Grow Omaha
Grow Omaha 6-22-2024
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This is the only show in the metro area that talks about construction, real estate development, economic development, really the growth and development expansion, anything that makes Omaha more prosperous and vibrant. Fun show, good things to talk about, and without any further ado, I'm going to bring on my guest co-host, substituting for the vacationing Trenton Magad, and that is a name and a voice you know well. Brad Williams of Brad Williams Photography and DNA Consulting. Good morning, Brad. I suppose when you're a legendary real estate broker, you need a few weeks of vacation. Yeah, you know, and the more legendary you are, supposedly the more vacationing you do. And so Trenton is definitely legendary. But it doesn't matter because we've got you and we can always count on you and our listeners know you very well, Brad. Yeah, and I always enjoy coming on. There's so many great things in the city to talk about, so it's always fun to be here. Brad does so many of our photographs that we use in Gromha publications, like the Gromha newsletter. If you're not getting the Gromha newsletter, just go to the website on the navigation bar, click on market report. That's what it's officially called. We just call it newsletter, but it's really the weekly market report. You can see every weekly market report we've ever published and you can sign your name up to receive those. Also, you may recall, if you were listening last week, I mentioned we have some to be announced changes looming on the horizon at Gromha. I can't tell you a lot of details yet other than to say we are going to greatly expand our news coverage. So if you like what we talk about, there's going to be more of it coming pretty soon. Happy College World Series Championship weekend, ladies and gentlemen, this is a very exciting time. Brad, we've got the Texas A&M Aggies versus the Tennessee Volunteers. You and I were just at breakfast this morning at Lapipe as we were walking out. A bunch of Aggie fans were coming in. I tell you what, A&M and Tennessee, they might not be quite to the spending level of LSU, but they're good for the Omaha economy. Yeah, I've been down there a lot, I've been photographing a lot of the games and it's been a great series. It started off with a bunch of really good games and there's been great crowds. We had one weather delay, but overall, I feel like it's been a great series. It's interesting ever since they switched to this format where you have the three game championship at the end, which has been many years now. It's always kind of interesting to see the hordes of fans and alumni for the two qualifying schools that come in all of a sudden. Tickets for tonight's game are going at a pretty good premium. Yeah, everyone's favorite meteorologist Rusty Lorde posted on Facebook that secondary market tickets or the cheapest tickets are going for nearly $500. Yeah, it's absolutely crazy and we love it. It just means that it's a good sign that a lot of people are coming in. You know what I also like about it. The more this event takes off, the better it is for Omaha's future. And we only have about what, maybe 11 or 12 years left on the current contract, which means we're going to, you know, probably in a few years start negotiating with the NCAA. I'm personally just going to come out and say it. I hope we have to expand the stadium. Yeah, there's a lot of cool things that could come up with the new contract. You know, it's hard to believe that the new stadium opened, we still call it new in 2011. And here we are 14, 13 years in already. Yeah, it's a 13 year old stadium. It's not new anymore. It's just new ish. But it's still great. I mean, it still has all the amenities. It's still open concourse. You can see from everywhere, great seats. They did a really nice job. And when it was constructed 13 years ago, it was engineered so that you could add on an additional 10,000 seats. Let's hope we eventually need them. That would be so cool. Hey, we have a restaurant review available for you this week written by Chris Corey, who does all of our restaurant and movie reviews. It's part of our Grow Omaha Eats series. And we decided this week to go back and revisit an old Omaha classic. And that is V-Merts inside the passageway in the old market opened in 1977. I would argue, Brad, one of the not that I'm the most romantic guy in the world. But I would say probably one of the most romantic restaurants in Omaha. There is nothing cooler than walking into that passageway and then looking down towards V-Merts and just seeing a space that is so unique, nothing else like it in town. And then you can dine in that space. It's a super cool place. Well, that's interesting to think, you know, you and I know Omaha so well and the restaurant scene and that sort of thing. And it's always kind of fun to imagine, okay, you know, the A&M and the volunteer fans that come into town. You know, what places do they choose? If they choose V-Merts, I