Weekly Market Report – March 31, 2022

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A former Applebee’s is getting new life. Copps Pizza has leased the vacant Applebee’s building southwest of 180th & West Center Road and should open later this year. Copps plans an expanded menu at the new location with steaks, pastas and salads. Copps has existing locations at 72nd & Jones and Shadow Lake Towne Center.

Tous Les Jours, a French-Asian-inspired bakery, is opening next to Charleston’s at 75th & Dodge Street. Tous Les Jours, which means “every day” in French, offers 300 different items baked in-store. The South Korean company has 1,650 locations worldwide, with 70 of them in the United States. The closest existing location is in Kanas City.

Coneflower Creamery plans to open its second location – or “scoop shop,” as they call it – in the Ashton Building in North Downtown’s Millwork Commons district. Coneflower’s “farm-to-cone” ice cream is extremely popular. The original location is at 3921 Farnam Street in the Blackstone District.

The Dragon Wok restaurant at 14220 Fort Street plans to open an additional location in the former VooDoo Taco building at Nebraska Crossing in Gretna. VooDoo Taco has moved into the former Pieocracy space.

Fareway Meat & Grocery’s official opening was yesterday at 604 South Highway 6 in Gretna. The Iowa-based retailer has five existing metro area locations.

PacSun has opened at Nebraska Crossing near Interstate 80 & Highway 31. The California-based retailer has an existing store at Westroads Mall and sells apparel, footwear and accessories for teens and young adults. Also at Nebraska Crossing, construction steel has gone vertical for the future REI store.

Speaking of steel going vertical, that is what’s happening at 192nd & Highway 370 in Gretna, where a full-service Hy-Vee store is under development.

Stretch Zone has opened its first Nebraska or Iowa location at 16920 Wright Plaza in the Shoppes at Legacy. Stretch Zone is a health and fitness business with 184 locations across the country.

Applied Underwriters Reaches Major Construction Milestone at Heartwood Preserve

Heartwood Preserve, a 500-acre, mixed-use development on land formerly part of Boys Town, reached a milestone in its construction this week as Applied Underwriters’ operational headquarters was topped out.

Topping out is a long-standing tradition held by builders when the last beam is placed atop a structure during its construction. Applied will move up to 2,000 employees into the 270,000 sq. ft. facility that sits among the public nature trails and lawns, other corporate headquarters, residential developments and retail shops in Heartwood Preserve, currently over 70 percent sold.

Before calling upon the construction crew to hoist the large I-beam into place to effect the topping out, Steve Menzies, chairman and founder of Applied and creator of Heartwood Preserve, characterized the project as “high minded,” the result of a “visionary approach” in its respect for the natural environment, for its many features welcoming citizens to the trails and lawns, and for its “pleasant ambiance” of retail and residential facilities:

The new Applied headquarters is centered upon a 50-acre campus and has 1,000 parking stalls, all underground and purposely not visible. “Its systems are state-of-the-art in every way and are also placed out of sight as a further aesthetic consideration, leaving the vistas and natural settings unobstructed,” according to a company press release.

The 5-story building features 16-foot ceilings throughout, enabling natural light to shine through the acres of floor-to-ceiling electrochromic glass encasing the structure. The building demanded what is believed to be the largest installation of electrochromic glass in the United States.

A characteristic that is especially people friendly and efficient is the use of extraordinarily large interior spaces that span 105 feet in length without any interior supporting columns requiring specially designed 8-foot deep girder trusses to provide for what is believed to be the longest unsupported spans in any office building in the United States.

The new headquarters is scheduled for occupancy in 2024.

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A major construction project is coming to the Builders District, the redevelopment area near Kiewit’s global headquarters building and just west of Charles Schwab Field in North Downtown. Noddle Companies, which is developing the district, plans to break ground this summer on a 5-story, 125,000 sq. ft. office building with retail space on the first floor at 1501 Mike Fahey Street. It will be the first new building in Omaha in several decades to be constructed out of timber beams. Pre-leasing is underway.

Creighton University plans to begin construction in April on a 37,779 sq. ft., 4-story Jesuit Residence, which will be located along 24th Street on the east end of the Jesuit Gardens and north of Creighton Hall and St. John’s Church. The building will house Jesuit priests, many of whom live and work on campus as instructors, pastors, chaplains, administrators and staff. The building will include 29 bedrooms, a 1,015 sq. ft. chapel, a dining hall, library and space for spiritual activity.

