Omaha NE Community Profile by Townsquare Publications, LLC

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We think it’s safe to say that public-private partnerships are one of the keys to Greater Omaha’s success. Those partnerships have successfully marshaled the necessary resources to bring more than $7.9 billion in new investment to the region over the past few years. That investment David G. Brown, Gary Gate s has resulted in the building of Qwest Center Omaha and the Holland Performing Arts Center; a beautiful new sculpture garden at Joslyn Art Museum; renovations and additions to The Durham Museum; and the state-of-the-art Salvation Army’s Kroc Center in South Omaha— all are improving our quality of life. In 2008, the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge opened. The $22 million bridge is now a defining landmark for the region. It spans the Missouri River and joins Omaha, Neb., and Council Bluffs, Iowa, allowing the connection of more than 150 miles of hiking and biking trails. The progress continues as is evidenced in the new $325 million mixed-use Midtown Crossing at Turner Park, where announcements of businesses opening and festivities planned seem to be coming every week. Aksarben Village, a $300 million mixed-use development, is filling up nicely. The development features office, research, technology, retail and residential space near the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus, the Peter Kiewit Institute, the Scott Technology Center, the Scott Conference Center and the nearby College of Saint Mary. And, beautiful Stinson Park provides a great venue for concerts and events.

By the Numbers h 454,700 – approximate population of the city of Omaha in 2009.

h 838,800 – approximate 2009 population of the Omaha MSA.

h 40 – Omaha’s ranking among the top 50 U.S. cities according to population.

h 35.0 – median age; 36.3 percent of Greater Omaha’s population is 24 years and younger.

h $59,130 – estimated 2009 median household income, compared to $51,680 for the United States.

Then there is the construction of TD AMERITRADE Park Omaha, the new downtown baseball stadium that will be ready for the first pitch of the 2011 NCAA Men’s College World Series. We get things done! And others have taken notice. MarketWatch ranked us #3 on their “Best U.S. Cities for Business“ list. Forbes ranked us #1 on their “America’s Fastest-Recovering Cities“ list. Next Generation Consulting ranked us at #6 on their “Best Mid-sized Cities for Next Gen Worker.“ This magazine will give you a great taste of what Greater Omaha has to offer. We know it will leave you hungry for more.

h $133,700 – median price for an existing home in the Omaha area in 2009 compared to the U.S. median price of $172,100. Photo by Jim Ferguson

h 10 - 12 percent below – the cost of living in

Gary Gates 2010 Chairman, Chamber Board, and Chairman and CEO, Omaha Public Power District

Omaha compared to the national average.

David G. Brown President and CEO, Greater Omaha Chamber

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Setting the Pace Headquarters Flourish in Omaha Omaha Proud

Contents Meeting the Needs... Employees & Employers Feeling Right at Home

22 28 30

Seamless Regional Economic Development Seizing an Opportunity

Welcome to Our Neighborhood

Attracting & Retaining Young Talent Greater Omaha: Small Business Diversity Creates Economic Stability

A Dining Dynasty Retailâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a $14 Billion a Year Proposition Active Options

37 38 45 49 51 52 66 70

Advantage: Nebraska Transportation Crossroads

98 100 101

Acclaimed Educational Options

Reliable Infrastructure Safeguarding Our Freedom Central Location Encourages International Trade Prescription for Success

Marvelous Sights & Sounds: Omaha Has it All

It Makes Financial Sense Positioned to Thrive Historic Communities Steadily Being Refreshed

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Bringing the World to Omaha Greater Omaha Chamber Index of Advertisers

136 139 142

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Rankings and Recognition Greater Omaha h Among the 20 strongest performing metro areas for the second quarter of 2010 (Brookings Institution – September 2010)

h #3 – Best U.S. Cities for Business (MarketWatch – December 2009)

h #3 – Cities Where Americans Are Getting Richer (Forbes – December 2009)

h #9 – Best Cities for Families (Parenting – June 2010)

h #1 – Best Bang-for-the-Buck City (Forbes – November 2009)

h #16 – Best Places for Raising a Family (BestLife – May 2010)

h #1 – America’s Fastest-Recovering Cities (Forbes –

h Omaha was ranked as a Best Place for Buying a Home (Money – May 2010)

h #6 – America’s Most Livable Cities 2010 (Forbes – April 2010) h #8 – Top U.S. Growth Cities for 2009 (U-Haul International – April 2010)

h #7 – Best Places for Business and Careers (Forbes – April 2010) h Omaha was ranked in America’s Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities (Bicycling – April 2010)

h #8 – Top U.S. Metros for Corporate Real Estate Projects in 2009 (Site Selection – March 2010)

h Greater Omaha was listed in the Top 20 Most Employed Cities in America (Business Insider – March 2010)

h #9 – Cities That are Having an Awesome Recovery (Business Insider – March 2010)

November 2009)

h #3 – Best Mid-sized Metros for Small Business Startups (CNNMoney.com – 2009)

h The Greater Omaha MSA received the top billing for having the “Lowest Urban Unemployment at Five Percent“ (Bureau of Labor Statistics – August 2009)

h Greater Omaha is among 79 of 381 metros studied nationwide that are currently considered in recovery from the recession (Moody’s Economy.com – August 2009)

h #8 – America’s 10 Best Undervalued Places to Live (IHS Global Insights – 2009)

h #12 – America’s Best Cheap Cities (Forbes – 2009) h #25 – U.S. Cities Sustainability Ranking (SustainLane.com – 2009) h Omaha was listed among 15 other cities on the list of “Logistics Hotspots for 2009“ (Inbound Logistics – 2009)

h The Greater Omaha area was ranked in the 20 strongest performing metro areas for the fourth quarter 2009 (Brookings Institution – 2010)

h #20 – Best Labor Markets for Young Adults (Portfolio.com/bizjournals – March 2010)

h Papillion, part of the Greater Omaha MSA, was #2 on the “Most Affordable Suburbs in America“ (Bloomberg BusinessWeek – March 2010)

h Bellevue, part of the Greater Omaha MSA, was recognized as the fastest growing city in Nebraska (BusinessWeek – January 2010)

h The Greater Omaha area was ranked in the 20 strongest performing metro areas for the third quarter 2009 (Brookings Institution – 2009)

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h #3 – Legal Climate (U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform – April 2010)

h #3 – Fiscal Fitness (Forbes – March 2010) h #4 – Top Wind Potential States (National Renewable Energy Laboratory – February 2010)

h #2 – Best Job Markets in the Gallup Job Creation Index 2009 (Gallup – February 2010)

h #3 – Economic Confidence 2009 (Gallup – February 2010)

Photo by Ken Smith

Nebraska

This is a Village Profile® Publication created and produced for the Greater Omaha Chamber 1301 Harney Street • Omaha, NE 68102 13206 Grover Street • Omaha, NE 68144 Phone: (402) 346-5000 • Fax: (402) 346-7050 E-mail: info@OmahaChamber.org Websites: www.OmahaChamber.org www.SelectGreaterOmaha.com

Greater Omaha Chamber Project Team: Project Director Karla Ewert Project Coordinator/Editor RuthAnn Manley Art Director Kim Sellmeyer Project Assistant Susan Hart Writers Tom Chapman, Pete Larson, RuthAnn Manley, Dan McCann, Monica McFarland, Tim Stuart Printed by Barnhart Press Copyright© 2010 VillageProfile.com, inc.® 33 N. Geneva St., Elgin, IL 60120 • 800-600-0134 www.villageprofile.com® Every effort has been made to assure the accuracy of the information in this publication. The Chamber and VillageProfile.com® assume no responsibility for misinformation. Please contact the Chamber with any additions or corrections. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission of the Chamber and VillageProfile.com® is prohibited.

CEO/President Daniel M. Nugara Executive Vice President Joseph C. Nugara, Sr. Director of Business Operations Michael D. Nugara Vice President Gordy Swinehart Acquisition Manager Alan Zahringer Project Sales Manager Don Israel Project Coordinator Jodie Stackowiak Director of Production Joseph C. Nugara, Jr. Production Manager Nick Olah Creative Director Sarah Kavanagh

Photo by Ken Smith

Greater Omaha Chamber President and CEO David G. Brown

OMAHA is a Place of

Opportunities The Greater Omaha Chamber’s mission to increase business, investment and employment in Greater Omaha is a commitment to the entire metropolitan area and the state of Nebraska. From Fortune 500 companies to small family-owned businesses, we serve as a catalyst for growth. Ours is a united voice to lawmakers, a partner in community studies and planning, a source for education and workforce development and a provider of business resources. We understand that what benefits our members ultimately benefits everyone. More than $2 billion in new capital investment propelled development in downtown Omaha and the riverfront. That development is the catalyst for community development in Destination Midtown, North Downtown, North Omaha and South Omaha. Developers with great vision are launching unique mixed-use projects throughout the city. Thanks to committed leaders, a dedicated workforce and a wealth of public-private partnerships, Greater Omaha is building on its reputation as a vibrant metropolitan city. Feel the energy. Come be part of the action!

Graphic Designer Kirsten Riedl Graphic Production Stacey R. Cordero Ad Coordinator Director Stefanie Mikutis Ad Design Manager Kerri Reaves Managing Editor Becky Cline Cover Photo Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and Henry M. Paulson, Jr., the 74th United States Treasury Secretary, discuss economic issues at the Greater Omaha Chamber’s Annual Meeting.

Together we can keep all Greater Omaha businesses strong and growing. www.OmahaChamber.org/SayYes

Cover Photo by A Better Exposure, Steve Kowalski

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Courtesy ConAgra Foods

HEADQUARTERS O

home to nine Fortune 1000 headquarters, with the following five among the Fortune 500: Berkshire Hathaway, a holding company controlled by multibillionaire Warren Buffett since 1965, has 76 operating businesses. Its local holdings include Nebraska Furniture Mart and Borsheim’s Fine Jewelry. Union Pacific Railroad is North America’s premier railroad franchise, covering 23 states. The railroad links every major West Coast and Gulf Coast port and provides service to the east through its four major gateways in Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans. Additionally, UP operates key north/south corridors and is the only railroad to serve all six major gateways to Mexico.

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Courtesy of Union Pacific Railroad

maha’s stable economy and strong business environment make it a welcoming place for headquarters. In fact, we are

Photo by James R. Burnett, Reprinted with permission from The Omaha World-Herald

FLOURISH IN OMAHA

ConAgra Foods makes many leading brands, including: Healthy Choice, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters,

Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM and Banquet. Their consumer brands are found in 97 percent of U.S. households. Making food that people love requires unwavering dedication to improving not only what they make but how they make it. Kiewit Corporation is one of North America’s largest and most respected construction and mining organizations. Their goal for every project is to build it safely, on time, on budget and with no surprises. Kiewit people have a willingness to take on challenges and explore new ideas; they have the drive to excel and the determination to perform their best. Mutual of Omaha, a full-service, multi-line provider of insurance and financial services products that provide financial protection to help families, individuals, businesses and groups achieve their goals. The company entered the banking business in 2007, and in 2009 had about $4 billion in assets.

TD AMERITRADE, an online brokerage company that started in Omaha in 1975 and now has a global reach. TD AMERITRADE delivers an extensive array of state-of-the-art tools, straightforward pricing and outstanding personal service to help customers take their trading or investing plan in the right direction. West Corporation, a technology and customized services provider to connect customers, workforce, partners and vendors. They help their clients communicate clearly, confidently, persuasively in a market place that spans the globe and yet is as personal as a conversation between two people. Werner Enterprises, Inc., founded in 1956 by Chairman Clarence L. Werner with only one truck, is now a premier transportation and logistics company, with coverage throughout North America, Asia, Europe, South America, Africa and Australia. The

company has a network of more than 7,200 trucks, 6,000 alliance carriers and ocean, air and rail providers. Valmont Industries, a manufacturing company that started in 1946 when Robert Daugherty invested $5,000 in

employ over 5,600 highly trained personnel worldwide. Also on the Fortune 1000, but headquartered in Sidney, Neb., is Cabela’s, the world’s foremost outfitter of hunting, fishing and

Photo by Rodney Green

Omaha’s four additional Fortune 1000 headquarters are:

TD AMERITRADE’s $130 million investment in a new headquarters building,opening in the spring of 2013, will be home to 2,000 full-time, part-time and contract employees. This investment is a testament to TD AMERITRADE’s commitment to Omaha, the city in which the firm was started.

Valley Manufacturing. Innovation, acquisition and growth followed. Currently the company operates from 43 facilities located in fourteen countries around the world. They

outdoor gear. Cabela’s has a strong presence in Greater Omaha with a store in La Vista and a state-of-the-art Data and Technology Development center and 16,000-square-foot data center, both in Papillion.

Guiding Principles: 1. Tailor solutions for our clients. 2. Align technology needs with your business goals. 3. Manage today and plan for tomorrow. 4. Your success is our success. Contact us by phone 402-455-9000 or email businessfirst@helpsystemservices.com 18

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ome of our friends on the coasts still don’t understand why we are so Omaha proud. We’ll admit it’s tough to catch a decent wave here or ski a majestic mountain peak. But, here’s where our dynamism shines. Instead of ocean breakers, we ride waves of positive economic news: a low unemployment rate, a stable housing market and a cost of living far below the national average. And, in lieu of giant mountains, we look up to our giants of industry, Fortune 500 companies including Berkshire Hathaway, Union Pacific, ConAgra Foods, Kiewit and Mutual of Omaha.

Our financial institutions are strong in Omaha; our infrastructure solid and reliable. Young professionals are embraced here, encouraged and cultivated, and entrepreneurs find fertile, pro-business ground for growth and innovation. California has the Silicon Valley; we have the

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Our school districts are awardwinning and inventive; our religious landscape is as diverse as our economy and our visual and performing arts scene is blossoming beautifully. Bold vision is rewarded in Omaha—the type of bold vision that, in 1898, compelled a young city to host the grandiose Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition. We issued an invitation to the world and with it a message: We are here. We are Omaha. We are ready to make a splash. One-hundred-ten years later, that spirit led to another global invitation and another epic splash when we hosted the 2008 U.S.

Olympic swim trials. (The event was such a success we’re going to host it again in 2012.) We are Omaha—and our character is captured in the pages of this magazine. Welcome to the 2010 edition of OMAHA: Extraordinary Opportunities. This publication shares the stories of businesses, organizations, institutions and neighbors who have achieved success in and positively impacted our remarkable community, a thriving metropolitan area that is fully threedimensional: firmly rooted in our past, flourishing in our present and energized about our future. We invite you to give this magazine—and Greater Omaha—a close look and discover for yourselves why we are and always have been so Omaha proud!

Photo by Ken Smith

burgeoning silicon prairie, populated by tech titans like Yahoo!, PayPal, Verizon and Google in neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. Our skilled workforce, low power rates and generous business incentives helped draw them in; our central location, easily accessible by air, rail, interstate and river, only strengthened the attraction.

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R E G I O NA L E C O N O M I C D E V E L O P M E N T

arly in 2009, Madison, Tenn.-based Vireo Systems opened a facility in Plattsmouth, Neb., where it produces health products, an alternative pain reliever among them. It’s a small operation, starting with just five workers, but an important business addition for Plattsmouth in Cass County.

This is an example of involvement with the Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership, a partnership that includes the Greater Omaha Chamber, Sarpy County Economic Development Corporation (SCEDC), Gateway Development Corporation (Washington County) and Cass County Nebraska Economic Development Council, as well as the city of Omaha and public-private organizations throughout the region. These four organizations work together and are co-located at the Greater Omaha Chamber. This seamless integration of resources promotes significant economic progress in the Greater Omaha area. Early in 2010, and 35 miles to the north in Blair, Neb., Cargill Inc. opened a new office building where it houses a four-state purchasing operation, not far from the Blair biorefinery campus it started in 1994. The new office building was a significant win for the Partnership. Cargill’s industrial complex is the biggest in the state and the single largest investment, approximately $1.4 billion.

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Between Plattsmouth and Blair is Omaha, whose growth is pushing it toward the western limits of Douglas County and Sarpy County, the fastest-growing county in Nebraska. Economic development directors in the four counties coordinate their efforts in detail, sharing leads on startup and expansion projects via a specialized software tracking system. In order to stay connected to each other, the Partnership’s project management team, which includes the four directors, meets on a weekly basis while the entire 18-member economic development team meets twice a month to share and review project information. The Partnership directors each have an office at the Chamber. “We are all in close proximity of each other, which makes sharing information extremely easy,“ said Toby Churchill, executive director of the Sarpy County Economic Development Corporation. It is a seamless operation, “a one-stop shop for all your economic development needs,“ said Paula Hazlewood, executive director of Washington County’s Gateway Development Corporation. “We don’t see county lines when working with a prospect.“

Courtesy of CoSentry

Photo by Jim Ferguson

animals and ships them worldwide from Murdock, Neb., population 279. The company had a 60-person payroll last year and is hiring more people, said John Yochum of the Cass County Economic Development Council.

The “shop“ provides access to incentive programs, site and building information, employee recruiting and training, international business resources and an array of economic, demographic, tax, labor-force, cost-of-living and other data.

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A newer, human-health business in the county is Vireo Resources, whose parent, Vireo Systems of Madison, Tenn., Oxbow Animal Health, Inc. is part of the $30 billion analgesics im Fer industry. The facility opened in Plattsmouth’s guso n Fourmile Industrial Park last year. Vireo turns out a pain reliever called Stay Active, developed in partnership with University of Nebraska Medical Center Nor can Omaha alone offer as many sites of varying kinds researchers and licensed by the university to Vireo. Vireo and costs, especially large-acreage ones, as the four and UNMC have been working together for seven years. counties working together can. y ob

Churchill said the benefits of the joint effort are obvious. “If my office was located in a Sarpy County location, there is no way I would get the same number of leads.“ Alone, he said, the suburban counties couldn’t afford the development efforts that partnering with Omaha brings.

