized as the tallest in the highest
UH building in Nebraska. I think we're very, very excited
(27:26):
to see that continue to occur in terms of their
their their campus redevelopment there.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
You know that the Atlanta Hall Development is currently looking
at and working on. You know, I think the opportunities
you know, with the work the Chamber does in terms
of business attraction from for the region, you know, being
so close in that proximity to you and mc Nebraska Medicine,
the ability to create you know, kind of that healthcare
(27:54):
innovation space you know, is really unique, uh and that
that kind of expand of a potential health corporate healthcare
is really something that is unique and something that we
may not have a lot of other space to be
able to do in the region. And so I know
Jason and his team are are looking at a lot
(28:15):
of great ideas, you know. For for all practicality, we
want to be as helpful as possible in terms of
some of their big ideas and some of their their
their big visions for that space. But I think when
it comes to industries, you know, med tech and really
the future of healthcare is one of the core industries
that we see a lot of growth potential in the region.
(28:36):
And with their with their potential, you know, Midtown Forward
Development being so close to the med Center, it feels
like there's a real prime opportunity to see some unique
synergies with the research and and some collaboration there.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
It sounds like they're going to do their best to
use some of the existing buildings, which is great. And
you got the iconic dome which three stories underneath it
of office space too, which is kind of crazy if
you think about it. But I think it's a good
hands and I think that location, the infrastructures there, there's
parking there, and that could come online pretty quickly, I
(29:14):
think once once Mutual moves out.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
No, I think you could see some things happen relatively
quickly there with the existing with the existing Mutual campus infrastructure,
and then with some of the open space that's there,
or maybe on the west side of the campus there
where some new buildings, some taller buildings could go I
obviously and create maybe a different skyline in that space.
(29:39):
I think there's some real unique opportunities.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Well, I wanted to throw another question at you.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
We have time for one, maybe two, but I want
to talk a little bit about urban core, since we're
talking about Mutual of Omaha and downtown and all that
sort of thing. Mary Ewing recently said that he would
like to speed up the timeline for the streetcar project's
contribution to affordable housing and the urban core. For those
(30:06):
people that haven't followed along with this, the funding mechanism
for the street car is very unique, and it is
way ahead of schedule right now, and there's always been
a plan that eventually part of it would go towards
affordable housing in the core.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Mayor wants to move that up faster. Heath your thoughts
about that and how possible is it?
Speaker 5 (30:25):
It's you know, it is really a really bold idea
that that Mayor Ewing put out in terms of wanting
to see how the streetcar can benefit the affordable housing
efforts that the city needs sooner. And so the fact
that the administration was able to work with a private
funder to really help take care of and buy some
(30:48):
of those bonds early, that's not easy to do. I mean,
forty million dollars is something that is it's the first
we've been able to see this happen. And regarding that
the housing component, and as we said, when when when
this was announced, this is what makes Omaha special in
the sense of the streetcar project itself, in terms of
(31:08):
trying to reinforce the folks. The tiff financing of it
makes that you really unique but the fact that we
now have philanthropic funders willing to help buy some of
the bonding aspects of bonds of the project to help
speed up the affordable housing essentially by you give or
takes seven eight, nine years. That only helps emphasize and
(31:30):
create more buying across the community. Of how we've said
from the beginning, this project was going to be transformational
for the urban Core. So really a big kudos to
Mayor Ewing in his team for being able to help
facilitate that really bold financing project.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
So what he's talking about is building affordable housing multi
family I assume along the street car tracks.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Or in the urban core overall. That's always been part
of the urban Core Strate urban Core Strategic Plan that
the Chamber worked on. We had kind of housing component
that we also produce that shared that we have to
reach that thirty thousand residents in the where we were
going to have to really have to create a significant
(32:11):
number of additional housing units, and a number of them
we're going to have to be affordable in workforce housing
units as well. So being able to utilize this funding
early to address the affordable housing component, which is always
the most challenging is the affordable comparison to the market rate.
It's great that they were able to find that financing
quick and sooner.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Well, Heath, we always appreciate you coming on to the
show and it always goes too fast.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Hey, I get it.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Always grateful to spend some time with you both.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Thank you as always, all right, Heath Mellow, President and
CEO of the Greater Almaha Chamber. When we come back,
Trenton and I will finish the show with your Perkins
Crits Are Construction Lightning Round. A lot of things on
the list, good stuff, stuff you want to talk about
at your parties tonight, So stay with us and listen carefully.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Get your pen and paper ready.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Perkins Crites Are Constructions Lightning Round is next on news
Radio eleven ten kfab and welcome back to Grolwaha, brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. It
is time for your Perkins Chrichtser Construction Lightning Round, into
which we talk about a lot of things in about
four and three quarters minutes, and we've got a lot
of things on list. Thank you Perkins Chritser Construction for
(33:20):
making this possible. Dave Kretzer and his team over there
do such a great job of doing outstanding projects for
their clients. And one of our favorite things to do
when we're talking about Perkins Chritzer Construction is to talk
about one of their many cool projects that are underway.
