A newly opened Walmart distribution center in Sarpy County is about to get a logistics business for a neighbor — bringing the high-end warehouse they share to nearly full occupancy.
It’s the second 250,000-square-foot multi-tenant warehouse at the R&R Commerce Park to welcome tenants. A third slightly bigger structure is starting construction, and a fourth is coming to wrap up the campus’ 1.1 million square feet of industrial space along Highway 50 south of Highway 370.
Activity at the sprawling 80-acre site provides a glimpse into a commercial real estate segment that has survived COVID-19 better than most, and is expected to emerge from the pandemic even stronger.
“The industrial market will be a sector that shines throughout all this,” said Alex Epstein of OMNE Partners commercial real estate company.
He and other industry experts said demand already had been growing for large Midwest spaces where e-commerce products can be warehoused and prepared for faster local delivery. They said leasing deals slowed some as Covid-19 spread, but more consumers also got into the habit of ordering groceries and other items online — routines that likely will carry on to a greater degree after the health scare has diminished.
That’s expected to create more thirst for industrial type real estate. Epstein said the pandemic also exposed the danger in relying too heavily on products that must be transported to the U.S. from other countries, and he foresees companies opening more manufacturing and distribution operations in the states.
At the R&R Commerce Park, about 20% of the space in each of the first two buildings remains available for lease, said spokesman Mike Homa. Tenants now include businesses that store and distribute auto body, glass and electrical parts. Roughly 350 people will work in the first two campus warehouses, he said, that typically have no walk-in shopping traffic.
Mike Homa walks through a bay at R&R Commerce Park. About 20% of the space in each of the first two buildings remains available for lease, Homa said.
(Developers earlier said future campus tenants could also include less-conventional industrial users such as a church, youth sports facility or a startup seeking a blank slate to design a hub.)
Homa said COVID-19 has had another impact: R&R has enhanced air handling systems and created touch-free environments where, for example, motion sensors open doors.
West Des Moines-based R&R is so optimistic about demand for industrial and manufacturing space that it bought another 93 acres in Sarpy County (near 156th and Schram Road) and eventually plans a campus there with 1.4 million square feet.
More competition is on the way.
Omaha-based White Lotus Group is launching its I-80 Logistics Hub with a new 300,000-square-foot structure, said Denny Sciscoe of Cushman & Wakefield/Lund Co., which is working with the developer on the project.
That building, like the R&R warehouses, will rise even before tenants are secured, signaling developer optimism that businesses are eager for that type of space.
When fully built out, the 140-acre hub near 132nd Street and Cornhusker Road is to have 1.2 million square feet for industrial and manufacturing tenants to move into. The structures will have high ceilings and modern design.
“The goal is to build the Omaha metro’s premier, state-of-the-art industrial park,” said Sciscoe.
Among other future industrial areas, he said, is a separate 15-acre industrial site near 72nd and State Streets which has been purchased by a national developer who is newly entering the Omaha area.
“We’re getting good rents,” Sciscoe said. “It’s a healthy market.”
At a glance: 11 key developments around the Omaha metro area
Heartwood Preserve
ONYX Automotive in January became the first business to launch operations on the 500-acre redevelopment site poised to become a mecca of office, housing and entertainment venues. Under construction are office campuses for local business biggies including Applied Underwriters, Valmont Industries and The Carson Group. Developers expect the property value of the overall site, bounded generally by 144th, 153rd and Pine Streets and West Dodge Road, to rise by more than $1 billion when completed over 15 or so years.
192 Street & West Dodge Road
Underway are huge projects by two separate real estate developers that will transform some 250 acres around 192nd Street and West Dodge Road. The work, estimated to top $1.5 billion, includes office, commercial and residential venues on the southwest and southeast corners of the intersection. Developer Curt Hofer is leading the Avenue One project, and R&R Realty of West Des Moines is behind two office parks.
Downtown ‘districts’
Helping to change the downtown Omaha landscape north of Dodge Street are three districts. The $300 million Millwork Commons launched with the (ongoing) restoration of the Ashton warehouse at 12th and Nicholas Streets into a new home for tech company Flywheel. The Builder’s District centers on the rising new worldwide headquarters for Kiewit Corp. near 16th and Burt Streets. The Capitol District entertainment area began years ago but in 2020 is to finish construction of an office and retail building that is the last major structural piece at the site near 10th Street and Capitol Avenue.
Blackstone area of midtown Omaha
A food hall, a resurrected historic hotel and an upscale condo project are poised to be the latest newcomers to the hip and growing Blackstone area that’s anchored along the Farnam corridor near 40th Street. Millions of dollars have been invested in an area buoyed by increased building and growth of the nearby University of Nebraska Medical Center.
La Vista City Centre
Construction continues at the $235 million City Centre campus — a mix of residential, commercial and entertainment uses along the 84th Street corridor in La Vista. Another phase of apartments is to open this summer, and multiple businesses are preparing their spaces. An indoor-outdoor music venue is to break ground as soon as the ground thaws.
Data center central
Sarpy County, in the area of Highway 370 and Highway 50, continues its rise as the state’s data center hub. Google announced its multimillion-dollar facility most recently, making that the county’s eighth data center. Facebook is expanding its data center construction. A recent study by University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers found that operation of the county’s largest four data centers (at the time Fidelity, Travelers, Yahoo-turned-Oath and Facebook) had an annual statewide economic impact of $522 million, with an employment impact of nearly 1,900 direct and indirect jobs.
Riverfront
Omaha is in the midst of a nearly $300 million transformation of three downtown parks into The RiverFront, an effort aimed in part at revving up recruitment and retention of workforce talent. Major construction on the Gene Leahy Mall is expected to finish up in late 2021, with work on some amenities stretching into 2024. Work on nearby Lewis & Clark Landing near the foot of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge is set to begin in late summer to early fall 2020. Work on Heartland of America Park, which sits between the Conagra campus and the Missouri River, east of Eighth and Douglas Streets, carries into 2024.
Children’s Hospital & Medical Center
Nearly tripling its footprint over the past few years, Children’s has acquired several buildings near 84th Street and West Dodge Road, including the former HDR office campus along Indian Hills Drive. Currently under construction is the nine-story Hubbard Center for Children that’s scheduled to open in 2021 on the northern side of the hospital. Neighboring pockets are seeing their own development bursts, including an office strip to the west. On the north side of West Dodge and Children’s, two mixed-use developments anchored by bank branches have risen.
Topgolf pocket
A corridor near Westroads Mall is seeing a dramatic shift from a car dealership row to a family entertainment zone. Change is led by the new and rising 10-acre Topgolf venue estimated to cost about $23 million and poised to open in late March. Other commercial structures are set to rise, one with a Chipotle restaurant. Joe Ricketts, father of Nebraska’s governor and patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs, also has purchased about 8 acres along that stretch but hasn’t disclosed his plans.
South Omaha
The Omaha Housing Authority’s Southside Terrace complex near 29th and T Streets.
Ames Plaza
A decaying North Omaha shopping hub near 56th Street and Ames Avenue has been resuscitated with about $18 million in a redevelopment effort led by Omaha’s White Lotus Group. Much of the commercial space on the 14-acre site that dates back 60 years had been condemned before a couple of key structures were revamped and a new row house project built. The latest phase is the former 44,000-square-foot Ames Bowling Center structure that has been re-purposed into the Ames Innovation Center.
