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 K.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Baby Well, good morning, and welcome to the show. Jeff Beals.
Here at your service. You are listening to the only
show in the metro area that talks about the growth
and development of your favorite city. We want to thank
our sponsors. Our title sponsors are Cheer Athletics, the nation's
number one all star Chaer Jim along with Dingman's Collision Center,
(00:36):
the Choice Best of Omaha award winner for auto body
work and some mechanical work as well. Without any further ado,
I want to bring on my co host, a man
who is a legendary real estate deal maker here in
Omaha and he resides at nai NP Dodge Trenton Maggot.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning Joe Well, Good
(00:57):
morning Trenton, and happy Labor Day weekend. And this is
sadly the unofficial end of summer, but happily the unofficial
beginning of autumn. And I love the autumn season. Nice.
They've been really nice. And if you look at the forecast,
it looks pretty good. And I'm an optimistic guide generally,
and I've noticed over the last several years the fall
(01:20):
has become longer. It lingers all the way to Christmas
in some years, and I'm hoping for that again, nice
long fall in which we can enjoy a great time
of year. Amen from my lips to God's ears. You
could say, well, hey, Trent, good news. We have a
grow Omaha Eats restaurant review this week. Every other week
Chris Corey writes a restaurant review for us. We call
(01:44):
him grow Omaha Eats, and they are sponsored by All Makes,
the legendary office furniture and equipment retailer. All Makes is
located at twenty fifth in Farnham here in Omaha. They
have locations in Lincoln, Des Moines, Iowa, several other cities
here in Nebraska. And All Makes just does an outstanding
job and we appreciate them doing our girl Omaha Eats
(02:06):
restaurant reviews well. This week it is Herb Sant, the
New Orleans style Cajun soul food restaurant in nick Sarbon Village.
And whenever we talk about restaurants that are inspired by
New Orleans. I think of my friend Trenton, because you
went to college in New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Absolutely four years, graduated on time. Also had two brothers
that did the same. That's probably why I got in,
because they're older and put in a good word for you. Absolutely,
and there's a long time ago, Jeff. And I'll tell
you what. Whatever, we can get a taste of Big
Easy in Omaha, and there's been a few entrance, but
I'll tell you I'm a big fan of Katie and
(02:44):
Grill and Herb Saint measures up as well, and they have.
I haven't tried it yet, but I think the review
having kingcake bread pudding sounds like something I gotta try.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I'll tell you that. Well. I say, it's been several
decades since you graduated from Tulane to New Orleans, but
they haven't entirely taken the New Orleans out of you.
So I would say four years as a young guy
makes you somewhat of an authority on that kind of food.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Hey, Mama, I'll tell you what. I spent a lot
of time. We'll talk about it later, but I spent
a lot of time in an exorbant village. Last night
and the place was hopping a lot of different activities
live music, restaurants, movie theater. I love how it's the
closest thing we have to a true mixed use in
(03:36):
all inclusive community.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And of course folks. He mentions that because Herbsont is
a big part of Exarbon Village. It's right there on
the corner on sixty seventh Street and you'll have to
give it a try. If you want to read the review,
just go to grow Omaha dot com. Click on Reviews
on the navigation bar. There's a drop down menu. Click
on eats eats for restaurants and you'll be able to
(03:59):
see that and all of the other reviews that Chris
has written as well.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I have a challenge for all of our humble listeners,
and we appreciate your patronage. We love how information that
is on gromha media gets disseminated, whether it's from this show,
the website which gets new news briefs every day, or
the newsletter. So my challenge to you is, if most
(04:25):
of you have your phone in the room, if you
go to our Facebook page for Groa Maha, follow us,
and we're only a few, only a few from getting
fifty eight thousand followers and sign up your friends request
that they sign up, and we'd much appreciate it. We
want to see during this show that we get fifty
(04:46):
eight thousand and growing, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
For that, and you can also follow us on x
and LinkedIn as well. Well. Let's go into our News
of the Week, which is as always brought to you
by Eagle Mortgage. Eagle Mortgage has been sponsoring the News
of the Week for about ten years here on gro Omaha.
We appreciate them doing that. Holly Schneidewin is the owner
and proprietor and boss over there at Eagle Mortgage, and
(05:12):
she does such a great job of helping her clients
get their piece of the American dream. She's put together
a great team of mortgage brokers and processors and support people.
They can help you through what is a difficult and
complicated process. A lot of people dread having to get
financing for a house, and I get it. It's a
(05:34):
big deal. It's a lot of money, but Holly in
her team makes it so much easier. You can find
them in person at one hundred and fourteenth than Davenport
just south of Dodge, or online at Eagle Mortgage Company
dot com. That's Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. Well, we
want to start off in far West Omaha, and that
is where Millard Public Schools Foundation is building a new
(05:57):
activity center that would be available to all Miller Public
Schools students. They announced this week a naming rights partnership
with Iowa based Green State Credit Union, so it will
be called the Green State Millard Activity Center. This eighty
five thousand square foot privately funded facility is under construction
(06:19):
now right about two hundred and tenth two hundred and
eleventh and Q Street. It's by Millard's Horizon High School
and opening is scheduled for late this fall, So Trenton,
you know, you know it's a big facility. If they
can get naming rights.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Absolutely, and that's so popular. You'll see a lot of
high schools. You'll see a lot of different organizations get sponsorship,
whether it's a banner along the sports field or whatever.
And it takes a lot of people to put kids
through youth sports and student activities and all the above.
(06:56):
What I love about this is it's just a few
blocks away from a few listings that I have with
Spencer Morris in our office you have it here, folks
that in the next week or two the new Bakers
one hundred and twenty five thousand square foot Bakers is
going to break ground at the Kensington Park development northwest
(07:16):
corner of two hundred and fourth and Q. We have
two lots for sale or for lease or build a suit,
great lots, looking for coffee shops, looking for quick service restaurants,
sit down restaurants, small strip center, whatever have you. And
then this activity center will be just down the road.
And this is that two hundred and fourth Street corridor
(07:38):
that are just going gangbusters. You're getting all kinds of
services and plenty of new housing going up. You got
coventry right there, and I'm loving what's happening out there.
And they built the infrastructure right first. Yeah, it's crazy
to watch that corridor. In fact, another news item we
have is just a tiny bit north of where Bakers
(08:00):
is going to start construction, and that is a Cobalt
Credit Union two hund and fourth in f just a
little bit north of there. That is called the Iron
Bluff Development and they just are moving forward. Got a
building permit to build a building there. And so that
is just another example. Yeah, fairly foods closed there. They've
(08:21):
got closed on the land, so they're going to be
building yep, exactly. It's very good and they have a
couple of schools there as well, and Omaha Public Library.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah, there's going to be an Omaha Public Library southwest
of two and fourth and f. So it's very exciting
and it is already and will become even more one
of the primary corridors in the Omaha area. Well, if
we go downtown, the tower crane being used to assemble
the future Mutual of Omaha Headquarters building has reached its
(08:51):
maximum height now of about seven hundred and eighty feet.
If you go down there this weekend, they have a
huge American flag hanging from the tower tower crane, supposedly
to celebrate Labor Day. I would assume also means they're
apparently not doing any construction today. Dog on it put
it up yesterday. I put it up yesterday. But the
(09:14):
building the also the core tower went up again this week,
and so estimates are there's probably about only thirty feet
or less of height to go before the building max
is out. Also, what's significant about that, it's far from done,
but the Mutual of Omaha tower is now the tallest
(09:36):
building in Omaha. It is technically taller than the First
National Tower, which has held that title since the early
two thousands and end of an era.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I think that's pretty good trade for the wdal Clark
Library site.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, we go from what was a low slung prison.
A lot of people would say libraries are prisons. I know,
I love libraries. Architecture is like new, but it looked
like a prison. What's the architecture called. Yeah, brutalist architects.