think they'd be pretty happy. Chris's review is very positive and he brings up some, maybe how some things have kind of ebbed and flowed at V-Merts over the years. If you want to see that review, just go to gromaha.com and click on reviews on the navigation bar. All right, it's time for our news of the week, which is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage, Eagle Mortgage Company.com. We can tell you that Eagle Mortgage has been in business for well over 30 years doing an outstanding job with all types of loans. Most people are probably conventional VA or FHA loans, but they do some specialty loans as well. The most important things to remember, number one, they are mortgage brokers, not a bank. So they shop the market and find the best lending solution for you. Number two, they put a premium on customer service. At Eagle Mortgage, they know that buying a house is a huge decision and a source of stress for a lot of people. Their job is to take away as much of that stress as they possibly can. Work with you, find the best solution, hopefully get you that pre-approval letter so that you can go out into the home selection and purchasing Derby as it is and be well armed and confident. You can find them in person at 114th in Davenport or online at eaglemortgagecompany.com. Well, Brad, here's some good news, especially in light of what we were just talking about with the College World Series and so many visitors coming to town. Omaha is one of the five best big cities to visit for a summer vacation this year according to an article in the New York Post. The other four in the top five were Minneapolis, Long Beach, California, Washington, D.C. and Seattle. The study considered walkability, crime, prices, ease of travel, whether the summer weather is too hot or too extreme. Now, the five worst destinations, Jacksonville, Florida, partly because of the heat and humidity, but also it's not walkable. Colorado Springs, their weather is good, but not walkable. Fresno, well, it's Fresno. Memphis, it's Memphis. Albuquerque, I actually kind of like Albuquerque, but Albuquerque is not a walkable city. I think they put a lot of emphasis on downtown. Our downtown right now is looking really good for summer visitors. Yeah, there's so much going on. I mean, first of all, that's a great company, the four other cities that we're named with, big names. But there's so much going on downtown right now and it doesn't matter what you like to do. There's something forever, whether it's art, art, history, sports, restaurants. There's just a little bit of everything down there. I've made it to, what, two, maybe three, I think three College World Series games so far. My extended family has a block of six tickets and we kind of trade them back and forth. And I've had the chance to go to at least a couple and it's fun always to walk around and take in the scene. And even if you walk all the way over to Jean Leahy Mall or to the old market, it's just alive right now. And it's so fun just to see all of the fans from different schools posing for pictures. One of the most common sites, when you go over the bridge, the 10th Street Bridge over the Jean Leahy Mall, you'll see a lot of people posing with the skyline behind them and people taking pictures. But the reviews of downtown are really nice. It has become a really good place for a weekend trip. It's funny you talk about the 10th Street Bridge and it seriously turned into the selfie spot of downtown Omaha. You don't take a lot of skyline pictures up there. Every time I'm up there, every third person that walks by stops and does a selfie. This is the selfie. Well, the Bellevue City Council approved an agreement with whitewater west industries of British Columbia, Canada for engineering design services for that planned Bellevue Bay Water Park project. This is the big tourism destination that would be on the southwest corner of highways 34 and 75 south side of Bellevue. Design plans, we've talked about this project, but this is what's new. Design plans show seven water slides, a large water playground with six slides and a flow writer double, which is a surf simulator. Oh, wait, maybe that's a flow writer double, which is a surf simulator. Yes, that would be good for Trenton to participate in each. We should send you picture Trenton surfing. Well, that thing opens. We are making Trenton go and do the surf simulator. And we will have it on the girl Maha page for sure. Yeah, it might break all of our records for most views on the girl Maha video page. All right. Community Alliance, a nonprofit mental health agency is opening its new facility. It's 72nd and Mercy Road on June 27th. The agency will provide counseling, psychiatric and pharmacy services. It's 127,000 square foot building. Donations came from the Hawks Foundation and state issued ARPA funds all together. Real nice looking $67 million project. Yeah, the building turned out really nice, but they've done a lot of really nice landscaping around the outside of it along 72nd Street. It's