And last week we talked about jewelry stores. The week
before that, we talked about restaurants. Today we talk about
(33:44):
the Scene. The Scene is an event space that will
be opening this fall in North Downtown. It's going to
go into the former Urban Outfitter space. You may remember
Urban Outfitters was there before they moved out to Village
Point a couple few year years ago, and so this
space that Urban Outfitters left behind. It's just north of
(34:05):
Slow Down, just south of Rally Coffee. It is eighty
five hundred square feet, it's two levels. There was a
mezzanine in there. So this is going to be a
cool event space called The Scene, opening this fall. And
that's just an example of how Perkins Kreutzer Construction does
such a great job. If you want to learn more
about Perkins Chriutser Construction, the website is p dash C
(34:27):
Construction dot com. Trenton Maggot We have got a new
Japanese steakhouse coming to the southwest corner of one hundred
and eightieth and West Maple. The exact address will be
one eight one one eight Evans Street. Just had a groundbreaking,
still need to build the thing, but it's going to
be called Kyoto Steakhouse.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Absolutely, and our new friends Michael and Amy Chen who
are the owners and proprietors of Osaka Steakhouse. This is
in La Vista at Southport West. It's right over there
by Alamo Draft House. Intem a great sushi restaurant. This
(35:08):
is a bigger restaurant. They'll have habachi as well. They'll
have steak, they'll have sushi, and they've got some extra
space for lease. They broke ground. Green Slate Bank is
over there State Green State, Green State is excusing Green State,
and there's a Sunshine something daycare over there. But it'll
be a great location. It'll be a welcome addition to
(35:30):
the West Maple Quarter. And actually that Green State actually
I think is a credit union. Yeah, yeah, out of Iowa.
So yeah, so that's Kyoto Steakhouse. We're looking forward to that.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Gonna take a while because they just broke ground, but
hopefully about a year.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
It'll be interesting to see because Fleet Farm, there's a
lot of rumors about Fleet Farm. Who's not gonna build
behind there the anchor store. We'll see if there's a
grocery store or what other big box will go there.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Revival House will open a second Omaha location in January
one hundred and sixty ninth and Wright Street, basically southwest
of one hundred and sixty eighth and Center in the
former Parliament Pub space. The development is called the Shops
of Legacy Cool Cocktail Bar. It's owned by Flagship Restaurant Group,
which is headquartered in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
They open their first.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Local location of Revival House just this summer in the
thirty seven West Farnham Building in the Blackstone District. Going
back to north downtown, Bobo's Noodles and Dumplings will open
at eight twelve North fourteenth Street in the former Session
Room space on the southeast corner of fourteenth and Coming.
The building is called the Yard and this will be
(36:37):
a thirty six hundred square foot space going in there.
Buffalo Wild Wings at forty two eighty seven South one
hundred and forty fourth Street in Southwestern Plazas going through
an extensive renovation and trent Whenever I drive by Southwestern Plaza,
I think of Trenton Maggot.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yeah, you know, that's a project that Jerry Slewski developed.
I think I started working on that. You worked on
it in nineteen ninety five with him and his son
Jay and made a lot of decisions over there. I
was on the sid board. But that was the first
Buffalo Wild Wings over there. And also it's now called
Boss Lawn Suites, but that was the first Slan Suites
(37:13):
in the city as well.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Panera Bread is under construction in the Tower district of Papillion.
That's a one hundred and twenty acre mixed use development
northwest of eighty fourth and Highway three seven. He had
a Starbucks just opening that development about four or five
weeks ago. Additional tenants in addition to the Panera, which
is coming along nicely, include Casey's, Pinnacle Bank, AutoZone, and
(37:37):
there it is again Green.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
State Credit Union. They're everywhere.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
The still a longtime wine and spirit store out of Lincoln,
is expanding to West oh The exact address or the
exact street intersection is two to four and V two
hundred and fourth in Victor Opening August twenty eighth, dog Gonnet.
The music is playing, which means that all of the
other stuff we have for you, yeah, I have to
wait till next week for at any rate. Hope everyone
(38:02):
enjoyed the show today. 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
chat with you next week at nine right here on
Nebraska superstation news Radio eleven ten KFAB
This is grow Omaha, the only radio show that talks
about economic development, construction, business expansion, and all of those
things that make Omaha a great place to live or visit.
Grow Omaha on News Radio eleven ten KF Baby, Well, good.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Morning, and welcome to the show. Jeff Beiles here at
your service. We're broadcasting live from the KFAB Penthouse studio
high above Dundee Day. It is a Dundee Day here
in beautiful downtown Dundee, and that is when people take
their kids and their strollers and their pets to Underwood
Avenue and they have an outstanding time and they eat
(00:35):
carnival food and enjoy a carnival atmosphere and everyone loves
it except the people who come to grow Omaha can't
park in their normal parking spot. But other than that,
if you're in the area, stop by Underwood Avenue in
the heart of downtown Dundee. It looks like a lot
of fun out there. At any rate, we want to
thank you for being a part of the show here today,
and we also want to thank Cheer Athletics and Dingman's
(00:58):
Collision Center because they're the two tie sponsors of our show.
