Grow Omaha
Grow Omaha 6-15-2024
Hey there, it is Ryan Seacrest with you. You wanna make this summer unforgettable? Join me at Chumba Casino. It's this summer's hottest online destination. They are rolling out the red carpet with an amazing welcome offer just for you. So don't wait, dive in now and play hundreds of social casino games for free. Your chance to redeem real prizes is just a spin away. Here to join me. - Sponsored by Chumba Casino, no purchase necessary. VGW Group, void were prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. - 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 1110 K.F.A.B. - Well, good morning and welcome to the Grow Omaha Show brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics. My name is Jeff Beals, I am your co-host and proud to be broadcasting live from the K.F.A.B. studios high above Underwood Avenue in beautiful downtown Dundee. This is the only show you will find in the entire metro area that talks about the growth and development of the metro area. We talk about construction, we talk about real estate development, economic development. We even talk about cool new businesses that are opening, you're gonna enjoy the next hour. Now I do have a little bit of bad news for you and that is my co-host has the day off. So you are stuck with just me, but we'll make the best out of it. And we're gonna start today by wishing you a happy college world series weekend. This is perhaps my favorite time of year in Omaha. Not just because I'm a baseball fan and not just because as a Grow Omaha guy, I love looking at all those out-of-state license plates and imagining how much they're spending on hotel rooms and restaurants and et cetera. But just because in reality, the city has such a great vibe this weekend and over the coming weeks. I hope you get down to the Charles Schwab field Omaha and enjoy a little bit of the series. I know I'll be at a couple, maybe a handful of games down there. And even if you don't go to the games, it's a great time to just mill about and enjoy the whole entire atmosphere in North downtown, the fan fest, all of that area around the mattress factory. And then of course, the activity spills over into the capital district, the riverfront parks and the old market. Wanna remind you, if you haven't already, to sign up for the Grow Omaha newsletter, we put it out every Thursday afternoon. It currently goes to about 21,000 subscribers. And get this, it's free. It'll always be free. We don't charge a subscription for the Grow Omaha newsletter. And besides not having to pay for it, you know what else is nice about that? You don't get a pop-up window every three stories you read asking you to log in again, even though you're already logged in. And you don't get a pop-up window asking you to log in and sometimes it doesn't even log you and it doesn't work. None of that happens with the Grow Omaha newsletter because it is free. F-R-E-E free. If you're not currently getting it, go to growomaha.com. There's a place to sign up there or just send an email to news@growomaha.com. By the way, one other thing before we go into our news of the day that you need to know, we are on the precipice of introducing new services and expanded news coverage at Grow Omaha. I can't tell you the details yet, but know this in the very short future as in this month, we are going to be providing new Grow Omaha news to you every business day. We'll still have the newsletter on Thursday and it'll grow and get bigger and better and be even more than it is, but we're going to also start offering you news every day. Keep that in the back of your head because very shortly you're going to start getting details about that. All right, without any further ado, it is time to go into our news of the week which is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage. Eaglemortgagecompany.com is where you can find them online or you can stop by the office at 114th and Davenport. Either way, the thing you need to know about Eagle Mortgage, couple things, first of all, not a bank. So if you want to get the best loan solution for you in your unique circumstances, Eagle Mortgage as a mortgage broker can shop the market. Secondly, Holly Schneiderwin and her team are famous for their customer service. They work with you, they talk with you. And thirdly, in a competitive housing market, which it still sometimes is, you want that pre-approval letter before you go house hunting and Eagle Mortgage will take care of that for you. You can find them online at eaglemortgagecompany.com. Well, the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial has opened at 11695 South 108th Street in Papillion. That's basically really close to Sumter Amphitheater and a little bit south of Papillion, Lavista South High School. Beautiful place, it is free and open to the public. The grand opening was last week. It's very attractive when you go