John Dickerson, executive vice president with Omaha’s OMNE Partners, said that Omaha’s commercial real estate market continues to be a resilient one, despite the economic challenges that it faces.
As Dickerson says, the city’s population continues to grow, with more than 1 million people now living in the Omaha metropolitan area and more than 500,000 in the city of Omaha itself. National studies have ranked Omaha as the top city to relocate to in the United States.
“Omaha is strong,” Dickerson said.
John Dickerson (Photo courtesy of OMNE Partners.)
And because Omaha remains strong, so does development activity here. Dickerson said that there is still significant new development activity taking place throughout the Omaha market, though it varies by sector.
The busiest sector for new development today? Dickerson points to multifamily, with some of the new apartment units coming to the city are the result of conversions, most notably more than 600 new units that will come from the conversion of two large downtown Omaha office buildings.
Other new apartment developments are springing up along the route of the new Omaha streetcar system — that new transit system is slated to open in 2028 — stretching from the east side of downtown out to 42nd Street to the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Another multifamily development is taking place on 144th Street between West Dodge Road and Pacific Street in the Heartwood Preserve Development.
There has even been some investment sales activity in the local multifamily market, with Dickerson saying that 16 multifamily properties had sold in the Omaha market this year through April. Most of these sales involved apartment buildings of 20 units or less, though one sold property boasted 186 units and another 258.
Dickerson also cited the Omaha-area industrial market as being strong, both when it comes to demand for space and new construction activity.
“Flex industrial is a tight market,” Dickerson said. “There is a shortage of spaces for small users looking for up to 2,000 square feet.”
Developers are building smaller flex spaces to help meet this demand. But that doesn’t mean that larger users don’t need space, too. Dickerson said that the Omaha industrial market is attracting a greater number of larger users today, particularly uses in the IT space.
Dickerson said that 23 industrial properties had sold in 2025 through April. But 14 of those sales were to owner/user buyers.
Not surprisingly, office development remains slow in the Omaha market. Large office spaces are still available to lease here, Dickerson said.
The only major office developments are the new Mutual of Omaha corporate building in downtown Omaha and the Applied Underwriters new headquarters at 144th Street and Pacific Street in the southwest portion of Omaha.
What makes Omaha such an attractive market for both investors and developers?
“In my opinion, it is our low cost of living compared to other major cities, our strong employment, our central U.S. location, low crime and our healthy and friendly social environment,” Dickerson said.
And Dickerson believes that this isn’t going to change. He sees the future as being a bright one in Omaha’s commercial real estate market.
One big reason? The streetcar project, which has spurred a significant amount of development along its route. Another? The Heartland Preserve development south of 144th and West Dodge Road includes plenty of new development including office, retail, restaurants, seniors housing, apartments and single-family residences.
This doesn’t mean that the Omaha CRE market doesn’t face challenges. Dickerson said that interest rates remain high, something that is slowing investment sales even in this strong market. Asking prices for many commercial properties remain too high, too, he said.
“Asking prices are too high for the current economic conditions,” Dickerson said. “Prior to the pandemic, capitalization rates fell to a low level, causing sales prices to rise to the benefit of sellers. Those who purchased investment properties during that period cannot sell their properties for the higher prices they paid due to interest rates going back to normal and cap rates going back up to historical levels.”
Dickerson says that the Federal Reserve Board held its benchmark rate too low for too long. Now that rates are higher, buyers and sellers are still struggling to agree on what prices properties should fetch.
“That period of low rates is over,” Dickerson said. “We are now back to more normal lending rates, which necessitates the raising of cap rates to create an acceptable and doable return on investment.”