And not all brutalist architecture is bad. The World Herald
Northwestern Bell Building right to the north of there is
a brutalist I love that, but I think that building
(10:10):
looks cool. So not all brutalist architecture is bad. But
the old Omaha Public Library looked like a prison, and
we've replaced it with a skyscraper, so that's great. Hey,
we've got a new tire retail chain from the western
part of the United States coming into Almots called less
Schwab Tire Center. First Omaha area location is going to
(10:32):
be in Papilion's Tower District. This is a development northwest
of eighty fourth and three point seventy so named because
the iconic Papilion water tower with the monarch butterfly is
right there, and this will be a two story building
with seven service bays. It's the chain is based in Bend, Oregon,
and it has nearly six hundred stores, but they're only
(10:53):
in fifteen states, mostly in the West. In fact, the
only existing store in Nebraska is in North Platte.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
You're going to see more. They want to do a
bunch of stores. They've looked at a few of our
our sites and it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
They'll give j Justson Tire and some of the other
ones a run for their money. Discount tire, this tire
that seems like there are a lot of them. QAT
Global is relocating its downtown office from the twin towers
of Central Park Plaza to the Capital District. Got a
building permit and it indicates that QAT Global is remodeling
(11:28):
space inside the three story office building at eleven hundred
Capital Avenue. This is the building that currently has Deloitte
and Private Wealth Asset Management. QAT Global is a locally
grown IT company with international offices in Costa Rica and Brazil.
Really go wearing fast and it's good to see them
moving to the Capital District. Of course, the reason they
(11:50):
have to move out of the twin towers is that
they are being converted into the duo with over seven
hundred apartment units and retail space as well. And then finally, Class,
the German manufacturer of agricultural combines and tractor machinery that
has its North American headquarters here in Omaha, held a
(12:12):
groundbreaking yesterday at one hundred and thirty second and Giles,
right next to its one hundred and sixty two thousand
square foot manufacturing plant. This for a forty five thousand
square foot research and development facility. They make the Lexian combines,
and this research and development facility will open next year.
(12:33):
And it's nice to see a German company putting engineers
in Omaha doing R and D here. Company leadership said,
you want to do some of this here in North
America because the types of fields we have in North
America are different in Europe. For one thing, they're a
hell of a lot bigger. And also there's a lot
they do assemblage there. Don't they put those together in there? Yeah?
(12:56):
The plant, excuse me, the plant right next to is
exactly where they assemble those combines and they're huge, are
some of the biggest combines, are some of the biggest
combines in the world. And that is your News of
the week, which is 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 have one of our business spotlights, and this
(13:18):
week we're going to be looking at Flawless Finish. We
have owner Amar Ramadan with us. Flawless Finish, one of
our sponsors on gromha doing a lot of commercial cleaning
projects and you're going to enjoy hearing from Amar, so
stay with us. You're listening to Grow Omaha. We're brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics
on News Radio eleven ten kfab Hey and welcome back
(13:41):
to the show. Jeff Bial sitting next to Trenton Maggot.
We are brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center along
with Cheer Athletics. If you're looking for a great activity
for your kids to get involved in, look no further
than cheer Athletics. Craig and Tiffany Wolf run the Omaha location.
It's one of about only eighteen in the world. It
is the Cadillac of the All Star Cheer movement, if
(14:04):
you will, and they do such a great job. Omaha
location is in Papilion, just southwest of Highways fifty and
three seventy. We have a business spotlight this week. We
have with us today Amar Ramadan. He is the owner
of Flawless Finish, Omaha based company that does a lot
of commercial cleaning here in the area. Amar, Welcome to
the show.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Jeff, Yeah, it's good to have good to have you
with us, and we are so excited to have you
as a new sponsor of gro Omaha. Your company is
our new Wall Street column sponsor on the newsletter written
by the one and only George Morgan. So I guess
I should also officially welcome you to the Gromaha family.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Thank you, Thank you awesome be part of the family.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well, tell us a little bit about Flawless Finish. What
you guys do and I don't know the thirty thousand
foot overview.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
So we are a janitorial business. I know you know
another janitorial business, but we really focus on customer service.
I know that sounds boring, but there are so many
times where I want to make a connection with my clients.
I want to go above and beyond for them. I
want to make sure they're happy. I want to make sure,
you know, they can call me if anything happens. And
so I really try to hone in on that. You know,
(15:14):
a lot of my current clients are restaurants, and I
have a background. I'm a part time bartender now, but
I used to be a full time bartender, and you know,
I eat at these restaurants. The managers know me. You know,
I moved out into like office buildings and all that
kind of stuff and apartment complexes, and I can sit
down with those decision makers for hours. We can go
(15:34):
get a drink, like we know. I know, you know,
I know them. You know, we do favors for each other.
And so I really like, you know, make sure I
have a good relationship with my clients, and you know,
try to always do a good job. Make sure you
know there's no complaints. Something's come up here and there
and that's okay.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So as an office dweller and the person that's dealing
with people that are running offices all the time, you know,
you hear about cleaning services and you know, and it's
a tough business.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
You've got to.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Find quality people to to work for you. You got
to make sure they have a good reporting system, and
what are the other major challenges and what sets you apart.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
So when it comes to reporting, for me and my
staff are rock stars. I had a knee surgery a
couple months ago and there hasn't been There wasn't a
single issue. I was on on the bed for two months,
never a single issue. They clocked in, clocked out, send
me pictures, business as usual. But for issues, I think
(16:41):
towing the line. When it comes to sales. You know,
there's so many companies out there, there's so much competition.
You want to be persistent but not annoying. And I
have a problem with that, Like I don't want to
push people too hard, like I'll give them a call,
might stop in, but like you know, if they're like, oh,
you know, we'll think about it, we'll call you back.
(17:02):
I don't like pushing it forward, which is why I
have a salesperson now and he does a great job.
But yes, those are big challenges, you know, especially for
me personally.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
But you know you made it when you're getting referrals
from current customers. Yes, because that's really how most of
those business i'd imagine grows. Are you starting to see
a lot more of that.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Yes, Referrals are awesome and I love when it happens.
I just feel like a bigger company when that happens.
You know, it's not all outreach, it's not all like
outbound sales. You know, I got two restaurants from referrals,
and I was like, oh my god, this is awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
I love this.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
And when it comes to like friends and family and
people that you know or referrals, you almost you can't
take it for granted. And you and because once you
get a client, you can only lose that client or
that is cheap that client forever. And you're always proving
yourself and you got to remind yourself it's something that
comes easy can leave just as easy.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Absolutely, And that's why I'm proud of having a ninety
four percent retention rate within my clients. I you know,
if they sign up, they usually don't leave. Happened once
it happened once, and the type of that cleaning was
move and move outs, and I just don't do it
anymore because you know, I'm like, I'm just not good
at it and that's okay.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Talking with Amar Ramadan, he is the owner of Flawless
Finish for this week's Business Spotlight section and Amara, I'm
just kind of curious, how did you get into the
business you were? You were telling us earlier you're the
son of college professors, and so how how does someone
wake up one day and say I'm going to go
into the cleaning business.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
That's a great question. It's a funny story. Actually, I
was a full time bartender at Bonefish Grilling fun place. Yeah,
and my boss Chris kept telling me, my god, these
cleaning companies that they're not great. I'm so tired of
like switching and they kind of like did this, they
took something, they missed a spot. And I'm like, how
(18:56):
much are you paying these guys? Just be honest with me?
And me and Chris have a good relationship. I was like,
how much you're paying these guys?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And he told me.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
I'm like, okay, So if I pay someone twenty two
bucks an hour and then I pay for insurance and
I pay for this, and I pay for this, I'm like, okay,
I still have some money left over, Like this could
be real. And I'm like can I do this? Would
you let me? He was like, all right, my contract
ends in February, go for it. And I'm like, okay, done.
And they've been with me ever since. And then I
just kept expanding a lot of challenges along the way.
(19:23):
But I feel like I've positioned myself in the industry.
