Weekly Market Report – September 29, 2022

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Rivera’s Mexican Food at 12051 Blondo Street will close permanently on October 31st. The space has already been leased to Restaurants, Inc., which plans to open a yet-to-be-announced concept. Restaurants, Inc. owns Taxi’s Grille & Bar, Stokin’ Goat, Twisted Fork and Stokes.

Clean Eatz Café is coming to Regency Landing, the redevelopment project on the northeast corner of I-680 & Pacific Street. Clean Eatz Café is “heart-driven to change lives through clean, balanced food.” The restaurant chain has 70 locations in 18 states. Closest existing locations are in St. Louis and Chicago.

Itka San’s future location in the former Fuzzy’s Taco Shop at Village Pointe is expected to open in about three weeks. The outdoor patio will be converted into an indoor-outdoor, four-season room.

PepperJax Grill has opened a location on the northeast corner of Interstate 80 & Highway 50 in Sarpy County.

Qdoba has opened a new location in an end-cap space in the Antler View area near 189th & West Maple Road.

Pop’s has opened in the Inner Rail Food Hall at Aksarben Village. From the same owner as W.D. Cravings, Pop’s serves Neapolitan pizzas, salads and more.

Stories Coffee Company held a ribbon cutting yesterday for its new store at 10520 South 204th Street in Gretna. Stories also plans to open a coffee shop in late October in the former Culprit Café space at Midtown Crossing.

Puptown Funk has opened at Cedarnole Plaza at 310 South 72nd Street. The dog groomer will occupy a 1,612 sq. ft. space in this retail center, according to Maddie Graeve of NAI NP Dodge, who represented the tenant in the lease.

Speaking of dog groomers, Deb’s Diamond Pet Parlor has opened has opened in the retail center at 19102 Q Street, according to Investors Realty. For the past 15 years, the business operated as an in-home only pet groomer but now has a bricks-and-mortar location.

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

Review: At Dynamite, some dishes are on fire, while others lack spark

By Sarah Baker Hansen

I’d heard a lot about Winchester Bar & Grill — in particular, about the burgers at Winchester — long before I ever set foot in the dive bar dining room a few weeks back.

I kind of love it when rumors turn out to be true.

Winchester made me feel like I was in some gem of a small town, far-flung dive bar, but with really good food. And, as a person who has spent a fair amount of time eating mediocre food in small town, far-flung dive bars, finding one this good in Omaha is, I think, pretty notable.

All you small town dive bar lovers out there, take note.

Those burgers everyone mentioned seem to be the house specialty. There’s ten different varieties on the menu, plus a make-your-own option and an Impossible burger, for those meat-free folks.

We sampled three: the Rustler, the Patty Melt and the Dakota Territory. Each featured what might be the best part of a Winchester burger: a 6-ounce patty perfectly smashed and charred, with lacy edges that read almost crisp, ample amounts of salt and pepper and a perfectly pink center. For a burger lover like me, this is heaven.

Winchester offers no shortage of bun styles, toppings, sauces and other condiments for its burgers. The Rustler, for example, comes topped with cheese, bacon, onion rings and Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce on a brioche bun. The Dakota Territory comes on a garlic-toasted onion bun with both Swiss and American cheeses, bacon, tomato, house made wow sauce, remoulade, lettuce, pickle and onion.

Toppings seemed fresh across the board. My friend who ordered the Rodeo burger found the sweet barbecue sauce a bit overwhelming, and my husband thought the flavors of both the secret wow sauce and the remoulade blended together on the Dakota burger, making one indistinguishable from the other.

The sides of fried delights like onion rings, sweet potato fries, curly fries and cheese curds, which we sampled another night, all seemed from a freezer package versus being homemade, , but I can assure you we polished them off regardless.

Otherwise, complaints are few.

About that wow sauce: I asked our server one night what might be in it, and she came back to report it’s a secret recipe with several ingredients the kitchen won’t reveal. I suggest ordering a side of it specifically for fry dipping. It’s not the average mayo-and-ketchup “fry sauce” you see at many places, and has a mysterious but tasty hint of sweetness I couldn’t quite pinpoint

I have always liked a patty melt — that sort of just greasy enough diner specialty — and here, Winchester nails it.

One of those lace-edged smash patties sits below a heap of caramelized onion and melted Swiss; Thousand island dressing tops all that and the whole mess gets smashed between two pieces of just-greasy, crispy toasted marble rye. Perfection.

Inside, Winchester has that typical small-town bar look and feel: televisions playing sports, a pool table, Christmas lights, lit Budweiser signs, daily specials scrawled across a chalkboard, a long bar with refrigerators full of domestic beer. The business does a brisk trade on the evenings when locals arrive to play sand volleyball on the adjacent set of outdoor courts or to sing karaoke on the stage in one corner of the dining room.