there. It's well done, well designed. They even have a restored UH1 Huey helicopter, a Vietnam era helicopter that is mounted on a vertical pole. So it kind of looks like it's flying actually. Real nice tribute and another feather in the metro areas cap. City of Omaha has launched a new website for the public to view progress of and participate in the development of the city's new master plan. Now, the current comprehensive master plan that the city operates under was completed back in 1997. Well, obviously, since 1997, Omaha's grown, has grown quite a bit, a lot of population growth, a lot of new land that's been developed, transformational development. And based on current projections, this might surprise you a little bit. The city of Omaha's population is expected to grow by more than 36% by the year 2050. 2050, not that far away. And to give you an idea about what that means, what would the population of the city of Omaha be in 2050 if it grows by 36%? 661,000 people just inside the city limits. And so the problem is with all of that growth, we are running out of developable ground for the city of Omaha. I mean, the suburbs they can develop for maybe forever. But the city of Omaha is pinned in by the Missouri River, by the Sarpi County Line, by the Ponca Hills, and the Washington County Line to the north, and the Elkhorn River to the west. Can't really grow much beyond that. And so there's a lot of talk about using the acres and the square miles we already have more efficiency, more efficiently, I should say. So there's going to be a lot of focus on the urban core and getting more and more dense development there. It's why the streetcar that we talk about so much is critically important, even if you're a person that lives in Millard area, Elkhorn area, north of Omaha, close to Bennington. And you think to yourself, I'm not going to use a streetcar, fine, no big deal. But it allows us to put more people per acre in the established older parts of Omaha, which builds the tax base, maintains the population, keeps the city, and ultimately the whole metro area much healthier. And other news, the city has made significant progress this week on a long contemplated truck route through North Omaha. Here's the problem. There's currently a truck route that goes down Nicholas Street, which is right in the heart of Millwork Commons. That's the area a little bit north of Charles Schwab Field, where you have all of this cool redevelopment. In fact, earlier this week, I think it was Tuesday, if I remember correctly, I had a coffee meeting at 730 in the Ashton building. That's the main hub building of Millwork Commons. Lots of cool shops, restaurants, retail on the ground floor. They've got some high-tech offices upstairs. And you wouldn't believe how hustle and bustle it was. I mean, tech workers coming in to work and people going to the coffee shop for meetings. It's a great area. Problem is, you've got a bunch of semi-trucks that rumble down the middle of the street multiple times an hour all day long. So we're working on this. City Council approved a contract with HDR to provide design services for the proposed road, a new road to be built called Enterprise Park Road, that would extend from Locustreet to AIM Street over by Carter Lake that would pull trucks over that way and then send them up to maybe the stores expressway or the North Freeway or whatever and get them out of that Millwork Commons area. The City Council approved an amendment to the Dockless Shared Scooter Program. That's a program that regulates electric scooter operators in Omaha. The amendment expands operating hours from just 5.30 AM to 10.30 PM to 24 hours a day, like Denny's and Perkins used to be. Well, Lime Scooter, L-I-M-E, Lime Scooter, is the only electronic scooter operator in Omaha right now. And a representative from Lime testified that similar scheduling in cities like Chicago and Atlanta resulted in higher usage from off-hour workers. And the amendment also provides group rides where a single authorized user can rent for additional scooters. And a lot of people think, why do we care about these scooters? They're actually proving to be a nice form of alternative transportation in the urban core and are kind of handy for getting people around. Plus, a lot of people enjoy them. You won't find me riding on one of those scooters because, well, maybe I'm just a chicken to try it for the first time. Well, the city council has approved an agreement with the Nebraska Department of Transportation to establish a state safety and oversight program for the Omaha Street Car Project. The city will pay the Nebraska Department of Transportation to handle this. They're going to have independent consultants establish this oversight organization. The state will not incur any costs for administering it. And this is required by the federal transit administration. Anytime you have a rail transit