Cass County joined the partnership in 2008 “to be at the table“ when national companies come looking at Greater Omaha, said John Yochum, executive director of Cass County Nebraska Economic Development Council. Gateway Development Corporation, which started in 1989, joined the Partnership in 2002. Sarpy County Economic Development Corporation linked up with the Greater Omaha Chamber in the late 1980s when the two courted BMW, which was looking for a location for a U.S. manufacturing plant. The joint effort grew into today’s formal Partnership. GO! funds the work of the Greater Omaha Economic Partnership. It is in the second year of its second five-year campaign; its goal is $20 million.

d CASS COUNTY Business growth stories in Cass County are exemplified by the long-time Oxbow Animal Health, Inc. A 30-year-old company that started with two employees, Oxbow Animal Health makes feed and nutrition products for small

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d DOUGLAS COUNTY Omaha, at a population of 454,700 and the nation’s 40th largest city, is pushing its boundaries west toward the edge of Douglas County. But the city’s biggest developments at the moment are closer to its beginnings near the Missouri River. More than $2 billion in downtown projects include a new home for the NCAA Men’s College World Series. TD AMERITRADE Park Omaha is being built under a contract with the NCAA that will keep the series in Omaha at least another 25 years. The stadium is near Qwest Center Omaha, which holds Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting every year and will hold the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming for the second time in 2012. A second Riverfront Place condo tower is being built on the west bank of the Missouri, near Gallup’s riverfront campus, on land cleared of junkyards and railroad yards. Downtown is home to two Fortune 500 companies, ConAgra and Union Pacific. Less than two miles to the west, a $325 million mixed-use development is rising on the slope of a hill topped by the multiple-building Mutual of Omaha insurance and

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Vireo

banking complex, just a few blocks from the building that houses the headquarters of two other Fortune 500 firms, Berkshire Hathaway and Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc. Much of the condo-apartments-commercial-entertainment district called Midtown Crossing at Turner Park opened in 2010; a Westin hotel is under construction.

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Pentagon Federal Credit Union last year opened a 100-employee customer service center in Sarpy County, which is home to Offutt Air Force Base and the U.S. Strategic Command. PennFed expects its Sarpy workforce to triple in 10 years.

Sarpy County continues to be the fastest growing county in Nebraska with population topping 153,500 in 2009. This high-growth was one of the reasons the county was selected as the site of the new $25 million baseball stadium for the Omaha Royals. The stadium is on schedule to host spring 2011 baseball.

Cargill at Hayden Place

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Going up adjacent to the new campus that holds technology and business college elements of the University of Nebraska at Omaha is Aksarben Village, a $300 million mixed-use complex that includes, among others, a new headquarters for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska and the building that houses Fidelity National Title Group, Inc., an insurance company that has moved operations to Nebraska.

cooling and connectivity. A six nines facility means that the data center is designed to encounter less than 6 seconds of downtime per year.

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Novozymes, a Danish biotech company, is building a $200 million enzymes-producing plant on the Cargill biorefinery campus in Blair, Neb. The first phase of the Novozymes’ plant is producing enzymes for the biofuels industry, including an ethanol plant already operating on the Cargill campus. Completion of the Novozymes plant is scheduled for 2012.

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Cargill-owned NatureWorks LLC operates a plant producing cornbased polymers, an alternative to oil-based plastic, used for such by Novozymes Jim things as biodegradable deli F erg uson Cabela’s, the national outdoors outfitting retailer, which containers and corn-based fibers for has a store in La Vista, built a $10 million data center in clothing and textiles. Evonik Industries Sarpy County that will start operations in 2010 with 15 produces animal feed additives at another plant on the employees. The company also announced it is building a biorefinery campus. Technology Development Center of up to 50,000 squareBlair held on to 90 Cargill employees when the company feet to accommodate about 100 workspaces. Cabela’s, a chose to build a 30,000-square-foot office building there Fortune 1000 company, is based in Sidney, a western rather than move a four-state purchasing operation Nebraska city. elsewhere. The building, which opened early in 2010, is in CoSentry, a data center and managed services company, Hayden Place, a 65-acre mixed-use development that opened its $26 million Midlands Data Center in January. overlooks the Blair biorefinery campus. This Tier IV hardened facility is designed to withstand 250 mph winds and deliver six nines reliability on power,

www.OmahaChamber.org

Carl Mammel prospered in Omaha, and with his late wife, Joyce, for years has given back to the city. What may be their most noticeable gift is a major donation toward construction of a new home for the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s (UNO) College of Business Administration (CBA), a building that university officials said will enable the CBA to broaden its economic development role in the city and across Nebraska. The CBA moved into Mammel Hall for the fall semester of 2010. UNO long has been part of the public side of the public-private partnerships that Omaha has used to build its economy. A list of foundations bearing the names of prominent Omaha business people, Mammel, Peter Kiewit, Dick and Mary Holland, Suzanne and Walter Scott and Charles and Margre Durham among them, have led the private side of the partnership.

INTO

for Walter Scott. Also nearby are operations of Omaha-born First Data, an international company that is the biggest electronic processor of credit card transactions. “Mammel Hall will encourage expansion of CBA’s many partnerships with business and industry, while stimulating economic development,“ said UNO Chancellor John Christensen. Part of that will come with consolidation in the new building of some of the scattered Omaha offices of the Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC), a UNO unit that carries a mandate to help small businesses across the state with business plans, securing loans, becoming more energy efficient, obtaining federal grants to meet pollution regulations and winning state and federal government contracts. “With this new building, our ability to help businesses will increase and our range of expertise will expand,“ said Louis Pol, CBA dean. The proximity of PKI and its graduate students and the startups at the Scott Center will add to the intellectual mix that encourages business innovation and entrepreneurship, continued Pol. In addition, the CBA can help bring to market the “excellent ideas“ of biosciences students at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “We want to expand their business expertise,“ he said of UNMC and UNO graduate students in technical fields. “Many will be scientists who will move into business management.“

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald, Courtesy of University of Nebraska at Omaha

Moving from UNO’s main campus to its south campus made the business school a neighbor of several other economic development efforts, notably the business component of The Peter Kiewit Institute (PKI). PKI, a joint operation of UNO and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in 1999 opened the first building on the south campus. Another neighbor is the Scott Technology Transfer and Incubator Center, which houses and aids startups—named

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In addition to the Mammel Foundation gift, which includes money for a $7.5 million CBA endowment, the William and Ruth Scott Family Foundation has made a major donation to the $41.5 million CBA building. The Mammel and Scott gifts are typical of the jump-starts that Omaha business and philanthropic communities give to education, arts, human services and economic development efforts. Examples: private efforts raised $75 million for Qwest Center Omaha before city officials put a construction bond issue before voters and $43 million in up-front money for the new TD AMERITRADE Park Omaha, the new home of the NCAA Men’s College World Series baseball stadium that is under construction. To clear the way for Aksarben Village, the mixed-use area near the Mammel Hall-PKI-Scott Incubator campus, business leaders put up the money needed to pay off debt on the land, a former horseracing track. “It’s how we have turned so many dreams into reality,“ said David Brown, president and CEO of the Greater Omaha Chamber, of the city’s public-private partnerships.

Photo by Jim Ferguson

No matter how humble their corporate beginnings, entrepreneurs can thrive in Greater Omaha. “Omaha has capital available, and costs here make starting a business and prototyping a product within the means of many new ventures— particularly in information technology and built landscape technology,“ said Tom Chapman, the Greater Omaha Chamber’s director of entrepreneurship and innovation. Further aiding the local entrepreneur is Omaha’s skilled labor pool…. “We have the technical capacity to have the workforce you need, not just when you have three employees but when you have 300 employees,“ said Chapman.

…and an accessibility that entrepreneurs may not find in other communities.

“This is the sort of market where you can actually talk to the decision-makers in relatively short order, and they’ll give you fair feedback regarding the quality of your product.“ Omaha is home to the Scott Technology Center and Incubator, one of the country’s top technology start-up incubator and accelerator facilities. In addition, in just the last five years, new programs have emerged that encourage high-growth entrepreneurs—from the Halo Institute to the new College of Business Administration at UNO. Also supporting the entrepreneur is Omaha’s robust creative community and strong and active Chamber. The Chamber’s Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership has helped establish or further a number of pro-entrepreneur partnerships, including Cornstalks (Omaha’s Entrepreneurs and Investors Club), the Growth Initiative Group, Invest Nebraska and the Midlands Venture Forum.

ENTREPRENEURS

six-year-old entrepreneur plunks down a quarter for a six-pack of soda and resells each bottle for a nickel-a-piece, the profit as sweet as sugar and caramel color. Decades later, Warren Buffett isn’t peddling refreshments anymore, but his company does own quite a bit of Coca-Cola stock.

Fertile Ground for

www.OmahaChamber.org

oday, more than 20 billion-dollar enterprises are headquartered in Omaha. Together these companies employ more than 40,000 people and produce more than $100 billion in revenue. Most of these companies were started by local entrepreneurs who saw an opportunity and seized it. These companies are foundations of Omaha’s local economy and the city would not be the same without them. Finding these entrepreneurs and accelerating their ventures is critical to the continued economic development of the city. Historically, the Greater Omaha Chamber’s role in these companies’ development emerged later in their life cycle. No more. Finding enterprises that have the potential to make a billion dollars in revenue is an overarching goal of the Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership—so much so that the new Entrepreneurship and Innovation department was created at the Chamber. Tom Chapman, the department’s director, said, “This department has the express goal of creating a new group of highly successful enterprises, industries and economic drivers.“ Omaha is a hotbed for market-driven opportunities—including strong startups in new media, insurance, payment systems, built landscape technology and digital security and storage. The Chamber provides guidance and helps the innovators and entrepreneurs make connections so they can craft their companies and find good customer-driven opportunities.

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Getting Off to a Good Start

Photo by Jim Ferguson

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Halo Institute houses startup companies in a 9,500square-foot former warehouse in Omaha’s Old Market district, providing them up to $20,000 in services and other aid. Started in 2009, it has a goal of launching 20 startups a year. Incubator firms include Guru Instruments, a company that produces medical equipment— particularly pathology equipment. Guru is striving to produce ergonomic and customer-driven innovations for the pathology market—a market that has not had a significant innovation in about 50 years. Creighton University’s College of Business Administration is a partner in Halo, which is backed financially by Halo Creative Capital.

KANEKO: A MASTERPIECE EVOLVING

It will be at least two more years before the entire, $10 million facility is complete, but several areas have already come to life, including key exhibition and programming spaces and a joint KANEKO-UNO library.

KANEKO occupies three-quarters of a block in Omaha’s Old Market district. It will eventually include additional, multi-level exhibition spaces, a large studio and a research center. Sculpture gardens and an impressive glass atrium—the defining structure of the project—will punctuate the facility’s exterior.

Courtesy of KANEKO

“At the beginning, I was buying these buildings to expand my studio and warehouse. But, I thought, this was a great chance to do something else,“ said Kaneko. “I always wanted to contribute back to society because I know what I’ve received by being in the U.S., the help I’ve received from other people. It’s enormous. Without that, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now.“

“We’ve been able to hire a staff, and we’ve already initiated a lot of programming. There’s still a ways to go, but we’ve got our feet wet. We’ve had events, and we’ve had a lot more interaction with the public in the last yearand-a-half than we had prior to that,“ said Executive Director Hal France.

Though it is both elaborate and expansive, France said KANEKO, at its heart, is, quite simply, an idea place and a meeting place. “Omaha is definitely changing in really exciting ways,“ said Kaneko. “We have lots of visitors from out of town, and they are amazed by what’s happening culturally in Omaha.“

Courtesy of KANEKO

The word “little“ is not in the lexicon of Omaha artist and visionary Jun Kaneko. His signature, world-renowned sculptures are colossal—so is his ambitious and evolving cultural institute, KANEKO. Conceived as a gift to the Omaha community, the 75,000square-foot complex, once completed, will utilize three connected, historic buildings; a new structure and two garden spaces—all devoted to the pursuit of art, science and philosophy.

ORTUNITY AWARD-WINNING INNOVATION MOVES FULL “STEAMER“ AHEAD FROM OMAHA

Crisp vegetables, with succulent slices of chicken and shrimp, complemented by gourmet sauces, all expertly prepared…by you, in just minutes, in your microwave. It’s no wonder that Healthy Choice® Café Steamers™ from ConAgra Foods have become a favorite among consumers. The secret is the one-of-a-kind microwaveable DuoTray Steamcooker, a technology that was developed right here in Omaha.

Courtesy of ConAgra Foods

When the Healthy Choice Café Steamers were introduced in 2008, they were named the “best selling new food or beverage product through mid-year“ by Information Resources Inc. The technology features a bowl containing the sauce and a steamer basket to hold the meat, vegetables and either pasta, rice or potatoes. The separation of the ingredients and the steaming process itself results in heightened flavors, crisp vegetables and optimum textures, akin to stovetop steaming.

www.OmahaChamber.org

At the heart of the Young Professionals’ mission lies the question: How can we help foster a dynamic, inclusive and integrated community where diverse young professionals want to live, work and play? To aid in the search for answers, the group now has a roadmap. It is called Your Omaha 2020, a unified vision for the community that emerged during a roundtable gathering of more than 300 young professionals last fall.

It’s nice to be able to focus on the action aspect – what any young professional can do from where they sit in the community.

Programs central to the Young Professionals include community outreach, networking events, an annual Young Professionals Summit and Ready2ServeOmaha.org, a virtual posting board that matches nonprofit organizations with those seeking volunteer leadership opportunities.

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So far, 3,500 young professionals have officially answered the call (thousands more if you count those connected via social media). They are part of the Greater Omaha Young Professionals, a fast-growing program of the Greater Omaha Chamber aimed at retaining and attracting young talent through engagement, opportunity and advocacy.

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WANTED: Next generation leaders—40 and under— who want to impact the community and work together to contribute to the growth of Greater Omaha.

“Although our work is focused on a young professional demographic, we’re most interested in Omaha as a community and how it can be a great place for all people. We know if we can help improve something like public transportation, we’re going to make it better for everyone. And that’s really exciting,“ said Jay Palu, an architect with DLR Group and chair of the Greater Omaha Young Professionals Council.

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Attracting Retaining

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“We’ve spent years talking about what’s important to us as young professionals. This is really moving it from talking to action. Now, there is a plan,“ said Katie Neddenriep, associate engineer at Olsson Associates and the Council’s secretary. Your Omaha 2020 focuses on five actionable areas: arts and culture, community development, inclusive communities, public engagement and public transportation.

“It’s nice to be able to focus on the action aspect – what any young professional can do from where they sit in the community,“ said Sarah Johnson, manager of the Greater Omaha Young Professionals. Your Omaha 2020 results were shared with community leaders and stakeholders and incorporated into the 2010 Young Professionals Summit last March. It should continue to spark dialogue and create change for years to come.

PROFESSIONALS SUMMIT:

Your Seat at the Table It is a one-day “splash,“ but organizers see the ripples leading to engagement and action all year long. Hundreds of young professionals and community and business leaders gathered in Omaha last March for the fifth annual Young Professionals Summit, a daylong mix of networking events, breakout sessions and speakers. art nH Photo by Susa

The summit is a marquee project of the Greater Omaha Young Professionals, a program of the Greater Omaha Chamber dedicated to retaining and attracting young talent. This year’s event carried the theme “Your Seat at the Table“ and incorporated ideas from “Your Omaha 2020,“ a unified vision for Omaha’s growth and development crafted by young professionals last fall.

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Breakout session topics included engaging in politics, building your resumé through social media and eliminating poverty and homelessness in Omaha. The summit also featured a top-notch speaker roster: Blake Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe giver at TOMS Shoes; Patricia Martin, CEO and founder, LitLamp Communications and author of “Renaissance Generation“; and William Taylor, entrepreneur and founding editor of “Fast Company.“

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Also at the summit, the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) received the annual Young Professionals Choice Award, recognizing its efforts to attract, retain and develop young professionals.

(402) 453-1630 No waiting, no walking, no worries. 32

www.SelectGreaterOmaha.com

Photo by Susan Hart

1515 East Fort St. Omaha, NE 68110

Photo by Jim Ferguson

OMAHA: Small Business Diversity Creates Economic Stability ur Midwestern humility tells us we shouldn’t declare ourselves one of the best places in the country to launch a small business. Fortunately, outfits like CNNmoney.com and Forbes Small Business have done it for us. CNNmoney.com ranked Greater Omaha third best among midsize metro areas for small business start-ups (2009). The site praised our low utility rates, affordable cost of living, skilled workforce and business-friendly tax incentives (courtesy of the Nebraska Advantage Act). While we certainly revere our Berkshire Hathaways, our Kiewits and seven other Fortune 1000 companies headquartered here, Omaha simply wouldn’t be

Omaha without small businesses like Buland Group, Olympia Cycle, The Interior Design Firm and Julio’s Restaurant, to name just a few. A full nine out of 10 businesses in Omaha have fewer than 50 employees. “Omaha is a great incubator for new ideas and new businesses with common sense and hard work as building blocks. We have great mentors, a long list of entrepreneurs and organizations whose dreams and businesses started here small and grew to national and global prominence,“ said Jeff Neary, president, Regal Awards, Inc. …Marketing and advertising agencies, staffing firms, entertainment development companies, event planners… Omaha’s diversity of small businesses and the jobs they create bring stability to and fuel growth in our local economy. The Greater Omaha Chamber thanks the tens of thousands of small businesses that contribute to the vitality of our city. And, additions to the economic landscape are always welcome.

www.OmahaChamber.org

Omaha-based eCreamery and its customers specialize in interesting combinations: chocolate mousse ice cream with fudge swirls and brownie bites, tiramisu gelato with chocolate covered cherries and snowflake sprinkles…

Lagasse and Perrier-Jouet’s event at the 2010 South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Florida.

“The one that we talk about a lot is avocado habanero ice cream with cheddar cheese pieces and bacon,“ said eCreamery’s Abby Jordan.

“We’re having a lot of fun,“ said App. “It’s like building something we think is going to be successful.“

But, eCreamery’s most interesting combination may be its very own business model. eCreamery is a brick-and-mortar ice cream parlor in Omaha’s Dundee neighborhood, but it also a unique, nationally-recognized e-tailer. The bulk of its business (80 percent) flows from its web site, www.ecreamery.com. Online orders are custommade, packed in dry ice and shipped across the country. “We’ve shipped everywhere from the White House to Hollywood Boulevard,“ said eCreamery’s Becky App. The operation is busiest around Christmas, but Father’s Day is a close second.

Since opening in Omaha in 2006, eCreamery has scooped up endorsements from the likes of Vanessa Williams and Rachael Ray. Last February, eCreamery created a series of flavors exclusively for Emeril

www.SelectGreaterOmaha.com

Courtesy of eCreamery

“So many of our gifts are gifts to fathers and grandfathers, and they’re based on a memory of having ice cream as a special occasion growing up,“ said App.

Courtesy of eCreamery

eCommerce with a Cherry on Top

The multi-faceted Roger Fransecky, Ph.D. may not be a native of Omaha, but he is, without a doubt, a fervent ambassador. “There is a spirit of centeredness and clarity here, and that is a huge advantage for business,“ said Fransecky. “This is a city where you can make connections and get things done. Most of the cities I’ve lived in—whether it’s New York or L.A.—aren’t manageable, the scale is too much. We can get it done here and we do.“ Fransecky, a native New Yorker, is the CEO of Apogee Group, a global management consulting and leadership development firm. A self-described “serial entrepreneur,“ he founded the company in Colorado in 1995 and later moved the operation to New York. A project involving the former CEO of First Data prompted a visit to Omaha and Fransecky’s first real taste of the city. “I’m driving up and down Dodge Street, and I called home and said, ’I don’t know what’s going on here, but there is a lot going on here. We need to take a look.’“ Fransecky and his wife, Nancy Foreman-Fransecky, a Nebraska native, transitioned from the east coast gradually, renting an apartment in Omaha for a month in the summer and a month in the winter. After “really getting a sense of the city,“ they made the permanent move. That was almost eight years ago.

