Grow Lincoln

12/17/2024

Lincoln business news on 12/17/24:
OFFICE: Leaving 1645 N Street in Downtown, Mental Health Association of Nebraska is relocating to a bus-route friendly location across from Clocktower shopping center at 70th & A Streets after the holidays. Its strategic partner in that building, Region V, is now working remotely.

RETAIL: Warhorse Casino proposed to City Council on 12/16 to increase gaming stations from 1210 to 1350 and to modify Phase 3 of the casino building and on-site parking areas.

RESIDENTIAL: South of Rokeby and Lincoln Electric System (LES) and east of Standing Bear High School between S. 84th & 98th, there is an accelerated plan to bring 193 acres for residential housing to 2036 instead of the year 2050. It has been demonstrated that there will be gravity sewer and utilities, two necessary components, and that there is infrastructure coming.

EATERY: At 5500 S 56th, Edgewood, there are tenant improvements underway for LeQuartier Bakery with a building permit estimated at $200K.

IS NOSTALGIA A MICROTREND? Maybe, maybe not. On LNK Today with Jack & Friends, KLIN’s morning show, hosts announced that Chi Chis is coming back in brick-and-mortar in other cities. Grow Omaha show announced that Guitars and Cadillacs is coming back to Omaha. Nonetheless, nostalgia seems mostly confined to menu items, such as McDonald’s McRib, or mid-century food items such as hot dogs, deviled eggs, or bread pudding. Also, retro restaurant décor has had a rise in popularity.

12/17/2024

This is a true story we ran back in 2017 and found in our archives recently. It's in the spirit of the season and so inspiring that we would like to share it with you again:

My real estate client is a laundromat operator and a businessman, but I have noticed that he is fatherly.

Today he shows me a small room inside his laundromat in a low income part of Lincoln. In the back of it is a tiny amount of excess space that he has been leasing out to a lady since July for a nominal amount—less than most businesses in Lincoln would have to pay. She had a lot of used books in storage, he recalled, and she wanted to sell them off. She is an older lady, sitting with a space heater at her feet, and she cheerfully greets us. I look at her shelves, but they are old books – Nancy Drew from my childhood; John Grisham from my young adult years.

We walk outside and he tells me that she is 78 years old and on social security. He also tells me what her social security check amount is. It is appallingly low. It is not an amount that you are I would want to—or even could—live on. She needs the money and she was willing to start her own business to support herself. “I asked her what her sales were,” he said. “I realized that she was paying me part of her social security money as rent.”

She needed help marketing, so he put a sign out in front for her. He introduced her to a customer that needed help doing laundry and who was willing to pay her a few dollars a load. He bartered some of her rent to have her help clean and watch out for the laundromat. “Won’t you take a look at some of her books?” he gently urges me.

As the weather turned cooler, he tells me, he started putting her rent checks in a drawer. A few days before Christmas he told her he wasn’t going to cash them. Her space heater blew a circuit, and he personally absorbed the cost to fix it.

I get in my car to go back to my office, and my eyes are wet. As I drive I think to myself, this is the Midwest, this is Nebraska, this is Lincoln. We take responsibility for ourselves. But we also take responsibility for one another.

There is a postscript to this story. The business did not make it…after a few months the landlord told the lady that she could make more money if she accepted a job at Wal-Mart for a few hours a week. She agreed that this was correct and closed up the little bookstore. I think he did everything he could have done.

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12/15/2024

Another car-building collision stat for LNK Today with Jack & Friends

A witness said the impact knocked a customer out of the booth.

12/14/2024

Grow Lincoln December 14, 2024 | Business in Lincoln Lookback ** Business in Lincoln Looking forward ** Finance and the Markets ** Finance and the Markets ** Long term construction projects in Lincoln

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Grow Lincoln began during the recession in 2010 and has become a breaking news source for other media outlets in Lincoln for business news. Join us Saturdays at noon with business openings, closings, and construction of all types around the Capital City.

12/14/2024

We had to shake some things up to present our show today...guests with illness (who in Lincoln hasn't been sick lately) and work emergencies...But we are pulling it off with the help of Lincoln Chamber of Commerce , plus a report on affordable (nonaffordable?) housing by Dr. Thompson at UNL College of Business. Dave and Robin will talk about the largest construction projects in Lincoln.

12/13/2024

We’ll talk to them about 2024 and their predictions for 2025.

