Omaha Inland Port Authority vote breaks logjam on $90M business park project • Nebraska Examiner

Funding, however, has been held up by the Inland Port Authority, which governs a 300-acre site where the business park would rise. Some members of the nine-person port board believed the OEDC-led group hadn’t provided the board enough financial and other details for its plan that targets a 160-acre site west of Omaha’s Eppley Airfield and north of Carter Lake.

Compromise meant to move forward

Thursday’s green light on the nearly $7.4 million allotment was seen as a compromise of sorts.

Board members said the money would pay for pre-development research — including an assessment of whether enough contiguous private property can be assembled voluntarily to prepare the site expected to lure new jobs and industry to one of the most neglected areas of the state.

The remainder of the nearly $90 million grant will be on hold until the Inland Port Authority reviews the research done over the next six months to a year. 

Controversy over the development group’s proposal has swirled for more than a year — in part because of uncertainty early on over whether some homeowners in the area might be forced out by eminent domain. 

OEDC executive director Michael Maroney, whose development team for the park includes Burlington Capital and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, has said more recently that the power of eminent domain would not be used. About 140 property owners are in the target area site, including homeowners, businesses and those who own lots, Maroney said.

“I’m just glad to finally be able to start,” Maroney said following Thursday’s vote.

Said Burlington’s George Achola: “Now we’ll do the hard digging.”

Some have ‘zero faith’

State Sen. Terrell McKinney of North Omaha, who chairs the nine-member port board, was the lone vote against disbursing the first multimillion installment. Vice Chair Davielle Phillips abstained; six other board members present supported the move.

McKinney said Thursday he won’t “beat a dead horse,” but that he remained opposed to the developer and supportive of the business park.

“I have zero faith they’re going to do the right thing,” McKinney said of the OEDC-led partnership.

McKinney has said the group previously received $400,000 to research and create a plan for a business park — the largest single project funded from roughly $400 million appropriated by the Legislature for North and South Omaha economic recovery initiatives following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funding stream for the business park has since shifted from federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to state funds, a move that allowed more flexibility in the timeline to prepare the site.

Joe Higgins, a neighborhood leader, said that while he and others remain wary of how the project might gel, he saw Thursday’s action as positive. He said the results could bring clarity for homeowners who have been on edge about what might come of their homes and neighborhood.

“People are tired of the indecision,” Higgins said, saying that many area residents have “disengaged” and stopped participating in community meetings as discussions have dragged out.

Community member Cheryl Weston spoke in opposition to releasing funding, calling the development team’s proposal “out in the air.”

A historical view

The business park idea has a history.

While a focal point of 2022 legislation, talk about such a project to spark revitalization in North Omaha goes back farther.

Around 2012, under the administration of Mayor Jim Suttle, the City of Omaha eyed a site as a potential home for companies that would get rare access to big industrial work space within a short drive from the city’s downtown commercial district.

It’s a complex project we’re dealing with.

– George Achola, vice president of Burlington Capital

That potential site — west of Carter Lake and bounded by Locust Street on the south and 16th Street on the west — was eventually abandoned in light of environmental remediation costs.

A year ago, Pillen and Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert held a media event to announce the nearly $90 million grant award to the OEDC-led team. 

The OEDC, in a 47-page “master plan” outlined the 160-acre site west of Eppley and north of Carter Lake as a preferred site. It also identified the site that was earlier abandoned by the city, though the development team said it was a second choice. 

The Legislature later passed legislation requiring a letter of support from the Omaha Inland Port Authority before the business park project could move forward within the Authority’s boundaries. The city’s first-ever Inland Port Authority board, which was created under a new state law, was assembled last summer to guide development in that swath of northeast Omaha.

The board members, appointed by Omaha’s mayor, provide more local oversight and have various powers, including the ability to issue revenue bonds for construction.

Last August, the Inland Port Authority denied a letter of support to the OEDC-led group and has since discussed whether to release an installment for pre-development work.

Achola said Thursday’s vote breaks a “logjam.” He said the nearly $7.4 million allows the development team to assess the viability of sites outlined in the 47-page master plan, which he described more as a conceptual plan. Achola called the interim step prudent. 

“It’s a complex project we’re dealing with,” he said.

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