Weekly Market Report – December 1, 2023

The Lazy Leopard cocktail bar and lounge plans to open soon in the former Coolgreens restaurant space at 3618 Farnam Street in the Blackstone District.

Wienerschnitzel premium hot dogs is believed to be in lease negotiations to occupy an end-cap space in a soon-to-be constructed retail building on the MH Landing development northeast of 72nd & Grover Street. The same building will also house a new location of Salty Dog, a Councill Bluffs sports bar.

Chipotle Mexican Grill opened a Gretna location yesterday in front of the Hy-Vee store near 192nd & Highway 370.

The former Stoysich House of Sausage Building at 2502 South 130th Avenue, northeast of 132nd & West Center Road, has been demolished. Plans call for a restaurant called Hotpot 88 to eventually be built on the site.

The walls have started going up for the building that will house Nebraska’s first Hawaiian Bros. Island Grill next to a Tidal Wave carwash in Wick’s Southpointe development southwest of Interstate 80 & Highway 370. Kansas City-based Hawaiian Bros. has 46 locations in eight states.

BlueMoon ApotheCoffee & CuriosiTeas gift shop opened last week at 13808 West Maple Road in a small retail strip southwest of Office Depot and Kohl’s.

If you’re a fan of Little Ricky’s Rooftop Bar in the Blackstone District, you can still enjoy the outdoor space this winter. The bar has installed clear, plexiglass walls and outdoor heaters.

A couple retail moves at L Street Marketplace – Keyboard Kasle moved from an in-line space between Old Navy and Ross Dress for Less into a building closer to L Street next to Jason’s Deli. Bath & Body Works will move into the former Keyboard Kastle space early next year.

Maple 88 Mexican Kitchen & Cantina at 2822 North 88th Street has changed its name to Pueblito Bonito. The ownership, menu and location remain the same.

Happy Buddha’s Asian Cuisine will celebrate its grand opening next Tuesday at 3608 Twin Creek Drive in Bellevue.

Site grading has started for a future Jensen Tire and Auto location in Gretna northeast of 186th & Highway 370.

The Corner Kick Sports Bar has closed its 162nd & West Maple Road location. The 132nd & West Dodge Road and 138th & P Street locations remain open.

The “Restaurant & Retail Updates” section is sponsored by Anderson Convenience Market, featuring Quality AMOCO Fuels and serving Omaha since 1952, and proud to announce the return of Quality Amoco Fuels. Look for changes this Summer at Anderson Convenience Market – 8 Omaha area locations!

Learn more about Anderson Convenience market at www.Anderson1952.com

Heartwood Preserve Development Update

Heartwood Preserve, the 500-acre, mixed-use development west of 144th Street south of West Dodge Road, is seeing significant construction progress this year.

The development, which will eventually total hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investment, sits on the former Boys Town west farm. A luxury car dealership (BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar) and three class-A office buildings (Valmont industries, Carson and Union Bank & Trust) are already completed on the far north end of the property.

Work is progressing on a cluster of six retail/commercial buildings immediately south of the Carson and Union Bank buildings. The two buildings closest to 144th Street include a free-standing Starbuck’s (scheduled to open soon) and a retail strip that will have a Little King restaurant plus other tenants.

Just behind those two front buildings, interior construction work is wrapping up on the future Charleston’s and Mahogany Prime buildings. These businesses will be relocating from their current buildings north of Dodge.

Even a little further west are a couple 2-story buildings that are nearing completion. The larger one will be Gunderson’s Jewelers’ flagship store. The second will be home to Capital Cigar Lounge.

Two projects are under construction closer to Millard North High School. Workers are now reconstructing one of the buildings at Ovation Heartwood Preserve senior living facility. The building previously on that site burned down in April 2022 just as residents were preparing to move in. Broadmoor Development has started dirt work on a large apartment complex immediately north of the high school.