system to ensure safety, just kind of part of the process of getting this new thing started. And finally, I want to direct you to the Grow Omaha Facebook page because our own Brad Williams has some amazing photographs. He's posted in the last several days. One of them is a construction progress photo of the mutual of Omaha Tower downtown. And you can see that they're working on the 16th floor of the concrete shear tower, which is the spine of the future building. Another one you might want to notice. Really cool construction photograph of the central flagship library under construction on the southwest corner of 72nd and Dodge. That's all topped out and coming along rather nicely. Well, that is your news of the week, which is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage. eaglemortgagecompany.com. Gonna take our first break of the hour and get this. We're gonna talk more about Eagle Mortgage. Well, we're gonna have Holly Schneiderwin and she is the owner and operator of Eagle Mortgage. And we're gonna talk to her a little bit about the housing market, what's going on with home loans. We know a lot of listeners are thinking about buying a new house or in the process of buying a new house, or just kind of like to keep up with the market. You're gonna like this, you're gonna enjoy listening to Holly. But most of all, stay with us. You are part of the Grow Omaha Show, which is brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics on News Radio, 1110 KFAB. And welcome back for the show, Jeff Beals at your service. Trenton Maggid has the weekend off. We are brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. What's Cheer Athletics? Well, it's the nation's number one All-Star Cheer Gym. And if you're not familiar with the concept of All-Star Cheer, know this, it is generally the most respected, most popular form of competitive cheer. Competitive cheer is definitely a sport. The young people who participate in it learn a great deal of communication, leadership, and competition stills, in addition to becoming very good at something and very physically fit. The Omaha location of Cheer Athletics is located just southwest of highways 50 and 370 in Papillion. If you want to learn more about it, just go to CAomaha.com. That's Cheer Athletics CAomaha.com. We have with us today Holly Schneiderwin, good friend of the show, one of our sponsors and the owner of Eagle Mortgage. Good morning, Holly. Welcome back. Good morning. Thank you for having me on. Well, it's good to have you back on the show and I'm just going to start big and broad right now. And we still hear about higher interest rates and we know inflation has been an issue, but yet I'm also hearing things like houses are moving fast and a lot of people are still moving. Give us the 30,000 foot view of the market right now. So I think that we're a little insulated in Omaha. Of course everybody I think kind of hears that here in the Midwest. Yes, the market has been a little strange over the last year or two. They are still moving fast. If you ask somebody out there who's trying to find at home, you know, first time home buyer, what was it when you bought your first home? You know, maybe it was a hundred and 30,000. Something like that. I don't know. I mean, even sometimes we're talking to. It was like 127 back in the 90s. Isn't that crazy? Actually, my first one was probably 75,000, which is crazy. So now you're talking about these first time home buyers and people out there, you know, they're spending 200 to 250 on their first home. It is a little crazy. So market, I think, is softening up a little bit. Although, like I said, we're in the Midwest. So I have a group that I belong to and they take a survey. And this is from the mortgage point of view, the lender point of view, not the real estate agent point of view. But anyways, they seem to think that it's maybe softening up a little bit around the country. I just don't think we're seeing a ton of that here. I still think we're low inventory. Houses are still going at or above price, depending upon that price range. So. Well, and I'm, you know, sometimes I hear from some of the residential real estate agents that I know that they basically said the exact same thing that you did. And one of the questions I asked them, are you still seeing competitive situations? And they say sometimes-- Definitely. Quite competitive. Oh gosh, I have a couple right now. Let's hear one of them offered in appraisal gap, which means we will pay top dollar. And then we will actually pay $10,000, let's just, I think this one, $10,000 over the appraised value between what we call the gap, so if it appraised low. So they're willing to pay above the appraised value just to get that house. Just to get the house. The other one, another one paid, they called an escalation clause. So they agreed to pay $10,000 above any of the highest offer that would come in. Now, of