Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Mutual of Omaha/Midtown Developments and West O Roads

Transcript

Mutual of Omaha/Midtown Developments and West O Roads · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

0:00
Speaker 1: Anything goes with us. And I don't think I'm on
0:02
Speaker 1: fire today. I think I'm a little wet today. It's
0:04
Speaker 1: raining out there. Peyton is with us today. Good morning Peyton,
0:07
Speaker 1: Good morning Geene. It's wet outside and it's cold in here.
0:10
Speaker 1: I know it's freezing in here, but I'm not going
0:12
Speaker 1: to complain. You know, my office at City Hall, it
0:15
Speaker 1: was either really hot or really cold, and I would
0:17
Speaker 1: much rather have it cold any day than it'd be
0:19
Speaker 1: a too warm here. Probably this place will be warm,
0:22
Speaker 1: too warm tomorrow. But my fingertips are numb today. But
0:25
Speaker 1: you know what we want to again, We want to
0:27
Speaker 1: hear from you, whether it's city, state, national, the world.
0:31
Speaker 1: Of course, the streetcar is always up for discussion, and
0:35
Speaker 1: you're going to hear plenty of opinions from me. It's
0:37
Speaker 1: your chance to speak up and sound off. You can
0:40
Speaker 1: send your emails today to comment at kfab dot com,
0:43
Speaker 1: or you can call us at four oh two five five,
0:46
Speaker 1: eight eleven ten. I have a special guest this morning,
0:49
Speaker 1: and I think people are going to be very interested.
0:51
Speaker 1: Jason Lanaha is in here, who is president and CEO
0:55
Speaker 1: of Lantahai Real Estate.
0:56
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Geene. How are you?
0:58
Speaker 1: I am, I am just great. Jason's been in this
1:01
Speaker 1: studio before. I know you've done Grow Omaha show before.
1:04
Speaker 1: But you know, I just wanted to start out because
1:06
Speaker 1: I think everyone that has lived in Omaha for any
1:10
Speaker 1: period of time recognizes the Lanaha name, and I think
1:14
Speaker 1: they think automatically the nursery. And that was started way back,
1:18
Speaker 1: probably nineteen seventy four, I believe what I read by
1:21
Speaker 1: your dad, Dave. And it started out with ten acres
1:25
Speaker 1: of land that he purchased at about one hundred and ninety
1:27
Speaker 1: second Center. Now I read he owns over and manages
1:33
Speaker 1: over seven hundred acres for his nursery.
1:35
Speaker 2: I believe it. Yeah, that is that is a big operation.
1:37
Speaker 1: That is pretty amazing. And then because I said, most
1:42
Speaker 1: people think about the nursery, but I don't think a
1:44
Speaker 1: lot of people really know as much about Lanaha real
1:48
Speaker 1: estate as they do about the nurseries. And you are
1:51
Speaker 1: the president and CEO. This was established in nineteen eighty eight.
1:55
Speaker 1: It's corporate, commercial, mixed use, residential. You do just about everything,
2:01
Speaker 1: don't you.
2:01
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's good or bad.
2:02
Speaker 1: Well, yes, and you know what I read your web
2:06
Speaker 1: page yesterday, and it says we dream big and we
2:09
Speaker 1: work hard to create better cities for our clients, partners, stakeholders,
2:14
Speaker 1: and our community. Wow, you can't do much better than that.
2:17
Speaker 1: That's a pretty good mission statement right there. But let's
2:20
Speaker 1: just start out and talk a little bit. You know,
2:23
Speaker 1: there were some they're not small, but there were some
2:26
Speaker 1: smaller projects than the ones I want to talk about today,
2:30
Speaker 1: and I primarily want to talk about three today. I
2:34
Speaker 1: want to talk about the Mutual of Omaha Tower, which
2:37
Speaker 1: you are the developer for downtown, which is approaching its
2:40
Speaker 1: final heights. I want to talk about Heartwood Preserve. Everybody
2:45
Speaker 1: wants to know about that, and that is the big
2:47
Speaker 1: development that Applied Underwriters is doing, which is the old
2:51
Speaker 1: boys Town property at about one hundred and forty fourth
2:54
Speaker 1: in Dodge. And then another site that everybody is curious about.
2:59
Speaker 1: And even when I was still mayor, I got a
3:00
Speaker 1: lot of calls about is the old Mutual site at
3:03
Speaker 1: Midtown and you're the developer for that too. So just
3:06
Speaker 1: go back in time a little bit. The development Hawthorn, Yeah,
3:11
Speaker 1: out on H Street about one hundred and eighty I
3:14
Speaker 1: think Q across to Millard West. That was a land
3:16
Speaker 1: of hot project, right, Yeah.
3:18
Speaker 3: There are quite a few projects out west. And and
3:20
Speaker 3: I'll dip into the history really quick. So when my
3:24
Speaker 3: father started the nursery business, he grew all of his
3:27
Speaker 3: own trees, which required a lot of land. And then
3:29
Speaker 3: eventually the city, as we all knew, grew west. And
3:33
Speaker 3: there's a better use for some of that land than
3:35
Speaker 3: more productive use than trees. And so the trees kept
3:38
Speaker 3: moving further west, and my father got into single family development.
3:42
Speaker 2: So like the Hawthorn neighborhood bay would, there are a
3:44
Speaker 2: bunch of them out there.
3:45
Speaker 1: The sanctuary, the sanctuary, yep? Is that what you did
3:48
Speaker 1: or your dad?
3:49
Speaker 2: We both worked on that one, okay.
3:51
Speaker 3: But and then just as we have progressed, it's gone
3:55
Speaker 3: from single family to some commercial to now we're dipping
3:59
Speaker 3: our toes in a few towers.
4:00
Speaker 1: It's great. I know your name is around and these
4:03
Speaker 1: developments that I mentioned, these are major developments going on
4:08
Speaker 1: in Omaha right now. So let's start out with the tower,
4:11
Speaker 1: the Mutual of Omaha Tower downtown. It is approaching, as
4:14
Speaker 1: I said, it's final height, which is, if I recall
4:17
Speaker 1: about six hundred and seventy seven.
4:20
Speaker 2: Feet, that's exactly right. Yeah.
4:22
Speaker 1: See, I remember that, and it will absolutely redefine Omaha
4:26
Speaker 1: Skyline in the future. And I remember all the early
4:29
Speaker 1: conversations about them building a new headquarters, making it look
4:33
Speaker 1: like a campus. Where would it be, should it go
4:35
Speaker 1: out west? Where should it go? And I know everybody
4:38
Speaker 1: around the table thought a corporate headquarter building for Mutual
4:42
Speaker 1: of Omaha belongs right downtown, and so that's where it is.
4:46
Speaker 1: We had a lot of negotiating with that because I
4:50
Speaker 1: thought that the best site for that would be where
4:52
Speaker 1: the Dale Clark was, and we did a bit of
4:55
Speaker 1: a landswap there. The city built another downtown library and
5:00
Speaker 1: then demo the Dale Clark. So you take it from
5:03
Speaker 1: there and tell us about the tower, tell us about
5:06
Speaker 1: when it will be done, tell us some of the
5:08
Speaker 1: features about it too, because it is quite amazing.