It’s worth noting that the kitchen pumps out a regular lineup of homemade comfort food that’s reasonably priced and, if their social media is any indication, looks just like what mom used to make. The lineup includes hot beef and gravy over mashed potatoes, meatloaf, chicken parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs and Friday night chicken fried steak.

On Tuesdays and Saturdays, one of those cheeseburgers with a side of fries clocks in at just $6.99. These days, that’s a price that not even a fast food drive-thru can beat.

There’s more than burgers and home cooking on the menu at Winchester. We also tried their Tommy wings, which arrived coated in Parmesan, butter, garlic and herbs and grew on our trio the more we ate them. Super crispy and garlicky, with tender meat inside, the finish of cheese is unusual in this context, which is generally so focused on sauce.

Whenever I see a Reuben on a menu, I try it. I’d call Winchester’s version Reuben-adjacent versus a classic. Hand pulled beef comes topped with sauerkraut and Thousand island, but here the sandwich is served on a marbled rye instead of dark, and also includes shaved red cabbage and both American and Swiss cheeses. I’m rarely a purist, but the Reuben is one of the times I am. Winchester’s version, while good, is cheesier than most, and has a different texture because of the cabbage’s crunchier texture.

There’s also a version of an east coast chopped cheese sandwich, here called a “Winchester WIlly,” and served in both a small and large size. For us, the small was more than ample, particularly because this sandwich is super cheesy, super creamy and super rich. Ground beef comes chopped together with onion, mushroom and lots of cheese, then served on a toasted hoagie bun. I’m not sure what else I can say.

For me, Winchester lands solidly in the same category of some of my other favorite divey food spots, like Dinker’s, or Barrett’s. There’s some surprising home cooking and some creative moments, and, of course, a great burger.

The only thing I wish for? A small-town style munch basket featuring all those fried finger foods in one, delicious pile, with a side of that special Omaha wow sauce, of course.

Winchester Bar & Grill

7002 Q St.

Hours
M-Sat: 11AM – 2AM
Sun: 4P-10P

(402) 331-9933

Google Fiber Commits to Omaha

Google has invested billions of dollars in the Omaha metro area over the past decade, but now the California-based, Fortune 500 company is making a different kind of investment.

Google Fiber is planning to add Omaha to the growing number of cities offering its highspeed internet service to residential and small business customers.

The Omaha City Council will consider the license agreement with Google Fiber next month. The agreement allows the company to install, maintain and operate a fiber optic network in the public right-of-way.

“New and expanding technologies are important to our city’s growth, to attract new residents and new business,” said Mayor Jean Stothert. “Our role is always to help businesses locate and grow in Omaha. Google Fiber is a perfect fit for the growing tech sector of our economy.”

The agreement includes requirements for construction permits, notice to property owners before construction work begins, bonds and insurance. It will be in effect for 10 years and then automatically renew thereafter.

The fiber network is currently in design; construction is expected to begin in 2023, with service available as segments of the network are completed.

In August, Google Fiber announced it would focus expansion on five additional states, including Nebraska. Omaha will be the company’s 19lh market.

The license agreement will be on the City Council agenda for 1st reading on October 4th.

Google Fiber and Google Fiber Webpass are already offering service and building out networks in the following metro areas: Atlanta; Austin, Tex.; Charlotte; Chicago; Denver; Des Moines, Iowa; Huntsville, Ala.; Kansas City; Mesa, Ariz; Miami; Nashville; Oakland, Calif.; Orange County, Calif; Provo and Salt Lake City, Utah; San Antonio; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

Google is building a data center near State Street and Blair High Road

in Omaha. It is their third data center in the area; the others are in Papillion and Council Bluffs.

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The NU Board of Regents is scheduled to vote tomorrow on converting an abandoned steel mill west of Saddle Creek Road into The Catalyst, a $60 million project at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The building would house UNeMed and UNeTech as well as a food court, offices and event space, according to Nebraska Examiner.

The Omaha City Council has approved an additional $400,000 for demolition of the W. Dale Clark Library downtown. The additional money is necessary to remove underground steel-and-concrete pilings. The underground material needs to be removed to accommodate construction of Mutual of Omaha’s skyscraper headquarters on the site. Demolition is scheduled to start this Saturday.

Transportation Progress in Sarpy County – The long anticipated 180th Street viaduct north of Giles Road is now open. Giles Road west of 180th Street remains under construction.

Offutt Air Force Base will reopen its runway tomorrow after an 18-month, $169 million complete rebuild. During the runway construction project, Offutt’s 55th Wing used the Lincoln Municipal Airport for its flight operations.

West Gate Bank has opened a branch on the northeast corner of 177th & West Maple Road. The Lincoln-based bank has three other metro area locations.