course, if it didn't appraise on that one, and it did, it's crazy, because we closed that one already. So yes, it is still happening out there. And that's why, whether it's eagle mortgage or somebody else work with a good mortgage person and get prepared. And I think maybe that's-- get your pre-approval, know what you're getting into. I get people that are like, whoa, I found a house, but now I need the letter. Sometimes it's like, OK, a little opposite of what we normally like to have you work, but OK. So we can work pretty fast, people. How long does that take? I mean, we can get a pre-approval done in minutes, depending upon the situation, completing an application. But yeah. Well, and we must be seeing some really nice population growth in the metro area right now, because for the last few years, it seems like, at least through my eyes, that we are building new houses like crazy. And you also have seen apartments being built like crazy. And it's my understanding that apartment occupancy in the metro area is still well up into the mid to high '90s. So there must be a lot of people coming in. And I can't imagine that tornado, which destroyed about 100 houses helped either, because that sets us back a little bit. Right. Yeah, they've got a fine housing right, so temporary. And the process to rebuild is probably going to take a bit to get there. I just got done having coffee with somebody anyways. They were talking about an insurance agent. His clients are having problems. Well, they have two dogs, house destroyed in the tornado. Now they're having problems trying to find suitable housing for them. So that's a little different, I guess. But still, yeah. And then to go to rent, and the prices of what somebody's going to pay right now, yeah, I feel for them. Glad I am not in that situation, and have to do that. I've got a daughter now who's graduated. She's at home now. Well, we're like, save some money. But we prefer not to rent. So that's our take on it, and that's what I do. We help build wealth through real estate. And I'm not on the sales side of it, but I'm on the loan side. So one loan at a time, we help with that process. Well, and I'm going to ask you in the next segment, some questions about renting versus buying. But for now, let's say that some of our listeners are thinking about entering the house hunting adventure. How's the process work once they contact you? Getting the preapproval and all that sort of thing. You know what? We'll answer any question we can. The easiest way to get started would be to do that online application. If people don't want to do it online, it's a phone call. And I can take it. My staff can take that application. The other place then would be a phone call after the application. That's the big part where we can go over numbers, ask questions. What do you want to be? Where do you want your budget to be? What are you looking for in a payment? OK, well, fine, maybe you've told me you want that payment. But have you been out looking at houses and what price range? So we're trying to marry those two things together. Is it realistically what you want to buy going to get you to your budget? Some people have no idea. So as a mortgage broker, you work with more than just one bank. How many are we talking about? Is it like a handful? Is it like 10,000? Good, Lord. I could not keep track of that. So we work with-- you know what? I probably have 10 lenders. For the most part, I will tell you of that. It's probably five half of them, as we prefer to work with. You know, each do similar things. Some of them do things a little differently than others. So we kind of know, based upon somebody's situation, where do we take them? What do we need to get? Can I get some extra grant money for somebody that somebody else in lender doesn't have? We can structure a husband and wife. Maybe we only use one income so that I can get a better rate, better-- so there's all kinds of different. You just work with the loan company who is out there. I don't know everything in the 31 years that I've been doing this. Yeah, I don't know everything, but I know a lot. And I know maybe what questions to ask and where to go find the answers. Well, I imagine it's kind of interesting or challenging when maybe one spouse has a traditional job and the other one is self-employed, or maybe one has a good traditional job, and the other one recently is unemployed. There's got to be a lot of complicated things. It is definitely. And I'm now right now. Like I said, my daughter, she's graduated. And now I think I'm going to work herself into my business or a mortgage loan originator. Oh my gosh, try to explain to a 21-year-old. It's just-- so I say that. But yes, I think we need more new people in our industry and in the mortgage world and lending, and I would love to see her figure it out. But I just have to remember where I came from 31 years ago to