“The magic of it is there was not a day in our lives that one of us didn’t say this was the best time we’d ever had,“ said Fransecky. Those memories now serve as a source of comfort. Fransecky’s wife died unexpectedly in August 2008. “The irony is the Nebraskan brought the New Yorker here, and the New Yorker has chosen to stay. Omaha is my home,“ said Fransecky. Fransecky said he is continually spellbound by the city’s spirit. “People here are authentic, they have a true north. They know who they are; they live without pretense, but they are extraordinarily successful,“ said Fransecky. “You can live a remarkable life here—and I do.“ In addition to his work with Apogee Group, Fransecky is chairman of the entrepreneurnurturing Halo Institute and a clinical professor of leadership at Creighton University. The 69-year-old began his career as a university professor and later added to his resumé clinical and organizational psychologist, award-winning television producer and senior vice president of both Home Box Office/Time Inc. and Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable.

Photo by Kameron Bayne

Omaha is My Home

www.OmahaChamber.org

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Lights... Camera... Innovation... With every first-rate project his company premieres, Dana Altman is letting it be known—a high-end entertainment development company can thrive in Omaha, Neb. “Anything that’s new and inventive—we want to be there. We are always exploring.“ Altman, grandson of the late, legendary filmmaker Robert Altman, founded North Sea Films, Inc. in 1994. It has since produced a full and growing portfolio of work: six feature films, three network television specials, seven documentaries, and numerous commercials, corporate videos and image campaigns. North Sea’s latest film, Lovely, Still, debuted in theaters in the U.S., Canada and Japan in the fall of 2010. “The performances that we have in the film from Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn are extraordinary,“ he said, worthy, perhaps, of Golden Globe or Oscar consideration. “The Hollywood Foreign Press and the people who make those decisions will have an opportunity to respond to it.“

Even though North Sea Films and its body of work are growing steadily, Altman admits it was a bold move to leave the west coast and start an entertainment development company in Omaha. But, the father of six said he has no regrets. “I have my kids here. This is the place to raise a family. Maybe it’s been a little more difficult to be in my line of work in Omaha, but it’s been worth fighting for knowing that I have a family that’s solid and super cool.“ North Sea Films Filmography: Omaha (The Movie) Kolobos The Private Public Out of Omaha Carpula Lovely, Still

In the meantime, North Sea has begun production on what it hopes will be the next Lovely, Still, a feature film, penned by an Omaha screenwriter, titled Pauline. “We don’t look specifically for material from Nebraska; we just recognize that there are talented people in every community,“ said Altman. “We are lucky to find them in our own backyard.“

www.SelectGreaterOmaha.com

Photo by Jim Ferguson

North Sea Films is also in the process of producing two more documentaries: one a rock ’n’ roll story about the rise, fall and rise of Miljenko Matijevic, founder and front man of the band Steelheart; the other about a plant that holds tremendous promise as a bio-fuel breakthrough.

The world changes, and the Nebraska business community changes with it. When Gov. Dave Heineman signed LB 918 into law on April 14, 2010, it was demonstrated once again that Nebraska is committed to remaining on the forefront of economic development. An update to the Nebraska Advantage Act (business incentives legislation), LB 918 takes the economy to the next level, recognizing the increasing importance of business models that include cloud computing, data centers and products delivered electronically. Chamber members, senators and state officials were engaged in the discussions, and after much research, the Nebraska Advantage was amended to reflect changes in how businesses function using todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technology. After all, software and other products often are no longer shipped on a shrink-wrapped disk. Businesses can use computer servers and services that are located at sites around the country (or world). And, the data centers that process and store information can be located here in the metro area. Chamber members and staff were among those who testified in favor of the legislation, which won unanimous committee approval and was eventually approved by the full legislature. Senators recognize that Nebraska Advantage delivers. In addition, a proactive and concerted approach by the Chamber to develop an effective enhancement to the program produced a bill that will create jobs and lead to investment. Since its enactment in 2005, the Nebraska Advantage Act has led to commitments by participating businesses to create more than 17,000 jobs across the state and invest $5.5 billion. And those numbers continue to grow. In Greater Omaha and across the state, this has resulted in investment and jobs in industries ranging from food processing to printing and company headquarters to pharmaceuticals.

Photo by Jamie Karl

Nebraska has taken numerous actions in recent years to continue to build a strong economy for the metro area and the state, including the elimination of the sales tax on manufacturing equipment and machinery, income tax reductions and an emphasis on job training. It started with the Nebraska Advantage Act, and it remains the reason that Nebraska has the Advantage.

www.OmahaChamber.org

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Photo by Brad Williams

R O A D S

www.SelectGreaterOmaha.com

quick look at a highway map shows a major transportation plus for the Greater Omaha area: it’s a crossroads for two major interstates: east-west I-80, “the country’s main street,“ and Canada-to-Mexico I-29/35.

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It takes a little more checking to pick up on another big plus: crossroads of two big freight railroads, Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe. (Look a little more and find the metropolitan area has a third Class I railroad, Canadian National in Council Bluffs on the Iowa side of the Missouri River.)

Average home-to-work commute is less than 20 minutes.

Digging turns up 50 trucking companies, among them intermodal and international shipping logistics giant Werner Enterprises, a Fortune 1000 company based on a southwest Omaha hilltop overlooking I-80. There’s more: multiple-carrier Eppley Airfield, barge terminals on the Missouri, a foreign trade zone, a UPS hub and U.S. Postal Service capability for handling major mailers like First Data’s credit-card bill-printing operation.

The interstates put businesses within a day’s drive or less of customers and suppliers in Kansas City, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Denver, Chicago, the Canadian border and deep into Texas. In two days, trucks can reach nearly all of the continental U.S. More than 1.2 million people live within an hour’s drive of Omaha. With the area’s good roads network, that’s easily 55 miles. “We take extra care to explain that to retailers looking at Omaha,“ said Rod Moseman, the Greater Omaha Chamber’s vice president of economic development. “Fifty-five miles in New York is a twohour drive.“

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Other driving times are also short. Average home-towork commute is less than 20 minutes. The airport is five minutes from downtown and the headquarters of ConAgra Foods, multi-state banking and credit-card issuer First National Bank of Omaha and Union Pacific. A few minutes farther away is the headquarters of Berkshire Hathaway, the new owner of Fort Worthbased BNSF. Also within minutes of the airport, the rail yards and interstates is Foreign Trade Zone No. 19 (FTZ), which has 250,000 square feet of warehouse space on 17 acres of security-fenced land. The FTZ is under the supervision of the U.S. Customs Department. Businesses defer duty payments on foreign goods stored there until the time they enter U.S. trading channels. The zone has facilities for repackaging, assembling, manufacturing, repairing and testing. Barges ply the Missouri River 10 months of the year, upstream to the head of shipping at Sioux City, Iowa, and downstream to New Orleans via the Mississippi River at St. Louis.

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Hit the gym; grab a bite and catch a movie; then, fill the grocery list and head for home—all without moving the car. It is convenience by design at Aksarben Village, central Omaha’s $300 million, 70-acre, mixed-use community. Developers broke ground just three years ago. Today, Aksarben Village is bustling with a diverse blend of office, retail and residential elements. Corporate tenants include Noddle Companies, the project’s lead developer; Pacific Realty Group; Security National Bank; and the University of Nebraska Foundation. Wohlner’s Grocery, Godfather’s Pizza, Juice Stop, LIV Lounge, Jones Bros. Cupcakes and Learning HQ fill out the development’s current retail and hospitality roster. Those interested in calling Aksarben Village “home“ will find two apartment communities. A Courtyard by Marriott and its 135 rooms can accommodate the shorter stays. And, the Sunday farmers’ market in the plaza was a hit during the summer. “Stinson Park is also booking events,“ said Chris Richardson, Aksarben Village’s general manager. The 4.3-acre park features a tower, water feature and band shell—a mid-city venue for concerts, festivals and other community events.

Photo by Brad Williams

Several key projects are still under construction at Aksarben Village, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s $98 million, 10-story corporate headquarters (set to open in January 2011); DLR Group’s new, three-story, LEED certified Omaha office (set to open in November 2011); and Zone 5, an entertainment area that will include a 10-screen movie theater, a fitness center and restaurants. “Once the entertainment zone is developed, we’ll be giving customers and visitors to Aksarben Village even more reason to shop, live, work, play and dine here,“ Richardson added.

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Taking

Courtesy of Gallup

“Green”

to a Higher Level

A green roof, according to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, is “an extension of the existing roof that involves a highquality water proofing and root repellant system, a drainage system, filter cloth, a lightweight growing medium and plants.“

Courtesy of Omaha Public Schools

It is “going green“—on a higher level. Green roofs are sprouting up on a growing number of buildings in Greater Omaha, including the Saddlebrook Joint Facility, the new addition to Omaha North High Magnet School and the phase II expansion of Gallup’s headquarters on the Missouri riverfront.

Ed Miller, Gallup’s vice president of facilities, said two key factors drove Gallup’s decision to go with a green roof on its headquarters expansion: environmental impact and aesthetics. “It’s an accessible roof for our employees, and we wanted it to be a place that our associates could use. There are fantastic views available up there and having the green roof makes it a much more pleasant experience,“ said Miller.

In terms of environmental benefit, Miller said the green roof lessens the “heat island effect,“ which ultimately trims the cooling load of the building—all while filtering and reducing storm water runoff. “The green roof holds some of the moisture, utilizes it for the plants and reduces what’s going down the storm sewer,“ said Miller. Those same environmental factors made a green roof a natural choice for the Saddlebrook Joint Facility, a combined elementary school, public library and Omaha Parks and Recreation community center in northwest Omaha. Environmentally-friendly green roofs can also have an educational impact. Omaha North High’s new Engineering and Science Building has a section of green roof. “It has been incorporated into the curriculum of the school where the kids can grow plants and experiment with them on the green roof,“ said Jeremy Madson, construction manager for Omaha Public Schools. Both OPS and Gallup are pursuing LEED certification for their expansions.

www.OmahaChamber.org

Photo by Kameron Bayne

Taking

the

ddy Rojas, Ph.D., the first director of The Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, is very clear about his goal. “I want our school to be nationally and internationally recognized as the best architectural engineering and construction school in the country,“ said Rojas. “We’re not there yet, but we have the foundation to get there within five years.“ The Durham School, based out of The Peter Kiewit Institute in Omaha, is part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering. It is the only program in the nation that combines architectural engineering, construction engineering and construction management under one school. That distinction was a key factor in Rojas’s decision to transfer to The Durham School last spring. “This combination really allows for very interesting synergies and collaborations between the programs,“ he said. Rojas previously served as director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Construction Research and Education at the University of Washington in Seattle. He moved to Omaha in

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March and assumed the role of Durham School director in April. He said this is an exciting time for the school, an institution that is thriving while others are being forced to cut back. “We have several design and construction companies headquartered in Omaha that provide a significant amount of support to our program,“ said Rojas. “The school has an endowment of $30 million formed by donations from the industry. That financial support allows us to be innovative and to do things that other programs just don’t have the resources to do.“ With such strong backing from the industry and solid upper-administration support, Rojas is confident he can achieve his five-year goal. “All of these elements together just create fantastic opportunities for us looking forward.“ Personally, Rojas said he is looking forward to learning more about his new home and experiencing all that Omaha has to offer. “I consider it to be a very progressive city with a very active chamber of commerce,“ he said. Rojas is participating in the Chamber’s 2010 Omaha Executive Institute class.

Photo by Dennis Keim

Courtesy of Omaha Public Power District

When it comes to using electric power to win a new business for the Omaha area, it’s cost that counts. And capacity. And reliability. Omaha scores high on those three measures of electric power, arguably the most important part of infrastructure that business prospects look at in searching for a place to settle down. Low power costs were among the reasons Yahoo! decided to build a data center in Greater Omaha. Data centers are hot items in business recruiting, though other new and expanding

businesses also have found Omaha’s electricity an attractive lure. Power rates for industrial customers are nearly 40 percent lower in Omaha than the national average, and 33 percent lower for commercial customers, according to Greater Omaha Chamber research. “That gives us a huge advantage if we’re talking to a business where a lot of energy is a key concern,“ said Rod Moseman, the Chamber’s vice president of economic development.

www.OmahaChamber.org

The reason Omaha rates are so low is in the electric utility’s name: Omaha Public Power District. As a customer-owned power company, OPPD is under no pressure to constantly increase profits in a fight for shareholders’ investment dollars. Because it is tax-exempt, it can borrow for capital investment at lower rates than investorowned utilities. Adequate capacity is also used in recruiting businesses and the recent addition of a 300-megawatt generating plant to the OPPD system, coming on top of the relicensing until 2033 of its nuclear plant, is a strong The reason Omaha rates argument. In addition, the utility has committed to drawing 10 percent of its are so low is in the electric power from renewable sources, primarily wind, by utility’s name: Omaha 2020.

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Public Power District.

Reliability is another selling point. OPPD’s service availability index, a measure of how few power interruptions it has, is a solid 99.984 percent. Add to that the utility’s J.D. Power and Associates award for customer satisfaction. “That resonates with prospects,“ said Moseman.

OPPD has its own economic development team, which partners with the Chamber’s in pitching clients. “We work hand-in-glove with them,“ added Moseman. The Chamber has similar partnerships with the Omaha area’s gas utilities. The supplier in the city is Metropolitan Utilities District, a customer-owned utility like OPPD. Investor-owned Black Hills Energy competes with MUD, whose residential gas rates run 20 percent lower than the national average, in Omaha’s suburbs. Communication services companies Cox and Qwest are two of the companies providing phone, Internet and data services to customers. Omaha long has been well-supplied with communications lines connecting it to the world, thanks in part to the Cold War-born needs of Omaha-area headquarters of the Strategic Air Command and its successor, the U.S. Strategic Command. When the technology boom called for more speed and capacity, Omaha ended up as a crossroads of fiber-optic networks. In addition to the physical infrastructure of electric power, gas, water and communications lines, business recruiters can cite the academic opportunities and support of the University of Nebraska’s Peter Kiewit Institute and the Scott Technology Transfer and Incubator Center, said Scott Strain, the Greater Omaha Chamber’s senior director of research.

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location of choice for

data centers

And it’s not just the technical assets that set Greater Omaha apart as a preferred location for data center operations. It’s also the unmatched quality of life. Greater Omaha and the state of Nebraska have received national attention for everything from the stable business environment to quality education, an affordable cost of living, cultural, entertainment and recreational amenities and a thriving and vibrant downtown. Bottom line— Greater Omaha is a great place to live, work and play.

Photo by Billl Magrath

Affordable and reliable power, bandwidth and infrastructure, where telecommunication networks connect, redundancies, a skilled workforce, water for cooling, available real estate, disaster avoidance, state and local incentives, and the list goes on. These and many other reasons are why so many technology-reliant companies are sprouting up in the Greater Omaha area. Yahoo!, PayPal, TD AMERITRADE, First Data and Google in Council Bluffs, among others, all have a significant technology presence in the Greater Omaha area.

technology presence The Omaha Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is home to several large data centers and information-assurance operations including: d Cabela’s (enterprise data center) d ConAgra Foods (enterprise data center) d CoSentry (data center hosting) d First Data (credit card processing) d First National Technology Solutions (data center hosting and IT outsourcing) d Google (search engine and other data center support) d InfoCrossing (data center hosting) d PayPal (financial transactions processing) d Qwest (enterprise data center) d Scott Technology Center (data center hosting) d TD AMERITRADE (financial transactions processing) d Union Pacific Railroad (national dispatch center and enterprise data center) d Verizon Business (enterprise data center) d Yahoo! (search engine and other data center support)

In addition, the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) is one of nine unified commands with global missions that include responsibility for the Global Information Grid and protection of Department of Defense networks. USSTRATCOM is headquartered on Offutt Air Force Base. Omaha is also home to several national insurance companies that have large information assurance processing operations in the area.

www.OmahaChamber.org

“My wife had been diagnosed with leukemia, and UNMC was one of only two hospitals in the U.S. that had a program to address her needs. I was fortunate that Inacom Corp. was in need of someone with my background, so I went to work within a couple of weeks.“

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Quevedo worked for Inacom until 2000 when he and a group of fellow Inacom employees founded CoSentry. He described CoSentry as “an awesome place to work.“

LIVING IN A “YES CITY“ “With the major changes in entertainment venues, business development and educational opportunities, Omaha has become very much a ’yes city.’“ That’s the assessment from Manny Quevedo, a transplant from California who serves as vice president of sales and marketing for Omaha-based CoSentry, one of the largest data center and co-location networks in the central U.S.

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“There is something very luxurious about Omaha,“ Quevedo said. “It is an entire community, where people are sincerely considerate, positive thinking and genuinely nice.“ Quevedo, who was instrumental in building the nation’s first all-digital wireless network in southern California, moved to Omaha in 1994, drawn here by medical necessity.

“We serve a large segment of the community by providing a safe place (data center) for them to locate their computing equipment and then surround it with managed services as required,“ said Quevedo. “I have had the privilege to work in most areas of the business. My concentration today is developing and maintaining client relationships.“ CoSentry has four facilities throughout the Midwest, but Omaha remains its headquarters.

New Effort to Protect

S afeguarding FREEDOM he economic impact of Offutt Air Force Base continues to grow, now adding well beyond $2.7 billion a year to Greater Omaha’s economy from salaries of 8,000 military and civilian personnel on the base and goods and services purchased for such things as construction, maintenance and operations.

After two Air Force commands that Omaha had sought for Offutt went elsewhere in 2009, business leaders organized a new effort, the Nebraska Military Support Coalition, to support the missions now at Offutt and seek new ones. “As a community we have recognized the importance of being more proactive in protecting the mission of our base and its employment infrastructure,“ said Ned Holmes, senior military affairs liaison at the Greater Omaha Chamber. The coalition engages military leaders at the three Offutt commands, senior military commanders and U.S. Department of Defense civilian officials at the national level in efforts to make sure Offutt remains a major piece of the U.S. military picture. The coalition is more focused on supporting Offutt’s mission than recruiting contractors, Holmes said. “If you don’t have the mission, you don’t get the contractors.“ The president of the coalition is Bob Hinson, a retired Air Force general officer who runs the Omaha office of Northrop Grumman, one of several big-name defense contractors in the area.

The defense companies employ 3,600 people, three times more than in 2002. Most of those are not included among the on-base employment figure of 8,000.

U.S. Air Force photo by Josh Plueger

Offutt has three commands with global missions: the Strategic Command, the 55th Wing and the Air Force Weather Agency. The 55th’s duties include intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance.