a really an improvement for that corner. Yeah, there was a 1970s-era office building there about a four-story building. For years, it had Xerox on the outside of it. And that was torn down to make way for that project. And then right east of this new Community Alliance near 72nd and Mercy Road, we've got a four or five-story apartment building just getting started with the attached parking garage. Well, we had groundbreaking for a ceremony, a groundbreaking ceremony this week for the Gretna landing apartments. This is a five building, 220 unit apartment complex northwest of 192nd and Highway 370. We mention it because it's part of the Gretna landing project where we are expecting Fleet Farm to eventually be constructed. And it's nice to see momentum in that area. Yeah, this will be just west of where the Fleet Farm owns the land. And it's just one of many projects in there that are either completed and open or just getting started. You know, the high V across the street, the world's largest high V kind of started it. And that's starting to fill in with different restaurants and banks and stuff around it now. And then so you go west of 180 second and there's a Walgreens. It's already open. I think it's a Chase Bank or Bank of America, one of the two. Pretty sure, Chase. Getting ready to open, I believe. And then another lot to the west of that started and then the apartments. Well, and then speaking of Fleet Farm, we've been expecting one to start construction near... On the south side of West Maple, between 180th and maybe like 183rd or 184th somewhere in that range. And that still hasn't started as last I checked. But interestingly, very close to that, Nebraska Elite Volleyball plans to build a sports complex on the immediate southwest corner of 180th and West Maple Road, 175,000 square feet with 12 volleyball courts, six basketball courts that could also be convertible to 36 pickleball courts, as well as two indoor sand volleyball courts, plus training rooms, meeting rooms and offices, et cetera, et cetera. So that would presumably be between 180th Street and the anticipated Fleet Farm along West Maple. Yeah, just west of the New Costco, which will be opening here in the next month or so. Oh, I tell you what, people are excited about that. And as a guy whose office is located at 132nd and Dodge, close to the Dodge Costco, I pray to God that half of those Costco shoppers move to the new one on 180th and Maple, so I can move around my neighborhood during lunch hour. Yeah, at least you're on the other side of 132nd, so you don't have to be on that access road. Sometimes I drive by on Dodge and the access road, like for people that want to go from the access road to 132nd Street, we'll be backed up like a third of a mile. It's crazy. We almost looked at a daycare over there when we were looking for daycares, and I flat out said, we're not having -- I'm not going on that road every single day of my life. No way. That was -- that was immediately -- before we even looked at it, I said no. Disqualified. And with that, we conclude your news of the week, which is brought to you by Eagle Mortgage Company.com. Going to take our first break of the hour, and when we come back, Brad and I are going to interview Dave Kreitzer. He is the owner of Perkins Kreitzer Construction and going to talk to us about some cool projects going on and about the construction industry in Omaha in general. You're going to enjoy getting to know Dave, so stay with us. You are listening to Grow Omaha, brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center, along with Cheer Athletics. Brad Williams, Substituting for Trenton Magad, we'll be back in a moment right here on News Radio 11. And welcome back to the show. Jeff Beals with you, sitting next to Brad Williams of Brad Williams Photography. I need a consulting Brad Substituting for Trenton, who has the weekend off. We're brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. If you have a kid or a grand kid or maybe a niece or a nephew that wants to get involved and be competitive and build themselves, look into Cheer Athletics. It is part of All-Star Cheer, which is the most popular and generally considered the elite level of the sport of All-Star Cheer, which is wildly popular and growing all the time. Cheer Athletics offers novice, regional, and even national co-ed teams that compete with the best teams in the country to learn more, go to caomaha.com, ca as in Cheer Athletics, caomaha.com. Well, we have with us our friend Dave Kreitzer. He is one of the owners of Perkins Kreitzer Construction and the sponsor of our lightning round here on Grow Omaha. Dave, welcome to the show. Thank you. It's great to be here. I've been a big fan of you guys, so I'm kind of proud to be here and being part of the show. Well, thank you. We appreciate that. And we're a fan of everything you and your colleagues are doing. And we do appreciate you being one of our key sponsors. And one of the things we love to do whenever we're talking with someone from a construction