what's a mortgage? OK. Personally, I know your daughter, and she's a smart kid, but I imagine with some of the stuff, it's hard for her eyes not to glaze over as you're telling her this. Yeah, she's in that thick of it right now, trying to take potential, spring me those questions. What's this? And Ryan, try to explain it to her, yeah. We're talking with Holly Schneider and owner of Eagle Mortgage Company here in Omaha. Holly, give us an idea how mortgage brokers and realtors cooperate and work together to make these deals close. So it's all a big process. Obviously, if you want to get, you need to pre-approval. So first of all, is the pre-approval, and any realtor that you're going to work with is basically going to ask, have you been pre-approved? They're not going to go show you houses if you don't have that piece of paper or that knowledge that you can buy a house and in what price range. Then, working with a good realtor to get your offer accepted, that's the next piece, because they have to be able to listen. What does the borrower want? Where we need to be, what price range. So we work as a team to get you through the process. Free-approval, then you get out looking with the real estate agent. At that point, then, we're making sure the offer's written up the right way. What did I tell you? Making sure the realtor knows? Do you need seller credits? What kind of stuff are you looking for? What kind of financing? Does that house take that financing? Will that house pass in through the loan process? So there's more moving pieces than I think people think. We're there to work as a team to put it together for our customers, for the buyer, so that they're not so stressed during this process. It's not a stress-free process for most people, but we try to make it. I get it. It's paperwork, and people do. Look at me like, oh, my gosh, how much more stuff do you need? Well, I need your pay stub. I need to prove you still work there. Don't quit your job. Don't take out new debt. We tell them all kinds of stuff. They don't always listen, but we try. Yeah, and listen to that last piece of advice, folks. Don't take out new debt after you've started the lending process. No, I mean, especially if we, they'll do rechecks sort of in the background, and if we find all of a sudden we get a credit inquiry, and then we have to go back, and it's the day before closing, and you're like, are you kidding me? So yeah, we have dealt with that. Do do it. Have had to ask, figure out what'd you do? What'd you buy? What'd you inquire? And then we have to verify it, so. Well, we're gonna break for our middle of the show news break, but we're gonna have Holly stay with us because when we come back, we'll talk to her about the differences between buying and renting. Is one better? Is that changing? So stay with us for that. We also have the Nodel Companies Commercial Real Estate Development Spotlight of the Week on the Docket. You're listening to Grow Omaha. I'm Jeff Beals. Trenton Magad has the Week and Off. We're brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. And we'll be back in a moment on News Radio, 1110KFAB. (upbeat music) - And welcome back to The Grow Omaha Show, brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center, along with Cheer Athletics. I'm Jeff Beals, my co-host Trenton Magad has the Week and Off. We do encourage you though to keep Dingman's Collision Center handy on your, I don't know. I was gonna say Rolodex, but we don't have those. You know, your electronic version of your Rolodex, you wanna keep Dingman's Collision Center handy there. We hope you don't need them, but periodically you will. That's just life if you drive a lot. You get a scrape, a bumper, a bruise on your car, sometimes a major accident, but Dingman's will help you with all of that. They have four metro area locations. Every one of them is outstanding. Doesn't matter whether you go 120th in Maple, downtown Papillion, Saddle Creek in the Midtown area, or 144th and Industrial Road. They'll take good care of you. Both Trenton and I have been customers of Dingman's for many, many years and can personally attest to the quality workmanship and the outstanding customer service. All right, it's time for your commercial real estate development spotlight of the week. It's brought to you by Nodl companies, as it always is. Jay Nodl and his team over there at Nodl companies really have put themselves in a position to be called Omaha's most respected real estate developer. And they don't just do Omaha. They're all over the place. Multiple states, but here in town, they have Exarbon Village, Rivers Edge on the Missouri River, the Builders District in North downtown, Steel Ridge and the Gretna Papillion area. They're famous for building headquarters buildings like the not terribly old HDR that was only completed a few years ago in Exarbon Village. The also fairly new Valmont headquarters