New missions added at Offutt in recent years have drawn more defense contractors to Greater Omaha and Bellevue, the city that adjoins the base. More than 65 defense companies have offices in the two cities, some of them at the Scott Technology Transfer and Incubator Center near the University of Nebraska’s Peter Kiewit Institute in Omaha.

Area’s Economy

www.OmahaChamber.org

Space Symposium’s Teacher, Student Programs The annual Strategic Space Symposium in Omaha gave a boost to middle school and senior high school education in space topics. More than 300 students and 70 teachers were at the two-day event sponsored by the Space Foundation and the U.S. Strategic Command, based at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha. The November 2009 symposium drew more than 1,800 people from America’s armed services and the defense industry. Students and teachers came from schools in Nebraska and Iowa. While students listened to briefings at booths featuring space and military contractors, teachers attended a workshop featuring space-related teaching tools that can help create interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

out-of-t his-wor ld

Program The only program in the United States to offer a master of laws degree in space law is at the University of Nebraska College of Law. The program graduated its first class, seven students, in 2009. The 2010 class of eight that graduated in May had the program’s first foreign students, one from Canada and the other from Belarus. Two graduates from the 2009 class went to work at U.S. Strategic Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha. This degree will be increasingly beneficial as military, civilian and commercial interests in space and telecommunications need to interact to solve problems. In fact, the merger of USSTRATCOM and USSPACECOM in 2002 brought a new and dynamic set of space and cyberspace missions to the base—missile defense, global deterrence, network warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance—all of which have a space law component. The space and telecommunications law program is the only one in the world taught in English. The director of the program is Matt Schaefer, a former National Security Council staff member. Schaefer also teaches international trade law at the N.U. law college. The program offers a “specialist“ certification in space law for non-lawyers, such as business executives who want to familiarize themselves with the field.

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Encourages INTERNATIONAL TRADE inning a $200 million, 100-job biotech facility came down to being a matter of persistence and timing that demonstrated the Greater Omaha area can compete internationally in business recruiting.

Economic development officials had been courting Novozymes, trying to get the Danish company to locate a plant on the Cargill Inc. biorefinery campus at Blair, Neb., but were told they were out of the running. The competition for the facility was worldwide with China being one of the places under consideration. Paula Hazlewood, executive director of Gateway Development Corp. in Blair, went back to work and convinced Nebraska economic development officials and city leaders to sweeten the incentives package. That was the persistence part: forging ahead after being told it was no use. Then came the timing part. Hazlewood credits part of the reason for Novozymes’s change of mind to timing. “We sent the package to them at a

good time, just when they were making a decision,“ she said. The enhanced incentives tipped the balance because Novozymes was already comfortable with the idea of putting the plant in Blair, said Hazlewood. So comfortable, it turned out, that between the June 2008 announcement that Novozymes had chosen Blair and the March 2009 groundbreaking, the size of the plant grew from an $80 million to $100 million investment by Novozymes to $200 million. The plant produces enzymes, including those used in producing ethanol; the Cargill biorefinery campus has an ethanol plant among its production facilities. Marisa Ring, the Greater Omaha Chamber’s manager of international business development, credits Hazlewood with winning the plant for Blair. “She really turned it around,“ said Ring. “We were competing globally.“ That Greater Omaha can compete internationally for businesses was

pointed out again in March when a Chinese company, Easyway International Freight of Shaanxi, announced it would set up a freight-forwarding operation in La Vista, an Omaha suburb. Four Chinese executives will move to Omaha and the business will start with 15 employees. China was one of the stops, and a primary one, that Ring made on a 2009 recruiting trip in Asia. One of her selling points in trying to attract Chinese and other international companies to Omaha is the city’s central U.S. location. Using Omaha puts international shippers’ goods within two days’ trucking time of most of the country. Rail shipping times are similar. Adding to the pluses of an Omaha location is Foreign Trade Zone No. 19, a 17-acre site with 250,000 square feet of warehouse space and facilities for assembling, repackaging, cleaning and otherwise handling imported goods awaiting shipment to customers. The zone is within a few minutes of Eppley Airfield, the Omaha area’s major airport.

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N O I T P I R C S PRE reighton University is going long distances to expand its health sciences campus. The Jesuit university in Omaha is establishing a medical school at St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. It has set up a program to let occupational therapy students at the University of Alaska at Anchorage earn doctorates online and also grants a doctorate in pharmacy to distancelearning students. The first medical students who will move to Phoenix for their final two years of clinical training have started classes at the Omaha campus. St. Joseph in Phoenix will graduate its first MDs in 2014. Photo by Eric Francis

Creighton’s School of Medicine has groundbreaking researchers. Robert Heaney, M.D., is recognized as one of the top 10 experts on the value of Vitamin D in disease prevention. Joan Lappe, Ph.D., did the research that linked use of Vitamin D to reducing cancer risk in women. Henry Lynch has traced genetic links to certain cancers. Creighton’s Osteoporosis Research Center developed standards for osteoporosis screening, prevention and research and ear scientists are working on restoring hearing loss by tricking hair cells of the inner ear into regenerating the ability to change sound into electric signals.

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Creighton Medical Laboratories is the first clinical lab worldwide to offer a new cancer testing method, SNP array karyotyping. The test has been used in research laboratories but Creighton researcher Jill Hagenkord is the first to validate the test in a clinical setting and make it available for routine use. The method, a spin on older genetic testing methods, can help doctors make more accurate diagnoses and tailor treatment based on the DNA profiles of each patient’s cancer. Outside research grants brought Creighton health sciences $36 million in the fiscal year that ended in June 2009. & Medical Center Children’s Hospital

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Creighton physicians also have clinics outside the university campus and teaching hospital.

Courtesy of University of Nebraska Medical Center

Across town, the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) has established three more links with Chinese counterparts: an office at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, a joint center for lymphoma and leukemia research in Tianjin and a family-practice training center in Xian. Chinese doctors from Tianjin and Xian have come to Omaha for study and training, and tissue samples from difficult cancer cases are shipped to university laboratories in Omaha for confirming diagnoses. The Beijing office will recruit Chinese students and faculty for collaborations and support Nebraska faculty and students who work and study in China. UNMC earlier had established a partnership with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University medical school in China and another with Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, India. The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine along with its partner, The Nebraska Medical Center teaching hospital, have leading programs in cancer research and treatment as well as in solid organ transplants including liver, kidney and heart.

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The university annually brings in more than $100 million in outside medical research grants. It has a for-profit arm that transfers research results into marketable products and services. Two new hospitals and a major clinic opened in the Omaha area in 2010. The Nebraska Medical Center, the hospital arm of the university, started Bellevue Medical Center, a 100-bed general hospital in fast-growing Sarpy County, just south of Omaha. Two years ago it launched its Cancer Center, an outpatient treatment and research center several miles from the medical school campus hospital. Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, an independent organization that operates 10 clinics in the Omaha area, freed up space in its hospital building by moving its specialty pediatric clinic into an adjacent, new $55 million building. Children’s is next door to Methodist Hospital, which opened its new Methodist Women’s Hospital in west Omaha about the same time the university’s new hospital went into service in Bellevue. Methodist Health System also owns a hospital in neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa, and a chain of clinics. Alegent Health is the largest of the Omaha area health-care systems. It has eight hospitals including some in small cities outside the metropolitan area, 44 clinics, four quick-care offices and 1,300 physicians.

For WOMEN Only The only women’s hospital in the north central United States opened this year in Omaha. Located 20 miles from downtown Omaha, Methodist Women’s Hospital and its adjacent Methodist Physicians Clinic Women’s Center offers a lengthy list of women’s health services, among them gynecology and specialized disciplines within that field, obstetrics and breastfeeding, lactation, fertility and sexual health services.

Photos Courtesy of Methodist Health System

The 116-bed hospital has a 24-unit (all private rooms) neonatal intensive care unit, along with couch beds and private rooms for parents staying overnight with babies.

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More specialties may come later. “Are we starting with cardiology? No,“ said Sue Korth, vice president and chief operating officer of Methodist Women’s Hospital. “But I’m not closing any doors on anything.“ Plastic surgery is a possibility, she said. Cardiology remains at Methodist Hospital. There, the Methodist Health System operates a full hospital with a cancer center. Moving birthing, obstetrical and gynecological services from Methodist to Methodist Women’s frees up space at the main campus to expand cancer, cardiovascular and surgical services. While men cannot use Methodist Women’s on an inpatient basis, outpatient clinics are open to them for services such as lab work and radiology. The emergency room is also open to men.

LEADER Guides New Hospital Until recently, Sue Korth’s office was in a construction trailer. She has nicer quarters now that Methodist Women’s Hospital has opened, but she seemed perfectly at home in the bare-bones trailer office. A self-described hands-on person, Korth joined the Methodist Health System in 2007 and since then has spent her time watching over the details of building a hospital that directly affects medical operations and patients. She is vice president and chief operating officer of the new hospital. Wearing a hard hat, she often prowled the building while it was under construction, seeking input from the people who would work in the hospital, from medical staff to maintenance crews, on the details of how things should be put together for efficiency, patient safety and other effects. Mockups of rooms were constructed and workers and potential patients were asked for their opinions. Korth interviewed women who had just given birth and their families, down to grandparents and aunts and uncles, for advice that helped guide construction.

Photo by Kameron Bayne

A native of Humphrey, Neb., Korth’s first job in the medical field was as a nurse at Omaha hospitals. She now holds a doctorate in health care administration.

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The building boom didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t end there. In 2012, a new eye institute building will open; it alone will cost $30 million. The new home for the ophthalmological sciences will have diagnostic clinics for patients, clinical research facilities and space for training eye specialists.

Bill and Ruth Scott, who had made five previous major donations to UNMC, made gifts for the public health and nursing school buildings and provided money for a recently completed year-round plaza, including an ice rink, that is surrounded by the medical, nursing, pharmacy, public health and other schools housed in the new $52 million Michael F. Sorrell Center for Health Science Education. Named for a university physician, it was built to pull scattered academic programs into a common area. The Scotts were major contributors to the Sorrell Center, as well.

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Courtesy of University of Nebraska Medical Center

As in the past, much of the money for the current building boom came from private sources. The geriatrics building, named the Home Instead Center for Successful Aging, was built entirely with private funds. It is named for Home Instead Senior Care, an Omaha-based international non-medical home-care business founded by Paul and Lori Hogan.

Courtesy of University of Nebraska Medical Center

UNMC has been on a 21st century construction tear, much of it to attract world-class research scientists. In 2003 it opened a high-rise research building, Durham Research Center. In 2009 it added a companion tower, Durham Research Center II.

Courtesy of University of Nebraska Medical Center

This has been a big year, building-wise, for the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest medical college opened three new buildings on its Omaha campus in 2010: a new home for the College of Public Health, a major expansion of the College of Nursing and a geriatrics education and research division. Together the three total more than $40 million in investment.

Courtesy of University of Nebraska Medical Center

Building BOOM

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the UNDERSERVED OneWorld Community Health Center is marking its 40th year in 2010 by doing more of what it has been doing those four decades—serving low-income residents of southeast Omaha. Based in the historic Livestock Exchange Building once the center of the nation’s biggest livestock market, OneWorld has expanded beyond its traditional base in the neighborhoods of South Omaha. It now serves parts of Sarpy County and all of Cass County, where a clinic opened recently in Plattsmouth. The heaviest concentration of OneWorld’s patients, 18,387 people in 2009, live in the old South Omaha stockyard neighborhoods. OneWorld provides medical, dental, behavioral, optometry, pharmacy, laboratory and other health services, as well as preventive programs such as education in better nutrition and physical exercise. What OneWorld does in South Omaha and the Sarpy and Cass county suburbs, Charles Drew Health Center does in northeast Omaha. The services are much the same. Both are federally-qualified health centers and both receive federal, state and local government grants, as well as private donations.

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The vast majority of Charles Drew patients, 12,896 people in 2009, live on incomes well below the poverty line; 50 percent of the center’s patient revenue comes from Medicaid. Besides its own clinics, the health center reaches out to two shelters where it served 1,834 homeless people in 2009.

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IT MAKES

FINANCIAL

Sense TD AMERITRADE’s decision to build a new headquarters building, the centerpiece of consolidating its scattered Omaha sites at a new campus, says the company has a good financial reason to stay in the city where it was started. It’s the same reason other multi-state financial services companies, banks and insurance operations have stayed in Omaha or moved here: a lower cost of doing business. In short, office space is a bargain in Omaha and a cost of living 10 percent lower than the national average means personnel costs are lower, too. In addition, Dan Neary, chairman and CEO of Mutual of Omaha, cites the availability of a well-educated workforce, thanks to a strong education system, and cultural advantages that play a part in recruiting executive talent.

Courtesy of First National Bank of Omaha

For insurance companies, there are additional advantages that Neary notes: one of the country’s lowest state tax rates on insurance premiums and a positive regulatory environment that balances consumer and insurer interests. First National Bank of Omaha in recent years has redeveloped several blocks of downtown Omaha where it built a 40-story headquarters from which to run the nation’s largest privately-owned bank and a nationwide credit card operation that is the 13th largest in the United States.

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Photo by RuthAnn Manley

All Together in the Middle of the City When it opens in the spring of 2013, TD AMERITRADE’s new headquarters—a $130 million investment—will put all of the online brokerage’s Omaha operations and 2,000

Mutual of Omaha Bank shares a famous name and a hilltop campus just west of downtown with the 100-year-old insurance company out of which it grew. Just three years old, it has grown quickly by acquiring banks outside of Nebraska. In addition to Nebraska, it has banks in California, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Florida and loan offices in Iowa and Kansas.

employees in one location.

Other Omaha-born financial services firms that have expanded beyond their home town to become known nationwide: PayFlex, which administers employee benefits programs such as flexible spending accounts; FirstComp, an unemployment compensation underwriter; and ACI Worldwide, a pioneer in financial transaction software, like that which made ATMs possible.

square-foot tower.“

Omaha,“ said Rod Moseman, vice president, economic development at the Chamber. “TD AMERITRADE was born here, grew up here and is now making a significant mark on west Omaha’s skyline with this 475,000-

Photo by Rodney Green

Omaha claims other recognizable financial institutions that the public may not generally associate with the city.

“This is a significant development for

In the past couple of years TD AMERITRADE had consolidated employees in three leased

While PayPal is headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley, its global operations center, now in Greater Omaha, started here with homebased customer service agents.

buildings adjacent to where the new 12-story

Bank of the West came to Omaha when it bought Commercial Federal Bank and stayed to open a regional financial center.

Dodge Expressway, 15 minutes from

Aflac, Pacific Life and Fidelity National Title Group, Inc. re-domiciled in Nebraska and set up major insurance operations in Omaha. The low state tax on insurance premiums that Neary noted was one more reason, added to financial incentives and the savings in operating costs, for their moves.

open in 2011.

building will stand. The campus is near the interchange of Interstate 680 and the West downtown and TD AMERITRADE Park Omaha, the new baseball stadium that will

The new building will be green-certified LEED Platinum for energy efficiency and environmental friendliness. Its setting will be 50 percent green space alongside the Big Papio Creek hiking and biking path, to which employees will have direct access. Big Papio Trail connects to the Omaha trails network.

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Investing in North Omaha The addition of new First National Bank of Omaha and SAC Federal Credit Union facilities and the new presence of Centris Federal Credit Union have added to the already strong financial corridor along Ames Avenue, from 30th to 52nd streets, in North Omaha. First National Bank’s newest retail branch, which opened in June at 50th Street and Ames Avenue, is state-of-the-art in every way. “We’re enhancing the banking experience for our North Omaha customers,“ said Dennis O’Neal, chairman of First National of Corporation and co-chair of the Greater Omaha Chamber’s North Omaha Development Project. “Some of the new features at this branch include free Wi-Fi

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Nebraska’s Community Development

access, an Internet café, a coffee bar and iris-scan security for our safe deposit box customers.“ First National Bank’s employees at 48th and Ames to the new branch at 50th and Ames. That opened up a building for Centris Federal Credit Union to open a new full-service branch—its first in

Courtesy of Todd Boswell, First National Bank of Omaha

moved from their former location

North Omaha. Because of tremendous growth, SAC Federal Credit Union moved in May to a 3,000-squarefoot facility at 3161 Ames Ave. All of this activity “demonstrates that the financial community realizes the growing economic viability of the community,“ said Ed Cochran, executive director of the North

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Omaha Development Project.

www.OmahaChamber.org

to he Greater Omaha market and its insurance companies continue to thrive despite the economic downturn in the country and the industry. Supported by large pillar institutions that are headquartered in the city, such as Berkshire Hathaway, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, Mutual of Omaha, Physicians Mutual and Woodmen of the World, the Omaha insurance industry weathered the tough economic climate of the last year.

While the largest institutions cemented their role in the Omaha metropolitan area, newer companies decided to take the plunge. In August 2009, Fidelity National Title Group, Inc. opened a large new office in Aksarben Village, and PayFlex Systems—an insurance peripheral company— moved into new office space and added more than 200 employees. Not only is the insurance industry in Greater Omaha weathering the storm, it is positioned to continue to thrive and grow in the coming decades.

While these institutions have been the cornerstone of the community for generations, in 2009 two of these companies reinvigorated their infrastructure with dynamic new developments. Today, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska’s new headquarters building is well underway in the heart of Aksarben Village and Mutual of Omaha’s Midtown Crossing at Turner Park is filling with retailers and activity.

Companies like Lincoln Financial Group, AllState Insurance and Pacific Life have established themselves as premier employers and have benefited from the strong regulatory environment and tremendous Nebraska work ethic.

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Greater Omaha remains an insurance haven that continues to attract and retain excellent, highly respected institutions.

Courtesy of Midtown Crossing

Courtesy of Midtow

Courtesy of Midtown Cros

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Prairie Life Fitness Cen ter

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Historic munities steadily being

A unique partnership linking neighborhood associations, businesses, public and private institutions, Omaha city government and the Greater Omaha Chamber, Destination Midtown is an unprecedented collaborative community development effort working to raise the quality of life and return Midtown to prominence. Destination Midtown Unprecedented collaborative community development effort dedicated to raising the quality of life and returning Midtown Omaha to prominence. Steadfast dedication and broad ambition. They are the hallmarks of Destination Midtown, a public-private partnership celebrating five years of advocacy and education, of creating connections and promoting Midtown.

