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LINCOLN — Cinching the University of Nebraska as a tenant was a key step toward reigniting the former Cabela’s corporate campus that has stood inactive, a somber reminder of 2,000 jobs Sidney, Nebraska, lost nearly a decade ago.
Now that NU is primed to move into a sizable chunk of the 34-acre campus, the expectation is that complementary businesses will follow — leading to a new economic and workforce development bump for the city of about 6,500 residents.
Sidney officials who have been working the past year to woo the NU system as a catalyst say the bigger-picture plan seems to be working.
“All of a sudden more people are interested in looking at the place,” says Wendall Gaston, past mayor of Sidney who represents a group of locally-invested donors helping with the campus rebirth. “We’re already starting to get a lot more phone calls.”
Now in local hands
Though the NU lease arrangement was formalized in January, and an announcement made March 27, the concerted effort to fill the campus’ 450,000-plus square feet of Class-A office space began early last year when the former Cabela’s headquarters property sold to local and private ownership.
Outdoor retailer Bass Pro Shops, which acquired rival Cabela’s in 2017, had held onto the headquarters site and underused it for data storage until vacating altogether a few years ago, said State Sen. Paul Strommen of Sidney, who is part of the group seeking to rebuild and rebrand the campus. Local real estate and investor group 59 Properties LLC is now owner and landlord.
Strommen, a businessman and former Sidney city councilman, called the NU lease potentially “a very very big win” not just for Sidney but Cheyenne County and elsewhere in the Panhandle.
“The university does a spectacular job when it comes to economic development,” he said.
To be sure, Strommen and others said, plans are still forming. A 59 Properties representative said the NU lease arrangement is “very, very philanthropic in nature” and expected to trigger growth.
“Sometimes you have to give at the beginning,” said Matt Monheiser, noting recent budget-tightening and limited funding flexibility by the state-funded university system.
NU’s Jon Watts said that under an initial four-year lease, the university system will pay about $120 a year and cover utilities. He called it a “unique” arrangement, and said NU is looking forward to substantially enhancing its presence in the area, which currently includes the High Plains Agricultural Lab, a satellite of the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff.
Watts, senior associate vice president and chief operating officer for the NU system, called the former Cabela’s campus “one of those last underutilized treasures in western Nebraska.” He said that to help ensure that programming is done right, NU has assembled a 12-person fact-finding and steering committee to explore possibilities. He said the exact amount of space NU will occupy is still being determined.
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The makeup of the committee stands out, Watts said, in that its representation stretches across all the university system’s campuses. He said that since October, NU officials have been traveling to Sidney, meeting with community leaders there and also with state leaders in the Nebraska Departments of Economic Development and Labor.
“We’re gonna find the great ideas that we know can support that region,” said Watts.
He said that whatever specific programming emerges will support broader goals: rural workforce development, student access and retention and economic and community vitality.
“This presents a real strategic opportunity for the University of Nebraska to leverage our talent and resources for not only the region but surrounding states,” Watts said.
He and other involved parties anticipate other commercial tenants to lease space at the site and bring business that meshes with the campus theme.
Marketing amenities include easy access off Interstate 80 and what Watts said is more than 600 area hotel rooms that can support training, conferences and outreach activities.
“For a community of that size, that’s just incredible … and obviously a key driver for us,” Watts said.
‘Immediate panic’
Strommen said the 2017 loss of Sidney’s signature employer — Cabela’s, which had been an institution for more than 50 years — took a bite out of the town’s economic vitality.
“Obviously there was an immediate panic,” he said. “We lost a substantial workforce. Nobody knew what the future was going to hold for the City of Sidney or Cheyenne County. A lot of people were extremely worried and rightfully so.”
But some of those former employees stuck around, Strommen said, and launched small businesses, online enterprises or moved into other jobs.
Joe McCarn, director of the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce, agreed that an entrepreneurial spirit helped keep the town afloat. But he looks forward to new employer activity and an anticipated infusion of students filling jobs in the area’s motel, restaurant and service industries.
“It’s kind of a sigh of relief to say, ‘Yes, we do have something going on’ … it’s not just small businesses anymore.”
Watts expects the new hub to be academic and student-centric, as that’s the university’s mission, but also underscored an anticipated emphasis on workforce development in areas such as agriculture, health care and in helping entrepreneurs take their business idea “to the next level.”
He said the next few months will include stepped up conversations with community leaders to hone in on programming. Renovations and necessary technology upgrades will follow.
“I fully expect we’ll have a presence in 2027 and we may still have one this year,” he said, though timing depends on “what ideas move forward.”
Gaston, who is helping to manage the Sidney “donor-advised fund” affiliated with the Nebraska Community Foundation, said that group is ready to cover costs to prepare the campus for its next life.
Employer magnet
NU is expected to occupy much of the space in the newer of the two main office buildings on the campus. That leaves parts of it and all of the other larger structure for other entities and private businesses to lease.
NAI FMA Realty is the listing broker marketing the available space for 59 Properties. The campus also includes warehouse and data center space.
“The University of Nebraska’s commitment to this campus is exactly the kind of anchor that attracts other businesses and partners,” said Marc Hausmann of NAI FMA Realty. “There is real opportunity here for organizations that want to be part of what’s being built in Sidney.”
Sidney Regional Medical Center CEO Jason Petik joined other local officials in announcing the NU lease in late March. He said the medical center spends about $1.5 million a year on contract labor due to workforce shortages and expects the new hub to help address that by developing a local employment and talent base.
Said Watts: “We think we’re well positioned to help support them in delivering that win for the region.”