Cheer Athletics is the nation's number one all star Chaerjim
and Dingman's is your frequent consistent Best of Omaha Award
winner for Autobody and Mechanical Services. Under Now, without any
further ado, it's time to bring on my co host,
a legendary real estate deal maker and a fine representative
(01:21):
of nai NP Dodge Commercial real Estate, Trenton Maggot.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Good morning everyone, and good morning Jeff. I appreciate it. Well,
I've got some good news.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yes, we have a Brad Williams construction video update ready
to go.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
We do these a few times a year.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Brad Williams is an outstanding videographer and photographer and really
has his pulse on Omaha construction projects like no one else.
And you can see the latest Brad Williams Groamaha Construction
Update video by going to Gromaha dot com, click on shows, Shows,
shows on the navigation bar, and the construction video will
(01:56):
be one of your drop down options. Trenton, we had
the Commercial real Estate Summit yesterday and every year when
we have that, you know, I just get a nice
little you know, our nice big view, I should say,
of what's happening in the commercial Real Estate World.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, kidos to Jerry Slevski, Christ Menzinger and the whole
team Planet who helps them put it on thirty six
annual CRE summit about eight hundred to one thousand people
at Chi House Center. You and I were invited to
kind of do a mini grow Omaha open the conference broadcast,
(02:32):
if you will, in front of that group, and we
got to interview the mayor for the first time.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So basically Trent and I did a spoof, like we
pretended it was a grow Omaha show live on location.
And you know, last night at the end of the conference,
I was at the cocktail bar and I talked to
several people that thought it was real. They thought we
were really broadcasting on KFAB and I kept saying, that's
not possible because that was the Scott Vorhe show and
(02:57):
Scott would't yield us time like that.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I thought, you're gonna so we didn't see the dump
button for Trenton.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
That's true, it would have been too risky.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
While with that, we're going to go into our News
of the Week, which is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage.
They are the premier mortgage brokerage in Nebraska and they
help you. What doesn't matter whether you want to get
an FHAVA conventional loan. They do some specialty loans. The
thing is Eagle Mortgage is a mortgage broker, which means
(03:25):
they are not beholden to just one bank. They work
with lots of banks, outstanding banks, banks that have great
lending solutions for home buyers. So if you're thinking about
making the plunge and buying a new house, and by
the way, late summer fall actually a very good time
to do that, just talk to Holly or one of
her team members. You can find Eagle Mortgage in person
(03:46):
at one hundred and fourteenth in Davenport or online at
Eagle Mortgage Company dot com, Trenton. We have something that
you and I have been kind of expecting and waiting
for in the development world and Frank surprised it hasn't
happened earlier, but we have an out of town developer
based in Scottsdale, Arizona, now plans to do a very
(04:10):
upscale condominium project in West Omaha. This would be part
of Heartwood Preserve, the five hundred acre mixed use super
development west of Boystown. The developers Raymond Partners, like I
said earlier out of Scottsdale, Arizona. They're looking at three
six story buildings, very attractive. They would surround an outdoor
(04:32):
courtyard with a very resort looking pool, big time upscale stuff.
They would have a doorman, underground parking. Really kind of
an upscale condo project in West Omaha. And you and
I have been saying for a long time, kind of
surprised this hasn't happened already.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
It looks very elegant. I'd liken it to those people
who know on eighty fourth Street the Swanson Towers, which
was built decades ago. This would be a modern version
of that. You know some people that travel quite a
bit that need to have a concierge service type of thing.
But they're talking about a million just been a million
(05:13):
dollars to three million dollars for condos in West Omaha,
and conceivably and planned. There are a lot of amenities
around there, all the trees, the trails, the shops, all
that kind of stuff. The question is can the market
will people pay that, or will they take two million
(05:34):
dollars and go build a big ass house somewhere.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I'd say the market absolutely can handle that. I've got
an inklean that there's a pent up demand for upscale
condo projects like this in West Omaha.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
It'll be interesting to see. But you're right.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
The prices start at nine hundred and ninety five thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Nine hundred, so a million US tax.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
They should have made it nine hundred ninety nine thousand,
nine hundred ninety nine, like an upscale version of the
House of Nines.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I like that, but very different from the old House
of nine h But anyway, so it goes up to
two point eight million dollars homeowners association dues they slap
on a little extra eight hundred and sixty five to
fifteen hundred bucks a month, so it's not for the
fate of heart or the light of wallet.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, but I think it's a product. Obviously we don't
have and not everybody wants a yard and detached housing.
And I'm sure they've done some market studies and your
time will tell. But the one thing we can always
count on is the grow Omaha followers to get on
our Facebook page and tell us what they really think.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And then I do want to mention before we press
on though from that story, is that if you're wondering
where in Heartwood Preserve would this be. It's going to
be on the far west part of it on you know,
so Heartwood Preserve. Part of it is south the Pacific.