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Since 2005, Destination Midtown, in collaboration with its partners, has announced more than 120 projects in excess of $650 million. These new businesses, expansions and renovations have produced over 1,000 jobs. “The momentum is there in Midtown Omaha. We see it in the $325 million Midtown Crossing at Turner Park development and the growth and expansion of the University of Nebraska Medical Center/The Nebraska Medical Center and Creighton University and Creighton University Medical Center

campuses. We’re thrilled with the progress we’ve seen so far, but we know there is still a lot of work ahead of us,“ said Gary Peterson, chairman of the Destination Midtown board. Whether it involves a new art studio or mom-and-pop restaurant, streetscape improvements or renovated places of worship, private and public investment and grassroots community building are having a dramatic impact, revitalizing Midtown Omaha, making it a better place to live, work and play.

This year, the partnership is overseeing commercial district revitalization plans for three of Midtown’s business nodes. In each of the districts, the planning process is rooted in “getting community input on what they want the commercial nerve center of their own neighborhood to be,“ said Jamie Grayson-Berglund, Destination Midtown’s executive director.

“Destination Midtown is a great example of how a public-private partnership can change a community,“ said GraysonBerglund.

Courtesy of Midtown Crossing

Commercial district revitalization is a crucial prong of Destination Midtown’s four-part strategy to improve Midtown’s local economy. The strategy also focuses on balanced transportation and mixed-used development, employer needs and workforce development and quality housing development.

There is no grander symbol of Midtown Omaha’s budding revival than Midtown Crossing at Turner Park—a $325 million mixed-use development encompassing more than one million square feet of new space. At the center of it all is an expanded and revitalized Turner Park, a space that blossomed last summer with a series of outdoor markets, concerts and communitywide events. “We see great energy here,“ said Molly Skold, Midtown Crossing’s marketing director.

Mutual of Omaha provided the land for the project and brought its vision to master developer ECI Investment Advisors. “This brings new life to this sector,“ said Skold. “It revitalizes not only the physical structure but also the enthusiasm about Midtown.“ Midtown Crossing’s Prairie Life Fitness Center and Midtown Cinema-Omaha were the first to open, others that have opened or plan to open include Tru Salon and Spa and a slate of restaurants/bars, including Loft 610, Parliament Pub and Cantina Laredo. Omaha mainstay Delice European Bakery and Café has a place at Midtown Crossing, as does longtime Omaha grocer Wohlner’s. Its 16,200square-foot Midtown Market and Deli is situated on the first floor of an Element Hotel by Westin. The hotel, which will be 100 percent LEED certified, opened in November.

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North Omaha Development Project

Grand openings are becoming frequent celebrations in North Omaha—from Metropolitan Community College’s $16 million Institute for the Culinary Arts to Signs & Shapes International’s global headquarters to Omaha North High Magnet School’s Engineering and Science Building. The Charles Drew Health Center is also enjoying campus upgrades, including a new health and fitness center and extra parking and

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Investments are also being made in the community’s human capital. The Omaha Workforce Collaborative continued its trend of targeted employee training programs, partnering with The Nebraska Medical Center and First National Bank of Omaha.

lopment

Further strengthening North Omaha’s economic core is a new Urban Entrepreneur Partnership with the Ewing Kauffman Foundation headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. “While still in the early stages of development, we hope the Urban Entrepreneur Partnership will encourage entrepreneurship in our community by providing business training and coaching and by better preparing organizations to access financing,“ said Cochran.

green space. Before long, Davis Business Ventures and Bluestone Development will debut their addition to the landscape—Omaha Vision Unlimited I, a $5 million, four-story, mixed-use building.

Courtesy of Bluestone Deve

Courtesy of Metropolitan

“These facilities bring new jobs and state-of-the-art banking facilities to North Omaha,“ said Ed Cochran, NODP’s executive director. “They also show the willingness of business to invest in North Omaha.“

Sage Student Bistro in JoJo’s Dining Room

Community College

The North Omaha Development Project (NODP) heralded the opening of three financial institutions on Ames Avenue last summer: a 5,000-square-foot First National Bank branch, a SAC Federal Credit Union and a Centris Federal Credit Union. These strengthen the North Omaha financial corridor by adding to the existing institutions already on Ames Avenue, including Wells Fargo Bank, American National Bank and Bank of the West.

Courtesy of Metropolitan

Pick your sector: finance, commerce, education, healthcare... North Omaha is experiencing significant investment in all four areas, contributing to a burgeoning community.

Community College

A commitment of the Greater Omaha Chamber, African American business leaders, the North Omaha community, corporate leaders and elected officials to encourage significant business investments in North Omaha.

Momentum is on the side of North Omaha and NODP, and the accolades continue to roll in. Just last year, the Nebraska Chapter of the American Planning Association awarded the partnership the outstanding planning award for best practices.

Courtesy of NorthStar Foundation

One of the newest additions to the North Omaha landscape isn’t a building; it’s a builder—a character builder made of utility poles and suspended cables. Last spring, Omaha’s NorthStar Foundation, in partnership with Outward Bound, erected an intricate high ropes course on the North Omaha campus of the Omaha Home for Boys. Outward Bound, America’s leading provider of learning expeditions, began running pilot programs on the course in June. A $300,000 teaching tool, the structure is designed to encourage personal development, leadership and team building. “All courses for Outward Bound are not run on the high ropes course, but it’s a piece that fits into the larger curriculum. Elements that are available on the high ropes course allow us to introduce these concepts to people who may never have had an Outward Bound experience and to do it in the heart of the community we seek to serve,“ said Scott Hazelrigg, president of the NorthStar Foundation.

Photo by Kim Sellmeyer

The Foundation’s key mission is providing before- and after-school programming to male youth in North Omaha. A needs and opportunities assessment, spearheaded by NorthStar and conducted with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, made a clear case for why Outward Bound should locate a center in Omaha. In September 2009, just two months after receiving the assessment, Outward Bound committed to coming here. For its part, NorthStar provides operational funding and infrastructure. Outward Bound is in charge of programming, which, in addition to the high ropes experiences, could eventually include week-long wilderness expeditions and urban expeditions. Outward Bound is open to all Omahans—particularly youth—through area schools, youth-serving agencies and workforce development efforts.

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South Omaha Development Project A commitment of the Greater Omaha Chamber, public and private institutions, business leaders, the South Omaha community and elected officials to implement a strategy that would result in significant increased business investments in South Omaha.

The Salvation Army provided an initial blast of revitalizing momentum last year with the building of a $30 million Kroc Community Center. South

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Bell Photo by Jordan

Photo by Jordan Bell

South Omaha is defined by its vibrant culture and rich history. Now, the community is rallying around the promise of a reenergized future, stoked by the leadership of the South Omaha Development Project (SODP)— the Chamber’s newest, multi-partner community development effort.

Omaha also has its corps of landmark attractions, including Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha’s Botanical Center. The mission of SODP is to build on the positive while addressing deficiencies in key areas including housing, economic and workforce development and transportation. Community input has been critical in developing an ambitious, 20-year master plan. Lead consultant HDR, Inc. produced the document, culling from public meetings, focus groups, an intensive design planning session and a massive, bilingual survey. It reached 6,000 South Omaha residents; almost 1,500 people responded. “It is unprecedented to have this much community involvement, said Karen Mavropoulos, SODP’s project coordinator. As the focus turns to long-term implementation, SODP will rely, organizationally, on two entities: a funding council of investors and a 12-member project implementation board.

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Courtesy of The Kroc Center

Courtesy of The Kro

Courtesy of The Kroc Center

Opening doors to opportunity, The Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in historic South Omaha is a catalyst for fun, fellowship and learning. In keeping with the mission of The Salvation Army, the Kroc Center welcomes people with a state-of-the-art facility, programs and activities that encourage life-changing experiences “The Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center is much more than a health club or wellness center,“ said Major Todd A. Thielke, senior Kroc Center officer. “Our 122,000-squarefoot, multi-faceted facility also provides education, recreation, cultural, arts and fellowship opportunities. It is the place where individuals and families feel welcome and supported in physical, emotional and spiritual development.“ Kroc Center memberships are offered at reasonable rates so everyone can benefit. In addition, the Kroc Center rents space for casual to formal gatherings. The facility is a popular place for business meetings, local and regional special events and even provides custom catering with delicious

menus designed by the in-house executive chef. The Omaha Kroc Center facility offers: eExpansive aquatics center with a sixlane competition pool and a recreation pool featuring a lazy stream and water slide. eMassive fitness center with advanced equipment, a variety of classes and expert trainers. eGymnasium complex with three fullsize basketball courts and bleacher seating. eThe Joyce Mammel Assembly Hall with 525 seats and excellent acoustics. eEight 50-seat classrooms in the Suzanne and Walter Scott Education Center for education, performing arts and visual arts classes. eFifty computers in the Dr. Stanley and Dorothy Truhlsen Learning Center. e400-seat fellowship hall and the Ricketts Family Chapel. eOutdoor sports field complex and festival plaza with approximately 390,000 square feet of green space.

Omaha is home to one of the first Kroc Centers nationwide, all of which were made possible by a generous gift of $1.5 billion from the estate of the late Joan Kroc, wife of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc. Eventually, 20-25 centers will be located across the country. Joan Kroc’s $60 million gift for the Omaha Kroc Center was evenly divided between construction and an operating endowment. The Salvation Army engaged Heritage Services to raise another $15 million for endowment funding. Major Thielke noted that the late Joan Kroc was once quoted as saying, “We can help bring our city together by declaring our love to all of its children and showing them the faith we have in their future.“ He added, “At the Omaha Kroc Center, we remind ourselves daily that every life touched helps make this vision a reality.“ The United Football League Omaha Nighthawks have found a home at the Kroc Center. For at least the next two seasons, the facility will be used for training camps and practices. Hosting the team at the Kroc Center will give kids a chance to interact with positive role models. www.OmahaChamber.org

Meeting the Needs... Employees & Employers Courtesy of Metropolitan Community College

Brady Petersen completed the ophthalmic assistant program at the end of 2009. “I had no previous knowledge of the ophthalmic field,“ he said, “so the training was a great opportunity. It gave me a good idea of what all is involved.“

einvigorating Omaha’s workforce development efforts is taking a two-track path: continuing to train workers that businesses need but at the same time aiming the training at career growth.

Omaha is one of 22 sites in the country with a grant from the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. The fund so far has $23 million in donations from foundations, among others, that is used as seed money for regional organizations that have committed an additional $100 million. The national goal is to develop job training that meets the needs of both employees and employers in industries that are critical to local economies.

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Othello Meadows, executive director of the Omaha program, said one aim is to avoid training for low-paying jobs that

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The Omaha effort is trying to create a strategy that works for a variety of businesses and job-seekers, he said. It has trained workers for positions as varied as welding, customer service and ophthalmic assistants. Lori McLaughlin, clinical manager at Midwest Eye Care, knows first-hand the value of the ophthalmic assistants program. As one of the trainers for the program, she also hired a couple of its graduates.

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In Omaha the program is run through the Greater Omaha Chamber. Its first training program, in mid-2008, trained workers for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska and Mutual of Omaha.

have no future. If the jobs being offered don’t pay a living wage, the Omaha Workforce Funding Collaborative is not interested in training workers for them, Meadows said. The same is true of jobs that may pay well but have no hope of career growth. “We don’t do anything unless there is an identifiable career path—room for advancement,“ he added.

“We were looking for a better pool of people to hire from,“ she said. “The training gave us that by providing us with candidates who were already familiar with our field. It made the transition to work so much smoother.“

Petersen is now employed at Midwest Eye Care. “I was able to start out ahead of the game and I would definitely encourage others to participate in one of the programs.“ The collaborative is particularly interested in helping five Omaha employment sectors as part of the Chamber’s economic development effort: financial services; health; information technology; transportation, distribution, warehousing and logistics; and advanced manufacturing and trades. The program works with Metropolitan Community College to build an individual curriculum for each jobtraining field. Another goal is to create a more welcoming, integrated system so that agencies at the two Omaha sites serving job-seekers work together to help people rather than taking a silo approach, concentrating only on their own specific service areas, Meadows said. The Greater Omaha Chamber’s partners in the program are Metropolitan Community College, the Tri-County Workforce Investment Board and the United Way of the Midlands. The TriCounty (Douglas, Sarpy and Washington counties) board controls federal worker training funds. Those four are providing $600,000 over three years for the collaborative, which also is getting $450,000 over three years from the national fund.

DanaWashington: KoriReed:

Fighting Hunger from Omaha

Leading by Example

Omaha’s Kori Reed has four children of her own—and millions more on her mind every day. As executive director of the ConAgra Foods® Foundation, her overriding focus is child hunger; her mission and the mission of the Foundation is the pursuit of sustainable solutions. Reed joined the monumental effort in 2006, transferring to Omaha from ConAgra’s refrigerated business unit in Naperville, Ill., a Chicago suburb. “With four children, we find this to be a nice community to raise our family with access to strong schools, arts, youth sports, cultural activities and more,“ said Reed. “Omaha is a vibrant city, the home of one of North America’s leading food companies. And, compared to my friends in Chicago, we are in a modern city with less traffic!“

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She’ll humbly dismiss the comparison, but, the truth is, Omaha’s Dana Washington has Wonder Woman outdone. Both are dedicated to positively impacting their communities, but Washington is the only one with a full-time job, three children and zero access to an invisible jet.

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A lifelong Omahan and graduate of Creighton University’s School of Law, Washington serves as assistant general counsel at Mutual of Omaha. Her passion, beyond family and career, is “working with children and helping to expand educational opportunities for young people, especially those who don’t have access.“

Upon arriving in Omaha, Reed and her husband attended Omaha Executive Institute, a program of the Greater Omaha Chamber offered exclusively to senior level executives (who are new to their position or new to the community) and their spouses. Since 1988, it has been an effective way to acquaint newcomers with the resources and opportunities Omaha has to offer.

Washington currently serves on the board of Duchesne Academy (her high school alma mater) and an Omaha Public Schools accountability task force. She’s also devoted her time to the Black Student Catholic Scholarship Fund, the Child Saving Institute and Project Manhood, a group working to mold boys into “authentic men.“ She is now working to organize a youth learning expedition to Boston, Mass., a seat of American history. “What better way to help encourage citizenship than by helping young people really understand history and love it and appreciate it.“ Depending on funding, she plans to take five to ten fifth graders during Omaha Public School’s spring recess, March 21-25, 2011.

“Having moved a number of times, and knowing how long it can take to get to know a community, we really appreciated a structured but fun way to get to know other people and the depth of the community, as well as its assets and areas for improvement,“ said Reed. After graduating from the University of NebraskaLincoln with a master’s in communication, she worked at Lincoln’s Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company plant. From there, her career took her to Danville, Va.; Akron, Ohio; and Naperville, Ill. Now in Omaha, she is determined to care for children—masses of them—both here and beyond.

With no budget to realize her ambition, Washington reached out to people she met through Leadership Omaha, a program of the Greater Omaha Chamber aimed at developing transformational community leaders. “Someone is going to help me with grant writing,“ she said. “It’s a big project, but I now have some contacts, so hopefully this will really happen for kids in our city—to travel some place they may never see otherwise.“

Photo by Bob Ervin

Despite a full professional and philanthropic workload, this wonder woman still finds time to enjoy the perks of living in Omaha—from attending touring Broadway shows to the annual lineup of free offerings, like Jazz on the Green and the Summer Arts Festival. That’s not all the avid reader appreciates. “Our libraries. We have the most fantastic libraries here!“

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Greater Omaha has a corps of “Safest Companies“ that take safety in their workplaces very seriously. These companies provide assistance and share their expertise—through the National Safety Council, Greater Omaha Chapter—to businesses in the Greater Omaha area.

PEOPLE +

PPORTUNITIES

The work of the Chamber’s Minority Economic Development Council (MEDC) is all about connections, connecting people with opportunities, training, resources and more. According to Winsley Durand, director of retail and minority economic development at the Chamber, “The Chamber’s minority economic development team provides entrepreneurs with the information and assistance to help them get started and thrive in Greater Omaha.“

fair for attendees and one-on-one counseling and assistance to the entrepreneurs who hope to start a business or further the goals of their existing firms.

In 2009, MEDC, in partnership with the Omaha Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank, hosted the first Minority Entrepreneurship Forum for small and minority-owned businesses. In addition to sessions on procurement programs, incentives, technical help and access to capital, the event offered a trade

Collaborating with other organizations expands the outreach efforts and makes educational and training opportunities possible to more people throughout the year. By leveraging financial and human resources, MEDC is able to provide the depth and breadth of educational and procurement opportunities that are necessary for minority entrepreneurs.

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MEDC has two main focuses: retention of existing minority-owned firms throughout the Omaha metro area and the attraction of new minority-owned firms. The attraction emphasis is on firms that have a scope of work and/or capacities that are not present in the pool of minority firms currently doing business in the area. In 2009, more than 40 new jobs and more than $2.3 million of investments were achieved through this effort.

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small BUSINESS

NABS

CLIENTS For a small business, LP Custodial and Supply counts some big names as customers: Union Pacific, Los Angeles International Airport and the Air Force’s U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM).

Jim Fergus Photo by

Pankowski, who came to Omaha from South Korea in 1974, worked for a market research company and attended classes at College of Saint Mary. She bought her first business, a dry-cleaning shop and alteration shop. She ran it for 18 years, selling it in 2006 when she started her current enterprise.

LP cleans buildings, from corporate offices to apartment houses. Lee Pankowski started the company in 2005 and four years later hit $1 million in annual revenue. Her rapid rise in a competitive field wasn’t due entirely to offering the lowest bid; often she didn’t. It was by doing good work and then getting her clients to vouch for it to potential new customers.

She cleaned offices with her employees to learn her new business from the floor up. Pankowski subsequently obtained national certifications that enhanced her position when competing for federal contracts. She started with the U.S. Customs office at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield in late 2005 and six months later signed a contract, as a sub-contractor with ANS, to clean the USSTRATCOM facility for the Air Force. In 2007 she got a job cleaning the Los Angeles airport’s air traffic control building—a contract worth six-figures-a-year. “Little LP won that contract,“ she likes to say.

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“I continue to work with the Chamber to make adjustments to my service offerings and methodology,“ said Pankowski. “We are also looking for ways to leverage resources to benefit small womanowned businesses.“

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She later landed a contract to clean several Union Pacific locations in downtown Omaha and then added more of the railroad’s depots and offices, many of them in Kansas City.

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The

Spirit of thePast

Photos courtesy of First National Bank of Omaha

Buffalo roamed free. Wide open land and pioneers on the move with wide-open hopes and dreams. That is what First National Bank wanted to commemorate with its two downtown sculpture parks, Pioneer Courage and Spirit of Nebraskaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wilderness.

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The gateway into Omaha’s central business district is transformed into the Gateway to the West with a one-of-a-kind tribute to the people who settled this great land. A wagon train leaves Omaha and proceeds along what was a dry creek bed (Pioneer Courage). The train disturbs a nearby group of bison, causing them to stampede. They flush a flock of geese from a nearby pond (Spirit of Nebraska’s Wilderness). The geese take flight and fly into and through the First National Tower Winter Garden Atrium. First National Bank’s sculpture parks flow together from the approaching wagons to the running bison and lifting geese, creating ghostlike images that transition through both time and space of modern day Omaha. This unique public-private partnership uses more than seven blocks of the city’s architecture as a canvas for one of the largest installations of bronze and stainless steel works of art in the world.