Heartwood Preserve actually stretches south of Pacific Street. That’s where Applied Underwriters is finishing its 270,000 sq. ft. corporate headquarters building. The building is only a few stories high, but it has a massive presence on overlooking the site. All 1,000 parking stalls will be underground. Approximately 2,000 employees will work in the building, which will open next year.

The former Shopko store on the southwest corner of 144th & West Center Road will become Nebraska’s first VASA Fitness location, according to ACCESS Commercial, LLC. VASA Fitness has 55 locations in eight states. The 62,000 sq. ft. location has extensive amenities. The company is interested in opening additional Nebraska and Iowa locations.

The reconstruction of South 168th Street between West Center Road and Q Street is nearing the halfway point, according to WOWT. Crews are widening the stretch from two to four lanes. The entire project should be completed about one year from now.

DR Horton has completed the remodel of its new 18,000 sq. ft. Nebraska Division Office at 1804 North 168th Street. Ronco was hired to do the build out and A/O was the architect. The division office will be home to DR Horton home building operations, DHI Mortgage, DRH Realty of Nebraska, and a future branch of DHI Title. The office opened November 15th.

Children’s Hospital West Omaha Clinic at 20402 Roosevelt in the Coventry development is fully enclosed. Construction work continues in the interior.

Farnam Street between 48th Street and Saddle Creek Road reopened to traffic today. The street has been closed since late April as the City of Omaha worked to improve existing traffic flow and accommodate future traffic growth as the University of Nebraska Medical Center expands into its new Saddle Creek project.

The Skate Ribbon in Heartland of America Park has now reopened for the winter ice skating. New to the Skate Ribbon this winter is timed ticketing. You can reserve ice time by visiting TheRiverFrontOmaha.com. A reservation allows visitors to select their preferred date and times, as well as the chance to rent ice skates if needed. Ice skate rentals are available at a cost of $5 for adult skates and $4 for children.

Grow Omaha Snippets are brought to you by Omaha Car Care with four metro area locations – 131st & Dodge, 58th & Center, 85th & L and 144th & Harrison.

Omaha Car Care “We’ll be along for the ride.”

After two straight months above growth neutral, the Creighton University Mid-America Business Conditions Index, a leading economic indicator for the nine-state region stretching from Minnesota to Arkansas, slumped significantly below the 50.0 growth neutral threshold in November. The index, which ranges between 0 and 100 with 50.0 representing growth neutral, plummeted to 42.2 from 51.5 in October.

Union Pacific Railroad plans to open a new international intermodal terminal in the heart of Phoenix, providing customers a sustainable rail option between ocean ports in the Los Angeles Basin and the nation’s fast-growing Southwest region. The new terminal, owned and operated by Union Pacific, is expected to open in the first quarter of 2024. It will be established in Union Pacific’s downtown rail yard, with capacity to grow to meet customer demand.

HDR has been selected to manage the transformation of more than 500 acres in the heart of Nashville, Tennessee. The Imagine East Bank Vision Plan outlines the largest development project in the city’s history and envisions a new future for what is mostly underused land adjacent to its downtown.

Union Pacific Corporation has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.30 per share on the company’s common stock, payable Dec. 28, 2023, to shareholders of record Dec. 8, 2023. Union Pacific has paid dividends on its common stock for 124 consecutive years.

Communities across the country benefited from 500 projects organized through WoodmenLife’s Giving Together program. This year’s program amassed 14,620 volunteer hours and a total investment of $241,594. The Omaha-based life insurance provider’s annual initiative gives its sales representatives the financial and organizational support to mobilize volunteers and make a positive impact in their local communities through service projects.

In October the U.S. hotel average daily rate was $161, which was up 3 percent from the previous year, according to Steve Glenn of Lincoln-based Executive Travel. Prices may go down, however, as the U.S. hotel occupancy rate dropped almost 2 percent in October.

Black Friday e-commerce spending increased 7.5 percent from a year earlier, reaching a record $9.8 billion in the United States, according to CNBC.

This section is sponsored by FranNet of The Heartland, the local, trusted franchise experts. They are “in the business of helping you get into business!”