company is to talk about some of the projects you're doing. And we'll get to that in a moment. But why don't we start by first having you just kind of give us an overview of what Perkins Kreitzer construction is all about. Well, I mean, as you said, multiple times on the show. We're a class A general contractor. We've got I think we're about 25 and growing right now as far as guys between guys and gals. So project managers, superintendents, office staff, we have in-house carpenters, labors. So we try and self-perform projects we can and then obviously have a great network of subs going. So, you know, we do a lot of stuff in Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha, throughout Nebraska. We're in Iowa, Sioux City, a lot of different places. So, why don't you give our listeners a kind of an overview of the type of projects you like to work on. Projects we do are commercial. It's all commercial. So we've done a lot of big box. Actually, it's one of the big things we've been doing now. Is big box, white box and renovating and splitting the tenants because, you know, the markets changed quite a bit over the years. So we're doing a lot of retail. We've got healthcare and medical office buildings. Then restaurants, you've heard several of the restaurants we're doing. Flex buildings, industrial, really got a great experience and a strong team experience over the years. So, range and size from small stuff all the way up to multi-million. We're talking with Dave Kreitzer, owner of Perkins Kreitzer Construction here in Omaha. Dave, let's talk about some of the projects that you guys have going on right now. What are you working on these days? So right now, we're kind of wrapping up that Miracle Hills shopping center. It's one of the big ones we've been working on for some people. I'd say too long now, but it's taken a while. When you get into those rehab projects, they take a while versus, you know, ground ups a little bit. Cleaner, I guess, sometimes. So we're wrapping up that and the final phase is touch ups. Starting to see working with the landlords or, well, my business partner who's landlord as well. So working with their team and future tenants coming in, looking at white boxes and budgeting for some announcements. I think you'll see in the near future that are coming in. And then we are, let's see, working in North Fork on Sunset Plaza Mall. Right now, we're working on the phase that is TJ Maxx. We're building out, hoping to open that this fall. Jersey Mike's, we wrapped up one in Metro Crossing and we're out in North Plat, working on one there. Several small tenant-finished projects. We're just breaking ground in a week or so on Popeyes restaurant on 167th and Maple. Ziggy's Coffee went to the permitting process. So we finally got that started and footings went in this week. That'll open early fall this year. And Ziggy's Coffee, that's on West Queue, right? Yep, 200 First and Queue Street. So 200 First and Queue Street, is that on the North Side of Queue? It is. Okay. It's right in front of that daycare that's there. Oh, okay. I've heard a lot of good things about Ziggy Coffee. I think they opened one recently in Lincoln. Yeah, they have one in Lincoln and then I believe it's Fairberry. Fairberry, Nebraska. Okay. You know, you mentioned the 114th and Dodge project and I think for a while that was one of the biggest questions we got on the show is what's going in there, what's going on with that. And for the listeners that haven't been by there in a while, it's really, it really looks good. It's really turned out nice and I think tenants are going to be flocking there because that's still one of the primary intersections of Omaha. Can you, I know you probably can't name any names or anything, but can you tell us kind of what the client or the tenant mix is looking like? Yeah, a lot of it's food and entertainment that we're seeing. So some food and entertainment, some specialty, retail, the Boston market is pretty close to getting leased to another restaurant. Oh, good. So that'll be good to see. You know, we've got the one end of it has office space and for the UNMC and then we're starting to backfill from there. So that space that UNMC has, isn't that something to do with pharmacy? Yeah, it's a distribution form. Okay, okay. And then you'll just kind of fill in from there. So we'll kind of keep an eye on that one. And then you mentioned the Popeyes restaurant at 167th and Maple. That's one we had heard that that was under consideration a few years ago. And if I understand correctly, it's a block or two south of Maple, isn't it? Where there was maybe a couple of houses that were removed recently? There's a green space there. And I think that there's about three or four acres. So the owner of Popeyes owns a couple of different sites there. So he's got some plans of other developments on that. But yeah, we're starting grading here in the next couple of weeks. I know that it's been something that's been on off the table for a while. But it's getting ready to go. So