Dirt work is now underway on what will be a 6-story Hampton Inn at 44th & Douglas Street that will serve the fast-growing Med Center area.

Construction has reached the third floor of the 6-story, future Moxy by Marriott hotel on the site of the former Old Market Diner on the southeast corner of 12th & Harney Street.

An independent analysis shows that the University of Nebraska Medical Center and its primary clinical partner Nebraska Medicine had a $5.9 billion economic impact on the state’s economy last year, a 34 percent increase since 2018. The impact number grows to $6.4 billion when considering academic-related functions. UNMC and Nebraska Medicine support more than 56,000 Nebraska jobs either directly or indirectly.

U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Graduate Schools ranked the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s primary care program seventh out of 124 institutions nationwide. UNMC also tied for seventh in most graduates practicing in rural areas and 19th in most graduates practicing in primary care fields. Primary care is considered family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics or internal medicine pediatrics. Other UNMC programs also received rankings in the 2023 report.

Let’s talk construction! The March 2023 Grow Omaha Construction Update by Brad Williams is now available. In the new video, Brad features Regency Landing, new retail construction near Nebraska Furniture Mart, Midtown development, the adaptive reuse of a 6-story building and much more. Watch the video HERE!

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Real Estate News from CoStar – Discount retailer Five Below is ratcheting up its growth plans, looking to triple its store count to 3,500 by the end of 2030 and double its sales by 2025.

The Philadelphia-based chain, which now has 1,190 stores in 40 states, unveiled its “Triple-Double” strategy. The retailer aims to open 1,000 more stores by the end of 2025 alone. Five Below has multiple Omaha-area locations.

Five Below targets tweens, generally considered those 9 to 12 years old, and teens with an array of toys, candy, tech accessories and gadgets, bedroom decor, sports items and other merchandise priced from $1 to $5.

Scoular has acquired two facilities in northern Florida to help the company better serve grain and livestock producers in the Southeastern United States. Scoular purchased the assets of Columbia Grain & Ingredients in Lake City and Live Oak. The purchase provides Scoular with anchor locations in the region and includes feed ingredient and grain handling facilities, storage space and a feed mill.

Farm Credit lenders in 28 states announced they are collaborating to nearly triple in size the area where their shared online land loan application service will be available. FarmLend.com, the online service, will accelerate and simplify the farm and ranch loan process across more than 300 million acres. FarmLend.com allows borrowers to apply for land financing 24/7, when and where it’s convenient for them. Within three business hours, applicants are contacted by a financing expert who answers questions and helps guide their loan application through their Farm Credit association’s review and approval process.

Green Plains Inc. announced that it has completed a five-year, $350 million Senior Secured Sustainability-linked Revolving Credit Facility to support general corporate and working capital needs of the company. The credit facility was entered into by three wholly owned subsidiaries of Green Plains Inc., and replaces the prior independent working capital credit facilities held at Green Plains Grain Company LLC and Green Plains Trade Group LLC.

The Omaha City Council unanimously approved Mutual of Omaha’s $68 million Tax Increment Financing request for the Fortune 500 company’s planned headquarters at 14th & Farnam Street downtown. The $443 million skyscraper would have 800,000 sq. ft. and might end up being the tallest building in the city.

Cheer Athletics, the premier all-star cheer club in the country, which has a location in the Omaha area, is opening its doors to the public for an open house April 8th from 6 to 8 p.m. and April 9th from 4 to 7 p.m. at 14620 Gold Coast Road in Papillion. For more info, click HERE.

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Mary Margaret Irish is the new Chief Executive Officer of The Benefit Group, Inc. of Omaha. She most recently worked for DoorDash, where she held leadership positions in operations, product development and strategic partnerships.

North End Teleservices, LLC announced the organization’s Chief Executive Officer, Carmen Tapio, is the Nebraska honoree of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year. USA TODAY designed the honor to recognize “exceptional women who make their communities better.” The publication named one woman from each of the 50 states and Puerto Rico to receive this year’s accolades. Tapio was chosen by committee, from thousands of candidates, whose names and credentials were submitted by nomination.

Dr. Maryanne Stevens, has announced she will retire as president of the College of St. Mary one year from this May. Stevens is CSM’s longest-serving president. She took what was “a struggling, debt-ridden institution in the mid-1990s and transformed it into the thriving, financially-sound university it is today,” according to a college press release.

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.

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