in Hartwood Preserve. But the news today comes out of the Builders District. That's the area of North downtown, just west of Charles Schwab Field. And the mass timber building that Nodl companies has built is pretty much wrapping up. I was down there about a week ago, and I walked around the perimeter. You can go in and you can look inside the windows. And you truly do see those exposed timber vertical supports. It makes for a beautiful office setting. Landscaping outside the building is awesome. It is directly across the street or south of. Keywitt's global headquarters in that area. And then of course right now, just to the east of that college world series time. So if you're down for the CWS and you are a Grow Omaha aficionado and Joy's looking at cool new buildings, walk over to 1501 Mike Fehe and take a look at that new mass timber building from Nodl companies. If you want to learn more about them, just go to Nodl companies.com. We have Holly Schneider with us today. She is the head of Eagle Mortgage and one of our sponsors here on Grow Omaha. Holly, I want to talk to you today in this next segment a little bit about renting versus buying. And we're hearing that some people are looking at renting now because of the economy or whatever. And I mentioned in the last segment that we have a very high occupancy rate in apartment properties here in Omaha. But you're in the mortgage business. What do you help people buy houses? What do you think? - So do, I'm not sure, okay, my opinion, and obviously you know what everybody can probably already guess, it's buy versus rent. And now I think that depends upon, obviously there's factors, but we have tools and we can help people to show them why it would be better to buy versus rent. I did an analysis and actually I don't think I sent that to you ahead of time, Jeff. But when we go through and do a buy versus rent scenario, then over a nine year period, and honestly the one that the scenario that was run was out of a system I used, but it was probably a $500,000 house, okay? So not everybody's gonna have the same results. It's not gonna end up the same every time we run those numbers. But over a nine year period, as long as somebody was staying in that house longer than two years, the outcome was gonna be better to buy in the long haul. So on the scenario that I did and have in front of me actually showed that the net result, meaning the net equity somebody's gonna build over that nine year period. And that's probably, isn't how long were you in your first house? - I think it was five. - Five years. - So I think that average maybe a seven, I was gonna say seven to nine or five to nine, so we'll just say the average is seven. But even on a nine year period, the net result in this example was over $195,000. Somebody would walk away with versus renting. And that takes into account investing the money you would have used to buy the hosts. Rent increases, tax increases. So it takes the count increases in both areas. So it's not just a straight shot comparison. But yes, I think it's better to buy than rent. I mean, what's the American dream? - Owning a house. - Owning a house, maybe being a business owner. I don't know, I don't know how many entrepreneurs there are, but yeah, having your own house and having that equity. - So I would guess there are a lot of people living in rental units right now that love the idea or at least like the idea of owning a house. And there are a couple things holding them back. One could be fear of the unknown. It's an intimidating process if you've never purchased a house before. Another thing that could make them hesitate is they might think they need to build up more money than perhaps they do. And then perhaps another thing Holly could be all they hear about are these high interest rates and how the price of houses are going up, up, up, up, up. Given all that, what's the counter argument for those folks? What's the reality if I'm in a rental unit? I don't wanna be anymore, but I'm afraid or feel like I'm not ready. - Okay, well number one, we're gonna dispel the myth that you need to have a 20% down payment. I don't, that has been a thing of the past a long time ago. So FHA loans were created for a lower down payment option so that people could get into houses. 