5:11
Speaker 2: Yeah sure, so, yeah, a little bit of history.
5:14
Speaker 3: I mean, we started working on this thing in twenty
5:16
Speaker 3: twenty one, and these things take a while. And this
5:19
Speaker 3: is a perfect example of kind of that ven diagram
5:23
Speaker 3: of city government leadership, corporate government leadership, and private development
5:29
Speaker 3: coming together for a shared vision that most importantly serves Mutual.
5:35
Speaker 2: Bomhont its associates. That's the number one goal.
5:37
Speaker 3: It's got to serve that and help their growth and
5:39
Speaker 3: talent attraction, et cetera. But it also means a lot
5:42
Speaker 3: for the city. And we all talked about you know,
5:47
Speaker 3: you can't name a single healthy city.
5:49
Speaker 2: In the United States that has a decaying urban core.
5:52
Speaker 3: And so I know we have all worked for so
5:54
Speaker 3: long together and so many people to protect urban core
6:00
Speaker 3: gets us into the street car all these other things
6:02
Speaker 3: it does.
6:02
Speaker 1: And I'm still the biggest cheer leader.
6:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I'm right behind you.
6:06
Speaker 3: So but yeah, and so the building six hundred and
6:09
Speaker 3: seventy seven feet tall. It's really one of the first
6:13
Speaker 3: major post COVID towers.
6:15
Speaker 2: In the country.
6:17
Speaker 3: And so the whole building's redesigned how you know, mutual
6:22
Speaker 3: desires to work in the future, and so with it
6:24
Speaker 3: is a really flexible.
6:25
Speaker 2: Workspace and amazing amenities.
6:28
Speaker 3: You have exercise facilities, six restaurant concepts, outdoor garden areas
6:33
Speaker 3: where they kind of meetings.
6:35
Speaker 2: It's just it's a really special place.
6:37
Speaker 1: Well, you know, a lot of people ask me, they said,
6:39
Speaker 1: will Mutual of Omaha fill up that building? Because so
6:44
Speaker 1: many people now are working from home and Mutual of
6:48
Speaker 1: Omaha has four thousand employees in the city of Omaha.
6:51
Speaker 1: Now they're not all at work at one time. But
6:53
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about that, about building this huge
6:57
Speaker 1: skyscraper when a lot of people are still working remotely.
7:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, so you know the main messaging.
7:05
Speaker 3: I don't want to get in front of Mutual of
7:06
Speaker 3: Omaha on that, but here are a few facts.
7:10
Speaker 1: Well, you said flexible workspaces, and that's where I want it.
7:13
Speaker 3: And so yeah, you know, Mutual Oomha's coming out of
7:16
Speaker 3: somewhere in the ballpark of one point three million square
7:19
Speaker 3: feet and the towers by eight hundred thousand square feet,
7:21
Speaker 3: So it's it's and it's assigned to the same number
7:23
Speaker 3: of people. So it's just a lot more efficient. So
7:26
Speaker 3: it's actually quite a bit less space than they're currently in.
7:29
Speaker 1: Yes, and that that's what I think is important. It's
7:32
Speaker 1: less space than they currently have at Midtown. But it's
7:35
Speaker 1: just going straight up. I remembered I was there for
7:38
Speaker 1: the groundbreaking and I remember talking to the architects. Yeah,
7:41
Speaker 1: and those are the same architects that designed the skyscraper
7:46
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City. I can't remember the name of the building, yes,
7:50
Speaker 1: And I remember saying to them I can't imagine what
7:53
Speaker 1: it would be like to design a skyscraper. And I
7:56
Speaker 1: remember they looked at me and they go, oh, it's
7:58
Speaker 1: so much fun. And I thought, I guess, if that's
8:00
Speaker 1: what you do for a living, is design skyscrapers, this
8:04
Speaker 1: one would be really fun and it will be the
8:06
Speaker 1: tallest building downtown.
8:08
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely, Okay.
8:10
Speaker 1: And I think that that's something that's that you weren't
8:13
Speaker 1: trying to achieve, but you did achieve it.
8:16
Speaker 2: Yeah.
8:16
Speaker 3: No, once again, you know, the guiding light on this
8:19
Speaker 3: is what is good for a client. And the size
8:23
Speaker 3: ended up being what it is because of the space,
8:26
Speaker 3: programming and understanding how the various departments want to work.
8:29
Speaker 3: It wasn't designing a building and then putting people inside.
8:32
Speaker 2: It was the other way around.
8:33
Speaker 1: And forty four stories.
8:35
Speaker 3: It's forty four stories. You know, it's a little deceiving
8:38
Speaker 3: because our floor to floors are very high. They're atypical,
8:41
Speaker 3: so they're fifteen feet, which is great, makes more natural light.
8:44
Speaker 3: The top floor forty four is actually a double floor height,
8:48
Speaker 3: so I guess the roofline's more like forty.
8:50
Speaker 1: Five and the top floor is like it's like two floors.
8:54
Speaker 2: Isn't it is, Yeah, it is. It's beautiful. It's about
8:57
Speaker 2: thirty feet tall.
8:58
Speaker 3: Boardrooms up there and to the other associates as well
9:01
Speaker 3: to use during the day, and you can imagine the
9:03
Speaker 3: views are pretty nice.
9:05
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. And that crane, my gosh. I used to look
9:08
Speaker 1: at that crane from my window at City Hall. But
9:11
Speaker 1: it's the building itself six hundred and seventy seven feet tall.
9:14
Speaker 1: The crane can go up seven hundred and fifty feet.
9:16
Speaker 1: I mean, that's it's amazing.
9:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's pretty cool to watch too, because
9:20
Speaker 3: those cranes build themselves up and take themselves down.
9:24
Speaker 2: It's pretty interesting.
9:25
Speaker 1: I know, it's amazing to watch them. I can't I
9:27
Speaker 1: can't imagine being a crane operator. It's it's unbelievable, big toy,
9:31
Speaker 1: I know, I guess it is. And with all the
9:33
Speaker 1: windstorms and things we have, I think, oh geez, what's
9:36
Speaker 1: going to happen to that crane and it still is standing.
9:39
Speaker 1: So the one thing I did want to bring up
9:42
Speaker 1: to is seventy three percent of the dollars spent were
9:46
Speaker 1: with local folks.
9:47
Speaker 2: That's one hundred percent, right.
9:48
Speaker 1: And I think that's really important that you guys can
9:51
Speaker 1: bring out too that this building downtown resulted in a
9:56
Speaker 1: lot of jobs and a lot of employment and a
9:59
Speaker 1: lot of businesses getting doing very very well because of
10:03
Speaker 1: this building. The other thing is is the first fourteen
10:06
Speaker 1: floors is parking, and the city has purchased that garage, correct,
10:11
Speaker 1: So I think that's important for people to know that
10:13
Speaker 1: that was built with the building, designed with the building,
10:16
Speaker 1: but the City of Omaha purchased the garage. They will
10:18
Speaker 1: own and operate it. So it can be used obviously
10:21
Speaker 1: for mutual employees, but it also can be used in
10:24
Speaker 1: the evenings and weekends for events downtown.