It's a great in between.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
There's all these like huge franchises, huge big companies that
have multiple executives all making you know, hundreds of thousand dollars,
which is great, but they have so many costs that
I don't have to pay. But at the other hand
of that or the other spectrum, there's a lot of
small companies like mom and pop shops where they can
charge low prices. But you know a lot of companies
(19:51):
these don't want the owners of the company doing the cleaning.
And that's some of the law firms that I have
told me. And so I feel like I position myself
in the industry where I'm reliable but also at a
good cost.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You know, so you've had a niche is what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Yeah, kind of like the in between, like not extremes.
You can get these franchises that cost a lot of money.
I'm just below that.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
How do people get a hold of Flawless Finisher Just
a website.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Or website of Flawless finish Omaha dot com. You can
always email me Amar at Flawless finish Omaha dot com
or you can just text me or call me out
my number four zero two five nine ninety three three
five to one.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Amar Trent and earlier was talking about, you know, the
challenges of the business, and one of the things we
always hear with the tight labor market, how do you
get good people? How do you get good people? What
types of troubles or successes have you had with recruiting
people in this tight labor market.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
I could go through so many stories. At the beginning,
I had no idea what.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I was doing.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So I would I work out a plan of fitness
and I would like talk to the people that work there.
I'm like, hey, I have a job if you want
to do it. And so I hired people that way,
which is funny because I knew about INDEED and that's
how I got my jobs. But I was like, there's
no way I'm going to find people off of INDEED.
And then I just you know, through a post one
day and I got like maybe one hundred hits in
(21:14):
like an hour after sponsoring it. I was like, oh
my god, this is real. And so after like going
through a vetting process and like hiring the wrong people
multiple times, I now have like a very very very
solid stuff. And like I said, I was out for
two months, never a problem. You know what to ask
for DA now I know what to ask for, I
know what to look for, I know to ask for.
You know, my staff right now are rock stars. They're awesome.
(21:35):
But I went through all my challenges to get there.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
M h. Well, Lamar as you well know, the name
of the show is Grow Omaha. So we are Omaha Homer's.
And I want to ask you, as a still relatively
new entrepreneur, talk to us a little bit about the
Omaha business community. Why is this such a great place
for you to start your business and to grow this business.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
I saw a US news a couple months ago that
this is either the biggest or the second biggest like
growing city. And there's so many new developments here. There's
so many new like for me restaurants, Like there's two
opening up in Village Point mm hm in like the
next six months. There's so many like nice bars that
(22:18):
can afford cleaning. There's so many like big office buildings,
insurance companies, like all these people, law firms, all these
people need janitorial services. So for me, that's perfect. You know,
there's always expansions, like like you said earlier at two
hundred and fourth Corridor in the Coventry, I have a
client there, the apartments there, they're one of my clients.
(22:40):
And so it's just you know, there's so many developments everywhere,
and so that really helps me. And that's why I
use grow Omaha because I see what's opening up day
by day.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
We love that.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Day by day. I'm like, all right, these they might
need it, so I give them a call. And I've
got some clients that way. But I think Omaha's great.
It's great right now for business.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Well, the name of the company is Flawless Finish. So
if you're looking for a cleaning service for your restaurant, bar,
office space, apartment buildings and so many other commercial buildings,
get in touch with Ramadan. Do a great job, and Omar,
we appreciate you being on the show today.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Guys, all right, that's Amar Ramadan Flawless finish, we're going
to take our middle of the show break for the news,
and when we come back, we'll have our Nodel Companies
Commercial real Estate Development Spotlight of the Week, and we're
also going to talk about Omaha being one of the
places where you're seeing the most one of the most
robust apartment construction markets. So stay with us, you're listening
(23:39):
to Grow Omaha. We're brought to you by Dingman's Collision
Center along with Cheer Athletics on News Radio eleven ten
KFAB and welcome back to the show. Jeff Beial sitting
next to Trenton Maggott, and we are your hosts here
at Crow Omaha. We're brought to you by Dingman's Collision
Center and Cheer Athletics, the nation's number one all star
cheer Jim Well. If you have a fender bender, a
(24:02):
door dinger, a scratch, or anything else that makes the
outside of your car look not quite the way it
used to, just go over Dingman's Collision Center. They have
four metro area locations, one of them one hundred and
twentieth in Maple You can also find them at one
hundred and forty fourth in Industrial Road downtown Papillion midtown
along Saddle Creek Road. They're everywhere, and all four of
(24:24):
them do a great job, so we appreciate Dingman's Collision Center.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for your Nodle
Companies Commercial real Estate development Spotlight of the Week, brought
to appropriately enough by Nodle Companies. They are an outstanding developer,
one of the best in the country, big blockbuster projects
(24:45):
and one of the things Nodle Companies has always been
famous for here in Omaha are beautiful corporate headquarters buildings.
You know Valmont, Fortune five hundred or Fortune one thousand company,
beautiful global headquarters at Heartwood Preserve, No comp Company's Project HDR,
one of the world's biggest architecture and civil engineering firms.
Beautiful headquarters project at a Sarbon village. And during this segment,
(25:11):
we like to highlight things happening in or around one
of not al companies many developments, and today it's going
to be a Sarbon village. Big event happened there last
night at Xarbon Village and our roving reporter, Trenton B.
Maggot was there on duty.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Absolutely, ladies and gentlemen, it's very cool. There's all kinds
of things going on there. We decided that we're going
to go hang out and Amy and I we got
there at about call it five forty five, six o'clock
and in the in the Stinton Park, the Bradford Stage,
(25:49):
I think they call it, were a bunch of people
that are all around Bud Crawford. As we all know
September thirteenth, he's going to do an amazing thing and
go up two weight classes. And so not only did
you have Bud Crawford there, you had Tom Warren who's
the deputy mayor.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
You had.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Jay Nodel who oversaw the entire development. And Jay stood
up there and said, you know, this is exarbant, but
this is really Crawford Nation tonight. And everybody. There's a
bunch of the brass football players there, Matt Ruhle head coach,
he spoke, and friends and family from B and B sports,
(26:35):
from North Omaha, Buds, Jim and we all have to
cheer him on and support him.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And this is kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I was also at when when he won another international title,
the parade and him getting the key to the city here,
they gave him a lot more than that but it's
a huge prey downtown. Bud Crafford just emulates what Omaha's about.
He's at the top of his game. He takes on
other cities. He makes the world come to Omaha for
some of his bouts. And so it was cool and
(27:05):
it was all part of Not All Companies Xarbant Village.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Then we went.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Had a snack at Saffron Indian Restaurant, and then Herbs Say,
which we learned about earlier, was there. And then we
went to a movie at acx.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
No, you really made the whole Sarbon Village.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I mean you can live, work, play. I mean that
that that thing is just built for Uh. You won't
run out of anything to do there.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I gotta say I'm a little bit jealous. I kind
of would have enjoyed that night. Bud Crawford, Saffron and
a movie at Acxixarbon Cinema signed me up.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
And then and then Sunny's Tonight at Sunny's I think
it's called the Exchange.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
But last night was a.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Touch of Gray, which is a tribute band, and we
didn't say too long for that, but they were rocking
and rolling too.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And that is your Not All Company's Commercial real Estate
Development Spotlight of the Week. You can find out more
about our sponsor at Nodelcompanies dot com. Well, if you've
noticed a lot of apartment construction going on around town,
that's not surprising because we have been building a ton
of them. It's a good sign that Omaha is really growing,
(28:18):
and it's also a thankful sign because we've had a
pretty severe housing shortage around here and we need to
build more and more units. Well, rent Cafe, which covers
the apartment business, expects a very robust year of apartment
construction nationally, with more than half a million new units
anticipated to open in America by the end of this year.
(28:42):
Over the past ten years, apartment openings averaged four hundred
and thirty nine thousand per year, with a crest of
six hundred and forty twenty twenty four, but still over
a half a million this year. Now, let's start looking locally,
because rent Cafe also tracks year over year increases in
apart and openings. So when we say openings, it means
(29:02):
it's a new one that has the construction completed and
it's ready for a tenant to move in. So Omaha
right now has the seventh highest year over year increase
in new apartment openings in twenty twenty five compared to
last year. So Omaha's expected new openings this year are
(29:24):
going to be three thousand, three hundred and thirty five
new units. That's seventy nine percent more than the number
of units we opened last year. And get this, it
must be a Nebraska thing because Lincoln rates even higher.