Part of it's north of Pacific. This would be on
the part that is between Civic and Dodge. It would
be on the west side of Applied Parkway, or immediately
(07:04):
south of Valmont's global headquarters. Trying a couple quick news
items before we get into our big interview today. We
have Dushen Academy, which is actually Dushene Academy of the
Sacred Heart, private Catholic all girls school, building a forty
three million dollar athletic Facility's that's pretty impressive for one
(07:29):
high school, and it's coming along and looking pretty good.
And then a little bit of business news. Airlight Plastics
is renovating its corporate headquarters at sixty one to ten
Abbott Drive, a little bit west northwest of Eppley Airfield.
This is a one million dollar thing just to kind
of keep that company moving in the right direction into
(07:49):
all three print. You know, there wasn't anything about that
in the news information that we received. They're into plastics,
but I don't think they three print their stuff, do they?
I think that's I think they. I think they manufactured
the good old fashion way and then mutual Omaha Skyscraper
coming along. We have noticed that the pieces and parts
(08:14):
for the next and final crane extension are now on site.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
The crane is at.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
About seven hundred feet above the ground now it's going
to get up to about seven hundred and forty seven
hundred and fifty something in that range, and we expect
that should be happening any day now.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
For a six hundred and seventy seven foot high.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Structure, certainly fun to look at the launch office and
a good addition to the skyline. Well, let's wrap up
the news of the week brought to you by Eagle Mortgage.
Going to take our first break of the hour, and
when we come back, we have Heath Mellow. He is
the President and CEO of your Greater Omaha Chamber. We
love having Heath on the show because we can ask
him about all sorts of economic development in Omaha. Business questions,
(08:56):
real estate questions. It's always a good time. You're going
to learn a lot, you're gonna have fun, So stay
with us. Heath Mellow coming up. You're listening to Grow Omaha,
brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics
on News Radio eleven ten Kfabe and welcome back to
the show, Jeff Beiles and Trenton Maggot at your service.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
We're brought to you by Cheer.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Athletics, the nation's number one all star cheer Jim along
with Dingman's Collision Center, which has four metro area locations
taking care of your autobody needs and some mechanical services
as well. We have with us today our good friend
Heath Mello. He is the President and CEO of the
Greater Omaha Chamber, stops by a few times a year
(09:35):
just to kind of update us on some economic development
issues and growth and development happenings in town. Heath, good morning,
and welcome back.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Good morning, gentlemen. It's always great to be with you.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Well, it is great to have you here too.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And you know, yesterday, you know, Trent and I were
talking a little bit earlier about the commercial real estate
summit taking place. Yesterday you closed that summit with a
panel of three experts and the topic was all right. Now,
Omaha metro area has finally surpassed the long awaited goal
of one million population. Where does it go from here?
(10:10):
For those that couldn't go to the conference, you want
to give the sixty second synopsis.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Sixty second synopsis it was. It was a quick victory
lap in the sense of us hitting that million resident milestone,
but really it was where is economic growth opportunities for
us as a metro region. And we had three great panelists.
Bill torson the CTO from Scott Data, Amy Thompson, campus
(10:36):
director of Campus Development from You and mc overseas the
Edge District their their innovation district, and Michael Young, the
managing partner of grit Road Partners oversees a lot of
ag tech venture capital, and all three of them in
their respective spaces really focusing on AI, medtech and ag
tech really focused on how is Omaha on the metro
(10:56):
region going to become more of an innovation hub for
the future. Realizing that a lot of our economic growth
is going to be tied to technology, our professional services,
even some of what I would say are our foundational
UH industries such as manufacturing is going to be connected
to technology moving forward, and we're going to have some
(11:18):
unique opportunities to grow different sectors connected to those sectors
moving forward?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
How do you think we're positioned for that? I mean,
you know, we when I sat through that panel and
thoroughly enjoyed it, and you know, we heard terms like
med tech and we heard the term artificial intelligence a
great deal, and Bill talked about how you know we're
so well connected, but of course we have some other
challenges too. You know, when when you think about you know,
(11:45):
economy being the chief economic developer, if you will, of
this area, how are we doing when it comes to
being prepared for that technology explosion in business?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
And what do we need to do still?
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Well, you know, I think that's that's a that question,
Jeff is kind of was the premise of what we
what we announced I would say earlier this year around
AI and how the Chamber can start to position the
region to be to really be a leader in the
AI space. We we announced a partnership with Scott Data
(12:20):
uh to to really initiate how we can really I think,
put more AI at front and center with existing companies
by giving them some free resources, some free workshops, some
some partnership integration with Scott Data. You know, for folks
who don't know, Scott Data is a data center technology
center that was founded by Walter Scott about twenty five
(12:41):
years ago and really be able to utilize their their
high powered AI technologies for the good of Omaha's economy. Simultaneously,
what we're also identifying and seeing as not just giving
our own Omaha business community this resource of all of
this AI technology and training and not but it's also
(13:01):
we're seeing our ability to recruit AI companies that want
to come to Omaha. And I think that's the unique
synergy that we're seeing is giving this opportunity to our
existing employers, but also these new companies that are saying, hey,
I want to be close to a region that is
really leaning in in this space, that that's not afraid
and not fearful of what AI is doing to different sectors.