10:26
Speaker 2: That's exactly it. So it accomplishes two purposes.
10:29
Speaker 3: One, it provides parking for a large headquarters during the
10:33
Speaker 3: day during business hours, and then it opens up in
10:35
Speaker 3: the evening for folks coming down to the park or
10:37
Speaker 3: whatever else is going on downtown.
10:38
Speaker 1: And you know, the City of Omaha does build and
10:41
Speaker 1: operate a lot of garages because then we can we
10:43
Speaker 1: cash flow them. You know, they pay for themselves. You
10:47
Speaker 1: build them with bonds, and then they cash flow because
10:49
Speaker 1: people pay to park in them, and they cash flow
10:52
Speaker 1: and that's how we pay for them.
10:53
Speaker 3: And you know, another interesting thing about the street car,
10:55
Speaker 3: and I know, I'm sure we'll get into that, but
10:57
Speaker 3: the streetcar also connects all of these.
10:59
Speaker 1: Assets, yesslutely does. And I and we've had a lot
11:02
Speaker 1: of calls on this show about the streetcar, and I
11:04
Speaker 1: know there's still people that are very skeptical, are totally
11:07
Speaker 1: against it. But you, as a developer and other developers
11:11
Speaker 1: along the streetcar corder, you do realize how this will
11:15
Speaker 1: connect all those things to bring people in around and
11:19
Speaker 1: out of downtown without having to worry about surface parking
11:23
Speaker 1: and taking up space that could be businesses and employment
11:26
Speaker 1: for parking.
11:27
Speaker 2: It's exactly it. I mean, we need density.
11:30
Speaker 3: We have I think I heard you mentioned yesterday is
11:33
Speaker 3: a fifty five hundred lane miles yes, which is great.
11:37
Speaker 3: I mean we're growing and there's there's parts of the
11:38
Speaker 3: cities that you know are less dense and it's appropriate
11:42
Speaker 3: for suburban setups. But the reality is the more density
11:46
Speaker 3: we can put on top of the same infrastructure.
11:50
Speaker 2: The better it is.
11:51
Speaker 3: If we want to lower taxes, we want to do
11:53
Speaker 3: all these things. We want to have improved roads. You know,
11:56
Speaker 3: people talk about potholes, all these things. We need people
11:59
Speaker 3: and more tax payers on more of them in every
12:02
Speaker 3: mile than less of them, right, and that the density
12:05
Speaker 3: of the street car, all these things, that's that's how
12:07
Speaker 3: we accomplish that, and that's good for everybody.
12:09
Speaker 2: In the city.
12:09
Speaker 1: And that's how you broaden your tax base exactly. I mean,
12:11
Speaker 1: if you want lower taxes, and you want lower taxes
12:14
Speaker 1: for everybody in Omaha all the way out to the
12:16
Speaker 1: Elkhorn River, you broaden your tax base. And this is
12:19
Speaker 1: one way that we do it. Excuse me, Peyton has
12:24
Speaker 1: my cough button over there, and I'm still sound a
12:26
Speaker 1: little gravelly this morning. One other thing I wanted to
12:29
Speaker 1: bring up is right now in downtown half is dedicated
12:33
Speaker 1: to parking, and at any given time half is vacant.
12:37
Speaker 1: Can you imagine bringing four thousand mutual of Omaha employees
12:40
Speaker 1: downtown in trying to cover most of downtown with surface parking.
12:45
Speaker 1: You just can't do that. And the street car is
12:47
Speaker 1: going to enable, which we're going to get to next
12:49
Speaker 1: Midtown crossing to some of the employees can park at
12:52
Speaker 1: Midtown and one of the three garages that are at
12:55
Speaker 1: Midtown because the city is purchasing those garages, park there
12:59
Speaker 1: for a low fee. Jump on the street car, take
13:01
Speaker 1: it downtown too, mutual of Omaha or any other business downtown,
13:05
Speaker 1: and that's the great benefit for it. So let's jump
13:08
Speaker 1: to Midtown. So many people have asked me, what is
13:11
Speaker 1: going to happen to Midtown? Are those buildings gonna just
13:14
Speaker 1: sit there and be vacant? And you are the developer
13:17
Speaker 1: of Midtown and I know there's probably not everything you
13:21
Speaker 1: could reveal about your development plan, but hopefully you could
13:25
Speaker 1: tell us a lot about it. I think you already
13:27
Speaker 1: have a name for that, and that's Midtown Forward, yep.
13:31
Speaker 2: And that's more of an effort than a name for
13:34
Speaker 2: an area.
13:34
Speaker 1: But you're master planning everything, So tell us what you
13:37
Speaker 1: can tell us.
13:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, So a couple things. One, as we back up,
13:45
Speaker 3: this is a a higher view of what's important for
13:48
Speaker 3: our city. We can do developments anywhere, but there's certain
13:52
Speaker 3: areas that our opportunities actually grow our city. And when
13:57
Speaker 3: I say that, I mean actually bring new jobs, a
13:59
Speaker 3: new company into our city. And so that at a baseline,
14:02
Speaker 3: that is what we want to do on that campus.
14:05
Speaker 3: And we've been working a lot to set the foundation
14:08
Speaker 3: for that to where we can actually go out around
14:10
Speaker 3: the country and say why Omaha here's why move your
14:14
Speaker 3: people here. And it's not just the new jobs coming,
14:17
Speaker 3: but it's also we have these wonderful institutions, the Med Center, Creighton.
14:21
Speaker 3: We want to keep those people here. They don't need
14:24
Speaker 3: to leave to grow their business. They can stay here
14:26
Speaker 3: and grow their business. And so that's the baseline. If
14:29
Speaker 3: there's one place in the city, in my opinion, we
14:31
Speaker 3: can really grow, it's that area. And it's because the
14:36
Speaker 3: parking's in place, the street cars connecting it. You have,
14:39
Speaker 3: i believe, our largest employer at one end of the
14:42
Speaker 3: streetcar line.
14:43
Speaker 2: Which we need to get it to the right.
14:45
Speaker 3: And you're going to come down to the convention Center
14:47
Speaker 3: and hopefully the airport someday and you don't have to
14:49
Speaker 3: squint very hard to see that vision someday of what
14:52
Speaker 3: it can be. And so at a baseline, that's what
14:55
Speaker 3: we want to accomplish there.
14:57
Speaker 1: And we're talking from I eighty to thirty six Street.
15:00
Speaker 1: That's a big swath of land right there in an
15:02
Speaker 1: urban setting. Yeah, you don't find that too.
15:05
Speaker 2: Often, and that's the reason.
15:06
Speaker 3: If we piecemeal it, it can still be nice, but
15:09
Speaker 3: it won't be transformational. And so we're gonna try the
15:12
Speaker 3: hard way and actually build stuff that matters, that brings jobs,
15:16
Speaker 3: that broads that tax space.