They're number four with a percentage increase in openings over
last year, So all of eastern Nebraska is opening new
(29:44):
apartments this year like crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
We're punching above our weight when it comes to opening
these opening these apartments compared to nationally, if there's only
five hundred thousand, what do you say about five thousand.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
No, we would have three hundred and thirty three thousand,
three hundred and thirty five out of five hundred thousand.
We're doing our share. We're definitely doing our share. That
is pretty pretty impressive. So it's a good thing. And
then we sometimes you have some people that say, gosh,
I sure don't like to see all these apartments opening
because I would prefer to have people owning properties. And
(30:17):
Trent and I would agree that society is better off
when a high percentage of people own homes. But at
the same time, Omaha's becoming more of a national and
international city. You got people coming in and people coming out,
and sometimes people that aren't going to stay for a
long time would rather rent. And also keep in mind
too that you also have a housing shorgage, and so
(30:41):
we really need to get those people living here. The
other thing that we have is a news item trenton
that people will find kind of comforting and maybe make
them happy. There's an entity called Compare the Market, and
they did some new research recently trying to determine the
best cities in the world world for socializing and finding friends.
(31:03):
They did the world, but the United States list in particular,
ranked twenty cities the top twenty, and Omaha came in
at twentieth, so we squeaked into the top twenty. So congratulations,
ladies and gentlemen. Out of all of the big cities
in America, the top one hundred metro areas yours, if
you live here, is the twentieth most social. And to
(31:25):
give you an idea about how they determine this, they
looked at how many official like meet up events or
networking events are held and They also looked at the
number of bars and coffee shops per one hundred thousand people.
We're definitely winning on coffee shops. You know, we had fifteen,
but most in the top twenty had a lot more
than that. And so anyway, good, good job. People continue
(31:49):
to make friends and be social in Omaha.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Another one way to make friends is to hop on
our Facebook page right now, grow Omaha. We need thirteen people,
thirteen more foulowers. Most of you probably are, but make
your friends sign up thirteen followers. Then we're at fifty
eight thousand and something. I started earlier in the week,
and I'd really appreciate it. Ladies, gentlemen, I feel like
(32:12):
we're on a telethon or something. Jerry Lewis telethon Trenton
this week discscus we're not all smoking.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Trenton this week discovered that you can invite friends on Facebook,
and so ever since he discovered this, it's always been
thinking about this week. So please, well you join the
damned Facebook page so we can get a different conversation
going here, folks. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's killing me.
Thanks Jeff, all right, that is me. This all means
that It's time for the Perkins chrits Er Construction Lightning Round.
(32:41):
That's when we talk about a lot of things really
fast and it's coming up. Thank you. Stay with us.
You're listening to Grow Omaha, brought to you by Cheer
Athletics and Dingman's Collision Center on news Radio eleven ten kfab.
It's your Perkins chrits Er Construction Lightning Round in which
we talk about a lot of things super fast. Thanks
for Perkins chrits Or Construction because they made this possible.
(33:01):
They are an outstanding class a general contractor. That means
they build things and if you're looking at building a
new building, whether it's office, retail, industrial, civic, social, philanthropic,
or you need to renovate internal space, they do all
of that. Perkins Chritscher Construction really delivers outstanding projects at
(33:22):
the right price and with ethics as well. Dave Kreutzer
is the owner. We know him, We talked to him
all of the time and we couldn't recommend them enough.
Perkins Chritscher Construction will take good care of you. You
can find out more about them by going to pdashcconstruction
dot com. Well, I've got Big Grove Brewery tap house
(33:43):
in the Catalyst building on U and MC's new West
campus has delayed opening after the Nebraska Liquor Commission denied
its craft brewers license. Where does it take? Apparently a
little bit more than what they've been doing, Regulators said
the denial came because Big Grove already manufactures alcohol and
tried to use a separate entity to qualify. So now
(34:05):
the Iowa based brewery is seeking a liquor manufacturer's license,
which would allow it to open but offer but limit
offerings to just its own beer. So you got that going.
So if you've been wondering, it's coming soon. Panda Express
plans to open a location near two hun and fourth
and In Street in as in Nebraska. We were talking
earlier in the show about all that growth on two
(34:27):
and fourth. There's yet another example. And while we're on
the topic of beer, La Vista based Cross Strain Brewing
Company a lot of people really love Crosstrain. They have
partnered with Nebraska Athletics to launch corn Husker Crusher. How
how timely you know? The first game was a couple
of nights ago. The Huskers are amazing. We did their
(34:48):
first space the Huskers no Crosstream Cornersker Crusher is the
official beer of the Huskers, and it'll be for sale
in cross trains to Omaha area breweries as well as
Memorial Stadium during games. Well, we've got signage that went
up for the future Hawaiian Brothers Island Grill restaurant in
the former Boston Market building at seven oh four North
(35:11):
hundred fourteenth Street in Miracle Hills. That should be opening
not too far from now. And one of the big
questions we get on Groha Maha lately, and believe me,
we get a lot of questions, And one of the
questions lately is what are they doing at one hundred
and thirty second in Millard Avenue where the old Paul's
Millard Sinclair was for decades and decades. It's going to
(35:34):
be a dairy Queen. So they're doing a lot. Some
people say, well, why do you have a mountain range
of dirt there to build the dairy Queen. Presumably underground
storage tanks have to be removed, and maybe they had
to do something with the soil. But dairy Queen, you
do plumbing and all the in ground stuff. Yeah, it
looks like it looks like a pretty impressive project, but
it will be a dairy Queen and then moving right
(35:56):
along Schumann's Liquor and more plans to and in the
Blackstone district inside the recently completed thirty seven West Farnham building.
The space is just west of Revival House, which opened
not too long ago in that same building. It's on
the south side of Farnham Street between thirty seventh and
thirty eighth. Schumans will have wine, beer, spirits and more,
(36:18):
and it'll be locally owned by the same guy who
owns the Red Lion Lounge just a block to the west.
Interior buildout is now underway. Steel has gone vertical on
an eighty one hundred square foot retail building at two
hundred and fourth and R Street, just southwest of two
hundred and fourth and Q Trend. There's another one two
hundred four street corridor. You're gonna have a god call
(36:39):
Trenton if you want to be right next to this.
It's a Godfather's Pizza and then space for a couple
of other tenants.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Right Godfathers in the homeland where they started. As they're expanding,
it's awesome, yeah, and they're modernizing Godfathers is.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Still a thing. Hey, here's another one. It's same area,
two hundred and fourth and V just a little bit
south of the future Godfathers. The still still the still
a long time wine, beer and spirit store in Lincoln
has expanded to West Omaha. They opened just this past
Thursday and they're good to go.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
This is a hangover from the COVID years because there's
more liquor stores than we've ever had.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
I'd love to see a study on that one. There
are a lot of them. Buffalo Wild Wings celebrating their
grand opening this weekend, a grand reopening, I should say,
forty two to eighty seven South one hundred and forty
four Street. They renovated and everything looks a lot newer
and nicer.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
That was the first Buffalo Wild Wings and we did
that at Southwestern Plaza across from Trolley's on the Lake,
and that was probably twenty years ago, so it's time
to remodel.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
There you go. And with that, we're gonna just call
it a rap because the music is playing, which means
that it's time for us to go home and YouTube
continue listening to KFAB at any rate. Hope everyone has
a great week I'm Jeff Beals and I'm Trent Maggott,
who needs seven more followers on gromaha facebook page. For
the love of God, people sign up. You've been listening
(38:04):
to gro Omaha, brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center,
Cheer Athletics, and Perkins Chritzer Construction. We'll chat with you
next week and nine on news radio eleven ten kfab
This is Grow Omaha, the only radio show that talks
about economic development, construction, business expansion, and all of those
things that make Omaha a great place to live or visit.