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Perhaps there should be a museum somewhere in the U.S. that is devoted to nothing but napkins. We’re not talking about the standard dinner discard here. Rather, those plies of paper that contain the scribbles—the initial thoughts—that eventually led to some of our country’s more praiseworthy enterprises. Omaha’s NorthStar Foundation would have its “scribbled napkin“ to contribute, a humble blueprint sketched out in 2007 that is now having a real impact on the lives of young men. “Our specific focus was really asking ourselves the question, ’What can we do to connect with male youth in North Omaha and build systems and opportunities that are not in competition with existing structures and organizations, but are complements to help connect them to high school graduation?’“ said Scott Hazelrigg, NorthStar’s founder and president. From those early discussions— and that first napkin drawing— emerged a working program outline that encompasses academics, athletics, arts, job readiness and adventure and experiential education. (NorthStar forged the partnership that led to an Outward Bound Center in Omaha.)

Photo by Jim Ferguson

“Everyone involved appreciates the potential of

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what we can do. We have the opportunity to put some incredible systems in place,“ said Hazelrigg who also serves as president of the Omaha Home for Boys and is a member of the Westside Community Schools’ board of education. It would be natural to assume that youth impact has always been Hazelrigg’s focus. But, that’s not the case. He was in the process of becoming a lawyer when a call from a minister—just weeks before graduation—changed his trajectory. Hazelrigg agreed to teach a confirmation class at Countryside Community Church and later agreed to become the full-time director of youth. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it,“ he recalled. After four years at Countryside, Hazelrigg took over as executive director of the Strategic Air & Space Museum, still maintaining a focus on youth education. During his seven-year tenure, field trip attendance at the museum grew from 4,000 students a year to 25,000 annually. “I’ve been fortunate to have had so many opportunities to connect and work at building systems for youth,“ he said. “This has come about not with a linear focused plan, but as a result of Omaha having great people trying to do great things for kids.“

Photo by Eric Francis

R I G H T AT H O M E n Greek, the word is artios. It means “whole,“

“with all its needed parts,“ and we think that sums up Greater Omaha quite nicely. It is a whole community encompassing all of the indispensable elements: affordable housing;

great schools and universities; innovative hospitals, medical centers and healthcare professionals; quality child care; a diverse religious landscape; and a focus on healthy living, entertainment and the arts.

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Success is valued and encouraged in Omaha. In short, it is a place of extraordinary opportunity, and we’re not the only ones who think so. Money ranked Greater Omaha among the “Top 5 Metro Areas that are Hot.“ The Brookings Institution said the area was the 20th strongest performing metro during the second quarter of 2010. Forbes placed Greater Omaha seventh on the list of “Best Places for Business and Careers“ and sixth on “America’s Most Livable Cities“ list. And, Business Insider placed the city ninth on the list of “Cities that are Having an Awesome Recovery.“

The Greater Omaha area was the fourth U.S. city and 113th worldwide

Community by the World Health Organization.

Photo by Kim Sellmeyer

to be desigated a Safe

Others are helping to spread the positive news.

Nebraska is number six on Pollina Corporate Real Estate’s “Top Pro-Business States for 2010.“ Reed Construction Data found Omaha among mid-size cities that have experienced intense housing development at double or more the national rate. Omaha was also ranked as a “Best Place for Buying a Home“ by Money.

Greater Omaha: Attractive. Accessible. Artios.

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ot only is housing affordable in Greater Omaha, the possibilities are also quite exciting. Housing? Exciting? Absolutely. Spacious homes in the suburbs, or the expanse of acreage, are certainly options, but developers are also making full use of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban landmark assetsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; from the historic Old Market to the Missouri River and a redeveloping North Omaha.

Photo by Bill Magrath

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Photo by Jennifer Bischoff

Take the newly constructed jLofts. The groundbreaking urban development offers an intriguing alternative for anyone who wants to live “where it’s at,“ AKA Omaha’s Old Market, base camp for some of the city’s hippest restaurants, shops, entertainment venues and art galleries. Perhaps you’d rather your room-with-a-view overlook the Missouri River and the $22 million Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. Enter Riverfront Place, a dual tower condominium and townhome project. The first tower opened to residents in 2006. The second is scheduled to open in the summer of 2011.

Photo by Andrew Marinkovich

Artist Jake Balcom stands next to his new sculpture “Stile di Familia“ (Family Style) near The Towns of Little Italy housing development.

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Midtown Omaha welcomes people who appreciate the beauty of a historic home, but it’s also bringing in the new with the massive Midtown Crossing at Turner Park, a vibrant mix of apartments, condos, restaurants and retail. And, where racehorses once ran, people are now working, shopping, living and playing— all without ever having to move their cars. It is the beauty of Aksarben Village, another of the city’s new mixed-used developments.

Courtesy of Midtown Crossing

In North Omaha, what look like 10 new residences are actually signs of the revitalization that is underway. The community celebrated the grand opening of the “Live and Work Townhomes“ in the Long School neighborhood in November 2009. “The Long School townhomes strike an impressive profile on the 24th Street corridor and are another example of the economic investment taking place in North Omaha,“ said Ed Cochran, executive director of the Chamber’s North Omaha Development Project. No matter your lifestyle, Greater Omaha offers a place to suit your taste, built on a solid economic foundation. In 2009, Forbes.com named Omaha one of “America’s 25 Strongest Housing Markets.“

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Serving your residential and commercial real estate needs.

Professionals 402-916-9700 â&#x20AC;˘ Toll Free 866-940-7767 Nebraska & Iowa Residential Real Estate www.OmahaProfessionals.com

Commercial Midwest 402-614-9660 or 402-639-4941 Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa & Missouri Commercial Real Estate www.RemaxCommercialMidwest.com

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An Ever-Expanding Roster for In Greater Omaha, our schools, colleges and universities help transform students into qualified young professionals. Our diverse collection of large and small businesses allows them to develop and progress year after year, decade after decade. Then, when the work is done and it’s time to experience the rest of life, Greater Omaha, again, comes through with an array of options, an ever-expanding roster of quality retirement communities, care facilities and services.

Photo by Bill Magrath

Skyline Retirement Community, for one, is firmly rooted on that roster. For more than four decades “Omaha’s original continuing care community“ has been offering independent and assisted living, skilled nursing care and therapy services on one campus. Skyline has made significant investment, recently, in the remodeling, redecorating and upgrading of its assisted living units and skilled health center. It is also developing a secured memory-impaired center for seniors with more intense memory care needs. Newer to the metro are senior living communities like Parsons House on Eagle Run and Brighton Gardens of Omaha. Since 1999, Parsons House has been building on a commitment to provide the best in assisted living and memory care services. Brighton Gardens, located in the heart of the city, also provides a continuum of care services including apartment-style assisted living and two dementia units specializing in early and advance stages of care.

Courtesy of Skyline Retirement Community

There is no need to give up an independent lifestyle to enjoy maintenance-free living. With up to 1,800 square feet, Bloomfield Forum has some of the largest apartment homes available for retirees in Omaha. As a fully independent living community, Bloomfield Forum also features a flexible meal plan where food costs are not part of the monthly rent. Residents have the option of cooking on their own or enjoying a chefprepared meal in the dining room.

Immanuel Communities is considered one of Nebraska’s premier senior living and senior care providers. It operates several independent and assisted living communities in Omaha, Papillion and Lincoln. Bellevue-based Hillcrest Health Systems also manages a family of facilities that includes Hillcrest Health & Rehab and Hillcrest Country Estates, the company’s newest 44-acre retirement community. Courtesy of Skyline Retirement Community

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In-home assistance and care options also abound in Greater Omaha for older adults who choose to stay in their own surroundings. Companies like Home Instead Senior Care, founded in Omaha in 1994, and Right at Home, Inc., founded here in 1995, both specialize in a variety of elder care services, whether it’s help and companionship for a homebound parent or a respite for family members caring for an ailing loved one. As the nation’s baby boomers transition into retirement, Greater Omaha is well prepared to cater to the full spectrum of older adults.

hoosing a restaurant in Greater Omaha is like ordering from a wonderfully extensive menu. The biggest challenge is simply deciding what you’re hungry for. Steak? Fresh seafood? Italian? Mexican? Indian? No matter your mood or cultural craving, we’re sure to have a place to suit your taste.

Photo by Alan S. Weiner

Perhaps you’d like to unwind with a honey rosemary filet mignon and a chocolate martini. We know just the spot to hit that spot—Granite City Food & Brewery. Or, say you’re up for some good home-cooking, maybe smothered pork chops with a side of fried green tomatoes and sweet potato cheesecake for dessert. We’d direct you to Big Mama’s Kitchen & Catering, a favorite of both The

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Food Network and The Travel Channel. (Our “family“ of restaurants also includes Omaha-originals like Grandmother’s and Godfather’s Pizza.) Maybe you’re in the mood for a little Jazz, a Louisiana Kitchen, the Blues (Blue Sushi Sake Grill or its sister restaurant Baby Blue) or authentic Mexican cuisine at El Dorado. How about Famous Dave’s or Dave & Buster’s? Valentino’s or Vincenzo’s? Ted’s Nebraska Grill or the Texas Roadhouse? Or, go against the current to the Upstream Brewing Company. And, forget about needing a passport to experience the tastes of the world. All you really need are directions to Passport Restaurant (which offers global cuisine), The Jaipur or Bohemian Café.

Photo by Kameron Bayne

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Head to Midtown Crossing at Turner Park and you could do breakfast at ingredient, lunch at Blanc Burgers + Bottles, drinks at Parliament Pub, dinner at Crave or Cantina Laredo and dessert at Delice European Bakery and Café—all without ever moving your car. And, for that super efficient date or family night, it’s dinner and a movie all-in-one at the development’s Marcus Midtown Cinema featuring the CineDine experience.

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Greater Omaha: a veritable dining dynasty. Just think, you could try a different restaurant for dinner every night, and it would take about three years before you had to start the rotation over again!

STEAK • STEWS SIZZLING FAJITAS OYSTERS • CEVICHES SHRIMP • BREAKFAST SEAFOOD SOUPS

To order call: 402 455-MAMA (6262) Visit Us Online @ www.BigMamasKitchen.com 3223 North 45th Street, Turning Point Campus, Bldg. A, Omaha NE 68104

5134 S. 24th St. Omaha, NE 68107

Hours: Monday Closed • Tuesday - Thursday 8:00am – 2:00pm Friday - Saturday 8:00am - 7:00pm • Sunday 10:00am - 5:00pm

(402) 734-4947 www.eldoradomex.com

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BILLION A YEAR PROPOSITION

Photo by Bill Magrath

Photo by Phil Stalnaker

Photo by RuthAnn Manley

Retail’s a

anda Express opened two stores in Omaha, its first in the area, in the middle of the recession. They plan to eventually have six or eight in the market. Trader Joe’s is coming here, too. That kind of success indicates how well Greater Omaha’s diverse economy insulated it during the economic downturn. Economic diversity has kept Omaha’s unemployment rate

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one of the lowest among the nation’s 100 biggest metropolitan areas, resulting in a still-strong shopping sector—total retail spending for Greater Omaha is about $14 billion a year. Dennis Nelson, CEO and president of Buckle, said, “Buckle has invested in the Omaha market for more than 20 years. The community has an impressive cultural scene, extensive dining and accommodation options, a world-class zoo, museums catering to a variety of interests, as well as sporting and concert events that attract visitors to the city.“

The area’s low cost of living (the metro tops Forbes’s best-bangfor-the-buck ratings) results in a high level of disposable income. Forbes also credits Omaha with being the American city recovering fastest from the recession. As a regional service and trade center, Greater Omaha attracts workers and shoppers from an area far larger than the metro area. More than 1.2 million people live within a 60-minute drive.

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Photo by Eric Francis

Photo by Jim Ferguson

ACTIVE OPTIONS We encourage active lifestyles here and we make it easy to follow through—just pick your passion. Runners, walkers and cyclists can cruise miles of paved trails. A long-awaited 20-mile bicycle street route is also in the works. More than 200 parks are perfect for fishing, skateboarding and boating. Want to play recreational softball, baseball, soccer or hockey? The YMCA and other sports associations will find a team for you. Prefer swimming or tennis? We provide outstanding public and private, indoor and outdoor facilities. Greater Omaha is home to more than 50 public and private golf courses, and many of the game’s biggest names have played our greens. We score national attention each summer as host of the Cox Classic Golf Tournament at Champions Run. In 2013, the historic Omaha Country Club will host the U.S. Senior Open, the club’s first ever United States Golf Association Championship. Mark Calcavecchia, Fred Couples, Greg Norman and Vijay Singh are among those eligible to play. The superstars of swimming will be back in Omaha in 2012 as we, again, host the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials at Qwest Center Omaha. The 2008 trials drew a record 160,000 fans over eight days. Swimmers, including Michael

Phelps, set a total of nine world records and 21 American records. Adding to the excitement in 2012—the return of March Madness, Omaha-style! The NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball First and Second Rounds will hold court at Qwest Center Omaha. While spectating is a thrill, we also thrive on participating in the big events. Tens of thousands of runners and walkers line up for the annual Omaha Marathon, Corporate Cup Run and other competitive and charitable challenges. Last August, we added another event to the endurance roster—the Olympic-length Omaha Triathlon, Omaha’s first USA Triathlon. Participants swam 1.5-kilometers in Lake Cunningham in northwest Omaha, cycled 40-kilometers and finished with a 10kilometer run. Thanks to magazines like Men’s Health, Omaha is developing a reputation as one of the healthiest cities in the U.S. It’s no wonder; our residents are, indeed, actively involved.

Photo by Kim Sellmeyer

When it comes to healthy living, Greater Omaha is on the ball. It’s also on the trail... in the pool… on the links…

Rolling

in North Downtown

Ben Swan and Sarah Johnson are working in tandem to turn the “Big O“ into the “Big OO,“ a city that’s all about two wheels. Swan is the owner, Johnson the manager of Greenstreet Cycles, the only shop of its kind in the blossoming North Downtown Omaha district. “We thought there was a big void with the downtown market,“ said Johnson. Rolling since March, Greenstreet Cycles sells and services all types of bicycles — from mountain and road bikes to transportation-specific bikes for the eco-friendly and active commuter. “We’re trying to position ourselves as the commuting shop in Omaha,“ said Johnson. Active involvement in the community is a Greenstreet hallmark. In addition to its educational efforts, the shop offers a free “bike taxi service“ to downtown visitors and organizes group rides throughout the week. “I don’t want to just sell people bikes; I want to give them the full experience,“ said Johnson. www.OmahaChamber.org

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FOR THE

MEMORIES . “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.“

Photo by Colin Conces

—Theodor “Dr. Seuss“ Geisel

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ith

ens of thousands of baseball fans in Greater Omaha and nationwide are preparing to say good-bye to an old friend—Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, the iconic home of the NCAA Men’s College World Series (CWS) for 61 years. Next June, CWS fans will shift to their new venue, the state-of-the-art TD AMERITRADE Park Omaha in North Downtown.

In 2011, the first pitch of the NCAA Men’s College World Series will fly in the brand new, state-of-the-art TD AMERITRADE Park Omaha, a bold statement of public-private partnerships. The park will also be the home field for Creighton University’s baseball team and Omaha’s new United Football League franchise.

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Omaha Municipal Stadium, as it was originally called, was built in 1948. The name change came 16 years later, a nod to former Omaha Mayor Johnny Rosenblatt (1907-1979), a baseball enthusiast who pushed for the stadium’s construction. The AAA Omaha Royals helped polish the diamond, but it was the CWS that, since 1950, triggered the annual fan and media pilgrimage to Omaha. CWS Omaha, Inc. said the stadium, thanks to the dedication of the city of Omaha and countless benefactors, “evolved into a representation of what college baseball is all about—teamwork, dedication and camaraderie.“ Rosenblatt’s final CWS last June, included a number of special tributes, including the selection and attendance of a College World Series Legends Team, video replays of top CWS moments, the production of a fan-driven CWS memories video and the sale of a 60-minute documentary titled “The Long Home Run.“ The CWS may have been played at Rosenblatt Stadium, but it’s Omaha that college baseball coaches and players have in their sights from the first crack of the bat each spring. Next June, and through 2035 at least, the “The Road to Omaha©“ will veer just a little to the north. The $128 million stadium will boast approximately 24,000 seats and 30 luxury suites, administrative offices as well as retail space all within walking distance of Omaha’s Old Market.

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Photo by Eric Francis

Courtesy of Robin Bernstein

reater Omaha has always been a community firmly rooted in religion. Saturday evenings, Sunday mornings and at times throughout the week, the sounds of praise and prayer fill the more than 500 churches, temples, synagogues and mosques that serve the city’s Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.

G Photo by Bill Magrath

“The fact that these religions exist in peace here is a real testimony to the tolerance and diversity that you find in Omaha,“ said Dr. Todd Salzman, PhD., chair of Creighton University’s Theology Department.

Rooted in

Just imagine how many baptisms and weddings they’ve celebrated at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and Holy Family Catholic Church. Both built in 1883, they are two of Omaha’s oldest, still operational churches; aged oaks in a continually budding religious landscape. Today, places of worship populate all sectors of the city—from Salem Baptist Church in North Omaha to the bilingual Our Lady of GuadalupeSt. Agnes Parish in South Omaha. In Midtown Omaha, few sights are more recognizable than the twin, 222foot spires of St. Cecilia Cathedral. Architecturally-rich and full of character, our religious buildings range from historic to modern, quaint to mega. Trinity, a large interdenominational church in west Omaha, boasts an average attendance of 1,800 each Sunday. Other thriving west Omaha churches include Christ Community, St. Andrews United Methodist, King of Kings and Westside Community. West Omaha is also home to four of Omaha’s five Jewish congregations (the fifth is based in central Omaha) and the Hindu Temple, one of several facilities in Omaha serving those who follow the Eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Several mosques, including the Islamic Center of Omaha, are available to Omaha’s approximately 3,000 Muslims. “That all these different religious traditions co-exist is important for the health and well-being of the city,“ said Salzman. And, just as Omaha embraces the wide variety of faiths, it also offers an array of worship styles—from high-powered contemporary services to the more traditional times of reverence.

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Photo by Eric Francis

Acclaimed

Which word best describes the mix of school districts, colleges and universities in Greater Omaha? B. Student-Centered C. Proud O! All of the Above very year, tens of thousands of parents trust their children—and their children’s futures—to the care of Greater Omaha’s public and private schools. That trust is well placed. Our teachers, professors and administrators work hard every day to challenge, inspire and prepare.