15:18
Speaker 1: So that includes several parking lots, surface lots. It includes
15:22
Speaker 1: the three parking garages that the city has purchased now
15:25
Speaker 1: and the existing two mutual buildings, the North Building in
15:29
Speaker 1: the South building. Can you explain a little or tell
15:31
Speaker 1: us a little about are those buildings gonna stay?
15:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the short version is, yes, those buildings are
15:36
Speaker 3: going to stay once again back to what we deem
15:40
Speaker 3: to be our civic duty. The current mutual headquarters between
15:44
Speaker 3: Dodge and Farnham. It's just it's an important building for
15:47
Speaker 3: a city. It'd be ashamed to tear it down. And
15:50
Speaker 3: with that though, it's a very outdated building. And so
15:54
Speaker 3: we are actually going through that right now. What uses
15:57
Speaker 3: can we put in that. We're building our underwriting model
16:00
Speaker 3: and so we're hoping to announce something on that soon. Okay, good, Yeah,
16:03
Speaker 3: And so that building will stay. The South Building on
16:08
Speaker 3: the south side of Farnham is a wonderful building that
16:11
Speaker 3: will always stay.
16:11
Speaker 2: That's a useful office building.
16:13
Speaker 1: It has such an I like the look, it has
16:16
Speaker 1: such an art deco look to me.
16:17
Speaker 2: Yep, it's a good building. It's a very functional building.
16:22
Speaker 3: The original headquarters started and I want to say as
16:26
Speaker 3: nineteen ten, it's been added on four times, technically five.
16:29
Speaker 2: The tower pieces.
16:30
Speaker 3: Built in two and so with that you just get
16:31
Speaker 3: these huge cores. It's hard to get sunlight to the middle.
16:34
Speaker 3: And so that's the challenge of how do we reutilize
16:38
Speaker 3: that put more bodies in the area. And so we
16:40
Speaker 3: have some pretty good ideas and some good momentum on that.
16:43
Speaker 1: So when do you think you might be announcing something
16:46
Speaker 1: that'll be happening there?
16:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure this year.
16:50
Speaker 1: Okay, good, good, Yeah, that'll be great because I know
16:53
Speaker 1: people were really worried about is that going to be
16:56
Speaker 1: just vacant there? Because Mutual of Omaha is midtown and
17:00
Speaker 1: so now I think, knowing that both of those buildings
17:03
Speaker 1: will remain, they were going to be redeveloped, that whole
17:05
Speaker 1: area is going to be redeveloped. But once again, I
17:08
Speaker 1: have to emphasize, and I know you agree with me,
17:10
Speaker 1: it's very rare to have such a swath of land,
17:13
Speaker 1: an urban land, near public transportation. So the streetcar really
17:18
Speaker 1: comes into play in redeveloping this area and making it
17:21
Speaker 1: something major.
17:22
Speaker 3: Well, to be clear, this would not be happening in
17:26
Speaker 3: the way that it has potentially happened without the street car.
17:29
Speaker 3: And once again I understand, thank you, Jason, and you
17:33
Speaker 3: did not pay me five bucks to say that.
17:35
Speaker 1: I'm not kicking I mean, but it's very true.
17:40
Speaker 3: And I'm very like, extremely confident that when this is
17:44
Speaker 3: up and running, I think everyone's going to see it
17:48
Speaker 3: and go oh wow, that makes a lot of sense. Yes,
17:50
Speaker 3: and we've seen it in places like Kansas City. I
17:53
Speaker 3: believe that's already been extended or in the.
17:54
Speaker 1: Press extent standing it north and south. Yeah, because it's
17:58
Speaker 1: so popular there. Now we only have about a few
18:01
Speaker 1: minutes left. But I have to get to Heartwood Preserve
18:04
Speaker 1: because Heartwood is the old the development at the old
18:07
Speaker 1: Boys Town property about one hundred and forty fourth in
18:10
Speaker 1: Dodge between Dodge and Pacific, And I want you to
18:13
Speaker 1: you are the developer of that area. And I'm out
18:16
Speaker 1: there at least three times a week because I love
18:18
Speaker 1: Charleston's and I like that Starbucks out there too. But
18:21
Speaker 1: this is residential, it's mixed use, it's pedestrian friendly. They're
18:25
Speaker 1: senior living. Boy, I just want you to talk about
18:28
Speaker 1: what's happening there and if you could give it. The
18:32
Speaker 1: middle is called the row, and I want you to
18:35
Speaker 1: People are saying what's going to be in there? What's
18:37
Speaker 1: going to be in there? So whatever you can tell us. Now,
18:39
Speaker 1: it started out with Valmont's headquarters. Are there. That Carson
18:43
Speaker 1: Group has that huge building that's you could see on Dodge.
18:47
Speaker 1: There's one that I keep on texting you saying what's
18:49
Speaker 1: happening here? That's all glass and has a parking garage.
18:52
Speaker 1: And that's that's Olsen, I believe. Okay, So just if
18:57
Speaker 1: you can go through and talk to us a little
18:59
Speaker 1: bit about what's happening out at Heartwood Preserve.
19:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, so first I want to make sure I'm clear.
19:04
Speaker 3: So Applied underwriters and Jeff Silver and Steve Menzie's had
19:08
Speaker 3: the vision for let's call it the five hundred acres
19:11
Speaker 3: right south of Pacific all the way have to die.
19:13
Speaker 1: And I know both of them well and what great
19:15
Speaker 1: people they are.
19:16
Speaker 3: They've been very good stewards of the Katy. It's once
19:20
Speaker 3: again it's easy to do easy things. It's hard to
19:22
Speaker 3: do hard things, obviously, and they're doing it the right way.
19:25
Speaker 2: And so we're fortunate My company, Landaha is fortunate.
19:29
Speaker 3: To be able to develop what's called the Row, which
19:32
Speaker 3: is the downtown of Heartwood Preserve. We hope to make
19:34
Speaker 3: it the downtown of West Omahawk. So what's happening there now.
19:38
Speaker 3: Our first one hundred and fifteen thousand square foot building
19:41
Speaker 3: is wrapping up right now, and once again, Olson, a
19:44
Speaker 3: great Nebraska growing company, is the anchor tenant.
19:47
Speaker 2: First parking structures up.
19:49
Speaker 3: We will be breaking ground here in a couple months
19:52
Speaker 3: on a wonderful hotel, so four star Marriotte autograph hotel
19:56
Speaker 3: called the Elowin and that will.
19:57
Speaker 1: Be in the middle in the Row area, that is
19:59
Speaker 1: right next.
19:59
Speaker 3: To the the building where Olson's going into and they'll
20:02
Speaker 3: share that same parking structure, so that would be a
20:04
Speaker 3: six floor hotel, super high end. We're pretty confident we
20:08
Speaker 3: can get the highest rates in Omaha actually there, and
20:10
Speaker 3: that's that's our goal. There a lot of businesses out
20:13
Speaker 3: in West Omaha and they don't have a place to stay,
20:16
Speaker 3: so we have that. We're going to be breaking ground
20:18
Speaker 3: later this year in the first multi family building as well,
20:20
Speaker 3: once again very urban in the second parking structure will
20:24
Speaker 3: also break around this year.
20:25
Speaker 1: Okay, what about that. There's a huge amount of parkments
20:29
Speaker 1: that Broadmoor is doing right north of Millard North.