Grow Omaha on News Radio eleven ten K.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Baby Well, good morning, and welcome to the show. Jeff Beals.
Here at your service. You are listening to the only
show in the metro area that talks about the growth
and development of your favorite city. We want to thank
our sponsors. Our title sponsors are Cheer Athletics, the nation's
number one all star Chaer Jim along with Dingman's Collision Center,
(00:36):
the Choice Best of Omaha award winner for auto body
work and some mechanical work as well. Without any further ado,
I want to bring on my co host, a man
who is a legendary real estate deal maker here in
Omaha and he resides at nai NP Dodge Trenton Maggot.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning Joe Well, Good
(00:57):
morning Trenton, and happy Labor Day weekend. And this is
sadly the unofficial end of summer, but happily the unofficial
beginning of autumn. And I love the autumn season. Nice.
They've been really nice. And if you look at the forecast,
it looks pretty good. And I'm an optimistic guide generally,
and I've noticed over the last several years the fall
(01:20):
has become longer. It lingers all the way to Christmas
in some years, and I'm hoping for that again, nice
long fall in which we can enjoy a great time
of year. Amen from my lips to God's ears. You
could say, well, hey, Trent, good news. We have a
grow Omaha Eats restaurant review this week. Every other week
Chris Corey writes a restaurant review for us. We call
(01:44):
him grow Omaha Eats, and they are sponsored by All Makes,
the legendary office furniture and equipment retailer. All Makes is
located at twenty fifth in Farnham here in Omaha. They
have locations in Lincoln, Des Moines, Iowa, several other cities
here in Nebraska. And All Makes just does an outstanding
job and we appreciate them doing our girl Omaha Eats
(02:06):
restaurant reviews well. This week it is Herb Sant, the
New Orleans style Cajun soul food restaurant in nick Sarbon Village.
And whenever we talk about restaurants that are inspired by
New Orleans. I think of my friend Trenton, because you
went to college in New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Absolutely four years, graduated on time. Also had two brothers
that did the same. That's probably why I got in,
because they're older and put in a good word for you. Absolutely,
and there's a long time ago, Jeff. And I'll tell
you what. Whatever, we can get a taste of Big
Easy in Omaha, and there's been a few entrance, but
I'll tell you I'm a big fan of Katie and
(02:44):
Grill and Herb Saint measures up as well, and they have.
I haven't tried it yet, but I think the review
having kingcake bread pudding sounds like something I gotta try.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I'll tell you that. Well. I say, it's been several
decades since you graduated from Tulane to New Orleans, but
they haven't entirely taken the New Orleans out of you.
So I would say four years as a young guy
makes you somewhat of an authority on that kind of food.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Hey, Mama, I'll tell you what. I spent a lot
of time. We'll talk about it later, but I spent
a lot of time in an exorbant village. Last night
and the place was hopping a lot of different activities
live music, restaurants, movie theater. I love how it's the
closest thing we have to a true mixed use in
(03:36):
all inclusive community.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And of course folks. He mentions that because Herbsont is
a big part of Exarbon Village. It's right there on
the corner on sixty seventh Street and you'll have to
give it a try. If you want to read the review,
just go to grow Omaha dot com. Click on Reviews
on the navigation bar. There's a drop down menu. Click
on eats eats for restaurants and you'll be able to
(03:59):
see that and all of the other reviews that Chris
has written as well.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I have a challenge for all of our humble listeners,
and we appreciate your patronage. We love how information that
is on gromha media gets disseminated, whether it's from this show,
the website which gets new news briefs every day, or
the newsletter. So my challenge to you is, if most
(04:25):
of you have your phone in the room, if you
go to our Facebook page for Groa Maha, follow us,
and we're only a few, only a few from getting
fifty eight thousand followers and sign up your friends request
that they sign up, and we'd much appreciate it. We
want to see during this show that we get fifty
(04:46):
eight thousand and growing, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
For that, and you can also follow us on x
and LinkedIn as well. Well. Let's go into our News
of the Week, which is as always brought to you
by Eagle Mortgage. Eagle Mortgage has been sponsoring the News
of the Week for about ten years here on gro Omaha.
We appreciate them doing that. Holly Schneidewin is the owner
and proprietor and boss over there at Eagle Mortgage, and
(05:12):
she does such a great job of helping her clients
get their piece of the American dream. She's put together
a great team of mortgage brokers and processors and support people.
They can help you through what is a difficult and
complicated process. A lot of people dread having to get
financing for a house, and I get it. It's a
(05:34):
big deal. It's a lot of money, but Holly in
her team makes it so much easier. You can find
them in person at one hundred and fourteenth than Davenport
just south of Dodge, or online at Eagle Mortgage Company
dot com. That's Eagle Mortgage Company dot com. Well, we
want to start off in far West Omaha, and that
is where Millard Public Schools Foundation is building a new
(05:57):
activity center that would be available to all Miller Public
Schools students. They announced this week a naming rights partnership
with Iowa based Green State Credit Union, so it will
be called the Green State Millard Activity Center. This eighty
five thousand square foot privately funded facility is under construction
(06:19):
now right about two hundred and tenth two hundred and
eleventh and Q Street. It's by Millard's Horizon High School
and opening is scheduled for late this fall, So Trenton,
you know, you know it's a big facility. If they
can get naming rights.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Absolutely, and that's so popular. You'll see a lot of
high schools. You'll see a lot of different organizations get sponsorship,
whether it's a banner along the sports field or whatever.
And it takes a lot of people to put kids
through youth sports and student activities and all the above.
(06:56):
What I love about this is it's just a few
blocks away from a few listings that I have with
Spencer Morris in our office you have it here, folks
that in the next week or two the new Bakers
one hundred and twenty five thousand square foot Bakers is
going to break ground at the Kensington Park development northwest
(07:16):
corner of two hundred and fourth and Q. We have
two lots for sale or for lease or build a suit,
great lots, looking for coffee shops, looking for quick service restaurants,
sit down restaurants, small strip center, whatever have you. And
then this activity center will be just down the road.
And this is that two hundred and fourth Street corridor
(07:38):
that are just going gangbusters. You're getting all kinds of
services and plenty of new housing going up. You got
coventry right there, and I'm loving what's happening out there.
And they built the infrastructure right first. Yeah, it's crazy
to watch that corridor. In fact, another news item we
have is just a tiny bit north of where Bakers
(08:00):
is going to start construction, and that is a Cobalt
Credit Union two hund and fourth in f just a
little bit north of there. That is called the Iron
Bluff Development and they just are moving forward. Got a
building permit to build a building there. And so that
is just another example. Yeah, fairly foods closed there. They've
(08:21):
got closed on the land, so they're going to be
building yep, exactly. It's very good and they have a
couple of schools there as well, and Omaha Public Library.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah, there's going to be an Omaha Public Library southwest
of two and fourth and f. So it's very exciting
and it is already and will become even more one
of the primary corridors in the Omaha area. Well, if
we go downtown, the tower crane being used to assemble
the future Mutual of Omaha Headquarters building has reached its
(08:51):
maximum height now of about seven hundred and eighty feet.
If you go down there this weekend, they have a
huge American flag hanging from the tower tower crane, supposedly
to celebrate Labor Day. I would assume also means they're
apparently not doing any construction today. Dog on it put
it up yesterday. I put it up yesterday. But the
(09:14):
building the also the core tower went up again this week,
and so estimates are there's probably about only thirty feet
or less of height to go before the building max
is out. Also, what's significant about that, it's far from done,
but the Mutual of Omaha tower is now the tallest
(09:36):
building in Omaha. It is technically taller than the First
National Tower, which has held that title since the early
two thousands and end of an era.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I think that's pretty good trade for the wdal Clark
Library site.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, we go from what was a low slung prison.
A lot of people would say libraries are prisons. I know,
I love libraries. Architecture is like new, but it looked
like a prison. What's the architecture called. Yeah, brutalist architects.
