Real Estate Information Archive

It's that time of year again when we gather together with families and friends to welcome in the Holiday Season! Here in the Omaha area, there will be some fun community festivities that you won't want to miss!

• Holiday Lighting Ceremony at Midtown Crossing: Perhaps the first annual event to kick off the Holiday Season will be the exciting Holiday Lighting Ceremony at Midtown Crossing! This free family event will take place on Saturday, November 23rd, with the holiday lighting starting at dusk.
• Miracle on Farnam: In conjunction with the Holiday Lighting Ceremony at Midtown Crossing, the Miracle on Farnam will also begin November 23rd at 2:00 PM at Midtown Crossing. This holiday tradition is a glorious celebration of holiday lights, cheer and top notch window displays! The window displays will be voted on by the public for the most dazzling and creative display, and the winner will receive a $3,000 donation to their business, courtesy of the Baer Foundation. This holiday display will be with the community all season long and wrap up at 1:00 AM on News Year's Day.
• 2013 Holiday Lights Festival at Gene Leahy Mall: At 6:00 PM on Thursday, November 28th, Mayor Stothert will lead a countdown which will kick off the 2013 Holiday Lights Festival! Join friends and family for this all-ages event at Gene Leahy Mall to see Downtown Omaha come to life with thousands of tiny white holiday lights! Show up a little earlier at 5:30 PM to enjoy musical performances by MasterSingers and the Jingle Brass Bells. These holiday lights will be set aglow each evening at 5:00 PM until 1:00 AM beginning with this event and will conclude January 5th, 2014.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season!

On Friday, Nov. 15, the sparkling new Nebraska Crossing Outlets in Gretna will open its doors to the public, just in time for all of the holiday shopping madness.

Ever since construction on the 350,000-square-foot open-air shopping mall got underway in March, Nebraskans yearning for something fresh, new and exciting to enter their shopping and dining lives have followed the project's progress with the intensity of a young child watching Christmastime toy commercials on TV.

The $112 million mall, located approximately 20 miles southeast of downtown Omaha at the confluence of U.S. Highways 31 and 6 and Interstate 80, is, to say the least, an upgrade from the 20-year-old outlet mall it is replacing, which was demolished this past spring.

Nebraska Crossing Outlets will offer 65 outlet or factory stores and retailers. Some of the most popular name brands include the following:

• Columbia
• Old Navy
• Tommy Bahama
• Forever 21
• Bose

And to ensure you don't go hungry or thirsty during your visit, Nebraska Crossing serves up a cornucopia of fine eateries, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Big Cheese
• Burger Star
• Pieocracy
• Bakery Express
• Scooter's
• Voodoo Taco

A strong agricultural economy, healthcare sector, and a government jobs expansion are to thank for the Nebraska employment rate recovery. While employment had slumped to a loss of 33,000 jobs in a two year period from 2008-2009, those jobs and more have now been recovered thanks to a growth in metropolitan areas.

The financial services and retail sectors have experienced tremendous recovery fueled in part by the agricultural sector. While the size of farms increasing might not add directly to the Nebraska employment rate recovery, the money that is made from these large agricultural areas helps to bring jobs in other areas. With money to spend, farmers have helped to increase employment in areas such as leisure and hospitality, healthcare, vehicle sales, and food service.

Gaining an average of 750 jobs per month since January 2010, Nebraska set a preliminary employment record in May and then surpassed that in July. New records show that over 970,000 people in Nebraska are now employed.

With neighboring states like Colorado and Missouri coming in with 7.1% unemployment and Illinois and Nevada coming in with over 9% unemployment, the 4.2% rate that Nebraska has risen to is truly something to celebrate. While Nebraska is now rated number three in a CNN lowest unemployment poll, there are still a few sectors that have not met their pre-recession employment numbers.

• While manufacturing and construction have regained some momentum, employment levels are not yet what they were before the recession. As buyer confidence grows, these jobs will experience an increase in employment.
• Airline travel has declined almost 12%, reaching a level that hasn't been seen since 2004. While personal travel is one item that is often cut when the budget is tight, businesses are also not sending employees on discretionary trips during a time when money is an issue. This area is also expected to rebound quickly.
• While the economy isn't the only factor in the decision to have a baby, Nebraska's birth rate, and all sectors related to it, continue to come in with numbers below the pre-recession total.

