Milestone reached on bumpy road to northeast Omaha business park buoyed by $90M from state

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OMAHA — After years of talk, concepts and controversy, creation of a northeast Omaha industrial business park reached a major milestone.

Revealed Thursday: The team that in early 2024 was awarded a $90 million state grant to develop shovel-ready property for manufacturers, distributors and other employers to build on has officially bought two sites at a combined price tag of nearly $30 million.

A sports complex could be a prominent part of this business park site near 16th and Locust Streets. The 67 acres was purchased by the team tasked with developing shovel-ready property for jobs and economic growth. (Courtesy of Rebecca S. Gratz)

Next steps include recruitment efforts by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce to secure tenants that can bring jobs and economic bustle to the properties.

George Achola, a representative of the development team led by the Omaha Economic Development Corp. and the chamber, announced the buys during a board meeting of the Omaha Inland Port Authority, the entity overseeing the business park project.

The two sites: a 67-acre industrial tract near 16th and Locust Streets, $11.5 million; and a 13-acre site at 5906 Abbott Drive anchored by a new 150,000-square-foot warehouse “shell” and 148-stall surface parking area, $17.5 million.

The purchases represent a breakthrough point, said Achola and Michael Maroney, executive director of the nonprofit economic development group.

“We’ve gone from conceptual phase to reality,” said Achola.

‘We’ve got movement’

Full control means the team now can prepare the landscape and market the properties for the envisioned purpose: creating a job and wealth-building magnet for some of the state’s most historically discriminated against and economically deprived neighborhoods.

A 13-acre property containing an industrial building at 5906 Abbott Drive is one of two sites a development team has purchased with state funds appropriated for a northeast business park project. (Courtesy of NAI NP Dodge flier)

Achola said the remainder of the $90 million grant largely will be directed at readying the two sites for business tenants, including remediation of any environmental concerns.

“This is exciting ,” said Garry Clark, executive director of Omaha’s inland port authority. “We’ve got some action. We’ve got movement.”

The purchases come after a years-long winding and bumpy road to a business park that city and state officials have envisioned in the northeast area of Nebraska’s biggest city and near the state’s largest airport, Eppley Airfield.

Momentum picked up when the Nebraska Legislature in 2022 directed $90 million from pandemic recovery funding to create a shovel-ready industrial business park. The Department of Economic Development and Gov. Jim Pillen in January 2024 awarded the grant funds to the development team led by Maroney’s economic development corporation.

State law later was changed to require oversight of the project by the Omaha Inland Port Authority board.

Notably, the roughly 67-acre area near 16th and Locust Streets was one of two original priority sites the OEDC-led team proposed in 2023 for the business park project. The property was later sidelined because of anticipated higher costs of remediation related to previous dumping in the area.

On Thursday, Achola told the port authority board that remediation costs are likely to be less than previously believed. He said added value comes from breathing life into an essentially dead tract close to the downtown Omaha business district and the airport.

A packed gymnasium in the summer of 2024 voiced criticism of the way a development team early on handled the business park site selection process. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

The other originally preferred site highlighted in a 2023 “master plan” was a 160-acre tract near Eppley, north of Carter Lake. The group left that area alone after intense criticism early on by residents of the area who did not want to sell their homes and were caught off guard by relocation.

Neither of the purchased sites call for residential relocation.

Possible youth sports facility

More specific activities and commerce at the pair of newly purchased future business park properties will depend on the tenant recruitment process, said Maroney.

Achola previously described a potential use for part of the 16th and Locust site as a youth sports facility. He said that in any case, development of that site likely will take longer, as the team sorts through remediation cleanup and a truck route the City of Omaha envisions in the area.

Maroney compared a possible use of the 5906 Abbott Drive site to the multi-tenant Ashton Building in the Millworks Commons district in north downtown.

Yet another possible site the group had considered, about eight acres near 6720 N. 16th St., ultimately was not purchased, said Achola, adding that his team felt “it didn’t fit into the vision.”

Thursday’s Omaha Inland Port Authority meeting. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

Also at Thursday’s Omaha Inland Port Authority meeting, Clark discussed progress of a planned “innovation district” — a venture separate from the business park and funded in part by a different $30 million state grant.

A consultant, HR&A Advisors, was paid $546,000 to produce a “roadmap” to the innovation district within the port authority boundaries. Based on the consultant’s report, the board voted to establish the “epicenter” of the district at 30th Street and Ames Avenue, Clark said.

The consultant recommended a 100,000-square-foot building to contain innovation and community space and entrepreneurial support services. Clark said it is not known for certain yet whether a new structure would be built or how that center would take shape.

The port authority also directed that portions of a newly established $300,000 “impact fund” go to startups and entrepreneurial ventures within the boundaries of the port authority. That application process has yet to start.