And not all brutalist architecture is bad. The World Herald
Northwestern Bell Building right to the north of there is
a brutalist I love that, but I think that building
(10:10):
looks cool. So not all brutalist architecture is bad. But
the old Omaha Public Library looked like a prison, and
we've replaced it with a skyscraper, so that's great. Hey,
we've got a new tire retail chain from the western
part of the United States coming into Almots called less
Schwab Tire Center. First Omaha area location is going to
(10:32):
be in Papilion's Tower District. This is a development northwest
of eighty fourth and three point seventy so named because
the iconic Papilion water tower with the monarch butterfly is
right there, and this will be a two story building
with seven service bays. It's the chain is based in Bend, Oregon,
and it has nearly six hundred stores, but they're only
(10:53):
in fifteen states, mostly in the West. In fact, the
only existing store in Nebraska is in North Platte.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
You're going to see more. They want to do a
bunch of stores. They've looked at a few of our
our sites and it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
They'll give j Justson Tire and some of the other
ones a run for their money. Discount tire, this tire
that seems like there are a lot of them. QAT
Global is relocating its downtown office from the twin towers
of Central Park Plaza to the Capital District. Got a
building permit and it indicates that QAT Global is remodeling
(11:28):
space inside the three story office building at eleven hundred
Capital Avenue. This is the building that currently has Deloitte
and Private Wealth Asset Management. QAT Global is a locally
grown IT company with international offices in Costa Rica and Brazil.
Really go wearing fast and it's good to see them
moving to the Capital District. Of course, the reason they
(11:50):
have to move out of the twin towers is that
they are being converted into the duo with over seven
hundred apartment units and retail space as well. And then finally, Class,
the German manufacturer of agricultural combines and tractor machinery that
has its North American headquarters here in Omaha, held a
(12:12):
groundbreaking yesterday at one hundred and thirty second and Giles,
right next to its one hundred and sixty two thousand
square foot manufacturing plant. This for a forty five thousand
square foot research and development facility. They make the Lexian combines,
and this research and development facility will open next year.
(12:33):
And it's nice to see a German company putting engineers
in Omaha doing R and D here. Company leadership said,
you want to do some of this here in North
America because the types of fields we have in North
America are different in Europe. For one thing, they're a
hell of a lot bigger. And also there's a lot
they do assemblage there. Don't they put those together in there? Yeah?
(12:56):
The plant, excuse me, the plant right next to is
exactly where they assemble those combines and they're huge, are
some of the biggest combines, are some of the biggest
combines in the world. And that is your News of
the week, which is 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 have one of our business spotlights, and this
(13:18):
week we're going to be looking at Flawless Finish. We
have owner Amar Ramadan with us. Flawless Finish, one of
our sponsors on gromha doing a lot of commercial cleaning
projects and you're going to enjoy hearing from Amar, so
stay with us. You're listening to Grow Omaha. We're brought
to you by Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics
on News Radio eleven ten kfab Hey and welcome back
(13:41):
to the show. Jeff Bial sitting next to Trenton Maggot.
We are brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center along
with Cheer Athletics. If you're looking for a great activity
for your kids to get involved in, look no further
than cheer Athletics. Craig and Tiffany Wolf run the Omaha location.
It's one of about only eighteen in the world. It
is the Cadillac of the All Star Cheer movement, if
(14:04):
you will, and they do such a great job. Omaha
location is in Papilion, just southwest of Highways fifty and
three seventy. We have a business spotlight this week. We
have with us today Amar Ramadan. He is the owner
of Flawless Finish, Omaha based company that does a lot
of commercial cleaning here in the area. Amar, Welcome to
the show.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Jeff, Yeah, it's good to have good to have you
with us, and we are so excited to have you
as a new sponsor of gro Omaha. Your company is
our new Wall Street column sponsor on the newsletter written
by the one and only George Morgan. So I guess
I should also officially welcome you to the Gromaha family.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Thank you, Thank you awesome be part of the family.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well, tell us a little bit about Flawless Finish. What
you guys do and I don't know the thirty thousand
foot overview.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
So we are a janitorial business. I know you know
another janitorial business, but we really focus on customer service.
I know that sounds boring, but there are so many
times where I want to make a connection with my clients.
I want to go above and beyond for them. I
want to make sure they're happy. I want to make sure,
you know, they can call me if anything happens. And
so I really try to hone in on that. You know,
(15:14):
a lot of my current clients are restaurants, and I
have a background. I'm a part time bartender now, but
I used to be a full time bartender, and you know,
I eat at these restaurants. The managers know me. You know,
I moved out into like office buildings and all that
kind of stuff and apartment complexes, and I can sit
down with those decision makers for hours. We can go
(15:34):
get a drink, like we know. I know, you know,
I know them. You know, we do favors for each other.
And so I really like, you know, make sure I
have a good relationship with my clients, and you know,
try to always do a good job. Make sure you
know there's no complaints. Something's come up here and there
and that's okay.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So as an office dweller and the person that's dealing
with people that are running offices all the time, you know,
you hear about cleaning services and you know, and it's
a tough business.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
You've got to.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Find quality people to to work for you. You got
to make sure they have a good reporting system, and
what are the other major challenges and what sets you apart.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
So when it comes to reporting, for me and my
staff are rock stars. I had a knee surgery a
couple months ago and there hasn't been There wasn't a
single issue. I was on on the bed for two months,
never a single issue. They clocked in, clocked out, send
me pictures, business as usual. But for issues, I think
(16:41):
towing the line. When it comes to sales. You know,
there's so many companies out there, there's so much competition.
You want to be persistent but not annoying. And I
have a problem with that, Like I don't want to
push people too hard, like I'll give them a call,
might stop in, but like you know, if they're like, oh,
you know, we'll think about it, we'll call you back.
(17:02):
I don't like pushing it forward, which is why I
have a salesperson now and he does a great job.
But yes, those are big challenges, you know, especially for
me personally.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
But you know you made it when you're getting referrals
from current customers. Yes, because that's really how most of
those business i'd imagine grows. Are you starting to see
a lot more of that.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Yes, Referrals are awesome and I love when it happens.
I just feel like a bigger company when that happens.
You know, it's not all outreach, it's not all like
outbound sales. You know, I got two restaurants from referrals,
and I was like, oh my god, this is awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
I love this.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
And when it comes to like friends and family and
people that you know or referrals, you almost you can't
take it for granted. And you and because once you
get a client, you can only lose that client or
that is cheap that client forever. And you're always proving
yourself and you got to remind yourself it's something that
comes easy can leave just as easy.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Absolutely, And that's why I'm proud of having a ninety
four percent retention rate within my clients. I you know,
if they sign up, they usually don't leave. Happened once
it happened once, and the type of that cleaning was
move and move outs, and I just don't do it
anymore because you know, I'm like, I'm just not good
at it and that's okay.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Talking with Amar Ramadan, he is the owner of Flawless
Finish for this week's Business Spotlight section and Amara, I'm
just kind of curious, how did you get into the
business you were? You were telling us earlier you're the
son of college professors, and so how how does someone
wake up one day and say I'm going to go
into the cleaning business.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
That's a great question. It's a funny story. Actually, I
was a full time bartender at Bonefish Grilling fun place. Yeah,
and my boss Chris kept telling me, my god, these
cleaning companies that they're not great. I'm so tired of
like switching and they kind of like did this, they
took something, they missed a spot. And I'm like, how
(18:56):
much are you paying these guys? Just be honest with me?
And me and Chris have a good relationship. I was like,
how much you're paying these guys?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And he told me.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
I'm like, okay, So if I pay someone twenty two
bucks an hour and then I pay for insurance and
I pay for this, and I pay for this, I'm like, okay,
I still have some money left over, Like this could
be real. And I'm like can I do this? Would
you let me? He was like, all right, my contract
ends in February, go for it. And I'm like, okay, done.
And they've been with me ever since. And then I
just kept expanding a lot of challenges along the way.
(19:23):
But I feel like I've positioned myself in the industry.