(13:23):
And we're starting to see a little bit of fruits
of that labor over the last couple of months.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
And I think that's great. And I think Walter Scott
certainly was a visionary and that was one of the
fastest computers back of the day, and I assume they've
kept kept up over the years. But we live in
a world where AI is growing faster than anybody thought.
Probably you got Mark Zuckerberg with Meta offering a billion
(13:48):
dollars to the most creative minds of the world. We
can't do that, but we could do. And you know,
we're a community with a lot of unbelievable stakeholders, philanthropic
organizations and foundations. And what I'd like, what I'd like
to see is it's great that we have a four
hundred million dollar beautiful park. And we need parks, we
need concert venues, we need educational opportunities, but we really
(14:12):
need And the kind of the theme of the day
throughout the CIRA summit was we need bodies, and we
need we need, we need to retain people.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And the mantra was I thought.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
It was good. Uh Mary Ewing said stay here, and
I think we need to I think we need to
build on that. But I would love to see some
of the heritage Omaha. Some of the other people look
at it and say, Okay, maybe when we're recruiting these
these top talent and maybe just get them over the
top is maybe maybe it's a twenty twenty five thousand
(14:43):
dollars forgivable loan you come to Omaha, which brings family
and kids and people stay here and grow talent here
and and if you if you are you're employee here
and you pay taxes here for four or five years something,
that loan is forgivable. And and as anybody approached the
Chamber on incentives like that, because we're very competitive with other.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
Markets, Trenton, you you you're stealing some of some of
my thunder I was going to talk about later. So
you are, you're hitting a home run right out of
the gate, which is, you know, we talk a little
bit about We've been been talking about this the last
four or five months, which is, you know, how do
we make Omaha more competitive overall in the talent and
talent attraction and business attraction space. And when it comes
(15:26):
to the talent attraction space, there's two things. One, we're
going to be launching what we call a back you know,
back to the future kind of initiative, what we kind
of say, you know, kind of trying to recruit people
back to Omaha who are from Omaha, realizing that they
haven't been in Omaha for ten years, they have been
in Omaha for fifteen years, they're in an age range
between thirty to thirty nine that we're trying to recruit
(15:49):
them to come back as a boomerang where we feel
that Omaha is a different community than it was when
they left college or when they left from high school,
because we know that population challenge is still a very
real issue and talent attraction is very very important. The
other aspect, though, is a public policy initiative that we've
(16:09):
been working on called Omaha Competes, which is really trying
to flip the script a little bit in terms of
what we're going to have to do when it comes
to public policy and what Trent just said, talent retention
as well as talent attraction. Other states, other cities have
really been very aggressive in their ability to attract new
people to their communities and retain new and retain people
(16:32):
in their communities. They've done that through loans, They've done
that through forgivable they've been done forgivable payments to housing stipends.
They've done it through a variety of different efforts and
initiatives that candidly, we just don't do in Nebraska. We
don't do in Omaha.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And it's not for lack of ability either, No.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
It's just that it's something that we've never really looked
at our economic development programs and incentives through a people lens,
and so part of our Omaha comp effort is really
trying to look at the talent component of economic development
so that we can fill those talent gaps and those
talent needs the same way we're out trying to attract
(17:11):
businesses and helping businesses grow, We're looking at that workforce
talent component the same way.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
We're talking with Heath Mellow, President and CEO of the
Greater Omaha Chamber. Heath, the last time you were on
the show, it was spring, So it's been a little
while and since that time, we've had a couple of
epic announcements affecting Omaha business. One of those, the more recent,
was the Union Pacific Norfolk Southern merger that'll create America's
(17:40):
first true transcontinental railroad, and fortunately Omaha is going to
be the headquarters of that combined company. Some thoughts on
this merger and what we as a community and an
economy can do to really capitalize on.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
It, Jeff, I will tell you I use the word
historic every time ask me about the Union Pacific Norfolk
Southern merger, because I think it's incumbent upon not just
me in the Chamber, but everyone in the business community
to reinforce how amazingly big this opportunity is for the
(18:15):
Omaha region and for the state of Nebraska. We will
never see a deal of this magnitude in an industry
like this in our lifetime. Again, the largest merger of
this kind in the transportation industry ever, and to have
it happen here in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm just saying that
(18:36):
out loud for people, for listeners at home to grasp
that is truly unbelievable. And yes, when you talk about
an eighty five billion dollar merger between two well known
transportation companies, you know, having Union Pacific call Omaha home,
keep calling Omaha home is something that we have to
(19:00):
continue to reinforce and and to really share that with
more and more people. But I emphasize that the biggest
issue is is truly what opportunities may exist for us
moving forward. And I think that is the biggest thing
that you know that that excites me at the end
of the day, is you know, when you're able to
see something of this magnitude occur, It's it's ensuring that
(19:24):
you're supportive of a company like Union Pacific. Uh, this
is going to take a little bit of time, and
they've been very clear that there's a process and they're
gonna they're going to want to to make sure they
remain great uh community stewards during this process. Uh. They
need the business community support during this process as well,
uh the overall greater Omaha community support during this effort.
