Real estate conference to recognize $158M Omaha library project, four ‘hall of fame’ pros 

OMAHA — Nebraska’s largest annual conference of real estate and development experts, now in its 37th year, is poised to recognize Omaha’s new $158 million public library as its pick for a project with extraordinary rippling impact.

Omaha Central Library, which saw roughly 145,000 visitors in its first two months after opening in April, is to receive the top “Summit Award” at the CRE Summit to be held Aug. 21 at CHI Health Center in downtown Omaha. 

The 102,000-square-foot structure is said to be one of the largest philanthropic investments in a public library system in recent history — built with private dollars plus $20 million from the City of Omaha. The city is to cover costs of ongoing operations.

Architecturally distinct and with a “book robot” officials said is the first of its kind for a U.S. library, the project hit a “home run” in meeting criteria that includes size, innovation, economic growth and regional impact, said Chris Mensinger, summit co-chair. She said the new library serves as a “connector” for residents of the state’s largest city.

“With the location at 72nd and Dodge it’s accessible citywide and provides top-of-the-line technology, access to information and art to inspire us to learn and connect with one another,” Mensinger said.

A library team including designers and the nonprofit fundraiser is to be recognized, along with four new inductees to the CRE Summit “Hall of Fame,” during the summit event expected to draw some 900 Omaha and Lincoln area business, policy-makers and real estate leaders to hear experts and discuss trends of the commercial real estate market.

Asked what’s different this year, Mensinger said organizers plan a greater push to elicit solutions from “people in the room.” Topics at the all-day event include business recruitment, AI challenges and affordable housing.

Another key workshop topic is Nebraska tools and laws aimed at bolstering economic development, including “Community Improvement Districts.” Recently approved by the Nebraska Legislature, CIDs are zones inside a city’s boundaries where property owners essentially tax themselves to fund infrastructure and public improvements.

The town of Blair just broke ground on the state’s first CID effort, a 137-unit Bear Creek residential project. Developers believe the price of a house there could drop by as much as 30% by applying the new provisions. 

Headline speaker is Spencer Levy, a Baltimore-based senior economic advisor for CBRE, who summit leaders describe as a nationally recognized industry voice with the most downloaded podcast on commercial real estate globally.

Levy chairs the research committee for the Real Estate Roundtable, a public policy advocate for the U.S. commercial real estate industry. That position often  puts him in front of national elected officials and policy makers.

Jerry Slusky, summit founder and co-chair, said Levy is expected to address challenges including housing demand, changing interest rates, high construction costs and office market disruption related in part to remote work.

Slusky started the conference in 1990 when, while teaching a real estate course at Omaha’s Creighton University, he lamented to the dean about the lack of awareness about the Resolution Trust Corp. created to help fix the 1980s financial crisis. The dean challenged him to put together a workshop, which evolved into today’s more wide-ranging summit that draws business leaders as well.

The Summit Award last year went to the Catalyst project, a 170,000-square-foot co-working hub for health care and technology businesses in midtown Omaha. Organizers presented the inaugural Summit Award in 2017 to the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine. Other winners included Tri-Faith Initiative, NuStyle Development and Kiewit Corp.

This year’s winner rose at the former site of Do Space, one of the nation’s first technology libraries that opened at the southwest corner of 72nd and Dodge Streets in 2015 and was demolished to make way for the Central Library. Do Space technologies and materials were incorporated into the new facility.

As Central Library was planned, controversy swirled around what then was Omaha’s main public library downtown, the W. Dale Clark Library. That structure was demolished to make way for the $600 million Mutual of Omaha skyscraper just west of the Gene Leahy Mall at the Riverfront. A streetcar running from downtown to midtown was key to Mutual’s decision, supported by then Mayor Jean Stothert, to build the tower on the property.

A smaller downtown library branch eventually opened in a renovated structure farther south, nearer to the Old Market at 14th and Jones Streets. 

Just across Dodge street to the north, a separate Crossroads mixed-use campus is slowly underway, including a more recently announced element, Omaha’s proposed joint police and fire administrative headquarters.

Central Library was designed by HDR and Alley Poyner Machhietto Architecture. Other project partners included nonprofits Heritage Omaha, the primary fundraiser, the Omaha Public Library Foundation and Do Space. The library is part of the Omaha public library system.