It's a great in between.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
There's all these like huge franchises, huge big companies that
have multiple executives all making you know, hundreds of thousand dollars,
which is great, but they have so many costs that
I don't have to pay. But at the other hand
of that or the other spectrum, there's a lot of
small companies like mom and pop shops where they can
charge low prices. But you know a lot of companies
(19:51):
these don't want the owners of the company doing the cleaning.
And that's some of the law firms that I have
told me. And so I feel like I position myself
in the industry where I'm reliable but also at a
good cost.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You know, so you've had a niche is what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Yeah, kind of like the in between, like not extremes.
You can get these franchises that cost a lot of money.
I'm just below that.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
How do people get a hold of Flawless Finisher Just
a website.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Or website of Flawless finish Omaha dot com. You can
always email me Amar at Flawless finish Omaha dot com
or you can just text me or call me out
my number four zero two five nine ninety three three
five to one.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Amar Trent and earlier was talking about, you know, the
challenges of the business, and one of the things we
always hear with the tight labor market, how do you
get good people? How do you get good people? What
types of troubles or successes have you had with recruiting
people in this tight labor market.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
I could go through so many stories. At the beginning,
I had no idea what.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I was doing.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So I would I work out a plan of fitness
and I would like talk to the people that work there.
I'm like, hey, I have a job if you want
to do it. And so I hired people that way,
which is funny because I knew about INDEED and that's
how I got my jobs. But I was like, there's
no way I'm going to find people off of INDEED.
And then I just you know, through a post one
day and I got like maybe one hundred hits in
(21:14):
like an hour after sponsoring it. I was like, oh
my god, this is real. And so after like going
through a vetting process and like hiring the wrong people
multiple times, I now have like a very very very
solid stuff. And like I said, I was out for
two months, never a problem. You know what to ask
for DA now I know what to ask for, I
know what to look for, I know to ask for.
You know, my staff right now are rock stars. They're awesome.
(21:35):
But I went through all my challenges to get there.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
M h. Well, Lamar as you well know, the name
of the show is Grow Omaha. So we are Omaha Homer's.
And I want to ask you, as a still relatively
new entrepreneur, talk to us a little bit about the
Omaha business community. Why is this such a great place
for you to start your business and to grow this business.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
I saw a US news a couple months ago that
this is either the biggest or the second biggest like
growing city. And there's so many new developments here. There's
so many new like for me restaurants, Like there's two
opening up in Village Point mm hm in like the
next six months. There's so many like nice bars that
(22:18):
can afford cleaning. There's so many like big office buildings,
insurance companies, like all these people, law firms, all these
people need janitorial services. So for me, that's perfect. You know,
there's always expansions, like like you said earlier at two
hundred and fourth Corridor in the Coventry, I have a
client there, the apartments there, they're one of my clients.
(22:40):
And so it's just you know, there's so many developments everywhere,
and so that really helps me. And that's why I
use grow Omaha because I see what's opening up day
by day.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
We love that.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Day by day. I'm like, all right, these they might
need it, so I give them a call. And I've
got some clients that way. But I think Omaha's great.
It's great right now for business.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Well, the name of the company is Flawless Finish. So
if you're looking for a cleaning service for your restaurant, bar,
office space, apartment buildings and so many other commercial buildings,
get in touch with Ramadan. Do a great job, and Omar,
we appreciate you being on the show today.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Guys, all right, that's Amar Ramadan Flawless finish, we're going
to take our middle of the show break for the news,
and when we come back, we'll have our Nodel Companies
Commercial real Estate Development Spotlight of the Week, and we're
also going to talk about Omaha being one of the
places where you're seeing the most one of the most
robust apartment construction markets. So stay with us, you're listening
(23:39):
to Grow Omaha. We're brought to you by Dingman's Collision
Center along with Cheer Athletics on News Radio eleven ten
KFAB and welcome back to the show. Jeff Beial sitting
next to Trenton Maggott, and we are your hosts here
at Crow Omaha. We're brought to you by Dingman's Collision
Center and Cheer Athletics, the nation's number one all star
cheer Jim Well. If you have a fender bender, a
(24:02):
door dinger, a scratch, or anything else that makes the
outside of your car look not quite the way it
used to, just go over Dingman's Collision Center. They have
four metro area locations, one of them one hundred and
twentieth in Maple You can also find them at one
hundred and forty fourth in Industrial Road downtown Papillion midtown
along Saddle Creek Road. They're everywhere, and all four of
(24:24):
them do a great job, so we appreciate Dingman's Collision Center.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for your Nodle
Companies Commercial real Estate development Spotlight of the Week, brought
to appropriately enough by Nodle Companies. They are an outstanding developer,
one of the best in the country, big blockbuster projects
(24:45):
and one of the things Nodle Companies has always been
famous for here in Omaha are beautiful corporate headquarters buildings.
You know Valmont, Fortune five hundred or Fortune one thousand company,
beautiful global headquarters at Heartwood Preserve, No comp Company's Project HDR,
one of the world's biggest architecture and civil engineering firms.
Beautiful headquarters project at a Sarbon village. And during this segment,
(25:11):
we like to highlight things happening in or around one
of not al companies many developments, and today it's going
to be a Sarbon village. Big event happened there last
night at Xarbon Village and our roving reporter, Trenton B.
Maggot was there on duty.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Absolutely, ladies and gentlemen, it's very cool. There's all kinds
of things going on there. We decided that we're going
to go hang out and Amy and I we got
there at about call it five forty five, six o'clock
and in the in the Stinton Park, the Bradford Stage,
(25:49):
I think they call it, were a bunch of people
that are all around Bud Crawford. As we all know
September thirteenth, he's going to do an amazing thing and
go up two weight classes. And so not only did
you have Bud Crawford there, you had Tom Warren who's
the deputy mayor.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
You had.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Jay Nodel who oversaw the entire development. And Jay stood
up there and said, you know, this is exarbant, but
this is really Crawford Nation tonight. And everybody. There's a
bunch of the brass football players there, Matt Ruhle head coach,
he spoke, and friends and family from B and B sports,
(26:35):
from North Omaha, Buds, Jim and we all have to
cheer him on and support him.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And this is kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I was also at when when he won another international title,
the parade and him getting the key to the city here,
they gave him a lot more than that but it's
a huge prey downtown. Bud Crafford just emulates what Omaha's about.
He's at the top of his game. He takes on
other cities. He makes the world come to Omaha for
some of his bouts. And so it was cool and
(27:05):
it was all part of Not All Companies Xarbant Village.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Then we went.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Had a snack at Saffron Indian Restaurant, and then Herbs Say,
which we learned about earlier, was there. And then we
went to a movie at acx.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
No, you really made the whole Sarbon Village.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I mean you can live, work, play. I mean that
that that thing is just built for Uh. You won't
run out of anything to do there.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I gotta say I'm a little bit jealous. I kind
of would have enjoyed that night. Bud Crawford, Saffron and
a movie at Acxixarbon Cinema signed me up.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
And then and then Sunny's Tonight at Sunny's I think
it's called the Exchange.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
But last night was a.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Touch of Gray, which is a tribute band, and we
didn't say too long for that, but they were rocking
and rolling too.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And that is your Not All Company's Commercial real Estate
Development Spotlight of the Week. You can find out more
about our sponsor at Nodelcompanies dot com. Well, if you've
noticed a lot of apartment construction going on around town,
that's not surprising because we have been building a ton
of them. It's a good sign that Omaha is really growing,
(28:18):
and it's also a thankful sign because we've had a
pretty severe housing shortage around here and we need to
build more and more units. Well, rent Cafe, which covers
the apartment business, expects a very robust year of apartment
construction nationally, with more than half a million new units
anticipated to open in America by the end of this year.
(28:42):
Over the past ten years, apartment openings averaged four hundred
and thirty nine thousand per year, with a crest of
six hundred and forty twenty twenty four, but still over
a half a million this year. Now, let's start looking locally,
because rent Cafe also tracks year over year increases in
apart and openings. So when we say openings, it means
(29:02):
it's a new one that has the construction completed and
it's ready for a tenant to move in. So Omaha
right now has the seventh highest year over year increase
in new apartment openings in twenty twenty five compared to
last year. So Omaha's expected new openings this year are
(29:24):
going to be three thousand, three hundred and thirty five
new units. That's seventy nine percent more than the number
of units we opened last year. And get this, it
must be a Nebraska thing because Lincoln rates even higher.