(19:48):
And so for us to keep reminding everybody, this is
something that just doesn't happen. Uh, you don't typically see
you know, this occur in a lot of folks lifetimes,
and so I just want to reinforce that there's a
lot of opportunity that will happen over the next few years.
But just trying to reinstill that optimism and that excitement
(20:09):
day in and day out for people, because you know,
when we just just to just to throw this out there,
after a merger of this magnitude, to think that Omaha
literally will become the epicenter of transportation in our country
and the businesses in the industries that will come out
of that. To think about the economic development opportunities that
(20:31):
could come from there is limitless, and I mean it's
truly like to think about that of all of the
potential transportation industry companies and opportunities research things that would
come that would follow a merger of the size is
truly unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And on top of that, you got Burlington, Norland Santa
Fe's parent company, Berkshire Hathaway. Sure Hathaway located here as well. Yeah,
I mean, it's truly amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Well, and it's funny you should mention that because we
got to take a But when we come back, we're
going to ask Heath about the other epic business announcement
that happened locally since he was here, and that is
the big change in Warren Buffett's life in Berkshire Hathaway's life.
So we'll get that after the break. But we are
interviewing Heath Mellow, President and CEO of the Greater Omaha Chamber.
(21:20):
You're listening to Jeff and Trenton on Grow Omaha. Thank
you to our sponsors, Cheer Athletics and Dingman's Collision Center.
Back in a moment on news Radio eleven ten kfaebe and.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Jeff Beile sitting next to Trenton Maggot, and we are
brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center for metro area
locations Auto Body and Mechanical Services and Cheer Athletics. Omaha
location is located in beautiful Papilion, just southwest of Highways
fifty and three seventy. We're going to be going back
(21:52):
to our interview with Heath Mellow from the Great Omaha Chamber,
but first Trenton's going to bring us up to speed
with our not all Companies commercial real estate development Spotlight
of the Week.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Trenton, Let's talk a little bit about no Company.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Nottle Companies is a company that's been around for decades,
about five decades, and they have really helped build Omaha,
the skyline, a lot of places, a lot of mixed
use developments. Everybody knows Exurban Village where their headquarters are.
But they do a lot of other stuff other than
developments around the country. They do logistical projects. For instance,
(22:30):
they helped move the library from the Wdale Clark Library
to what is that forteen oh one Jones, I believe
that to the new Downtown branch now new Downtown branch
and their instrumental the temporary library for five years or
so over at Frederick Square, eighty fourth of Frederick and
their project oriented Jane Otto, their leader who was head
(22:56):
of the Urban Core Committee. He's very instrumental on the
street car committee. And they give their time, they give
their talent and check out not a companies dot Com
and they do a lot for Omaha that people don't realize.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, you would never expect that a development company we
chosen to handle the move of a library for logistical purposes.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
It's pretty impressive.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
And that went out to bid and I think that
maybe there's one other out of town company or something,
but they did a masterful job and so we appreciate
their partnership on the show. We appreciate their staff. We're
friends with a lot of the people over there, and
we wish them continue success.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Not all companies dot com And that was your nonel
company's commercial real estate development spotlight. We've got Heath Mellow
here today, President and CEO of the Great Ramaha Chamber.
And in the last segment, Heath, we talked about two
epic business announcements. One of them was the up Norfolk
Southern merger since you were on the show last the
other one is Warren Buffett stepping down as CEO. Obviously
(24:02):
that's a big deal for Warren and we're grateful for
everything he's done for our community. But selfishly we're also like, hey,
what comes what comes next for Omaha after the Oracle
of Omaha moves into the less influential day to day
chairman's job. So heath your thoughts on Warren and Berkshire, Hathway, Well, I.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Think, you know, it's obviously you know, it's it's an
unbelievable honor to have an American Titan of business call
Omaha's home the way Warren Buffett has done for so
many decades. And I think when when we all look
back at that Berkshire weekend when he made that announcement,
you know what it really reinforced how fortunate Omaha has
(24:46):
been for so long to not just to host the Berkshire,
the Berkshire shareholder meeting for years, to bring in so
much to the Omaha area, to highlight what is happening
in Omaha. Is we kind of call it Omaha being
like the the Woodstock of capitalism in terms of what
he has been able to do and highlight and show
(25:07):
the world in terms of what's happening here. I think,
are you know, we clearly you know believe and feel that,
you know, Berkshire is going to continue to have their strong,
their strong headquarter presence here. You know, Greg Abel it's
been shared while located in Des Moines, is going to
be commuting back and forth, you know, between his residence
(25:30):
there in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
In terms of his.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
He's got he's got a high school student uh uh.
You know, a son that's that's going to be starting
high school uh uh, and he's going to see him
through his high school there in Des Moines.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
He's a hockey player and so like to some extent, uh,
you know, he wants to to continue kind of that
that existing arrangement. And you know, as a community, we're
going to do everything we can to be as supportive
as possible of greg and his transition, uh and to
reinforce why Berkshire calls Omaha home.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
And it's poised for the future too, which is nice.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
I mean, I think that's just that's something that we'll
will continue to do as the chamber. That's going to
require the two of you and a host of other
folks in the community to reinforce that as Berkshire starts
to move into their next chapter.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Well, and Jeff and I are willing to do our
part to step it up.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Thank you, Trent. So, yeah, that was exciting and big news.