20:32
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. Okay, they have a huge number of.
20:34
Speaker 1: Okay, and are those anywhere near opening?
20:38
Speaker 3: I don't know that answer, I have to you, Okay.
20:44
Speaker 1: So I mean all of that is really good news.
20:47
Speaker 1: I know people are really excited about it, and they
20:49
Speaker 1: want to know everybody when there's a new development, they
20:52
Speaker 1: want to know what's going to be there, what stores
20:54
Speaker 1: are going to be there. Is there going to be
20:55
Speaker 1: retail out there?
20:56
Speaker 4: Oh?
20:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of retail. And this is the
20:59
Speaker 3: idea of these these parking structures. They're shared parking structures.
21:02
Speaker 3: So in theory, the office folks that there during the
21:05
Speaker 3: day and the retail folks come at night. So and
21:07
Speaker 3: that is how it has to work. And so we
21:09
Speaker 3: have intentionally focused on bringing the office there first.
21:13
Speaker 1: Okay.
21:13
Speaker 3: That brings all the population in the folks, and I
21:17
Speaker 3: hope in the next i'd say ninety days, sixty to
21:20
Speaker 3: ninety days, we'll be able to announce it. Another pretty
21:23
Speaker 3: attractive headquarters out there as well, one hundred and fifty
21:25
Speaker 3: thousand square foot Class A office building.
21:28
Speaker 1: So there's a lot going on and yet a lot
21:31
Speaker 1: still to come.
21:32
Speaker 2: You got that right, Okay.
21:33
Speaker 1: Now, the last thing I got to ask you because
21:36
Speaker 1: people want to know, what is that enormous building that
21:40
Speaker 1: is on the south side of Pacific right across across
21:43
Speaker 1: from Millard North, And that is Applied Headquarters.
21:46
Speaker 3: That is Applied Underwriters new headquarters. And it is a
21:48
Speaker 3: spectacular building.
21:49
Speaker 1: And I was in there long, long, long time ago
21:52
Speaker 1: and I did a virtual tour once of it, and
21:54
Speaker 1: it is it is amazing. But that is their headquarter
21:58
Speaker 1: building right now. They are they have a presence in Omaha,
22:01
Speaker 1: lots of employees in Omaha, but their headquarters is in
22:05
Speaker 1: south of San Francisco.
22:06
Speaker 2: Correct. Their headquarters is now in New York City.
22:09
Speaker 1: Okay, in New York City, but the.
22:10
Speaker 3: Vast majority of their employees, as I understand it, are
22:14
Speaker 3: here in Omaha.
22:15
Speaker 2: Okay.
22:15
Speaker 1: Yes, And then do you have any idea that you
22:18
Speaker 1: could tell us when that is due to be open?
22:20
Speaker 3: I believe in talking with Jeff Silver, I believe it's
22:23
Speaker 3: opening up later this year.
22:24
Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, yeah, I heard the fall, but I just
22:26
Speaker 1: didn't know if you had any updates.
22:27
Speaker 2: I don't have any insight, but stay tuned.
22:31
Speaker 1: There's more coming.
22:31
Speaker 3: They're just finishing out the insides of it, and once
22:34
Speaker 3: again we're going to be bringing thousands of employees out
22:37
Speaker 3: to Hertwood, Okay, and they're a big part of that.
22:40
Speaker 1: All right, Well, boy, I could sit and talk to
22:42
Speaker 1: you another hour or so. You are a busy man
22:45
Speaker 1: with the Tower, Mutual of Omaha Tower, downtown, redeveloping a
22:49
Speaker 1: midtown where Mutual is, and doing Heartwood Preserve, plus a
22:53
Speaker 1: lot of other developments. Jason Lanaha, thank you so much
22:56
Speaker 1: for being here today.
22:57
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. I really enjoyed it, and it's always
23:00
Speaker 2: good to see you.
23:00
Speaker 1: Good to see you too, and I'll have to meet
23:02
Speaker 1: you out at Charleston sometimes trying to schedule that for
23:04
Speaker 1: a while, I know, because I want to know all
23:06
Speaker 1: sorts of things that are going to happen out there.
23:08
Speaker 1: But it's what a great development that is. So thank
23:11
Speaker 1: you for being with us, and I know Peyton's telling
23:14
Speaker 1: me get going. Woman. Thank you again to Jason Lanaha.
23:16
Speaker 1: I could have kept him on another hour talking about
23:19
Speaker 1: what's going in at Heartwood Preserve. I know everybody is
23:22
Speaker 1: quite interested in that, and of course the old Mutual
23:26
Speaker 1: side at midtime of about what's going on in there,
23:28
Speaker 1: and I think he reassured us that those two old
23:30
Speaker 1: buildings are going to remain there. So and today, guess what.
23:34
Speaker 1: The ballots for the primary are now available. I got
23:38
Speaker 1: mine yesterday in the mail. I like to vote by mail.
23:41
Speaker 1: My husband is one of those that loves to vote
23:44
Speaker 1: in person to go on election day. But when I
23:47
Speaker 1: was mayor for twelve years, I thought if something I
23:49
Speaker 1: get really busy and I can't make it and I
23:51
Speaker 1: don't get the chance to vote, I would just die.
23:54
Speaker 1: So I love it and I love to be able
23:56
Speaker 1: to look at the ballot for a while. But the
23:59
Speaker 1: one thing I really want to say again to everybody
24:01
Speaker 1: listening is how important it is to vote in this election.
24:06
Speaker 1: A lot of people think these midterm elections aren't as important.
24:10
Speaker 1: The election is May twelfth, but there is a lot
24:13
Speaker 1: of people a lot of really really important seats that
24:17
Speaker 1: are on the ballot now, from US Senate to the
24:21
Speaker 1: governor to the second congressional district, secretary of State, attorney general.
24:27
Speaker 1: There are a lot of very very important positions that
24:33
Speaker 1: are on the ballot now. And a lot of people
24:36
Speaker 1: will tell me I don't vote in the primary, just
24:37
Speaker 1: vote in the general. Primaries are so important too. Because
24:42
Speaker 1: you know, you got to get two people through the primary,
24:45
Speaker 1: and the voter turnout typically has been very, very poor
24:49
Speaker 1: in Omaha and in Douglas County. And if you want
24:52
Speaker 1: the voice of the people to be heard, and that's
24:54
Speaker 1: what elections are all about, then people have to have
24:57
Speaker 1: their voice be heard and they have to go out
24:59
Speaker 1: and vote vote otherwise. You know, I go back to
25:02
Speaker 1: my election, not are my defeat the last time and
25:06
Speaker 1: the voter turnout was about twenty eight percent in Omaha.
25:10
Speaker 1: Now is that letting the voice of the people be heard?
25:13
Speaker 1: And so I just really encourage people to get out
25:16
Speaker 1: there and vote, whether you do it in person, ask
25:18
Speaker 1: for an absentee ballot. We make it as easy as
25:20
Speaker 1: we possibly can.
25:22
Speaker 5: What is the importance of these statewide and even local elections?