North Saddle Creek Road is getting its own Business Improvement District (BID), which will coordinate improvements such as landscaping, lighting, parking and maintenance. BIDs are already in place in the downtown area as well as Benson and Blackstone. The North Saddle Creek district is considered ripe for redevelopment. In fact, one developer has already announced plans for a 161-unit multi-family building.

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Real Estate News from CoStar –  The low-rate environment that helped juice the housing market for the past several years is decidedly over as the Federal Reserve moves to push interest rates ever higher in its battle to tame decades-high inflation. Even as robust pandemic-era demand for housing drove prices higher, rock-bottom mortgage rates allowed buyers some relief in their monthly payments.

But affordability has now cratered to 2005-2006 levels after mortgage rates swooped higher over the course of the year. Year to date, the average mortgage rate in the Mortgage Banker’s Association’s weekly survey has averaged 5.1% in 2022, compared to 3.1% over the same period in 2021. Most recently, the MBA reported a mortgage rate near 6.52% for the week ending Sept. 23.

Caraway, the iconic home and lifestyle brand leader in non-toxic, design-forward kitchenware & home goods, raised a $35 million investment led by McCarthy Capital of Omaha. McCarthy Capital manages more than $3 billion of investment capital across its portfolio and specializes in growing businesses in partnership with strong management teams.

Werner Enterprises, Inc. will release its third quarter earnings on Wednesday, November 2nd after the market close. The company will also hold a conference call to discuss the third quarter 2022 results and updated 2022 outlook on the same day, beginning at 4:00 p.m. Central.

AIM Institute, an Omaha-based nonprofit focused on building the local tech workforce, will host its annual Heartland Developers Conference October 3rd and 4th at CHI Health Center Omaha. Presented by Farm Credit Services of America, this two-day software development conference for tech professionals will provide an “immersive experience and world-class content” to the Silicon Prairie development community.

The Greater Omaha Chamber is holding a ribbon cutting today for RTG Medical’s new headquarters. The 54,000 sq. ft., 3-story building is located at 4611 East 22nd Street in Fremont.

Fremont Contract Carriers has leased 67,279 sq. ft. in the Millard Lumber building at 12909 F Plaza, according to Trenton Magid and John Meyer of NAI NP Dodge, who represented the landlord.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union has tentatively agreed to a deal with the nation’s freight railroads including Omaha-based Union Pacific. The contract dispute won’t be fully settled until all 12 rail unions approve their agreements this fall. The five-year deal includes a 24 percent pay raise and $5,000 in bonuses. It also has a couple of additional benefits, including a cap on health insurance expenses and a promise that each railroad will negotiate individually over expense reimbursement.

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!”

Compiled by Grow Omaha co-founJeff Bealsder and sales trainer 

Leadership & Management

Here are 12 signs that your company’s sales team lacks accountability:

1. Plateaued or declining numbers.
2. Difficulty retaining top producers.
3. Difficulty recruiting top producers.
4. Sales managers are more interested in building friendships with team members instead of being bosses.
5. The sales team lacks clear, quantifiable and regularly monitored goals.
6. Sales managers aren’t having regular one-on-one meetings with each sales rep.
7. Sales managers utter vague, meaningless “motivational” phrases such as “We are tracking behind this quarter and need to take up our game to the next level,” or “Let’s get after it!”
8. Sales reps do not engage in healthy competition among themselves.
9. Sales reps talk more about their busy activities (like meetings, emails and phone calls) than their actual results.
10. There’s confusion and ambiguity about sales procedures, territory divisions, new product launches, etc.
11. Basic procedures keep getting changed for no apparent reason.
12. Social loafing – the tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they are part of a group – has crept in.

Sales

We have had a massive change in B2B selling, says Anthony Iannarino in his new book, Leading Growth. It’s the result of changes in the environment that have made it harder for buyers and decision-makers to effect change in their companies, as well as successfully completing their buyer’s journey, with over 54 percent ending in a decision to do nothing. B2B buying has become more difficult for your prospective clients. There are six major factors that can contribute to an inability to create revenue growth, starting with one of the greatest forces on the planet.

1. The Internet and Information Disparity
2. Uncertainty and the Status Quo
3. The Unforgiving Reality of the Consensus Sale
4. The Nonlinearity of the Sales Conversation
5. The Time-Based Nature of Sales Results
6. Competition and Its Impact on Results

Wisdom

“Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” – Brian Tracy

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Grow Omaha University is sponsored by MyStaff Inc, a locally owned staffing firm whose purpose is helping Nebraska companies recruit for corporate office positions.

My Staff Inc – Our team helps you find yours!