Burnett vs. NAR

By Joe Finlay

The recent National Association of Realtors (NAR) lawsuits have been top-of-mind in the real estate world lately. Below is a brief overview from the Nebraska Realtors Association of what’s happened.

Burnett Overview

• The Burnett case is a class-action lawsuit that was filed in Missouri federal court by a group of Missouri home sellers. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) was named as a defendant in the case along with several corporate defendants.
• The plaintiffs argued that NAR’s cooperative compensation rule amounted to a conspiracy to fix commissions paid by home sellers to buyer brokers. The rule, which is applicable to certain Multiple Listing Services (MLSs), requires listing brokers to specify the compensation being offered to buyer brokers who bring a buyer to a transaction.
• On October 31st, the jury returned a verdict against NAR and the corporate codefendants and awarded $1.78 billion in damages to the plaintiffs.

NAR’s Position

• NAR believes that the jury reached an outcome that is not supported by the law or the facts presented in the case and plans to appeal.
• Among other points, NAR’s rule does not specify any compensation amount that should be offered. NAR has always said it could be any amount as low as a penny. And when asked this past summer if it could be zero, NAR advised that it could be zero as well.
• In fact, other rules throughout the MLS Handbook and NAR policy expressly prohibit MLSs, associations, and brokers from setting or suggesting any such amount that should be included in that field. That number is completely at the discretion of the listing broker and their client and is always negotiable.
• NAR stands by the benefits of cooperative compensation – the practice of a listing broker making an offer of compensation to buyer brokers who bring a successful buyer to the transaction.
  The cooperative compensation practice makes efficient, transparent, and accessible marketplaces possible.
• Cooperative compensation benefits sellers because they can attract more qualified buyers for their home, which means they increase their chance for the best offer, and it benefits buyers, who can have more choices of homes and afford professional representation to help them navigate through what for many will be the most significant transaction in their lifetime.
• Without cooperative compensation, many first-time home buyers and lower-income buyers couldn’t afford to pay for representation out of pocket.
• Military veterans would also be disadvantaged if listing brokers are prohibited from paying buyer brokers, as the terms of VA loans prevent veterans from making such payments themselves.
• REALTORS® know that MLS policies and rules have benefited buyers and sellers for more than 100 years.

Next Steps / Legal Landscape

• As noted, NAR has said it plans to appeal the verdict. This is just the first chapter in a longer legal process
• In terms of timing, both sides will file briefs with the trial court in the next few months. Then it’s expected that the appeal will be briefed and argued later in 2024.
• As that moves ahead, there could be other legal developments. For example, there are other legal actions pending, and NAR has already seen additional plaintiffs come forward to make similar allegations in new cases.

Consumers have a choice

• Consumers have a choice when it comes to home buying and selling representation.
• Compensation arrangements, including commissions, are negotiable and set between a broker and their client.
• Listing brokers decide how much compensation to offer to a buyer’s agent. It can be $0, a penny, or any other amount.

Grow Omaha Residential is developed and sponsored by Joe Finlay, REALTOR with NP Dodge Real Estate.

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

Here are seven factors, according to business author Anthony Iannario that can kill accountability: 1. Trust issues; 2. Unclear expectations; 3. No reason or rationale; 4. No strategy; 5. Making suggestions instead of declaring expected result; 6. No performance reviews; 7. Allowing people to fail too easily.

In a survey of 2,000 U.S. employees this year, 34 percent said they often dread starting their workday, an 11-percentage-point rise since 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal. Despite wage increases, more paid time off and greater control over where they work, the number of U.S. workers who say they are angry, stressed and disengaged is actually climbing.

More than a thousand tech companies have laid off 414k,000 workers between 2022 and 2023, according to The Hustle, but one employer is still actively hiring: Uncle Sam. The U.S. federal government hopes to hire 22,000 tech workers into public sector jobs this fiscal year.

