A 150,000-square-foot warehouse shell off Abbott Drive is about to get its first occupant. Pacific Engineering Inc. has signed on as the first announced tenant of Omaha's airport-area business park, a project years in the making that is finally putting steel and jobs behind roughly $90 million in state funding.
PEI will lease the 13-acre site at 5906 Abbott Drive under a 15-year contract, according to Nebraska Examiner, which reports the property includes a new warehouse shell and a 148-stall surface parking area. The company plans to create approximately 150 jobs over the next five years with an average annual wage of $74,000, per GrowOmaha. Operations are expected to begin by the end of the year.
The arrival of a tenant comes as the park also lands a notable federal contract. The U.S. Navy awarded Pacific Engineering a contract to help develop a component for a next-generation nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile, according to WOWT. The defense work adds a new dimension to what has largely been framed as an economic-development story for North Omaha.
A Project Years in the Making
The business park traces back to a 2022 Nebraska law and was seeded with $90 million in public funds, the same Nebraska Examiner report notes. That money flows from the Economic Recovery Act, landmark legislation passed by the Nebraska Legislature that set aside $335 million to help historically underserved areas hit hard by the pandemic, including South Omaha, as detailed by Omaha.com. WOWT reports close to $90 million of that money went to secure Omaha's airport business park, while a Nebraska Department of Economic Development announcement separately described an $89.2 million grant awarded to fund site preparation of shovel-ready land for the project.
The road to this point was not smooth. The project faced opposition from some neighbors, and its initial priority site was eventually dropped, with the developer team shifting gears to look at a combination of sites instead, the same report notes. The Omaha Economic Development Corp., a North Omaha nonprofit, is leading the development team and bought two sites in March for a combined price of nearly $30 million.
What Comes Next for the Park
Officials are not stopping at one tenant. The Inland Port Authority is pursuing logistics, advanced manufacturing, healthcare technology, and other entrepreneurial and innovation-focused roles for the broader project area, according to the GrowOmaha report. Within its roughly 3,000-acre boundary, the Airport Business Park alone has nearly 100 acres of developable property still available.
The authority's two-year goals extend well beyond the industrial park: plans include constructing an innovation district near 30th and Ames Avenue and developing 170 housing units, the same source reports.
The manufacturing push also fits into a broader national trend officials have pointed to. WOWT cited a Deloitte study projecting the country will face a deficit of 2.4 million manufacturing jobs by 2028, framing Pacific Engineering's arrival as part of a larger effort to fill that gap. For now, the Abbott Drive site stands as the clearest sign yet that a long-delayed North Omaha development is beginning to take shape.