Nebraska continues to use its strong sectors to bring jobs into the other areas, so they are slowly rebounding as well. Economists are confident that the Nebraska employment rate will continue to recover and that the recovery will move further out into rural areas and sectors that have yet to fully feel the effects of the rebound.

Omaha’s four major entertainment districts offer something for everyone, from trendy chic to old-town historic, and absolutely everything in between.

Walk from unique boutiques and antique emporiums to lively pubs and mouth-watering restaurants on cobblestone streets at the Old Market, Omaha’s historic arts and entertainment district. Browse the districts galleries during the First Friday art walk, take in a show at one of the district’s eight performing arts theaters, visit one of the area’s four museums, or take a stroll through Lauritzen Gardens.

Midtown Crossing is famous across Omaha as the city’s premier happy-hour destination, and is home to Black Oak Grill, Brix, Cantina Laredo, Crave, Glo Lounge, Saints Pub & Patio, and Pana 88 – all of which have dedicated happy hour menus featuring fabulous drinks and delicious appetizer specials. Want to stay for dinner? The Grey Plume serves up seasonal, locally sourced contemporary cuisine. Delice European Bakery & Café prepares authentic European treats, including quiches, Italian frittatas, ricotta pies, and French puff pastries. Diners also can create custom, gourmet dishes at Ingredient.

North Downtown, Omaha’s fastest growing mixed-use neighborhood, allows visitors to shop, eat, drink, discover and connect. Home to bars, restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores, schools, event venues, concert halls, offices, and residential condos and apartments, North Downtown has it all. Sip, taste, and savor some of the 100 world-class wines at Nosh Restaurant and Wine Lounge, or grab a pint and a slice of New York-style pizza at The Union. Experience high-intensity, musical improv at Blazin’ Pianos, one of Nebraska’s most popular dueling piano bars, or take in a show and find your new favorite band at the Slowdown.

Village Pointe Shopping Center, out on 168^th Street, offers great food, good looks, and the best in seasonal entertainment. Home to Maurices, Charming Charlie, Love Culture, Carter’s, J. Jill, Kona Grill, Mimi’s Café, Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, Funny Bone Comedy Club, an amphitheater, and more, the center is hopping both day and night! Every spring, Village Pointe’s delicious restaurants host the Vino at the Village Wine Tour. For four hours, wine enthusiasts can sample a fine selection of red and white wines paired with a signature appetizer from each location. The center also hosts an annual wine festival in June. From Memorial Day until the end of August, visitors can enjoy The Vibes at Village Pointe, the center’s free Saturday night summer concert series. Also on Saturdays from May to October, visitors can pick up seasonal produce, fresh herbs, local meats, artisan cheeses, honey, flowers, and more at the Village Pointe Farmers Market.

Where can you savor the once-in-a-lifetime experience created by 500,000 LEGO® bricks, clicking together to form 27 breathtakingly realistic sculptures, and 14 mind-blowing displays? The unique place available to take this all in is Lauritzen Gardens, located north of Interstate 80 and south of Omaha's historic Old Market district. Some of the other landmarks nearby include Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and the Durham Museum. 

Bring the family on down to Lauritzen Gardens and stroll underneath an 8-foot tall hummingbird, wander aimlessly next to 7-foot roses, look a 5-foot butterfly in the eye, and then show off your own personal skills and abilities at building inside the Nature Connects exhibit's LEGO® Brickyard.

An indoor exhibit that is both inspiring and inspired at the same time, the Nature Connects at Lauritzen Gardens has been created, designed and developed to bring to light, and teach the public about, the myriad life-sustaining connections there are to Mother Earth.

Out of those half million legos already mentioned, 45,143 are on magnificent display in the mother bison, which is the exhibit's most massive structure. In addition to ‘mama’ bison, visitors will be able to enjoy creatures from six inches to eight feet in size, along with other LEGO® creations, such as a tiger swallowtail butterfly, a hummingbird, a gardener.

All throughout Nature Connects and its coinciding interpretive messages, attendees can gain extensive knowledge on the inner workings of how ecosystems are dependent upon diverse aspects of the natural world in order to survive. The exhibit also teaches how healthy and well-balanced populations are maintained, about connections between pollinators and plants, and how our endeavors as humans impact, often in a permanent and deep-rooted way, our home planet, Earth.