25:26
Speaker 5: Does it mean more for a constituent when they're voting
25:29
Speaker 5: for these local positions.
25:31
Speaker 1: Well, you know, they call them the down ballot different positions,
25:36
Speaker 1: but they aren't really important. I mean, when you talk
25:39
Speaker 1: about maybe the Nebraska Public Service Commission, or you talk
25:43
Speaker 1: about Douglas County Board, Douglas County treasure Douglas County District
25:48
Speaker 1: Court clerk, you may not think that these are as important,
25:52
Speaker 1: but they absolutely are because this is how Douglas County,
25:55
Speaker 1: the county that you live in, and this is how
25:58
Speaker 1: the city of Omaha, this is how well this is
26:00
Speaker 1: who is going to be leading and running the city
26:05
Speaker 1: and the county, and this is why these are important
26:08
Speaker 1: and so to me, they they may not seem as
26:11
Speaker 1: important as the governor or the US Senate, but they
26:15
Speaker 1: really are. And we got to get out there and
26:17
Speaker 1: we've got to vote learning community for example. A lot
26:20
Speaker 1: of people don't even know what learning community is, but
26:23
Speaker 1: it's still important. And let your voice be heard and
26:26
Speaker 1: study these issues too. I think the mail in ballot
26:28
Speaker 1: gives you the opportunity that you can you can look
26:31
Speaker 1: up who these candidates are and you can study who
26:34
Speaker 1: they are and what they stand for. And we're going
26:36
Speaker 1: to try to have some candidates on this show too.
26:39
Speaker 1: Typically we don't have a whole bunch of candidates just
26:41
Speaker 1: to come on and do their speeches. But at the
26:44
Speaker 1: same time, if they if they're saying that they're going
26:46
Speaker 1: to accomplish something special, I'd like them to come on
26:49
Speaker 1: and say, how are you going to accomplish that? You know,
26:52
Speaker 1: if somebody running for the legislature is saying I'm going
26:54
Speaker 1: to lower your taxes that I would like them to
26:57
Speaker 1: come on and say how exactly are you going to law? Yeah,
27:00
Speaker 1: let's do that. So you know, we're going to have
27:02
Speaker 1: some of the candidates on the show so that we
27:04
Speaker 1: could have a good conversation with them.
27:06
Speaker 5: Steve on the phone lines at four zero, two, five, five, eight,
27:10
Speaker 5: eleven ten has something to add to this conversation, Steve,
27:12
Speaker 5: You're live with Jean Stauthart here on the KFAB comment line.
27:15
Speaker 4: Good morning, Hello, hello Steve here. I agree it's important
27:21
Speaker 4: to vote in the primary, and it sounds like twenty
27:23
Speaker 4: eight percent is not a great represented representation in our
27:27
Speaker 4: federal elections. It's been below fifty percent sometimes of eligible
27:30
Speaker 4: voters that actually vote yes. But as a counter example,
27:33
Speaker 4: I would give myself as a counter example, I flung
27:36
Speaker 4: Republican voted view for every election except for the last one,
27:39
Speaker 4: and it came down to the street issue.
27:43
Speaker 1: Street or street street cars?
27:45
Speaker 4: Would you like to hear.
27:48
Speaker 1: Were you talking about the street or the street car?
27:53
Speaker 4: The streets? I live in Skyline Ranches. We were acquired
27:59
Speaker 4: annexed against will and told we'd have the same or
28:01
Speaker 4: better services for the same or lower taxes. The street
28:05
Speaker 4: in front of our house was due to be repaved.
28:07
Speaker 4: It's blacktop that needs to be repaved retopped every five
28:11
Speaker 4: to seven years, and it was due to be retopped
28:13
Speaker 4: that very next summer. And you were not in office
28:15
Speaker 4: at that time, but your predecessor was and said, since
28:19
Speaker 4: they took over, they unscheduled the repair and the maintenance,
28:23
Speaker 4: and they continued to I continue to call every year,
28:25
Speaker 4: and they continued to defer it every year. They've now
28:27
Speaker 4: deferred that overde maintenance fifteen years. The streets continually deteriorated,
28:32
Speaker 4: to the point that parts of the street wash off
28:34
Speaker 4: into my driveway and into my yard every time it rains.
28:37
Speaker 4: And so, just as you would neglect your body if
28:39
Speaker 4: you didn't never ate proper food, and just as if
28:43
Speaker 4: your car would quit working if you'd never changed oil
28:45
Speaker 4: or maintained it, the street has not been maintained. It's
28:48
Speaker 4: been neglected, and it's been forced into the deteriorating condition.
28:53
Speaker 4: And yet I pay the same streets. I just went
28:55
Speaker 4: into chat GPT and said, are there any cities in
28:57
Speaker 4: the United States where residents are required to pay for
29:00
Speaker 4: their own street repairs? So the city tells us we'd
29:02
Speaker 4: have to pay for our own repairs, and that was
29:04
Speaker 4: never the case before we're annexed, and it said no.
29:07
Speaker 4: There are a few exceptions that Omahona Brass is one
29:09
Speaker 4: of them. So it's a huge outlier to live in
29:12
Speaker 4: what's supposed to be a great city and yet your
29:14
Speaker 4: street is neglected and you paid taxes sports b repair
29:17
Speaker 4: and it's not repair. There was a huge bond issue,
29:19
Speaker 4: as you talked about yesterday, and one of the top
29:21
Speaker 4: neighborhoods listened with Skyline Ranches, and this was going to
29:23
Speaker 4: address The money came in, it got spent on adjacent
29:26
Speaker 4: neighborhoods and other neighborhoods and didn't touch ours except for
29:30
Speaker 4: one street. And we continue to suffer for that. And
29:32
Speaker 4: that's why there's a law suit going on right now.
29:34
Speaker 1: I appreciate your call, and you know you are aware
29:36
Speaker 1: there was a lawsuit. Did the Skyline Ranch people filed
29:38
Speaker 1: a lawsuit against the city with that the city prevailed,
29:43
Speaker 1: They did appeal it, the city prevailed again. But it
29:46
Speaker 1: is not true and it is not accurate that I
29:48
Speaker 1: said that if you want your streets repair, you have
29:51
Speaker 1: to pay for him yourself. Even the current Mayor John
29:55
Speaker 1: Ewing had a TV commercial during the campaign that says
29:58
Speaker 1: Mayor Stouther says, if you want your streets repaired, you
30:00
Speaker 1: have to do it yourself, and that is not really
30:03
Speaker 1: true at all. What I did is when I became mayor,
30:07
Speaker 1: it used to be that these unimproved streets, which were
30:10
Speaker 1: not only in Elcorn but all around the West Side
30:12
Speaker 1: area that did not have storm drains, curbs, gutters, sidewalks,
30:17
Speaker 1: that if they wanted them repaired, you had to pay
30:20
Speaker 1: one hundred percent the homeowners. The cities were concentrating on
30:24
Speaker 1: the mains and the secondaries. What I did is I
30:26
Speaker 1: got a group of citizens together. They met for about
30:29
Speaker 1: a year and they are the ones that came up
30:32
Speaker 1: with a plan that the city council approved, and that
30:35
Speaker 1: was establishing a plan for road maintenance district In street
30:38
Speaker 1: improvement districts, one would be concrete with storm drains, curbs, sewers,
30:43
Speaker 1: et cetera. And the other one would just be an
30:45
Speaker 1: asphalt overlay. Since then, there has been probably over a dozen,
30:52
Speaker 1: if not more, neighborhoods that have taken part in that,
30:55
Speaker 1: and what it became is basically a fifty to fifty split.