Omaha Public Schools (OPS), Nebraska’s largest school district, educates about 46,000 students every year and is one of the country’s few major urban school districts to maintain state AA accreditation. Test scores exceed the national average for large school districts, and OPS graduates annually receive more than $25 million in scholarship offers. The Millard School District is also proud of its report card. ACT scores consistently top metro, state and national averages. On the State Report Card, Millard students performed at exemplary levels and far exceeded the state’s average scores. 106

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For more than 60 years, Westside Community School District has embraced the principles of excellence, innovation and community “to meet the unique needs of all learners.“ The result is a nationally-acclaimed public school district in the heart of Omaha. All three school districts, along with eight other metro-area districts, belong to the Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy Counties; a novel, collaborative concept devised by the Nebraska Legislature. Through a system of open enrollment, parents in Douglas and Sarpy counties may apply to send their children to any public elementary, middle or high school in the Learning Community. The goal is greater socioeconomic diversity and improved academic achievement for disadvantaged youth, boosting the health and welfare of the entire metropolitan area. Approximately 37 percent of all public school students in Nebraska attend one of the 11 districts that make up the Learning Community.

Greater Omaha is also home to some of the region’s finest institutes of higher learning—from Creighton University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha to the highly-acclaimed University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Courtesy of Omaha Public Schools

A. Acclaimed

Omaha North High Magnet School students celebrating the opening of the engineering wing that they designed.

We value quality education in Greater Omaha, and we invite you to learn more about the exciting developments energizing our schools!

A listing of Greater Omaha school systems and secondary institutions is available at OmahaChamber.org/pdf/SchoolsWebaddresses.pdf.

Real Learning for Real Life Bellevue University prides itself on developing leaders who are prepared to face today’s dynamic and complex world.

Courtesy of Bellevue University

Bellevue University recognized this need and was the first accredited university to offer an MBA online. It was also among the first to offer online degree programs. Bellevue University’s online learning classroom has received the coveted 21st Century Best Practices in Distance Learning and Best Teaching Online awards from the U.S. Distance Learning Association.

Courtesy of Bellevue University

“Our unique, student-centered approach to learning gives adult students the foundation they need to feel empowered, inspired and fulfilled,“ said Mary Hawkins, Ph.D., president, Bellevue University. “Today’s students are busy, working adults who need flexible and convenient learning options.“

It is the largest private university in Nebraska and offers the nation’s only Ph.D. in Human Capital Management in addition to 15 career-relevant master’s degree programs. Its MBA program is larger than the MBA programs at all other colleges and universities in the state combined. “Our graduates find that their Bellevue University degrees are met with recognition and respect from employers around the world,“ said Hawkins.

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Courtesy of Bellevue University

“Whether adults choose to earn their degrees in class or online, they’ll learn with other professionals who want to move up in their careers,“ Hawkins said. She added that, “’Real Learning for Real Life’ is more than a slogan. At Bellevue University, students gain rich and relevant learning that starts with a curriculum based on today’s latest issues, accentuated by what each class member adds. Our students tell us they apply what they learn to their jobs real-time, and their employers are impressed.“

Enrollment

UP is

Courtesy of College of Saint Mary

Courtesy of Clarkson College

Courtesy of College of Saint Mary

Annual enrollment continues to increase at Clarkson College, a niche health care college in Midtown Omaha. “The economy and demand for health care professionals, plus the specific training and increased possibility of employment, seem to play a part in the enrollment increase at Clarkson College,“ said Tony Damewood, vice president of operations at Clarkson College. Clarkson College offers a variety of programs tailored to fit the needs of potential students. “The college offers a physical therapist assistant fast-track option for students interested in changing careers or complimenting another degree, such as athletic training,“ explained Damewood. “Most recently, we added another option for nurses interested in advancing their careers with a Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia.“

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A TIME From fundraising to student philanthropy, it has been a banner time for Omaha’s College of Saint Mary (CSM). In 2009, for the second year in a row, CSM was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll – the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service learning and civic engagement. “At CSM, our students contribute more than 6,440 hours through servicelearning courses every year,“ said Dr. Jennifer Reed-Bouley, director of service learning.

Also this year, CSM successfully completed a $25 million fundraising effort, the school’s largest-ever. The substantial sum is funding 15 new endowed scholarships and a number of campus improvements, including a new main entrance, the addition of a new student commons and the modernization of Walsh Hall, the oldest and largest classroom/office building on campus. “The effort has allowed College of Saint Mary to assume its rightful place in the higher education landscape of the region,“ said Dr. Maryanne Stevens, RSM, president of CSM.

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Educating T H E

W H O L E

P E R S O N

Courtesy of Creighton University

Since 1878, Creighton University, located in Omaha’s resurgent Midtown and North Downtown districts, has been dedicated to educating the whole person: academically, socially and spiritually. With outstanding students and faculty, nationally recognized scholarship and research, a commitment to service and modern campus facilities, Creighton University is one of the preeminent Catholic, Jesuit universities in the U.S. U.S. News & World Report consistently recognizes Creighton University as the top Midwest masters’ university—and as a “best value“ university. Creighton also has twice been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, student service-learning and civic engagement. “Academic excellence and service-learning are integral parts of our mission and it is particularly rewarding to be acknowledged by others for these achievements,“ said Creighton president, the Rev. John P. Schlegel, S. J.

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Courtesy of Creighton University

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With more than 7,000 students enrolled in a broad range of undergraduate, graduate and professional academic programs, the university is also home to an academic medical center. Creighton University Medical Center provides high-quality patient care while conducting lifesaving research and educating the next generation of health care providers.

VIBRANT URBAN UNIVERSITY

Continues to GROW

Courtesy of Tim Fitzgerald, University of Nebraska at Omaha

…U-N-O!… U-N-O!… U-N-O!… The cheer echoes through Qwest Center Omaha—a full-throated display of “Maverick mojo“—as the University of Nebraska at Omaha hockey team glides to another playoff win. Athletically exciting. Academically outstanding. UNO recently received a first-tier regional best ranking in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2010 edition of America’s Best Colleges. The university ranked 18th among public masters’ institutions in the Midwest region. Its bedrock values place students at the center of all the university does; call for the campus to strive for academic excellence; and promote community engagement that improves regional, national and global life.

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UNO’s mission provides curricula designed to meet the demand for a prepared workforce and numerous opportunities for internships and community engagement. In 1996, UNO partnered with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and private companies to found the state-of-the-art University of Nebraska Peter Kiewit Institute (PKI), “a dynamic alliance of education and industry.“ Located on UNO’s Pacific Street campus, PKI is designed to help meet the needs of the nation’s technology and engineering firms by preparing students for careers in information science, technology and engineering. UNO’s College of Information Science and Technology is housed at the facility, along with UNL’s College of Engineering and Technology and The Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction.

PKI P R O U D

Technology. PKI is located on UNO’s Pacific Street campus.

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“I love living on campus,“ said Keimig. “I’ve been really lucky. I ended up finding great roommates. In fact, I didn’t know anyone when I came to Omaha. Now, I’m living with my best friends.“

Twenty-one-year-old Renate Keimig is a proud student—and that’s proud with a capital P-K-I. “I’ve had opportunities here I never thought I would have.“ Keimig is a senior at the University of Nebraska’s Peter Kiewit Institute (PKI) in Omaha, attending on a prestigious Walter Scott Jr. Scholarship, majoring in computer science. A high school standout in her hometown of Marshall, Minn., Keimig’s Omaha-based cousins turned her on to PKI. “They told me I had to come and check out PKI,“ she said. “It was so different from any place that I’d ever seen.“ The state-of-the-art facility is home to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Engineering and the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s College of Information Science and

She said the PKI experience has exceeded her expectations. Highlights, so far, include a semester studying abroad in Norway and an internship/ research project that culminated in a briefing with General Kevin Chilton, commander of U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base. “I never imagined that I would be in the same room, talking with a four-star general.“ Now, in addition to her senior year class load, Keimig is working an IT internship at ConAgra Foods, an experience she hopes will lead to a job offer after she earns her master’s degree in late 2011. What that job could be, Keimig isn’t sure yet. “IT is such a growing field. That job might not even exist yet.“ But, the Minnesota native does know she is looking forward to establishing deeper roots in Omaha. “I love Omaha,“ said Keimig. “There’s always things to do, but it’s not a sprawling mess that’s horrible to drive in.“

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AFFORDABLE & INNOVATIVE Metropolitan Community College (MCC) serves 50,000 students annually at seven locations, providing affordable, quality education and collaboration with countless businesses and organizations.

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MCC’s growth has spurred new initiatives in sustainability and high-demand job training. Sustainability-focused programs include an EPA partnership to teach the Energy Star program for commercial building and an IBM partnership to develop the internationally m recognized green data m Co center management degree in an t i l po etr o Fremont. In information Cour tesy of M

technology, MCC has emphasized health information management—an area President Obama has prioritized during his term. This year also marked the official unveiling of the state-of-the-art Institute for the Culinary Arts facility and the studentled Sage Student Bistro. MCC reaches out to high school students by offering half-price tuition through partnerships with secondary schools. Starting this fall, MCC will become a Gateway to College site with partner Omaha Public Schools, providing high school dropouts a path to a diploma while simultaneously earning credits toward an associate’s degree.

Other Choices in Higher Education Small class sizes. Vocational/technical training. Faith-filled learning. Whatever the desire, students will find a wealth of choice in Greater Omaha as they pursue higher education and prepare for successful careers. In addition to our large universities, a host of smaller institutions cater to the individual needs of a wide variety of students. ITT Technical Institute, one of the area’s trade schools, teaches skills and knowledge that can be used to begin careers in our global technologydriven culture. Operating in Omaha since 1991, ITT Tech encompasses five schools: Information Technology, Electronics Technology, Drafting and Design, Criminal Justice and Nursing. Programs at Vatterott College include business, medical, technical, trades, court reporting and culinary arts. Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa, offers 84 different vocational/technical

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programs and Arts and Sciences majors. Current enrollment is around 5,500 students with another almost 43,000 enrollments in continuing education classes each year. Students who prefer a small, nurturing environment and biblically-based education have options including Grace University in one of Omaha’s oldest neighborhoods and Nebraska Christian College at its campus in Papillion. Midland University also provides a chance to enjoy small class sizes in a faithinfused learning environment. Located in Fremont, about 35 miles from Omaha, Midland offers more than 50 majors and pre-professional programs and participation opportunities in more than 50 student organizations.

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A Beacon of

HOPE

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The Village of Boys Town is Nebraskaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only National Historic Landmark District, and visitors are always welcome to experience the spirit of Boys Townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission. All attractions are free, making Boys Town a popular destination for families that want to enjoy a tour of the village or walk through its awardwinning Hall of History.

Courtesy of Boys Town

Boys Town is a beacon of hope for hurting children and families, offering the right care at the right time since its founding by Father Edward Flanagan in 1917. Now a nationwide organization, Boys Town changes the way America cares for children, families and communities through its research-proven programs.

Photo by Timothy Keen

Seeing & Feeling

THE

R E WA R D S For Gladys Haynes, executive director of Omaha’s two Educare Centers, there are rewards she can see—and rewards she can feel. “We have had some of our children going to kindergarten who score above the national average on tests,“ she said. “The most rewarding thing for me has been seeing how well the children have been able to do. I feel like they have entered kindergarten ready to learn and excel.“ Omaha’s Educare Centers—one in North Omaha, the other in South Omaha—offer an educational embrace to a combined 374 low-income children, ages 14-days to five-years-old. Programs are especially designed to

boost language and literacy skills and social-emotional development. “The data really shows that by the time our kids are going to kindergarten they are scoring well within the average, almost exactly on the mean in terms of where you would expect typically developing kids to be scoring,“ said Haynes. There is no charge for the six-hour learning day; free-to-low cost before/after care is also available, allowing parents to attend school or work at least 30 hours a week, an Educare requirement. “We also focus on the parents,“ explained Haynes. “A big piece of what we do is helping parents understand and realize the influence

and importance of their role in terms of their child’s school success.“ The program this year served 46 children of teen parents. “We know that if we can keep our moms in school and get their children a high quality education, we’re much more likely to see the benefits of that down the road.“ Educare boasts a teacher-child ratio of 3-to-17 in its pre-school program and a 3-to-8 ratio in its infant and toddler program. There is no shortage of families desiring entry. More than 400 children are currently on the infant/toddler waiting list; almost 100 more on the preschool waiting list. The Educare Centers are funded by a mix of sources, including federal Head Start/Early Head Start, The Buffett Early Childhood Fund and Omaha Public Schools. If additional federal funding is secured, Haynes said she could foresee a third center in Omaha.

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lic Schools Courtesy of Omaha Pub

The Omaha Public Schools (OPS) is proud of its numerous partnerships and how they are positively impacting the lives—and futures—of so many students. OPS is an enthusiastic supporter of Building Bright Futures, a landmark philanthropic effort aimed at improving academic performance, raising graduation rates, increasing civic and community responsibility and ensuring that all students are prepared for post-secondary education. “Building Bright Futures offers valuable educational support and opportunities for young people to enhance and expand the classroom learning experience beyond the school and school day,“ said OPS Superintendent John Mackiel. Founded in 2006, Building Bright Futures was the idea of some of

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Omaha’s most influential citizens, including former Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, Richard Holland, Michael Yanney, Susie Buffett, Andy Holland, Wally and Barbara Weitz and Dianne Lozier. At the present time, this nonprofit program is working directly with a number of OPS schools to boost school attendance and prevent truancy. A unique incentive program offers age-appropriate rewards for strong attendance. “The investment of time, expertise and personal interest by all involved with Building Bright Futures is outstanding. It is helping young people maintain regular school attendance and understand and appreciate the value in what they are learning,“ said Mackiel. OPS partnerships, working in concert with dedicated educators and innovative curriculum techniques, are

fueling positive momentum district-wide. OPS student achievement data highlights dramatic increases in student academic progress against the backdrop of rapid demographic changes over the past ten years. “These results demonstrate that OPS has adapted to meet the needs of its changing and richly diverse student body,“ said Mackiel. OPS educates approximately 49,000 students a year—pre-k through 12th grade—from all ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. OPS belongs to the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation School Improvement and is one of the country’s few major urban districts to maintain state AA accreditation.

Forging Strong,Meaningful

Partnerships

Courtesy of Millard Public Schools

The Millard School District continues to collect accolades for its dedication to the success of its students. Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman honored the district with the 2009 Parental Involvement Award, recognizing Millard’s efforts to forge effective partnerships between parents and teachers to help children and strengthen families. Supporting the district’s push is the 40 Developmental Assets Program, a research-based framework developed by the Search Institute. It identifies 40 key, common sense traits considered essential to the success of young people. The list includes using time wisely, following clear rules at home and at school, feeling safe and respected and having support from families and friends. “Research has clearly shown

that the more assets children possess, the more successful they will be in school and, of course, in life,“ said Superintendent Keith Lutz. At all levels, service to others is considered the most important asset. It teaches what the Search Institute calls “the power of one“—the ability of one individual to make a difference. Millard students, parents and staff participate in many community service projects throughout the year.“ Millard has expanded the 40 Developmental Assets Program’s reach to a five-county area by establishing the Greater Omaha Healthy Community/Healthy Youth Coalition. The organization is made up of parents, community agencies, school districts, businesses, faith-based organizations, judges and juvenile workers.

The Millard School District serves 21,500 students in its three high schools, six middle schools and 25 elementary schools. Additional programs of choice include Millard’s Core Academy (a highly structured environment for elementary students), as well as Montessori and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Elementary and middle school Montessori allows students to develop individual interests while progressing academically at their own pace. IB students complete a challenging curriculum with an international studies focus. For providing these programs of choice, Millard has received a national Magna Award from the American School Board Journal.

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Courtesy of Westside Community Schools

A District of “Firsts”

Westside’s approach to staff compensation is also distinctive. Merit pay for teachers has been a part of the compensation system since 1971. The district also pays tuition costs for graduate work and requires that all teachers earn a master’s degree within the first 10 years of employment.

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Westside students and teachers frequently receive local, state and national awards. Westside High School is traditionally a state leader in the

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“Our innovative educational system enables us to serve the unique needs of all learners,“ said Jacquie Estee, superintendent of Westside Community Schools.

Community is the heart of Westside Community Schools. Ten neighborhood elementary schools, one middle school and one high school serve more than 6,000 students, many of them second and third generation Westside graduates. Approximately one-third of those students live outside the school district boundaries.

Courtesy of Westside Communi

Westside Community Schools prides itself on being a school district of “firsts.“ Home to Nebraska’s first special education program, Westside was the first to receive national recognition for its full-inclusion approach for students with special needs. It was the first in the state to implement full-day kindergarten, elementary foreign language and preschool programs in elementary schools. In 2004, Westside was among the first in the country to provide all high school students with a laptop computer, and, in 2008, the program was expanded to include eighth grade students.

percentage of its graduates recognized as National Merit Scholars. Westside’s rich history and continued commitment to excellence, innovation and community provide the foundation for its students to be internationally competitive. “The community provides us with a tremendous amount of support. Our partnership with the board of education, parents, students, staff and community represents the ’we’ in Westside,“ said Estee.

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magine each weekend as a blank canvas; your palette, Greater Omaha’s spectrum of world-class attractions. Before long, splashes of beauty, laughter, ovation, drama, culture and history will, inevitably, blend into a series of personal masterpieces and a priceless collection of memories will emerge.

BEAUTY Perhaps nowhere does beauty more literally come alive than Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha’s Botanical Center, a natural sanctuary that’s been evolving since it fully blossomed almost ten years ago. “We’ve tried to add something new and different to the gardens every year since 2001 to encourage our visitors to come back and see us again,“ said Executive Director Spencer Crews. “The garden is always changing.“ In 2003, it was the woodland trail; in 2004, a rose garden staircase and woodland waterfall. In 2007, the model railroad garden made its debut featuring Omaha’s most notable landmarks—from First National Tower to the Desert Dome at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. Earlier this year, the garden welcomed its one-millionth visitor. All of next year will be spent celebrating a decade of success and serenity. “When a guest leaves and feels like they have really experienced the beauty of our unique region, that is the biggest compliment to us,“ said Crews.

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Photo by Ken Smith

Courtesy of Lauritzen Gardens

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“When families come to The Rose, they get the rare opportunity to see the best professional actors in the region perform live theater with full scenery, lighting and costumes for a very low price in familyfriendly, gorgeous surroundings,“ said Artistic Director James Larson. “Everything we do at The Rose is designed for the well-being and fun of young people.“ The Rose, and its resident Omaha Theater Company, is one of the largest professional children’s theaters in the nation. Productions are staged almost year-round, and, over the next year, will have included The Sound of Music, The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Peter Pan–The Musical, “with actors soaring out windows and across the stage for this show,“ said Larson. To help make the magic of its productions even more accessible to children, The Rose partners with the metro’s almost 90 elementary schools, offering field trip opportunities, classroom performances and workshops.