The proportion of students who go to schools with high or extreme levels of chronic absenteeism jumped from 26 percent in the 2017-2018 school year to 66 percent in 2021-22 school year, according to Fortune. To be considered chronically absent, a student has to miss at least 10 percent of school days.

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2023 is “authentic.” A high-volume lookup most years, authentic saw a substantial increase in 2023, driven by conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity and social media.

SALES

If you ever felt a little rush of joy upon watching the failure of someone you dislike (perhaps one of your competitors), you have experienced schadenfreude. Unbridled schadenfreude can put your moral compass in jeopardy and leave you preying on the downfall of others, according to Forbes. To moderate feelings of schadenfreude, take a moment to ask yourself why you’re feeling it. Is it for the secret self-esteem boost? For a sense of standing up for justice? Maybe it’s a bad habit spiraling out of control?

Today, there’s an average of seven decision-makers involved in the B2B buying process.

BradBird gives you an edge when competing for customers. There are 40 modules, each a different topic. Modules include a video and matching workbook. It’s only $79 per month and group discounts are available. You can cancel at any time. If you’re an action-taker, click HERE and get started now!

WISDOM

You either suffer the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” –Jim Rohn

https://www.dundeebanking.com/

Did you know that Omaha will have a League One Volleyball professional team next year, joining franchises in Houston, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Madison, Wis.?

Did you know the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs is a former Carnegie library? A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including 1,689 in the United States. They were funded by the legendary industrialist Andrew Carnegie.

Did you know Creighton University’s annual gross economic impact on the Omaha area is nearly $1 billion?

This section is sponsored by Lockbox Storage, an affiliate of Omaha-based McGregor Interests Inc. We provide storage solutions for all of your storage needs. Our facilities have full-time managers and bright lighting to provide superior security for your belongings. In addition to space for rent, we also provide packing supplies, protection plans and locks along with complimentary handcarts and dollies. Visit LockBox Storage and let us help you with all your storage needs.

16th Annual Holiday Beerfest on December 2nd: The 16th Annual Holiday Beerfest is back at The Crescent Moon happening from 1-5 p.m. This ticketed event features a holiday-themed beer tasting with selections from various popular breweries. Attendees can enjoy the festive atmosphere and taste both familiar and new holiday beers, with brewery representatives present to pour and discuss their offerings. Additionally, there’s an Ugly Sweater Contest, so wear your best ugly holiday sweater for a chance to win!

Hot Shops Winter Open House on December 2nd & 3rd: The Hot Shops artists invite you to their annual Winter Open House. Meet current artists, learn more about their tools and processes, see demonstrations and purchase their latest works! The artwork created ranges from drawings, paintings and photography to sculptures, pottery, glass art, weaving, quilts, jewelry and architectural pieces. This event is free but donations would be greatly appreciated as all proceeds will be dedicated to a new ADA-accessible elevator at the Hot Shops!

Night Light: Glow on December 7th: Play at adults-only Thursday nights with exhibits and provocative programs that will expand your brain and spark joy. As the nights grow longer, make plans to join others for ‘Night Light Glow’ — a joyful exhibition of light, art and science happening every Thursday until January 11! Explore glowing art from international and local artists and exhibits and activities that play with light. During Night Light Glow, you’ll be able to explore bioluminescence, glowing chemistry experiments, the human need for light in the darkness and more!

Zoolightful on December 7th: Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium welcomes the holiday season with an all-new wildly bright tradition: Zoolightful presented by Chesterman Co. and Coca-Cola. Visitors will experience the zoo like they’ve never seen before, as it transforms into a world of immersive lands with unique and enchanting experiences, dazzling light displays and unforgettable holiday fun!

Omaha Classic Speed Dating on December 7th: Join Smitten Singles for a dynamic speed dating evening, ideal for singles under 40 seeking to meet new people and find a potential match. The event starts with a meet-and-greet, offering an opportunity for attendees to familiarize themselves with each other. During the speed dating segment, participants engage in one-on-one conversations for a fixed duration, moving sequentially to meet everyone, with provided conversation prompts to aid smooth interaction. After the speed dating rounds, participants submit their matches and can further connect with those they clicked with during the post-event mixer. Make sure to reserve a ticket now to save your spot!