Omaha Bourbon, Beer, and BBQ Festival on September 30th: Enjoy Omaha’s Best BBQ from sweet to spicy, fall-off-the-bone ribs, pulled pork and chicken to smoked-slow-roasted turkey and beef brisket. Live blues music from Nebraska Music Hall of Famers’ BlueHouse with Rent to Own Horns and groove with one of Omaha’s favorite party bands Red Delicious as well as fiery entertainment each evening, games and bull riding.

Oktoberfest in Midtown on September 30th: Oktoberfest is upon us and your favorite Midtown Crossing restaurants have a one-night-only German-themed neighborhood crawl planned for you! Come for the Polka Police, performing live from 6-8 p.m., and stay for the Oktoberfest beers, themed food pairings and FUN!

Zach Williams with Special Guest Ben Fuller on October 1st: Join Zach Williams and special guest Ben Fuller for a night of music and ministry that will fill your heart and have you singing along all night long! Grammy award winner Zach Williams and his signature blend of southern rock, country and faith-filled songwriting are truly unlike anything else in Contemporary Christian music today.

Fall Fest on October 1st: Celebrate the fall season with us at this FREE family fun event in Hummel Park! From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., there will be guided nature hikes, fall crafts, s’mores, archery, outdoor games, cornhole, and more!

Web3.0 October Open Lunch on October 6th: Come connect and make friends with others interested in decentralization, ownership, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and blockchain technology! Startup Grind Omaha and First National Bank of Omaha are hosting a casual monthly lunch meetup as a space for creators, innovators, and the crypto-curious to discuss all things Web3.0.

2022 Wine Walk on October 6th: Wear your favorite fall outfits and gear and celebrate the Historic Downtown Ralston! Enjoy wine samplings, meeting members in the community, and walking through the beautiful Ralston area.

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Green Plains Inc. has announced changes to its executive leadership team. Patrich Simpkins transitions from Chief Financial Officer to Chief Transformation Officer, Jim Stark transitions from executive vice president to Chief Financial Officer of Green Plains and Green Plains Partners LP, Jamie Herbert joins the company as Chief Human Resources Officer, and Grant Kadavy joins the company as executive vice president of commercial operations.

Werner Enterprises’ associate vice president of data management Carolyn Barker was selected as a recipient of Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s Women in Supply Chain award for 2022.

Remseal LLC, a commercial joint sealant company, has hired a superintendent, Lobo Jaimes, who was promoted from another division. Remseal is a new company owned by Kimberly Remmereid, who also owns Contour Construction and TR Construction.

Frankel Zacharia has named Gina Holliger as a new senior, Michaela Kroft, CPA, as a new manager and Charles Lambert as a new manager.

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.

Views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author.

In order to get insight into Mr. Market’s current manic/depressive mood, I’m seeking help from two animal friends, a dog and an elephant. Our opening questions are, “Does the dog wag the tail or does the tail wag the dog?” and “What does the whole elephant look like?”

If you don’t understand how indexes are constructed and operate, Mr. Market’s machinations will remain a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

The S&P 500 is the index used to benchmark the U.S. market. It’s made up of the 500 largest publicly traded U.S. stocks and is weighted by market capitalization.

A stock’s market cap is calculated by multiplying the number of shares outstanding by its current price. During regular market hours, a stock’s market cap is constantly fluctuating and so does its index weighting.

Currently, the largest stocks in the S&P 500 are Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla and Google. Their combined market cap constitutes 35% of the total index, rendering the value of the bottom 200 stocks meaningless. Our first example of the tail wagging the dog.

There’s a plethora of market participants who trade stocks in the S&P 500, and they each have their own unique buy and sell criteria. For example, there are the investors and traders who buy and sell individual stocks based on the underlying companies’ financial conditions. There are others who sell stocks short – they sell stocks they don’t own – because they think the price will go down. At some future point these short sellers will buy the stocks back because the price of the stock has started to go back up. Another tail wagging the dog. There are others who buy a stock because its price is going up, they don’t care why, they just know it’s going up.

We can add to this list the investors who own over $6 trillion dollars’ worth of index funds. These are mutual funds that mimic one of the indexes, the largest one being the S&P 500.

When investors buy or sell index funds, the manufacturers of these funds must trade the index components in order to match the supply and demand for their funds. When investors buy or sell index funds based upon their macro perspective of the economy, they set in motion forces that are analogous to a pool game. When a player strikes the que ball, it puts the ball in motion, causing it to strike other balls resulting in multiple balls being set in motion. More dog waging.

Knowledge of these multiple investors’ and traders’ motivations should help you understand that Mr. Market is constantly pushed and shoved about by factors other than individual companies’ financial health. Thus, his gyrations are more logical than they may appear at first blush.

You may be making investment decisions based on incomplete information. Moral of the story? As always, “Forget the needle; buy the haystack.” The $64,000 question is, Which hay stack????

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.

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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.

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