And then, you know, while we're on the topic of
Fortune five hundred companies in town. Two weeks ago, we
talked a lot about Mutual of Omaha on the show
when Jason Landaha was with us. He being ahead of
the company that is developing the Mutual Tower and will
(26:41):
be developing the current Mutual campus when they leave it
to move into their beautiful new tower a little over
a year from now. So he let's talk about that.
We love skyscrapers. We love skyscrapers on this show, a
little bit of topics thoughts, comments on where Mutual is
right now with their our construction, and what you hope
(27:02):
to see with their current Midtown campus someday.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Well, I think everyone everyone who drives anywhere near Midtown
or downtown seas uh the progress being made with Mutual's
new headquarters tower. Uh excited to see that start to
to to get finalized as the tallest in the highest
UH building in Nebraska. I think we're very, very excited
(27:26):
to see that continue to occur in terms of their
their their campus redevelopment there.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
You know that the Atlanta Hall Development is currently looking
at and working on. You know, I think the opportunities
you know, with the work the Chamber does in terms
of business attraction from for the region, you know, being
so close in that proximity to you and mc Nebraska Medicine,
the ability to create you know, kind of that healthcare
(27:54):
innovation space you know, is really unique, uh and that
that kind of expand of a potential health corporate healthcare
is really something that is unique and something that we
may not have a lot of other space to be
able to do in the region. And so I know
Jason and his team are are looking at a lot
(28:15):
of great ideas, you know. For for all practicality, we
want to be as helpful as possible in terms of
some of their big ideas and some of their their
their big visions for that space. But I think when
it comes to industries, you know, med tech and really
the future of healthcare is one of the core industries
that we see a lot of growth potential in the region.
(28:36):
And with their with their potential, you know, Midtown Forward
Development being so close to the med Center, it feels
like there's a real prime opportunity to see some unique
synergies with the research and and some collaboration there.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
It sounds like they're going to do their best to
use some of the existing buildings, which is great. And
you got the iconic dome which three stories underneath it
of office space too, which is kind of crazy if
you think about it. But I think it's a good
hands and I think that location, the infrastructures there, there's
parking there, and that could come online pretty quickly, I
(29:14):
think once once Mutual moves out.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
No, I think you could see some things happen relatively
quickly there with the existing with the existing Mutual campus infrastructure,
and then with some of the open space that's there,
or maybe on the west side of the campus there
where some new buildings, some taller buildings could go I
obviously and create maybe a different skyline in that space.
(29:39):
I think there's some real unique opportunities.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Well, I wanted to throw another question at you.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
We have time for one, maybe two, but I want
to talk a little bit about urban core, since we're
talking about Mutual of Omaha and downtown and all that
sort of thing. Mary Ewing recently said that he would
like to speed up the timeline for the streetcar project's
contribution to affordable housing and the urban core. For those
(30:06):
people that haven't followed along with this, the funding mechanism
for the street car is very unique, and it is
way ahead of schedule right now, and there's always been
a plan that eventually part of it would go towards
affordable housing in the core.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Mayor wants to move that up faster. Heath your thoughts
about that and how possible is it?
Speaker 5 (30:25):
It's you know, it is really a really bold idea
that that Mayor Ewing put out in terms of wanting
to see how the streetcar can benefit the affordable housing
efforts that the city needs sooner. And so the fact
that the administration was able to work with a private
funder to really help take care of and buy some
(30:48):
of those bonds early, that's not easy to do. I mean,
forty million dollars is something that is it's the first
we've been able to see this happen. And regarding that
the housing component, and as we said, when when when
this was announced, this is what makes Omaha special in
the sense of the streetcar project itself, in terms of
(31:08):
trying to reinforce the folks. The tiff financing of it
makes that you really unique but the fact that we
now have philanthropic funders willing to help buy some of
the bonding aspects of bonds of the project to help
speed up the affordable housing essentially by you give or
takes seven eight, nine years. That only helps emphasize and
(31:30):
create more buying across the community. Of how we've said
from the beginning, this project was going to be transformational
for the urban Core. So really a big kudos to
Mayor Ewing in his team for being able to help
facilitate that really bold financing project.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
So what he's talking about is building affordable housing multi
family I assume along the street car tracks.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Or in the urban core overall. That's always been part
of the urban Core Strate urban Core Strategic Plan that
the Chamber worked on. We had kind of housing component
that we also produce that shared that we have to
reach that thirty thousand residents in the where we were
going to have to really have to create a significant
(32:11):
number of additional housing units, and a number of them
we're going to have to be affordable in workforce housing
units as well. So being able to utilize this funding
early to address the affordable housing component, which is always
the most challenging is the affordable comparison to the market rate.