a couple of things we've talked about here on Groll, Maha, over the last couple of months. You guys have also been involved in some of the Boba tea places. Tell us about those. So a long time ago, with the first one that came in, Tommy Pang, the one's Thirsty. I built the very first one with him at Midtown Crossing when I was with a different company. And just developed a good relationship with him. So I've worked with him over the years. He most recently opened one in Bellevue. And then Sakai Sushi is one of the companies that are one of the restaurants he's partners in too. So we opened those two in Bellevue. And we talked about before, there was one that was Thirsty with another Boba tea shop that's opening on 167 maple. They are actually 168th maple. They are actually rebranded to Boba Fye. And they're two different. I mean, they serve Boba tea, but one has ice cream. The other one has more of the sandwiches, snacks, stuff like that that Tommy has. Well, Dave, we appreciate you joining us today to kind of give us an overview of some of these projects. If anyone wants to get a hold of you to talk about any projects that they may want to have bid, how do they go about doing that? You can email me, call me. Dave@p-cconstruction.com is my email. Google us, obviously, p-c constructions of website. There will be upgrading. But it shows a little bit about us, talks about us, and happy to talk to anybody about any size project and get in early on. Help out whenever we can. Well, we appreciate that. Appreciate your time. Thank you. And once again, Dave, thanks to you and your colleagues for being part of the Gromaha team and sponsoring our Perkins Kreitzer construction lightener now, which is going to be a particularly good one here later today. Thank you. All right, Dave Kreitzer from Perkins Kreitzer construction. As he mentioned, you can find them online at p-cconstruction.com. I'm going to take our break for the news, and when we come back, Brad and I are going to be talking about the street card downtown. Got some new financial information about that. Some of which is really going to raise an eyebrow or two. Pretty impressive stuff. So stay with us. You're listening to Gromaha brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. Back in a moment on News Radio 1110, KFAB. Jeff Beals here in the KFAB studio high above Underwood Avenue. I'm sitting next to Brad Williams from ENA Consulting, Civil Engineering firm. Also, the owner of Brad Williams Photography, key part of our Gromaha team in substituting for Trenton Magad, who is taking the weekend off or brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center and Cheer Athletics. Dingman's four metro area locations, and I'm not going to tell you one of them is better than the other, because they all are great. It doesn't matter whether you take your card to 120th and Maple or 144th and industrial or downtown Papillion or Midtown Saddle Creek location. They'll all take pretty good care of you and make that car just like new. Well, Brad and I want to talk a little bit about the street car. And the mayor had a press conference this week, and we got some interesting news. The cost of the street car is going up, not a shock because of materials and labor and everything else, but it's rather irrelevant because the way that the street car is being funded is through part of the tax increment financing paid to developers going back to cover the street car. Well, the new estimate of real estate development within the few blocks north and south of the street car line that will be used to pay for said street car has nearly doubled from the earlier projections. The first projections were $2 billion worth of collateral or consequential real estate development because of the street car over the next 15 years were already up to $3.9 billion. And we haven't even started construction on the thing. So the financing side of it looks fantastic, even though the cost, not surprise, keeps going up. It's not a street car thing either. Everything in construction pretty much has gone up over the last couple years. This was announced in '22, right? Yes. And you think about what things cost in 2022 and what things cost today, and it's just what's happening. Well, and I do want to just kind of throw one thing in here really fast too because I know on the part of some people who don't like the idea of the street car, and I think a lot of the people who don't like it don't fully understand that it's not a taxpayer burden. I think Jean, the mayor has taken a little heat that she doesn't deserve. She was very hesitant for years about the whole street car thing because she is very opposed to tax increases. And as a taxpayer in the city, I appreciate that about her. And she did not get on board with this until the group of people, a lot of real estate developers, the community enthusiasts came up with a plan that could be done without a tax increase. That's this plan. It's a darn good plan, and it's really safe. Now, one thing that we want to mention