The wildly imaginative mind and artistically gifted building skills of Sean Kenney are responsible for bringing Nature Connects to life. An artist with 10-plus years working with LEGOS, and whose work has been highlighted by some of the nation's most well-known media outlets, such as the New York Times, Good Morning America and the Wall Street Journal, Kenney is far from a newcomer in the world of LEGO® sculpting. Among the medium's various challenges is its relatively limited palette of colors, block-shaped pieces and their respective grids.

Kenney blazed the trail for other artists with aspirations of becoming a LEGO® artist as the first LEGO® Certified Professional who is not a LEGO® employee, but enjoys official recognition by the company as a trusted business partner. For more information about the artist, and to view other works, visit Sean Kenney's website at www.seankenney.com.

Nature Connects is scheduled to run from Feb. 2nd through May 19th. The hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The price for admittance into the Nature Connects exhibit section at Lauritzen Gardens is included with the usual admission fee: $6 for adults ($7 after April 1), $3 for children 6-12 and free for garden members and children less than six.

Don't miss out on a single pitch, stolen base or home run in the upcoming Omaha Storm Chasers 2013 season, which celebrates its home opener at Werner Park on Friday, April 12th, with the first pitch scheduled to be thrown at 7:05 p.m.

In addition to top-notch Triple-A baseball action, the Storm Chasers' (a Kansas City Royals affiliate) games provide fabulous entertainers, special giveaways and more than 30 different themes designed to recognize and celebrate the franchise's historic 45th season.

When you are marking your calendar for the forthcoming season, make double sure to include the super awesome giveaway game dates, such as the ConAgra Irving Falu Replica Jersey game on Saturday, April 13, and the Well's Blue Bunny, George Brett Bobble-Arm game on Saturday, May 18. Be sure to place a checkmark as well on entertainer game dates, including the Human Cannonball, presented by Bucky's and Pepsi on Saturday, June 1, and the Werner Enterprises Country Concert, which will feature Craig Morgan, on Friday, Aug. 23.

Even though single game tickets for this spring and summer officially went on sale on Friday, March 22, you can still purchase advance tickets for any one of the 72 games at Werner Park at a discounted price. Advance ticket prices begin at $16.50 for Club Seats and end at $7 for seats in the McDonald's Berm. You can also receive additionally discounted tickets for children aged 3 to 10, senior citizens and military service men and women in conjunction with this advance purchase discount.

You can buy your tickets at the Omaha Storm Chasers ticket office in person, by phone at (402) 738-5100 and at www.omahastormchasers.com.

The Storm Chasers organization wants fans to know that there will be an increase in the general parking price - from $2 per spot to $3 per spot. The VIP parking pass price will remain at $5. For more information contact Andrew Mitchell, Media Relations for the Omaha Storm Chasers, at (402) 738-2185.

The International Horse Show is scheduled to take place on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 at the CenturyLink Omaha Convention Center and Arena.

In addition to being a world-class equestrian experience - combining top-notch, incredibly intense competition with educational and entertaining activities - the International Horse Show will play host to a number of fun family activities and jumping events.

Show jumping is a fast-moving, exciting and beautiful sporting event that, due to the outstanding effort and strongly beating heart of the horses, both captivates and enraptures a broad audience. This thrilling, competitive sport is all about execution, speed, agility and the athletic spirit of both the horse and its rider. It is the only Olympic sport where men and women compete directly against each other.

The horse-and-rider combos have about 75 seconds to clear at least 13 obstacles of varying heights and widths. The horses are beautiful, strong and physically fit; their riders are also athletic and strong. The rules are very simple to understand and explain to newcomers, so one can easily keep track of the scores - there are no style points, it's all about execution and speed here.

Every competitive show jumping event is different and unique. Each course is designed and built to give horse-and-rider combos different advantages and disadvantages, based on what the course designer requires of them. This makes each new event, with its original course, fun to watch.

The International Horse Show is operated by the Omaha Equestrian Foundation, a certified not-for-profit organization. The foundation's major focus is to create, develop and foster world-class caliber, internationally competitive, equestrian athletes as well as to support the local community. The foundation gave tickets to The International Horse Show in 2012 to the Nebraska Humane Society, Girls Inc., Boys and Girls Club and area military families.

Here's where you can The International Horse Jumping Competition tickets.