'Cause obviously conventional was 50% down, maybe a long time ago, 20% down. And then the FHA, then the creation of the PMI, which is that private mortgage insurance that lenders would be insured with homeowners, home buyers, that we're putting less than 20% down. It's not a bad thing. I mean, you gotta start somewhere, get into that property. And I did read something here. Should I buy instead of rent or somebody if they give me the answer? So here's what it was. In 1971, the interest rate for a mortgage was 7.33. Okay, let's say it's similar to these times right now. If you waited for interest rates to go down, you wouldn't have purchased a home until 1993. You would have rented for 22 years waiting for those rates to go down. Meanwhile, the value of real estate quadrupled. I'm not sure we have gone through very seven years. I can't remember exact numbers, but seven years of down market and housing of the past 50 years. So imagine that. That's why we say, you know, build your equity. Don't pay somebody else's mortgage. I mean, I guess if I own real estate and have rental properties, I would love you as a renter, right? But we always say, you can date your rate, marry your house, and even then you can move around. But, you know, the chances are you're gonna buy a house, hold it for a while. You know, we've had our starter homes and now we've been in our last home since we figured the kids were in school and, I don't know, maybe eventually we'll downsize, but. - And we're in the exact same spot, you know, at the starter house and then the long-term family house and then who knows what comes next. - Yep, yep, maybe we need those houses that are, like you said, they're in the apartment. They don't wanna deal with the management, the stuff happening in the house. There's always gonna be a repair. I mean, that's just reality in a house. So, you know, maybe we're gonna see more condos around here or town homes and maybe we're seeing some of that already so that people don't feel like that. I think we need some more of those in affordable housing. That's something that could be a topic for another interview, affordable housing and the move to condos and town homes. 'Cause I agree with you, that would be a great thing for the future of Omaha. But for today, we're about out of time, but Holly Schneiderwind, if someone wants to work with Eagle Mortgage or just kind of talk, what do they do? - They can inquire, send me an email. Call is probably the best thing, but if you don't like to do that, you can always send an email to introduce yourself and then, you know, I'm fencially, it's a conversation. Come in the office, stop by. You know, we're there usually nine to four. You know, we're a smaller office, so sometimes we're out in a meeting or a closing, but yeah, call us, 402-397-7180. - And the office is at 114th in Davenport and the website is eaglemortgagecompany.com. Holly Schneiderwind, thanks for joining us this morning and the information and also thanks for being such a long time loyal sponsor of Grollma. - It has been a pleasure this morning, thanks Jeff. - Holly Schneiderwind from Eagle Mortgage. We're gonna take our final break of the hour and when we come back, it will be time for the Perkins Kreitzer construction lightning round. I'm looking at the list and there's a lot on it. You don't wanna miss any of it. You're listening to Grow Omaha. Trenton Magad has the weekend off, but I'm here, Jeff Beals has got you covered and we're brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Chair Athletics and we'll be back in a moment on News Radio 1110-KFAB. (upbeat music) And welcome back to the show, Jeff Beals, here with you in the KFAB studio, my co-host, Trenton Magad has the weekend off, we're brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center along with Chair Athletics and it's time for our Perkins Kreitzer construction lightning round. This is when we talk about a lot of things in a short period of time and thank you to Perkins Kreitzer construction for making this possible. They are a full-service class A general contractor based right here in Omaha, but they do work throughout Nebraska and Western Iowa. Great team. That's one of the things that I'm so impressed with when it comes to Perkins Kreitzer construction. Dave Kreitzer has put together this group of superintendents, project administrators, managers, carpenters, laborers, so many other people that just do such good work. It's about craftsmanship there and about taking care of their clients. They work in healthcare, retail, office, education, religious, industrial, even do a lot of restaurants and that sort of thing. Sometimes you'll see Perkins Kreitzer construction listed as PC construction. Same deal, same company, PC construction, just short for Perkins Kreitzer construction. All right, let's get into our content here today. First of all, the Henry Doreley Zoo and Aquarium has reopened its Hubbard orangutan forest. It opened yesterday at 11 a.m. And the reopening includes access to the elevator building which takes guests to the renovated exhibit and the Hubbard Gorilla Valley. Can't wait to go see that. I am told it looks amazing. Bellevue's expansive new $60 million water park development officially announced its name. It's gonna be called Bellevue Bay Indoor Water Park. This is a 100,000 square foot facility. It's gonna be open year round and we'll have a retractable roof along with attached hotels, retail stores. I know for a fact, they are chasing a lot of entertainment