though, and a little bit of time we have left here in this section, is that the updated version or the updated total of $3.9 billion in collateral development or adjacent development in the street car comes from 26 development and construction projects in the urban core. Some of these have been announced. Some of these have not yet been announced. We've got a little information on them, but not particulars. This is fascinating. So of the 26 projects, looks like six of them were announced in 2022. These are apartments at 48th and Dodge, the flats at Howard 24th and Howard, the 1501 Mike Fahey would timber building, the key line building by the County Courthouse, the Dizzy Mule, the North downtown and Project Beacon, which is the mutual of Omaha skyscraper. And the 22 projects total $660 million. Yeah, that alone is pretty good. And then 2023 brought us the Leavenworth Lofts at 36th and Leavenworth. A couple of apartment projects a little bit south of Leavenworth at about 30-something. And then the square apartment's right at 30th and Park Avenue. That's over. Yeah, 80 million in 23. Okay, then the 2024 projects of renovation of the service life building at 19th and Farnham, the 5-story apartment building in North downtown, a 5-story apartment building kind of southwest of the old market, the duo, which is new styles, $164 million redo of the two twin towers, and another project in Millwork Commons. But then Brad, this is fascinating. The city has 11 projects that are not yet named that are part of the 26 projects. And some of those projects, price tags are 60 million, 60 million, 50 million, 75 million. Total so far for 2024 is another $622 million of new projects. And so when the mayor and the head of the chamber and some other people have been saying lately, like for instance, when we had the press conference for the duo, the mayor said, "Oh, we have these other projects to announce." And she hinted about that a little bit later. This is what we're talking about. Apparently for whatever reason, probably because they're still early in the process, they have not been identified, but these are some monster projects coming up downtown. Huge projects. And would it be safe to assume that none of the projects on that list, the unnamed ones, none of those would include Mutual of Omaha's current campus here, right? No, because that's so far off because the skyscraper won't be done until deep into 26, 2026. So, I mean, we could have another year or two of another huge number list. The other thing it doesn't take into account is we kind of periodically hear some rumor rumblings here at Girl in Omaha that there could be some like big, big things on them. Like I said, Brad just said like some of these 11 projects are up to $75 million. We keep hearing rumblings at something a lot bigger than that could be coming down the pike as well, partially sparked because of the streetcar. Think of the streetcar route. You've got a big empty lot at 10th and Farnham. You know, they could have a huge building on it. You still have the empty lot on 10th street in front of the mercantile that could have a huge building on it. There's the state office building that we all want to get demolished next week. I would not have that to happen to have a great development on it. So, there's so much potential down there right now. I've hated the state office building ever since they tore down the woodman of the world building to build it. But that's probably a topic for another show. So, anyway, a lot of cool stuff in the urban core. A lot of good things to look forward to. We are going to be on that like white on rice and keep you updated with these projects. Not included in this update, but I've talked to people and it does sound like no real action on the streetcar construction. You know, the utility work's going on now, but the actual physical construction of streetcar will probably all start next year at this point. So, yeah. So, the construction you do see along the streetcar line is preparatory utility work and underground work. Well, let's take our final break of the hour. And when we come back, it'll be the Turner construction lightning round brought to you by Perkins Kreitzer construction. I'm looking at the list and it looks pretty substantial. So, stay with us. We're listening to Grow Omaha brought to you by Dingman's Collision Center along with Cheer Athletics on news radio, 1110K FAB. It is time for your Perkins Kreitzer construction lightning round. You heard it from the man himself. Dave Kreitzer was here earlier telling us about some of the projects that they have go on going on, whether it's a large shopping center redo's, working with malls and Norfolk, countless restaurants here in the Omaha area. But if you are looking for an outstanding contractor for your next building project, look to PC construction. Their full service class, a general contractor, take good care of you doing work in the metro area and as far out is North Platte, Sioux City and environs, we will say. So, thanks to Perkins