Courtesy of Omaha Performing Arts Photo by Paparazzi by Appointment

Greater Omaha also has the beauty of The Rose contributing to its creative landscape. For decades, the landmark Rose Theater has been enriching young lives with professional theater, dance and arts education.

Courtesy of Omaha Performing Arts

LAUGHTER

OVATION Omaha Performing Arts has earned a standing ovation in Omaha. Formed in June 2000, this nonprofit reaches nearly 350,000 people every year, including 35,000 children. Under the leadership of its president, Joan Squires, Omaha Performing Arts manages the majestic Orpheum Theater and the acclaimed Holland Performing Arts Center and fills both with a varied mix of world-class performers and productions—from Itzhak Perlman, Yo Yo Ma and Kathy Mattea to Legally Blonde and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Courtesy of The Rose

The 2010-2011 Broadway Across America series will continue the trend, bringing blockbusters that include Tony® Awardwinning Mary Poppins and two favorites back by popular demand, Les Misèrables and Wicked.

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Education and community involvement are also a key part of the mission, as Omaha Performing Arts works to connect children and adults to Omaha’s vibrant arts community.

C U LT U R E

Courtesy of Omaha Community Playhouse

The Omaha Symphony, under the musical direction of Thomas Wilkins, enjoys the stunning acoustics of the Holland Performing Arts Center. It presents more than 200 live orchestral performances from September through June. In addition to its MasterWorks, Symphony Pops, Symphony Rocks, Chamber, Sights and Sounds and Family series concerts, the orchestra tours both Nebraska and Iowa, providing education, community engagement concerts and other special events. With an eye (and ear) toward education, the Omaha Symphony offers a suite of options for students. Musicians bring their music into the schools and school buses bring students into the concert halls. And, Carnegie Hall’s “LinkUP! The Orchestra Rocks!“ program lets students get in on the action—with instruments in hand, they become part of the orchestra.

DRAMA For 85 years now, the Omaha Community Playhouse has been acting out its mission of “enriching the community through great theater.“ Its history—and historic trivia—is every bit as rich as its productions. (Dodie Brando, Marlon’s mother, starred in The Playhouse’s first “real“ play, The Enchanted Cottage. She later recruited a friends’ son, 20-year-old Henry Fonda, to play a juvenile lead in You and I, which opened the Playhouse’s inaugural six-play season.) “The Playhouse has grown by leaps and bounds,“ said Betsye Paragas, former director of marketing and public relations.

“We have two people who went on to win ’Tony’ awards on Broadway,“ said Paragas. “We’re kind of like a Broadway farm club.“ The Playhouse also offers a variety of classes, camps and workshops, as well as a theater technology apprenticeship program for high school and college students.

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Courtesy of Omaha Symphony

The Playhouse relies on hundreds of volunteers every year, both on stage and behind the scenes. It also has a professional touring wing, the Nebraska Theatre Caravan, which has carried the Playhouse banner to more than 160 communities in Nebraska and more than 600 communities in the U.S. and Canada.

Courtesy of Omaha Symphony

Today, the Playhouse features two state-ofthe-art performance spaces—the 558-seat Howard and Rhonda Hawks Mainstage Theatre and the more intimate Howard Drew Theatre. Paragas said the Playhouse shines season after season because of “our attention to production values: costume making, set designing and directing. The way our shop builds sets is amazing.“

Photo by Timothy Keen

HISTORY Photo by Ken Smith

The Durham Museum has the drama of history in the spotlight everyday—whether you’re walking through an earth lodge designed by the Omaha Indians, stepping on the actual railcar used during President Harry S. Truman’s historic campaign or taking a trip in time to the Buffett family grocery store. The Durham makes its home in Omaha’s one-of-a-kind, art deco Union Station and boasts an extraordinary array of permanent exhibits including restored train cars, 1940s storefronts, numerous regional artifacts and the Byron Reed collection of some of the world’s rarest coins and documents. The Durham also features impressive temporary exhibitions through the museum’s affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution and close ties with the Library of Congress, National Archives and Chicago’s Field Museum. During the holidays, the Durham sparkles with excitement – and thousands of ornaments – as it hosts a colossal Christmas tree, a tradition that began in 1931. And, along with all this tradition and history comes heart. The Durham is one of the few places where you can still buy a phosphate or a milkshake at an old-fashioned soda fountain. So, where should your tour begin? The roses or The Rose? A historic drama or the drama of history? That is the beauty of it all—you can’t go wrong no matter what you choose. And, when the time comes to refresh your palette, you have no shortage of additional options: Joslyn Art Museum, Boys Town, the Strategic Air and Space Museum, Love’s Jazz & Arts Center, El Museo Latino...

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Photo by Timothy Keen

In the summertime, Omaha’s calendar is brimming with free outdoor events, like the Playing with Fire music series at Lewis and Clark Landing along the Missouri River and the downtown Summer Arts Festival. In the fall, the community saddles up to celebrate its western heritage with the annual River City Rodeo. And, on Thanksgiving night, we herald the arrival of the holidays with the lighting of the Gene Leahy Mall, a brilliant event that signals the start of the weeks-long Holiday Lights Festival.

Photo by Roger Barnes

Photo by Adam Streur Photo by Roger Barnes

Bon Jovi Green Day

Qwest Center O M A H A

eOpened: September 2003 eTotal cost: $291,000,000 eSize of Qwest Center Omaha: 1.1 million total square feet eNumber of guests: more than 6 million eNumber of football fields that would fit in the convention center: 3 eNumber of seats added in 2006 during expansion of the arena’s north end: 1,500 eNumber of seats in the arena: 18,300 eNumber of locker rooms and dressing rooms in the arena: 12 eHome teams: —The UNO Mavericks Division I Men’s Hockey Team —The Creighton Bluejays Division I Men’s Basketball Team eNumber of miles of tubing under the arena floor that circulates coolant to keep the ice frozen: more than 10 miles eMost fans at a concert: 17,282 for George Strait and Reba McEntire on April 8, 2010 eMost merchandise sold at a show: $300,000 for Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Tour on October 23, 2007 eRecord NCAA Volleyball match attendance: 17,430 fans for the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championships on December 18, 2008 eRecord swimming attendance at a Trials swim meet on U.S. soil: 13,717 for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming on July 5, 2008

George Strait

F A C T S

eThe dollar value of the publicity generated from the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming at Qwest Center Omaha both during the trials and when Omaha was mentioned during the Olympics in Beijing according to media tracking company Universal Information Services: $96 million eThe number of pools installed at Qwest Center Omaha for the Olympic Team Trials for Swimming: Two—the competition pool in the arena and the warm up pool in the convention center exhibit halls eAmount of water held in each pool: nearly 1 million gallons eNumber of hours it took to fill the pools: 36 to 48 eAn NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship record set at Qwest Center Omaha in 2010: A sell-out with all-session tickets, as opposed to single tickets sales

—The Rolling Stones —Paul McCartney —The Police —Bon Jovi —Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band —Tim McGraw and Faith Hill —Coldplay —Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood —Nickelback —George Strait and Reba McEntire —Miley Cyrus —Taylor Swift —Kenny Chesney —Green Day eSize of Qwest Center Omaha convention center exhibit halls: More than 194,000 square feet

eEvent drawing the most people: Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting—approximately 35,000 guests

eSpeakers in the convention center: —President George Bush —President Bill Clinton —Then Senator and current President Barack Obama —U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton —Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan —Current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke —Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson —Warren Buffett —Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

eMajor concerts —Billy Joel and Elton John on the same stage —U2

eMore than $15 million: the number that Qwest Center Omaha has generated for the city and state in sales tax, seat tax and parking revenue

eAnother record set by Qwest Center Omaha during the 2010 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships: Most programs and session sheets ever sold at an NCAA Wrestling Championship

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Courtesy of Midtown Crossing

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Jazz on the Green, the cherished concert series that is a 25-year tradition in Omaha, moved to a new venue this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the newly expanded and revitalized Turner Park, located in the heart of Midtown Crossing. The outdoor jazz concert series is presented by Omaha Performing Arts.

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n keeping with its tradition of growth and continual enhancement, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo brings another part of the world to its world-renowned complex. The zoo, last May, debuted Expedition Madagascar, a local passport to an island considered one of the top hotspots for biodiversity.

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“This zoo has always stood out from the rest because of its spectacular exhibits; Expedition Madagascar continues that tradition,“ said Dennis Pate, director and CEO of Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo.

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Another grand addition to the zoo’s sprawling landscape, Expedition Madagascar, is 300 feet long, anchored by a 17,000-square-foot main building. Fifteen indoor exhibits feature an array of n the island’s unique and rare species, e H a’s including fish, reptiles, small mammals and ah m fO yo lemurs—at least 75 percent of known animal rtes Cou species from the island of Madagascar are not found anywhere else in the world. The final indoor exhibit, a greenhouse, highlights Madagascar’s unique plant species. Outside, visitors can take in four more exhibits: a 1,050-square-foot fossa (a slenderbodied catlike creature related to the mongoose) exhibit; a 1,750-square-foot island containing ringtailed lemurs and manmade Baobab trees; a 1,600-square-foot net-covered exhibit featuring Coquerel’s sifaka (a type of lemur); and a 6,700square-foot exhibit that allows visitors to photograph animals without a net or glass obstruction.

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“Expedition Madagascar brings the largest collection of Malagasy animals in the U.S. to Omaha as part of our permanent collections. This presents an exciting opportunity for Nebraskans to learn about animals found nowhere else in the world,“ explained Pate. Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo is one of the top five zoos in North America and Nebraska’s number one paid attendance attraction.

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reached out to the community and created an original learning experience called “Construction Zone.“ “We looked for cash sponsorships, but, more importantly, we got volunteers from Kiewit Building Group and the labor unions. We went to Millard Lumber to help us. We had volunteers and staff creating the exhibit in front of our visitor’s eyes,“ said Hoyer. “The exhibit was well-received, but we also created a whole synergy between a group of people in the community who helped this exhibit come to be and are taking pride in it.“

“The economic crunch forced us to focus on our mission, which is engaging imaginations, creating an excitement about learning and building confidence in children,“ said Lindy Hoyer, OCM’s executive director. “It helped us become more disciplined and effective in delivering what we know we can deliver best.“

2009 and started 2010 fiscally strong. The Greater Omaha Chamber also named it a 2010 “nonprofit organization of the year.“

And that is a safe, interactive environment where children can challenge themselves, discover how the world works and learn through play. But, the museum had to adapt. Its traveling exhibits, while very popular, are also very expensive. So, OCM focused on a solution. It

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During the busy summer, OCM continued to bring in great traveling exhibits, like Sesame Street and Clifford the Big Red Dog. The rest of the year, it plans to develop high-quality homegrown displays, like “Construction Zone“ and “The Big Backyard,“ which debuts this fall.

Photo by Jim

ENGAGING

ids know recess, not recession. That’s something grown-ups have to worry about—even grown-ups who specialize in child’s play. The Omaha Children’s Museum (OCM), Omaha’s second most visited attraction, confronted that all-too-common question in early 2009, “How do we continue to serve and deliver more… with less?“ The answer for OCM—focus.

The museum’s focus on creative moneysaving solutions is paying off. It ended

It Begins With ONE One call. One click. One connection. It’s where some of the greatest success stories begin—with membership in the Greater Omaha Chamber. Large businesses, small businesses and every size in between—plus, virtually any industry, field and specialized service and product you can imagine, are represented. As a matter of fact, Omaha is one of the nation’s largest chambers, with nearly two-thirds of the metropolitan-area workforce represented through membership. The diversity of Omaha’s economy not only enables the city to weather economic downturns, it also creates a great dynamic among Chamber member businesses—challenging the Chamber to look for new and diverse ways to make membership relevant and rewarding. Efforts and events reflect the Chamber’s response to members’ needs. With membership comes access to more than 3,300 other member businesses and the opportunity to connect, interact, learn, lead, participate and grow—your knowledge, your career, your business and your revenue.

Early birds to night owls From young professionals to entrepreneurs and those climbing the corporate ladder, you will find what you’re looking for, along with the ability to take full advantage of the opportunities your membership presents. Casual get-togethers before office hours, over lunch or on the way home let you get to know familiar faces, exchange business cards and make connections.

Get preferential treatment

Go farther, faster

Chamber members want to do business with other Chamber members. Your memberships lets you do this more effectively than ever before with a web site that lets you instantly connect with other member businesses, take advantage of members-only moneysaving offers and promotions and post your own promotions and events.

With the Chamber, members are able to accelerate many of the processes that help to build successful businesses with “tips” groups. These groups promote the exchange of leads and suggestions for managing and growing business, help businesses to train and educate their employees and provide access to research data that identifies trends and activities that can benefit your business.

Shape the future Collaborative efforts allow you to shape development in your neighborhood and throughout the metropolitan area— even legislation that impacts business statewide. And learn how we’re reaching out beyond state and national borders to take advantage of international business opportunities.

The place for business As you’ve seen, Omaha is definitely the place for business. And the Greater Omaha Chamber is the place for you.

It Begins Right NOW Find out more about a Chamber membership when you contact Jim Butler, vice president of member services at either of our two locations: Downtown – 1301 Harney St. West – 13206 Grover St. Call – (402) 346-5000 Visit – www.OmahaChamber.org/join

www.OmahaChamber.org

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develop and pass one of the most controversial elements of his plan, the Troubled Asset Relief Plan or TARP.

Photo by A Better Exposure, Steve Kowalski

Financial

Super Stars Paul McCartney, U2, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and The Police have all played to packed houses at Qwest Center Omaha. When financial superstars Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway CEO, and Henry Paulson, Jr., 74th U.S. Treasury Secretary, took center stage at the Greater Omaha Chamber’s 2010 Annual Meeting on February 9, it was to a capacity crowd of nearly 2,500 people—making it the biggest annual meeting event in the Chamber’s history and drawing national and international media attention as well. “The economy is number one on people’s minds,“ said David G. Brown, president and CEO of the Greater Omaha Chamber. “When two of the nation’s most noted financial figures

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“I knew with certainty, it was going to get worse. I’m not sure I knew it was going to be 10 percent unemployment. But I knew it was going to be bad. And I knew if we didn’t do something and it collapsed, then businesses wouldn’t be able to fund themselves, wouldn’t be able to pay for their inventories and pay suppliers and would let employees go. It would ripple through the economy and we’d have Armageddon,“ said Paulson. Photo by A Better Exposure, Steve Kowalski

Play to Capacity Crowd

Obviously at ease with each other, Buffett began by taking the audience back to fall 2009 in what he referred to as a time, “when the financial world went into cardiac arrest.“ He and Paulson then began citing the warning signs that disaster was imminent, such as overleveraged financial institutions Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae being essentially broke, and that even the sixth largest bank in the country was worried about meeting payroll.

speak on the subject of what is arguably one of the most dramatic episodes in U.S. financial history and a highly controversial plan for restructuring the financial services industry, people want to hear what they have to say.“ Paulson’s book, On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System, provides his first-person account of the events leading to the impending financial collapse and the decisions behind the actions taken, including the race to

Paulson also put the U.S. economy in perspective with the greater global economy, noting that, “every other economy, including China, has more significant problems than we do. One of our biggest crises, a challenge really, is that it is very difficult to get the government to act, to get Congress to act and do anything that is big and difficult and controversial without immediate crisis. We had a crisis and we still haven’t gotten the regulatory reform we need.“

Turning the Corner on Community GREEN Spaces Where 13th Street meets Howard Street, you’ll not only find one of Omaha’s most visible locales, you’ll also see a city turning the corner to support greater sustainability by creating green spaces that serve community and commerce equally well. The space was once home to an 81space parking lot. Now, the corner is a combination courtyard and parking plaza, offering a pedestrian-friendly, interactive, public green space for visitors and area residents and serving as the western gateway to the historic Old Market. The plaza contains environmentally friendly native grasses, wildflowers and trees, tables and chairs, bicycle racks, free Wi-Fi, new lighting, a water fountain and a kiosk to be used for special events.

Photo by Jim Ferguson

Certainly not to be overlooked in the plaza is the large LED screen with a relaxed “O! Guy“ sculpture casually leaning on the back of the video screen, welcoming visitors. Area artist Leslie Bruning created the O! Guy specifically for the plaza. Motion sensors cause the O! Guy’s head to turn—welcoming visitors to enter the plaza to enjoy the entire area. Tim Barry, artist and general manager of the Hot Shops Art Center, rounded out the project with a streetscape and donor wall on the back of the video screen.

Funded by corporate and individual donors, private foundations, governmental entities and in-kind contributions, the plaza represents the shared vision by the Chamber, the Omaha Downtown Improvement District Association, the new Omaha Downtown Arboretum and others to blend parking, community space, trees and greenery into outstanding assets for downtown Omaha.

For Business. By Business. It’s your Chamber membership. Here are just some of the ways you can to get the most out of it. Plus, visit OmahaChamber.org for details about other programs and events. Taking care of business—every day.

Buy the Big O! Show www.BuyTheBigOShow.com The region’s largest and most prestigious business-to-business trade show attracts more than 400 exhibitors and thousands of area business people. Destination Midtown www.DestinationMidtown.org An unprecedented collaborative community development effort dedicated to raising the quality of life and returning Midtown Omaha to prominence.

Say Yes, Buy O! www.OmahaChamber.org/SayYes Together we can keep all Greater Omaha businesses strong and growing. South Omaha Development Project www.ProjectSouthOmaha.org A strategy to significantly increase business investments in South Omaha.

Exclusive Member Savings www.OmahaChamber.org/ MemberSavings Save thousands annually through member-only discount programs. Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership www.SelectGreaterOmaha.com Seamless integration of resources that promote significant economic progress in the Greater Omaha area. Greater Omaha Young Professionals www.OmahaYoungProfessionals.org Next generation leaders, 40 and under, who impact the community and work together to contribute to our city’s growth. Leadership Omaha www.LeadershipOmaha.org Develops effective community leaders who will strengthen and transform the community. Legislative Update www.OmahaChamber.org/Billboard Stay updated on legislation that is important to business. North Omaha Development Project www.ProjectNorthOmaha.org Business and community leaders working to positively impact the economic growth of the North Omaha community.

Strength in numbers — Omaha’s diverse economy creates opportunity for business growth and jobs with advancement options. Smart thinking — Spending your money in Greater Omaha ensures a stable economic environment that encourages growth and entrepreneurship. Everything you need — Products, services and resources are readily available. Why go any place else? The O! factor — Unmistakably Omaha, people here value a quality of life that supports local efforts and organizations focused on keeping the economy strong. Together we can keep all Greater Omaha businesses strong and growing. Buy in Greater Omaha.

www.OmahaChamber.org

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