Grow Lincoln began during the recession in 2010 and has become a breaking news source for all other media outl...

12/13/2024

Guess what? Guess where? See you soon South Lincoln!

(Not leaving our North Lincoln friends!)

12/11/2024

What could happen in the future? Recent increased flood plain regulations will impact the cost to taxpayers to sell, rebuild, or redevelop the State Penitentiary site, and limit it. Turning the site into a park would prevent the ability to collect sales tax or property tax. Anticipated changes to roads in the area to connect to the West Bypass will also affect the future of this busy corner.

12/07/2024

Due to criminal filings against the organizer of the event, a craft fair scheduled to be held Sunday afternoon at the Cornhusker Hotel is being moved to Miller-Long VFW Post, 3340 W. A St from 10 AM to 5 PM. Full story in Lincoln Journal Star.

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12/05/2024

Willet Construction has broken ground near S. 84th & Yankee Hill, southwest of the Copple YMCA.

Building Update - Progress is being made. The foundation is in!

12/03/2024

BUSINESS NEWS IN LINCOLN THIS WEEK:

NONPROFIT: Youth for Christ/Campus Life/Juvenile Justice is planning a ribbon cutting of its new expansion at 64th & Pine Lake Road on Friday December 6, 4 pm.

HOSPITALITY, RETAIL: City Council is considering re-zoning for a 100-room hotel and up to 175,000 square feet of retail at 84th & Van Dorn (pictured).

RETAIL: 10/11 news reported that Lincoln V***r North at 3710 N. 27th has been robbed ten times in three years, and that in 2023 there have been 17 burglaries or attempted burglaries at v**e shops around Lincoln.

AUTOMOTIVE, MINISTORAGE: Coming before the City Council at approximately 92nd and O (Anthony Lane), east of SCC, north side of O: a proposal at the Planning Commission to create 90,000 sq. ft. of ministorage. Also, a developer from Eustis NE wants to put a 22,500 auto service facility.

HOUSING AND MINIWAREHOUSE: NW 48th and Holdrege: City Council is considering an annexation and zoning for 36.59 acres with 206 dwelling units and 200,000 square feet of mini warehouse space.

11/30/2024

Grow Lincoln November 30, 2024 | Entrepreneurs Juggling Multiple Businesses ** Running Naked: Surviving the Legacy of Family in Rural Nebraska ** A Major Home Remodeling Story

Grow Lincoln began during the recession in 2010 and has become a breaking news source for other media outlets in Lincoln for business news. Join us Saturdays at noon with business openings, closings, and construction of all types around the Capital City.

11/29/2024

A special holiday show this Saturday noon while you are doing your Christmas shopping (see comments):

11/26/2024

BUSINESS NEWS IN LINCOLN THIS WEEK:

AUTOMOTIVE: Advance Auto Parts has announced it will close 727 stores by 2025, although it is not yet known if any of these will be in Lincoln. The hurricanes played a part of this decision. AutoZone CEO Phillip Daniele said in his November earnings call that if tariff taxes are implemented with the next administration on Chinese goods coming into America, “We will pass those tariff costs back to the consumer”, as happened during the previous administration in 2019, according to Yahoo!Finance and the website Counterman.

RETAIL: Lincoln Journal Star reporting that “Total Wine & More, a national big-box liquor store chain” is opening at East Gateway next to Sierra and Burlington. Relocated from Gateway Mall to SouthPointe Mall by the parking garage: The Phone Doctor.

GOVERNMENT: 17th & Van Dorn Fire station #8: This has been closed, but construction company Boyd Jones released a video on LinkedIn of the $12 million tear-down and rebuild renovation project under construction. (see photo)

NONPROFIT: Carriage House is open, a transitional housing 6-plex apartment for at risk teens, located on the grounds of Cedars. The cost of $3 million is $500,000 per unit; however, in an email last year, Jim Blue told Grow Lincoln that this total includes “the actual construction of this unique facility, furnishings, site work on our campus and short-term support of the operating budget so that we can recruit and train excellent staff to help the kids.”

11/26/2024

We're planning an extra special show this Saturday noon for you to listen to while you are driving around doing your Christmas shopping. More details later this week.
Kristi Unick Colby Coash

11/23/2024

11/22/2024

New construction on Pine Lake Road near the new police station between South 56th and S. 70th St. Nonprofit providing positive environment and support for youth.