Kreitzer construction for making this possible. All right. Are you ready, Brad? I'm ready. How excited are people for Saddle Creek Breakfast Club to finally be open at Countryside Village? It's like they tease them for a year and a half by putting the sign up early, but it's finally here. Yeah, it's here and I'm sure it's going to be an absolute home run. Frank's Pizzeria announced a downtown location in the capital district will reopen soon under new ownership. A lot of people love that Frank's Pizzeria. It has been available at the Alley in Bellevue at 601 Chateau Drive. Not sure about any of the other Frank's Pizzeria locations out west. I think some of them have already been rebranded or not rebranded, but other tenants have taken some of those spaces, so I don't know any others are coming back. Got some good news at the Westroads. Rally House will open its fourth metro area store in August. In the Westroads, in the former Go Calendars space, it's by Von Marr on the first floor. Kansas City-based Rally House sells specialty sports apparel, gifts and home decor. They, like I said, have three other stores in the metro area. Also, at the Westroads, Route 21, which is a teen apparel retailer that went out of business nationally earlier this year, they closed all 550 stores. That concept has been acquired by a company called YM Inc. They purchased the brand and they are going to only open 101 of the 540 Route 21 stores. The Westroads is one of those locations. The exact opening date for the Westroads, Route 21, not yet been announced, but fairly soon. Okay, we've got progress downtown. We love downtown retail because it builds up the urban core. The UPS store is now open in the former Takeshi Jewelry space in the Keyline building at 321 South 17th Street. That's just east of the Douglas County Courthouse. Seven-story building. The Keyline building recently went through a very nice almost $7 million renovation. Yeah, and UPS stores one of those neighborhood businesses that not only businesses need, but a lot of people use them for personal stuff too. It's a great neighborhood business to have there. Good, good service for the downtown area. A cat boarding facility, as in kitty cats. A cat boarding facility known as the Catios has opened at 6153 Military Avenue in historic Benson. The owner describes it as a hotel that's cat-oriented but also designed to house small mammals. Hopefully they keep the cats in the small mammals separated. I feel like since I'm filling in for Trent and I should have had a joke ready for that, but we'll just go to the next. We threw it on here, so you didn't have time to prepare. Big chicken, a fast casual restaurant franchise owned by legendary basketball player Shaquille O'Neal plans to expand to Omaha. Local entrepreneurs, which are a father and son duo, are bringing two big chicken locations to Omaha. Exact locations not yet announced. This concept was founded in 2018, has 32 locations in 18 states. The closest existing one is inside the Kansas City Airport terminal. Does Shaquille come for the grand opening? I would imagine if he did, there would be quite a line of people to get autographs. Ashland Brewing Company plans to open next summer, the summer of 2025 near highways 6 and 66 in Ashland. This is going to be a 10,600 square foot brew hub hub. It'll have four pickleball courts, a rooftop deck outdoor seating with fire pits. Very, very nice. It'll be part of what's being called the white tail development. Sounds like if you took chicken and pickle and added brewery on it. You might have the Ashland Brewing Company. Sounds like a cool place. Well, we mentioned a while back that the Gretna location of Lansky's near 168th and highway 370 is changing its name to 531. That has happened. Same ownership, but that restaurant now serves authentic amarosos, hogies, and new meat options. The Lansky's locations at 50th and L and Council Bluffs remain unchanged. Still are called Lansky's. Cafe Botanica has opened in Lakeside at 2575 South, 171st Court. Also has locations at one Pacific Place and down in Lincoln. To celebrate the grand opening, it's going to have some special promotions through June 22nd. They're kind of known for smoothies, juices, but also a food menu. Brad, everyone loves that Insomnia cookies, and the signage has gone up on their second Omaha location, which will be in the Blackstone District. The cookie craze is interesting. You know, first we had the crumble cookie and now the Insomnia cookie. It's a very interesting concept to come up with. And I'm partial to goodly cookies at one Pacific Place. I like that place quite a bit. I'm impartial to all cookies. You do not discriminate. Hawaii Fluid Art is an art studio franchise that opened in March at its grand opening this week near 132nd and Dodge. 42 locations in 22 states. All right, music is playing, which means that we're done. I'm Jeff Beals. I'm Brad Williams. And Brad is substituting for Trenton. He'll be back next week. 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