This Upcoming Events section is sponsored by Eagle Mortgage Company, is a locally owned and full-service mortgage company in Omaha.

Eagle Mortgage can help you realize your dream of owning a home.

Katie Shipp, commercial account manager for Dodge Partners Insurance, has been awarded the most prestigious honor available to insurance customer service representatives: National Outstanding CSR of the Year. The Society of Certified Insurance Service Representatives and Society of Certified Insurance Counselors selected Shipp from a field of 27 state winners.

The City of Council Bluffs has sworn in Matt Davis as the new chief of police. Davis previously was with the Illinois State Patrol.

In Memoriam – Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, died peacefully this week at a California hospital at age 99. He would have turned 100 on January 1st. Upon Munger’s death, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett said, “Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation.”

The “People in the News” section is sponsored by Baird Holm LLP. Baird Holm’s dedicated team of real estate lawyers has extensive experience in all aspects of real estate law, including purchases, sales, zoning and land use, leasing, and dispute resolution. Click HERE for more information.

Wall Street’s many decades of doing business with the public is predicated on their self-proclaimed ability to predict the future of stock prices. Webster defines prediction as using scientific methods to demonstrate the relationship between two variables. In the case of Wall Street, the financial value of a company and its future stock price are the two variables in question.

Ben Graham – Warren Buffett’s mentor – said this is hogwash. He gave the market a human persona that is emotional and, at times irrational, and named it “Mr. Market.”

Graham said there are times when Mr. Market is exuberant and offers to sell you stock at prices that are ridiculous. And then there are times when Mr. Market’s emotions turn sour, and he offers to sell you stock at equally ridiculous prices. Mr. Graham’s advice to individual investors is to pay attention to Mr. Market’s moods and ignore Wall Street’s advice.

If you ascribe to Wall Street’s paradigm, then continue on as you have always done. However, if you find merit in Graham’s paradigm, then investing takes a different tack. Graham’s approach is based upon observation rather than prediction. The dictionary defines observation as using common sense to gather information in order to deal with and properly respond to social and natural phenomenon. Translation: Don’t ignore Mr. Market.

Mr. Market has been in a mellow mood of late. As we approach the holiday season, the financial media’s talking heads are all abuzz about a potential Santa Clause rally. Here are two critical takeaways. First, I am skeptical about making an investment decision centered on a dead/mythical person. The marketing gurus in the Wall Street back offices are working overtime to build new index ETFs that are bastardized versions of the sacred three – the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq – and offering them as their holiday gift to the investing public.

Second, don’t forget Keynes and his beauty contest approach. While I have just slammed Wall Street’s ability to predict the market, the media jibber jabber of a Santa Claus rally is not a prediction; it’s a stocking stuffer. If enough rug rats think they’ll find a present under the tree, their chances of success are good.

However, Scrooge and I are anticipating a lump of coal.

While my mantra is “Forget the needle, buy the haystack,” investors of all stripes and sizes need to pay attention to the haystack. For active investors, cash is the tool needed to respond to Mr. Market’s irrational zigzags.

Berkshire still has $152 billion in cash.

Quantum Fiber in Omaha, Nebraska, is super-fast, reliable internet. We did away with data caps, bundles, and pricing gimmicks because you don’t want them. Instead, you get game-changing customer service, transparent pricing, and a powerful app for freedom, simplicity, and control over your internet. Quantum Fiber is what internet service looks like when it’s built for the world of you.

The Grow Omaha radio show broadcasts live every Saturday morning at 9:00, but now you can watch videos of each episode instead of just listening.

Grow Omaha’s brand-new website features video footage shot inside the radio studio during each week’s show!

Videos include News of the Week, Lightning Round, guest interviews, and “Grow Omaha Uncut,” a behind-the-scenes look at what happens during commercial breaks.

Support the Grow “O” Mission

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