Rardy

The new 4-story Hampton Inn on Cuming St. in DT Omaha opened today. It's the first hotel to open in downtown since the Hilton in 2004. An 8-story Homewood Suites next door opens in January. WH article here>>

Is there a CHURCH in the middle of Perkins Rowe??? Those pics really look like an entirely new downtown. That's so weird. Cool...but weird.

I'm oh so jealous. The best I can do is CPK frozen pizzas from Target!

I LOOOOVE that!!!!!

Phase 2 of downtown's Riverfront Place condominiums is about to begin, with 20 of 53 units reserved including the $2 million penthouse. It will be a 15 story building just feet away from the Missouri River Pedestrian Bridge. Construction is scheduled to begin in early '08:

Per today's CA, River Inn of Harbor Town on Mud Island is open. It sounds super cool. It has 28 guest rooms with a library on each floor, a fireplace in the lobby that was salvaged from New Orleans after Katrina, and heart of pine wooden floors from a razed mill in Virginia. It also has 2 restaurants - a high end and a grill that will cater to Mud Island. Rooms start at $245.

K...I went back ten years for the BR MSA, on Dept. of Labor's website, and this is what I found. This is actual number of jobs in BR MSA, in August of each year / it's rate of growth from the previous year: 1997: 301,330 1998: 310,817 / 3.15% 1999: 321,011 / 3.28% 2000: 319,708 / -0.41% 2001: 315,146 / -1.43% 2002: 313,524 / -0.51% 2003: 326,421 / 4.11% 2004: 325,380 / -0.32% 2005: 338,659 / 4.08% 2006: 349,688 / 3.26% 2007: 349,876 / 0.05% Ten year growth: 12.57% (keep in mind, this is just August-to-August comparisons. For a better picture, look at the annual adjusted employment growth, which isn't available yet for 2007. This also doesn't reflect Katrina data, since this is for the months of August). Now, regarding whether 2% is "average" - that really depends on what the national economy is doing. Some years average is much higher than other years. According to POLICOM, the top 10 job creating cities in the U.S. grew 4-10% in 2005. I don't know what average will be for 2007, 2008, but I suspect it will be a good deal lower than 2%. But will BR rank in the top 10? Probably not. Keep in mind this is looking at rates of growth, so city sizes really don't factor here. If you're looking at actual numbers, then yes, account for size of the city. But it's as much of an accomplisment for NYC to grow 2% in a year, which rarely happens, as BR.

2% will put it in the top 50. It's healthy, but not exactly on fire. I believe BR grew 9% in '05 after Katrina?

Is there a Kohl's in the area? I also know J.C. Penney, Gordman's, Marshall's, T.J. Maxx, Sports Authority, Dick's Sporting Goods are all doing national expansions right now with free-standing "junior anchor" stores... That's too small for a CostCo isn't it? There's all kinds of stuff it could be!

Omaha just came in #1 among the 65 largest cities in the U.S. for easiest commutes! The average Omahan commutes just over 20 minutes, and has the largest share of commuters in the country with a 14 minute or less commute. Sweet! Article here>>

The article doesn't say much aside from the fact it will be on Madison on the UT campus (I'm assuming on the former Baptist site, but I don't know that for sure). Here's the article. Sorry I didn't post this sooner!

^And the airport buys up neighborhoods because of noise and birds. Nothing can be built on that land because of noise restrictions, and airports also have to be a "bird-free" zone, so it's most effective just to buy it up and leave it vacant. Happens everywhere.

not even a little bit. i was going to try and remain open-minded about it though, just in case you guys liked it. i don't like it a bit. the good thing though is that the rest of the campus is just like that (authentic '60's and '70's), so it will fit right in.

Construction is about to start on the new College of Pharmacy building on the UT campus downtown: I believe this is going up on part of the old Baptist site on Union? If so, it'll nicely fill in the gap that's there currently.