oriented businesses, kind of almost like tourist style businesses. They're really getting to go into that water park. It will, when it opens, be on the southwest corner of highways 75 and 34 on the south side of Bellevue. The Denny's restaurant location at 3509 South 84th Street officially reopened this week. The diner chain located just off of 84th and Interstate 80 had been temporarily closed due to a fire several months ago, but it is now open. Swing 365 Bennington opened this week. It is located at 15450 Ita Street. So call it 154th and Ita Street. It's next to the rack, wine and spirits. This is a golf simulator and swing suite, which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They have another one of these in town and basically you can become a member and you schedule your time and it's a small building, but you go in and you swing your golf club and it's all simulated and maybe you become a better golfer. Well, the signage has gone up for Lucy's. That's a new cocktail bar and recreation center. At 97th and Q Street, just off of 96th and Q Street, right that same area, the business is described as a premier gaming experience featuring games of skill, upscale snacks and custom drink specials. Jay's Smoke House, a family owned barbecue restaurant is moving to 4725 South 96th Street. They're gonna be taking over the former big way chicken and catfish restaurant space. Jay's will stay open at their Pavilion location, which is currently at 230 West Lincoln Street until their soft opening at the new location on July 1st. A big ways last day is gonna be June 29th. The old market was ranked number 72 on datingadvice.com's list of the top 150 most romantic alfresco dining spots in America for 2024 to which I say BS. It should be far higher than number 72. And I say this as a guy who does a lot of traveling and appreciates his romantic alfresco dining options. Old market number 72, you can trash that survey, they underranked us. Construction has started on Chase Bank, a Chase Bank branch, I should say, a new building at 138th and Maple. It'll be just over 3,200 square feet and it'll be east of an existing Burger King building. Chase's building branches all over Omaha. In fact, they have another one that is gonna be built in Papillion along 72nd Street at the shops of Market Point. But both Chase and Bank of America building like crazy. In fact, as we've already announced in a previous show, Bank of America, B of A, as some people call them, bunch of new locations in town, they're actually gonna tear down the former Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant building at 44th and Dodge near the Med Center and build a bank location there as well. So for some reason, the big, big, big national banks are all of a sudden popping up in Omaha. Good Life Sports Bar has leased the former Addys Sports Bar space. And this is the one at 141st and S Street, S as in Sam, in Millard. It's a 5,800 square foot space, but basically the former Addys and Old Millard gonna be good Life Sports Bar. Smash Park has opened in Levista. Smash Park is the indoor, outdoor bar, restaurant entertainment center, kind of famous for pickleball, but they have a lot of other sports and games. The food's really good. It's out of Des Moines, Iowa. I went to the one, the original one in Des Moines, Iowa, a couple of years ago. Fun place, I really enjoyed it. So you'll have to check out that new Smash Park in Levista near Cabellos and Embassy Suites. Clio has opened in the former wheat field space at the old market right at the corner of 12th and Howard. It is another concept from flagship restaurant group and serves Mediterranean cuisine. Rumor has it that Gromahal will be writing a review about Clio in the next several weeks. And finally, congratulations to Omaha-based Scooters Coffee for opening its 800th location nationwide. Scooters started right here in Omaha, headquartered in Miracle Hills here in Omaha, 800th location just opened in Louisville, Kentucky, and they're actively looking to add more. Well, that's it for this week, and that is your Perkins Kreitzer construction lightning round. Hope everyone has a great week. I'm Jeff Beals. As I said, Trenton has the week off, but we'll welcome him back soon. The show's been brought to you by Perkins Kreitzer construction, chair athletics, and Dingman's Collision Center on news radio 1110 KF-80. It's time for today's Lucky Land Horoscope with Victoria Cash. Life's gotten mundane, so shake up the daily routine and be adventurous with a trip to Lucky Land. You know what they say. Your chance to win starts with a spin. So go to luckylandslots.com to play over 100 social casino style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Get lucky today at luckylandslots.com. No purchase necessary. VGW Group void were prohibited by law 18 plus terms of condition supply.
(Sorry this one didn't get posted last week!)