They're number four with a percentage increase in openings over
last year, So all of eastern Nebraska is opening new
(29:44):
apartments this year like crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
We're punching above our weight when it comes to opening
these opening these apartments compared to nationally, if there's only
five hundred thousand, what do you say about five thousand.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
No, we would have three hundred and thirty three thousand,
three hundred and thirty five out of five hundred thousand.
We're doing our share. We're definitely doing our share. That
is pretty pretty impressive. So it's a good thing. And
then we sometimes you have some people that say, gosh,
I sure don't like to see all these apartments opening
because I would prefer to have people owning properties. And
(30:17):
Trent and I would agree that society is better off
when a high percentage of people own homes. But at
the same time, Omaha's becoming more of a national and
international city. You got people coming in and people coming out,
and sometimes people that aren't going to stay for a
long time would rather rent. And also keep in mind
too that you also have a housing shorgage, and so
(30:41):
we really need to get those people living here. The
other thing that we have is a news item trenton
that people will find kind of comforting and maybe make
them happy. There's an entity called Compare the Market, and
they did some new research recently trying to determine the
best cities in the world world for socializing and finding friends.
(31:03):
They did the world, but the United States list in particular,
ranked twenty cities the top twenty, and Omaha came in
at twentieth, so we squeaked into the top twenty. So congratulations,
ladies and gentlemen. Out of all of the big cities
in America, the top one hundred metro areas yours, if
you live here, is the twentieth most social. And to
(31:25):
give you an idea about how they determine this, they
looked at how many official like meet up events or
networking events are held and They also looked at the
number of bars and coffee shops per one hundred thousand people.
We're definitely winning on coffee shops. You know, we had fifteen,
but most in the top twenty had a lot more
than that. And so anyway, good, good job. People continue
(31:49):
to make friends and be social in Omaha.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Another one way to make friends is to hop on
our Facebook page right now, grow Omaha. We need thirteen people,
thirteen more foulowers. Most of you probably are, but make
your friends sign up thirteen followers. Then we're at fifty
eight thousand and something. I started earlier in the week,
and I'd really appreciate it. Ladies, gentlemen, I feel like
(32:12):
we're on a telethon or something. Jerry Lewis telethon Trenton
this week discscus we're not all smoking.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Trenton this week discovered that you can invite friends on Facebook,
and so ever since he discovered this, it's always been
thinking about this week. So please, well you join the
damned Facebook page so we can get a different conversation
going here, folks. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's killing me.
Thanks Jeff, all right, that is me. This all means
that It's time for the Perkins chrits Er Construction Lightning Round.
(32:41):
That's when we talk about a lot of things really
fast and it's coming up. Thank you. Stay with us.
You're listening to Grow Omaha, brought to you by Cheer
Athletics and Dingman's Collision Center on news Radio eleven ten kfab.
It's your Perkins chrits Er Construction Lightning Round in which
we talk about a lot of things super fast. Thanks
for Perkins chrits Or Construction because they made this possible.
(33:01):
They are an outstanding class a general contractor. That means
they build things and if you're looking at building a
new building, whether it's office, retail, industrial, civic, social, philanthropic,
or you need to renovate internal space, they do all
of that. Perkins Chritscher Construction really delivers outstanding projects at
(33:22):
the right price and with ethics as well. Dave Kreutzer
is the owner. We know him, We talked to him
all of the time and we couldn't recommend them enough.
Perkins Chritscher Construction will take good care of you. You
can find out more about them by going to pdashcconstruction
dot com. Well, I've got Big Grove Brewery tap house
(33:43):
in the Catalyst building on U and MC's new West
campus has delayed opening after the Nebraska Liquor Commission denied
its craft brewers license. Where does it take? Apparently a
little bit more than what they've been doing, Regulators said
the denial came because Big Grove already manufactures alcohol and
tried to use a separate entity to qualify. So now
(34:05):
the Iowa based brewery is seeking a liquor manufacturer's license,
which would allow it to open but offer but limit
offerings to just its own beer. So you got that going.
So if you've been wondering, it's coming soon. Panda Express
plans to open a location near two hun and fourth
and In Street in as in Nebraska. We were talking
earlier in the show about all that growth on two
(34:27):
and fourth. There's yet another example. And while we're on
the topic of beer, La Vista based Cross Strain Brewing
Company a lot of people really love Crosstrain. They have
partnered with Nebraska Athletics to launch corn Husker Crusher. How
how timely you know? The first game was a couple
of nights ago. The Huskers are amazing. We did their
(34:48):
first space the Huskers no Crosstream Cornersker Crusher is the
official beer of the Huskers, and it'll be for sale
in cross trains to Omaha area breweries as well as
Memorial Stadium during games. Well, we've got signage that went
up for the future Hawaiian Brothers Island Grill restaurant in
the former Boston Market building at seven oh four North
(35:11):
hundred fourteenth Street in Miracle Hills. That should be opening
not too far from now. And one of the big
questions we get on Groha Maha lately, and believe me,
we get a lot of questions, And one of the
questions lately is what are they doing at one hundred
and thirty second in Millard Avenue where the old Paul's
Millard Sinclair was for decades and decades. It's going to
(35:34):
be a dairy Queen. So they're doing a lot. Some
people say, well, why do you have a mountain range
of dirt there to build the dairy Queen. Presumably underground
storage tanks have to be removed, and maybe they had
to do something with the soil. But dairy Queen, you
do plumbing and all the in ground stuff. Yeah, it
looks like it looks like a pretty impressive project, but
it will be a dairy Queen and then moving right
(35:56):
along Schumann's Liquor and more plans to and in the
Blackstone district inside the recently completed thirty seven West Farnham building.
The space is just west of Revival House, which opened
not too long ago in that same building. It's on
the south side of Farnham Street between thirty seventh and
thirty eighth. Schumans will have wine, beer, spirits and more,
(36:18):
and it'll be locally owned by the same guy who
owns the Red Lion Lounge just a block to the west.
Interior buildout is now underway. Steel has gone vertical on
an eighty one hundred square foot retail building at two
hundred and fourth and R Street, just southwest of two
hundred and fourth and Q Trend. There's another one two
hundred four street corridor. You're gonna have a god call
(36:39):
Trenton if you want to be right next to this.
It's a Godfather's Pizza and then space for a couple
of other tenants.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Right Godfathers in the homeland where they started. As they're expanding,
it's awesome, yeah, and they're modernizing Godfathers is.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Still a thing. Hey, here's another one. It's same area,
two hundred and fourth and V just a little bit
south of the future Godfathers. The still still the still
a long time wine, beer and spirit store in Lincoln
has expanded to West Omaha. They opened just this past
Thursday and they're good to go.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
This is a hangover from the COVID years because there's
more liquor stores than we've ever had.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
I'd love to see a study on that one. There
are a lot of them. Buffalo Wild Wings celebrating their
grand opening this weekend, a grand reopening, I should say,
forty two to eighty seven South one hundred and forty
four Street. They renovated and everything looks a lot newer
and nicer.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
That was the first Buffalo Wild Wings and we did
that at Southwestern Plaza across from Trolley's on the Lake,
and that was probably twenty years ago, so it's time
to remodel.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
There you go. And with that, we're gonna just call
it a rap because the music is playing, which means
that it's time for us to go home and YouTube
continue listening to KFAB at any rate. Hope everyone has
a great week I'm Jeff Beals and I'm Trent Maggott,
who needs seven more followers on gromaha facebook page. For
the love of God, people sign up. You've been listening
(38:04):
to gro Omaha, brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center,
Cheer Athletics, and Perkins Chritzer Construction. We'll chat with you
next week and nine on news radio eleven ten kfab
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