A CLOSER LOOK
JAY NODDLE’S WORLD
Business Journal
OMAHA DEVELOPER BUILDS FROM THE INSIDE OUT
Page 10
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY ACROSS NEBRASKA & BEYOND
MBJ.COM
VOLUME 52, No. 35
$2.00
AUGUST 21, 2026
Two Anchors, One Bet LIBRARY’S EARLY CROWDS TEST CITY’S GROWTH STRATEGY BY DAISY HUTZELL-RODMAN
On a warm afternoon at 72nd and Dodge streets, buses pull up to the ORBT stop outside a glass-and-brick building where children flip through books beneath skylights. Across the way, cranes rise over a parking garage that will eventually sit beneath a movie theater. One project just opened, the other is still years from being finished, and together, they’re reshaping one of Omaha’s busiest intersections into a test case for whether public investment can pull private development along behind it.
Library traffic offers early proof of investment
The Omaha Public Library’s new Central Library opened April 19. A $158 million project — $138 million from private philanthropy raised through Heritage Omaha, $20 million from the city — the library was built to serve as the hub of the entire library system, a goal that has thus far been met. In its first 90 days, the library drew more than 172,000 visitors, according to Thomas Warren, chief of staff to Mayor John Ewing Jr., in an email interview. Woodbury Corp., the developer behind the adjacent Crossroads mixed-use district, counted roughly 145,000 visitors in the library’s first two months; a separate window, but a similarly striking number for a single civic building. To the city and to Woodbury, that traffic is more than a nice opening. It’s evidence. TWO ANCHORS ON PAGE 06
FOCUS: COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE Starts on page 14 • CREW EMPOWERS LEADERS • DEVELOPMENTS CREATE CHANGE • DRAWING NATIONAL INTEREST
• IN THEIR WORDS • OMAHA’S BIG PROJECTS