30:59
Speaker 1: The city would come out and engineer it. The city
31:01
Speaker 1: would pay for it half of it, and then the
31:04
Speaker 1: homeowners that their property abutted on the area being rehabilitated
31:09
Speaker 1: would pay for half and they would be assessed for
31:11
Speaker 1: a period of fifteen years or so, or they could
31:13
Speaker 1: pay for it upfront. So it isn't that you have
31:16
Speaker 1: to pay for all of it yourself. The issue that
31:19
Speaker 1: I had is this was agreed on by the city
31:21
Speaker 1: council and a lot of neighborhoods have already taken part
31:25
Speaker 1: in it. So what I did is I said, well,
31:27
Speaker 1: the issue with Elcorn in a long skyline. True, it
31:31
Speaker 1: was annex during the Faihi administration. I understood that there
31:35
Speaker 1: had been legal cases and the city prevailed on those.
31:38
Speaker 1: But I said, I don't think we could just come
31:40
Speaker 1: in and rehabilitate the streets along Skyline. It would have
31:45
Speaker 1: to be every street in Elcorn that the City of
31:48
Speaker 1: Omaha annexed. It couldn't just be this street or that street.
31:53
Speaker 1: We'd have to do all of it. And I asked
31:55
Speaker 1: public Works. I said, give me a number, give me
31:57
Speaker 1: a cost. It would cost the City of Omaha to
32:01
Speaker 1: rehabilitate every street out in Elcorn that was annexed and
32:05
Speaker 1: the cost was about five hundred million, and it was
32:09
Speaker 1: just it was cost prohibitive, you know. I said that
32:12
Speaker 1: we passed that bond issue of two hundred million back
32:16
Speaker 1: in May of twenty twenty. It was reauthorized in November
32:20
Speaker 1: of twenty four for basically another two hundred million. But
32:24
Speaker 1: they are What the Public Works Department does is they
32:27
Speaker 1: prioritize which streets that they're going to come in and
32:29
Speaker 1: rehabilitate the problem with those areas, especially in the West
32:34
Speaker 1: Side area that has already partaken in our street maintenance
32:38
Speaker 1: District road improvement district policy that has been in place
32:41
Speaker 1: now for about ten years. What would we do if
32:44
Speaker 1: we went out there and just did Elkhorn's and said, okay,
32:48
Speaker 1: with Elkhorn, you don't have to pay all these other
32:50
Speaker 1: people did. Would we have to go back and refund
32:53
Speaker 1: their money to them that they've already are paying fifty percent?
32:57
Speaker 1: It becomes a matter of fairness to and so so
33:00
Speaker 1: I know the frustration out there. I know people told
33:03
Speaker 1: me they said, we're not going to vote for you
33:06
Speaker 1: anymore with Elcorn. I know the current mayor, Mayor Ewing
33:10
Speaker 1: made a lot of what I would consider promises. I
33:13
Speaker 1: know since he was elected mayor, he has come back
33:15
Speaker 1: to the folks out there along Skyline and said, Nope,
33:18
Speaker 1: we're not going to do it. We're not going to
33:20
Speaker 1: come out here and do it, which was a campaign
33:22
Speaker 1: promise he made, and now he's saying, nope. You know what,
33:26
Speaker 1: the position that I had was accurate, and we're not
33:28
Speaker 1: going to come out there and do the streets and
33:30
Speaker 1: pay for them one hundred percent. It would result in
33:33
Speaker 1: a tax increase, a quite large tax increase for the
33:36
Speaker 1: City of Omaha if we were to do all of
33:38
Speaker 1: Elcorn Street at no cost whatsoever. So understand the frustration
33:44
Speaker 1: because it was treated very differently when it was Elcorn.
33:47
Speaker 1: I am not aware of anything Mayor Fayhi said when
33:52
Speaker 1: it was being annexed. I mean, I would have to
33:54
Speaker 1: go back in search and history what I was told.
33:57
Speaker 1: Promises were made, but we could not find anywhere in
34:01
Speaker 1: writing that it guaranteed those folks out there that the
34:04
Speaker 1: city would do it at no cost to them. So
34:08
Speaker 1: I understand the frustrations. But as we go back where
34:11
Speaker 1: we are now, I know Mary Ewing has now come
34:14
Speaker 1: back and said we will keep up with our street
34:16
Speaker 1: Maintenance District road improvement district plan that we've had in place.
34:20
Speaker 1: We will do it, We'll engineer it, will do it.
34:22
Speaker 1: It'll be about a fifty to fifty split. And keep
34:24
Speaker 1: in mind too, with that plan in high poverty areas,
34:28
Speaker 1: which there are more in the eastern northeastern portion of
34:31
Speaker 1: our city in high poverty areas, if over half of
34:34
Speaker 1: the property owned owners sign up for this, then they
34:37
Speaker 1: will do it at one hundred percent in those areas
34:40
Speaker 1: because they are high poverty. Steve, I didn't mean to
34:43
Speaker 1: cut you off for filibuster you here, but we've got
34:45
Speaker 1: to move on to some other issues. But I do
34:48
Speaker 1: want to just say again, is you know that issue
34:51
Speaker 1: out in Elcorn along Skyline Drive. Understand it looked into it. Yeah,
34:57
Speaker 1: So I did have a committee of citizens that met
34:59
Speaker 1: for about a year. They came up with the recommendations
35:01
Speaker 1: for the street improvement or the road maintenance district. It
35:04
Speaker 1: went to the city council. City council approved it. Any
35:07
Speaker 1: changes in that policy the city council would have to
35:11
Speaker 1: approve too. And I even brought that back to the
35:15
Speaker 1: city council and had Brinker Harding, who is the city
35:18
Speaker 1: council member out in that area, discuss it with it,
35:21
Speaker 1: and the city council members who have had a lot
35:24
Speaker 1: of citizens in their district already take part in that said, no,
35:27
Speaker 1: that's not fair just to do one area of Omaha
35:29
Speaker 1: at one hundred percent. Keep in mind too, that your
35:32
Speaker 1: current mayor is not going to do it either. Your
35:36
Speaker 1: current mayor, although there were promises made during his campaign
35:39
Speaker 1: about the streets in Elkhorn, he is keeping with that
35:42
Speaker 1: current policy that was established when I was mayor. Now
35:45
Speaker 1: another thing, since we're talking about Rhodes, we did have
35:48
Speaker 1: a caller yesterday I wanted to follow up on and
35:51
Speaker 1: just in case she's listening again, but she brought up
35:54
Speaker 1: Maple Street being in bad shape, and then she brought
35:57
Speaker 1: up and it's in bad shape, but she's seeing bike
36:00
Speaker 1: lanes being put in, and why are we putting in
36:03
Speaker 1: bike lanes when the street is deteriorating? And you know,
36:06
Speaker 1: I always tell everybody if if I could get some
36:08
Speaker 1: more information or if I forgot to say something, I'll
36:11
Speaker 1: certainly come back and address it again. And this is
36:13
Speaker 1: one of those those issues because what I didn't mention
36:16
Speaker 1: and I should have, and I apologize for this is
36:18
Speaker 1: Maple is a state highway. Maple is a state highway
36:22
Speaker 1: in Omaha. It is just like L Street, Dodge Street.