It's great that they were able to find that financing
quick and sooner.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Well, Heath, we always appreciate you coming on to the
show and it always goes too fast.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Hey, I get it.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Always grateful to spend some time with you both.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Thank you as always, all right, Heath Mellow, President and
CEO of the Greater Almaha Chamber. When we come back,
Trenton and I will finish the show with your Perkins
Crits Are Construction Lightning Round. A lot of things on
the list, good stuff, stuff you want to talk about
at your parties tonight, So stay with us and listen carefully.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Get your pen and paper ready.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Perkins Crites Are Constructions Lightning Round is next on news
Radio eleven ten kfab and welcome back to Grolwaha, brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. It
is time for your Perkins Chrichtser Construction Lightning Round, into
which we talk about a lot of things in about
four and three quarters minutes, and we've got a lot
of things on list. Thank you Perkins Chritser Construction for
(33:20):
making this possible. Dave Kretzer and his team over there
do such a great job of doing outstanding projects for
their clients. And one of our favorite things to do
when we're talking about Perkins Chritzer Construction is to talk
about one of their many cool projects that are underway.
And last week we talked about jewelry stores. The week
before that, we talked about restaurants. Today we talk about
(33:44):
the Scene. The Scene is an event space that will
be opening this fall in North Downtown. It's going to
go into the former Urban Outfitter space. You may remember
Urban Outfitters was there before they moved out to Village
Point a couple few year years ago, and so this
space that Urban Outfitters left behind. It's just north of
(34:05):
Slow Down, just south of Rally Coffee. It is eighty
five hundred square feet, it's two levels. There was a
mezzanine in there. So this is going to be a
cool event space called The Scene, opening this fall. And
that's just an example of how Perkins Kreutzer Construction does
such a great job. If you want to learn more
about Perkins Chriutser Construction, the website is p dash C
(34:27):
Construction dot com. Trenton Maggot We have got a new
Japanese steakhouse coming to the southwest corner of one hundred
and eightieth and West Maple. The exact address will be
one eight one one eight Evans Street. Just had a groundbreaking,
still need to build the thing, but it's going to
be called Kyoto Steakhouse.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Absolutely, and our new friends Michael and Amy Chen who
are the owners and proprietors of Osaka Steakhouse. This is
in La Vista at Southport West. It's right over there
by Alamo Draft House. Intem a great sushi restaurant. This
(35:08):
is a bigger restaurant. They'll have habachi as well. They'll
have steak, they'll have sushi, and they've got some extra
space for lease. They broke ground. Green Slate Bank is
over there State Green State, Green State is excusing Green State,
and there's a Sunshine something daycare over there. But it'll
be a great location. It'll be a welcome addition to
(35:30):
the West Maple Quarter. And actually that Green State actually
I think is a credit union. Yeah, yeah, out of Iowa.
So yeah, so that's Kyoto Steakhouse. We're looking forward to that.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Gonna take a while because they just broke ground, but
hopefully about a year.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
It'll be interesting to see because Fleet Farm, there's a
lot of rumors about Fleet Farm. Who's not gonna build
behind there the anchor store. We'll see if there's a
grocery store or what other big box will go there.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Revival House will open a second Omaha location in January
one hundred and sixty ninth and Wright Street, basically southwest
of one hundred and sixty eighth and Center in the
former Parliament Pub space. The development is called the Shops
of Legacy Cool Cocktail Bar. It's owned by Flagship Restaurant Group,
which is headquartered in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
They open their first.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Local location of Revival House just this summer in the
thirty seven West Farnham Building in the Blackstone District. Going
back to north downtown, Bobo's Noodles and Dumplings will open
at eight twelve North fourteenth Street in the former Session
Room space on the southeast corner of fourteenth and Coming.
The building is called the Yard and this will be
(36:37):
a thirty six hundred square foot space going in there.
Buffalo Wild Wings at forty two eighty seven South one
hundred and forty fourth Street in Southwestern Plazas going through
an extensive renovation and trent Whenever I drive by Southwestern Plaza,
I think of Trenton Maggot.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yeah, you know, that's a project that Jerry Slewski developed.
I think I started working on that. You worked on
it in nineteen ninety five with him and his son
Jay and made a lot of decisions over there. I
was on the sid board. But that was the first
Buffalo Wild Wings over there. And also it's now called
Boss Lawn Suites, but that was the first Slan Suites
(37:13):
in the city as well.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Panera Bread is under construction in the Tower district of Papillion.
That's a one hundred and twenty acre mixed use development
northwest of eighty fourth and Highway three seven. He had
a Starbucks just opening that development about four or five
weeks ago. Additional tenants in addition to the Panera, which
is coming along nicely, include Casey's, Pinnacle Bank, AutoZone, and
(37:37):
there it is again Green.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
State Credit Union. They're everywhere.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
The still a longtime wine and spirit store out of Lincoln,
is expanding to West oh The exact address or the
exact street intersection is two to four and V two
hundred and fourth in Victor Opening August twenty eighth, dog Gonnet.
The music is playing, which means that all of the
other stuff we have for you, yeah, I have to
wait till next week for at any rate. Hope everyone
(38:02):
enjoyed the show today. 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
chat with you next week at nine right here on
Nebraska superstation news Radio eleven ten KFAB
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