A rendering of the food hall and atrium alley in the innovation hub off Saddle Creek Road.
ALLEY POYNER MACCHIETTO ARCHITECTS
A rendering of the innovation hub southwest of Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street. The developers plan to retrofit two existing buildings and expand to create a hub that includes businesses and an event hall.
ALLEY POYNER MACCHIETTO ARCHITECTS
A rendering of the three-acre innovation hub southwest of Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street.
ALLEY POYNER MACCHIETTO ARCHITECTS photos
A rendering of the innovation hub, a three-acre segment of the nearly 30-acre UNMC expansion.
ALLEY POYNER MACCHIETTO ARCHITECTS
A rendering of a passage alley in the innovation hub that would be a piece of the expanded UNMC campus southwest of Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center’s planned innovation hub took a significant step forward Friday when the University of Nebraska Board of Regents authorized several aspects of the project.
The board unanimously approved, among other things, a program statement for the hub and a lease to two private developers that are partnering with UNMC on the project.
The innovation hub will be part of a larger development called the Catalyst, which will be located on the west side of Saddle Creek Road across the street from UNMC’s existing main campus. The Catalyst project is being developed by Omaha firm GreenSlate Development and Denver firm Koelbel and Co.
In addition to approving the lease, the board also approved the hub’s program statement. That program statement includes space measuring 8,510 square feet for UNeMed and UNeTech. According to documents, space also will be available for biotech and technology startups to lease, which will generate income for UNMC.
UNMC has budgeted $29,280,480 for the project. The project’s cost will be covered by internal funds consisting of nearly $24 million in revenue bonds and $5.35 million in reserve funds. The project includes 40,834 gross square feet of space that has been designated for the education institution.
Overall, the Catalyst is projected to measure at least 170,000 square feet. The private developers will own about 120,000 square feet.
The timeline calls for construction to begin this fall and be finished in spring 2024.
In an interview, Brian Spencer, executive director of campus development and real estate, said the innovation hub will be key to UNMC fostering an entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“It’s a really kind of big step for the university in setting up the pipeline to take the amazing ideas people at the med center come up with,” he said. “(It will) help create an ecosystem where those ideas become startups and eventually become small businesses and large businesses based here in Nebraska that take those ideas and change the world a little bit.”
Spencer said those ideas could improve care and change treatments, among other possibilities.
Anne Barnes, vice chancellor for business, finance and business development at UNMC, told the board that officials already have seen “a significant amount of demand” for the space that UNMC will have available.
In documents, UNMC and Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture called the redevelopment of the Omaha Steel Castings site into the Catalyst a “one-of-a-kind opportunity” to renovate a 20th century industrial landmark into a 21st century cornerstone of Omaha’s health care industry.
Built in the early 1900s, the steel castings facility produced airplane fuselages and Higgins landing craft during World War II. More recently, before the university acquired the property, the site contained a wood shop.
“We’re really excited for that historic renovation,” Spencer said.
The Catalyst development will occupy only a portion of the nearly 30 acres UNMC has designated for development. The university also is in the process of building an administrative tower on the southwest corner of Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street.
Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of September 2022
More inside
The University of Nebraska Board of Regents signs off on a plan to allow for the sale of beer, wine and liquor at Husker men's and women's basketball games beginning this season. Page A2
A rendering of the innovation hub southwest of Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street. The developers plan to retrofit two existing buildings and expand to create a hub that includes businesses and an event hall.
A rendering of a passage alley in the innovation hub that would be a piece of the expanded UNMC campus southwest of Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street.