36:28
Speaker 1: These are all state roads within the city of Omaha.
36:32
Speaker 1: Maple is not in the best condition, but there are
36:36
Speaker 1: no current plans for rehabilitation with Maple because that would
36:41
Speaker 1: be done by the Nebraska Department of Transportation. The DOT
36:45
Speaker 1: does the state roads in Omaha. We provide the maintenance,
36:48
Speaker 1: so we fill potholes, we will plow it. But if
36:51
Speaker 1: that street, Maple is to be rehabilitated, that would come
36:55
Speaker 1: from the state DOT. And right now there is no
36:59
Speaker 1: current plans rehabilitation of Maple Street. Dodge needs works too,
37:04
Speaker 1: and like I said, so does L Street. And if
37:07
Speaker 1: the state gets that on their list, it's basically the
37:11
Speaker 1: state funds it with a local match, with some type
37:14
Speaker 1: of a local match. But right now there is no
37:17
Speaker 1: plans for construction. Unfortunately on Maple Street. There are no
37:21
Speaker 1: bike lanes on Maple either that I'm aware of. But
37:24
Speaker 1: they did, and I think this is what she mentioned.
37:26
Speaker 1: The caller do a road configuration on one hundred and
37:29
Speaker 1: eighth Street north of West Maple to Fort and they
37:33
Speaker 1: did add bike lanes on one hundred and eighth and
37:36
Speaker 1: that was a Vision zero project, So she did bring
37:38
Speaker 1: that up. But I just wanted to make sure you
37:40
Speaker 1: knew that maple for the condition that it is. It
37:42
Speaker 1: is a state highway and the state has no current
37:45
Speaker 1: plans for rehabilitation. I think that's important to know.
37:48
Speaker 5: Gene takes all these questions very seriously. She has about
37:51
Speaker 5: eighteen notepads over there. I think she's went through two
37:54
Speaker 5: pens already this morning. So I take a lot of
37:57
Speaker 5: all of this is very very important to her, and
37:59
Speaker 5: we just these questions. She goes and asks the person
38:02
Speaker 5: that she has best in mind to answer that.
38:05
Speaker 1: Well, I really want to make sure if I'm providing
38:07
Speaker 1: information which I want to, that I'm providing the most
38:11
Speaker 1: accurate information I can. And you know, I will always
38:14
Speaker 1: say if I could add more, if I forgot something,
38:16
Speaker 1: I'll always come back and add it, because I want
38:18
Speaker 1: you to have the most current information I could possibly
38:22
Speaker 1: give you.
38:22
Speaker 5: As we wrap up the show today, Gene, I have
38:24
Speaker 5: kind of a fun question for you here, and this
38:28
Speaker 5: is coming from David. David asked you a question here.
38:32
Speaker 5: Why doesn't Omaha have an amusement park? I miss pa
38:35
Speaker 5: Andy Park and Funplex is just too small. Why can't
38:39
Speaker 5: Omaha have a big theme park? What are the first
38:41
Speaker 5: steps to making something like this happen? And then David
38:45
Speaker 5: used College World Series how that would be an absolute
38:48
Speaker 5: cash cow during the CWS.
38:51
Speaker 1: You know, I think it's all a man a matter
38:53
Speaker 1: of priorities and money. You know, people bring me the money,
38:57
Speaker 1: people like when the caller the other day brought up
38:59
Speaker 1: the baseball fields in the softball fields. It's all a
39:02
Speaker 1: matter of the need is the need? There is there
39:06
Speaker 1: a need for an amusement park? I mean, does the
39:09
Speaker 1: vast majority of voters in Omaha and taxpayers think we
39:12
Speaker 1: need an amusement park? And if so, how do we
39:15
Speaker 1: pay for it? Because every election, you know, the number
39:19
Speaker 1: one issue in the state and the number one issue
39:21
Speaker 1: in the City of Omaha is we want lower taxes.
39:24
Speaker 1: We want you to cut your spending and we want
39:27
Speaker 1: lower taxes. At the same time, we want more and
39:30
Speaker 1: we want better services and we want the roads done.
39:32
Speaker 1: So it's really it is a difficult thing to manage
39:35
Speaker 1: a city budget. You know, the city's general fund is
39:38
Speaker 1: over five hundred million dollars and it's it's all paid
39:42
Speaker 1: for with tax dollars, property taxes, restaurant tax, sales tax,
39:48
Speaker 1: and it's all a matter of juggling those. So if
39:51
Speaker 1: there are things that people really want and and a
39:54
Speaker 1: lot of people want them, then it's always a consideration.
39:59
Speaker 1: But it's always a matter of how are we going
40:02
Speaker 1: to lower our spending, lower taxes and still fund more
40:06
Speaker 1: things on the backs of the taxpayers.
40:09
Speaker 5: We got about two minutes here, Jean, Just a quick thought,
40:11
Speaker 5: this is coming from Ken Jean left off the important
40:14
Speaker 5: election of Papillion mayor. Papillion in Starpy County is critical
40:18
Speaker 5: to Nebraska's future growth.
40:20
Speaker 1: I agree. Just yeah, a little tech and you know what,
40:23
Speaker 1: let me add something. There is a candidate for Papillion
40:25
Speaker 1: mayor that is actually going to be on our show
40:28
Speaker 1: next week to talk about that. And so I think
40:31
Speaker 1: that that, of course, Papillion is important, and they are
40:34
Speaker 1: growing by leaps and bounds. And when a surrounding community
40:39
Speaker 1: or city does well, you know, we all do well.
40:41
Speaker 1: It's it's in our area here, and we want Papillion
40:45
Speaker 1: to do well. So, yeah, that race is coming up,
40:49
Speaker 1: and they obviously are in the primary two, and we're
40:53
Speaker 1: going to have one of those candidates be on our
40:55
Speaker 1: show next week and I'm going to ask them a
40:57
Speaker 1: lot about papillion, because I think that's interesting to everybody.
41:00
Speaker 2: That's very important.
41:01
Speaker 5: And next Monday, I'm not going to announce it today,
41:04
Speaker 5: we said we talk about it tomorrow, but we have
41:06
Speaker 5: a very very special guest coming on Monday.
41:09
Speaker 1: Monday is going to do the whole show with me,
41:11
Speaker 1: a really special guest, and you're gonna love it. So
41:14
Speaker 1: you got to listen in Monday. But thank you so
41:16
Speaker 1: much for being with us today. Thanks for listening, and
41:19
Speaker 1: we'll see you tomorrow.
41:20
Speaker 2: See you guys tomorrow,