After years of uncertainty around funding and proposals for a business park near Eppley Airfield, North Omaha may finally see some much-promised development in 2026. The park is meant to revitalize the area with jobs, workforce training and community investment.

Three sites are being explored as the first anchors of the project, with the potential for a sports complex, a manufacturing center for affordable houses and a mixed-use commercial and business campus similar to the Millwork Commons neighborhood in North Downtown.

But at a Jan. 14 community meeting, the development plans also signaled a larger change: Clarity and a slow regaining of trust in a so far convoluted process to help North Omaha. 

“This thing started out a little bit ugly,” said George Achola, a vice president at Burlington Capital. “We got through that phase. Now I think we’re in a pretty good space with the community to have those conversations.”

Burlington Capital, the Omaha Economic Development Corporation and the Greater Omaha Chamber are leading the business park project. The effort is supported by $90 million in state funding through the Omaha Inland Port Authority (OIPA). 

An initial plan that would have displaced some residents received harsh criticism. But at the community meeting, leaders emphasized that no one would be displaced under the current plans. 

That meant a more positive and relaxed atmosphere at the meeting, with attendees excited about the development ideas. Teresa Hunter, CEO of Family Housing Advisory Services, was one of the voices fighting against displacement. Now, she’s feeling much better about the process around the business park and OIPA.

“There’s always skepticism … But either you stay the same, you deteriorate, or you move forward — those are our three options,” she said. “Do we just say, ‘OK, let’s keep it as it is,’ or do you try to do something that’s going to better our community? But in that development, we have to make sure that we are including, advancing those who are already here.”

Due diligence

Each of the three sites highlighted at the community meeting is under contract by the business park group, which is exploring whether to complete the purchases. About $40 million in state funding was recently authorized by OIPA for buying the land.

“We’re doing the due diligence,” said Michael Maroney, CEO of the Omaha Economic Development Corporation. “We’re trying to determine what’s important, what each of these sites has, what are the issues … over the next 30, 45 days, we’re going to make some decisions on whether or not we move on these sites.”

Community members milled around three stations learning about each site, their associated development ideas and offering feedback. At the first station, Achola talked about the largest parcel of the three, off of 16th Street by the west shore of Carter Lake. 

There, the business park group wants to take advantage of the nearby build-out of the Levi Carter Park Activity and Sports Complex, on the lake’s north shore. By building another facility, the area can host more kinds of sports and bring visitors who, in turn, will have a positive economic impact.

“How do we bring money from outside the community to come in the community — and those of you that have kids that are in youth sports, you know that you’re spending quite a lot of time in Kansas City, spending a lot of money with a lot of other people,” Achola said. “The question is, is that something that we could potentially do here?”

The site would have an environmental cleanup cost, having been a dump site for years. But Achola has hope, he said, that “we can renovate this piece of dirt. We can make it useful.”

At the second station, Maroney showcased a site in the triangle formed by Abbott Drive and Lindbergh Drive. There’s a building already there, one that has struggled to get any tenants for the past few years. 

Under the business park plan, it could be a multi-use site for events, with a food hall and business space, like Millwork Commons or the Catalyst building near the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Building affordable houses in North Omaha

A third station, manned by OIPA Executive Director Garry Clark, focused on a warehouse and industrial site off of North 16th Street. This could be a future center of manufacturing for affordable houses, he said, making North Omaha a workforce center for a growing industry.

OIPA is already in talks with manufacturers of structural insulated panels and other parts of modular, 3D-printed and assembled housing to invest in the site. They would hire local workers and train them together with the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Metropolitan Community College.

“To have a site like this … could create kind of an ecosystem from a national perspective,” Clark said. “As far as the creative housing space, a lot of the supply comes from out west, and it is an arduous journey and cost to commute those things. So this is an opportunity for this site.”

One of the companies name-dropped by Clark is S-Panels Omaha, which  manufactures housing panels in Idaho, and is helping with local housing initiatives. But founder Phillip Henderson wants to open another factory at the North Omaha site, and helped put together the proposal OIPA is considering together with other companies.

“In our proposals, we all agreed to house under one giant warehouse,” Henderson said.
“So we’ve looked into constructing about a 40,000-square-foot warehouse. Twenty-five to 35 square feet will be (structural insulated panel) manufacturing on the floor, 10,000 square feet would be for (research and development), and then you’d have up top, a mezzanine with classrooms and office space.”

Henderson was surprised at being showcased in Clark’s presentation and is optimistic that the proposal can become a reality. He is also passionate about using the site to help formerly incarcerated people get back on their feet.

“We want to keep the community in North Omaha,” Henderson said. “We want to hire from there, from that pool of people, so we’re not looking to pull anybody from out of state … Even as far as our products. I’ve already been in talks with local lumber companies to make sure that everything we do stays here within our ecosystem.”

Lev Gringauz is a Report for America corps member who writes about corporate innovation and workforce development for Silicon Prairie News.