There will be a new king of the Omaha skyline, and it will bear the lion logo of Mutual of Omaha.
Mutual’s new headquarters in the heart of downtown will become the city’s tallest building when it opens in 2026, company CEO James Blackledge said in an interview last week.
The now-completed construction plans for the $600 million, 44-story skyscraper call for it to rise 677 feet. That’s 43 feet taller than First National Bank Tower, which has been the city’s tallest structure for the past two decades.
Blackledge said constructing the city’s tallest building was not an objective of the company as it launched its pursuit of a new headquarters. But he said Mutual is proud to add to the city’s skyline and the energy and vitality of the city’s downtown core.
“I think people see skylines and it does create an impression of all the things we want Omaha to be perceived as — a vibrant, growing, thriving place where people can live and work and prosper,” he said.
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Indeed, the Fortune 500 insurer’s new skyscraper figures to reshape downtown Omaha, and in more ways than one.
Urban planning experts say downtown skylines help define a city. Tall buildings become powerful symbols of a city’s stature and growth, their gravity-defying reach for the clouds embodying human aspirations to achieve new heights.
“An iconic tall building enhances the global image of the city ... signaling and promoting its significant economic progress and advancement,” wrote Kheir Al-Kodmany, a professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The Mutual of Omaha tower represents the first significant addition to downtown Omaha’s skyline in a generation.
It also may be the largest single infusion of workers into Omaha’s downtown core. The move of Mutual of Omaha’s metro workforce of 4,000 into downtown dovetails with an ambitious chamber of commerce goal of pulling 30,000 additional jobs and 30,000 new residents into Omaha’s urban core over the next two decades.
In addition, the Mutual building is serving as a catalyst for a proposed downtown-to-midtown streetcar system.
Mayor Jean Stothert in January pledged her support for the $306 million, 3-mile streetcar line, which was announced in conjunction with Mutual’s plan to anchor its headquarters downtown. The two projects are now linked by a development agreement signed by the city and Mutual that obligates the city to follow through on the streetcar plan if the building goes up as planned.
Newly released images of the Mutual of Omaha building show it towering over the block bounded by Douglas, Farnam, 14th and 15th Streets that for decades was home to Omaha’s main library. The skyscraper’s east windows stare down the newly revamped Gene Leahy Mall and to the rest of the riverfront beyond.
Another image depicts the city’s new skyline looking south from the airport drive, with Omaha’s three tallest buildings all aligned: the Mutual tower, First National’s and the headquarters tower for WoodmenLife.
On Friday, the first visible steps toward the construction of Mutual of Omaha’s new tower could be seen. Demolition of the former library was underway, with a front-end loader hauling piles of debris out of the old building’s busted-out west doors.
Other city plans call for opening a new downtown library branch on Jones Street and building a new main city library at 72nd and Dodge.
Formal construction of the Mutual building is set to start in January and finish sometime in 2026 — the same year the streetcar line is supposed to start running.
The new Mutual building will not only be the tallest in Omaha, but also the tallest in a multi-state region. Among states surrounding Nebraska, only Denver has buildings that rise higher.
While Blackledge said he’s excited that the building will arguably become the tallest between Chicago and Denver, he’s equally excited about what it will mean for Mutual’s workers.
It’s designed to bring workers together in ways that foster teamwork, engagement and innovation while also including amenities that can help the company keep and attract talent.
Particular highlights include a first-floor lobby atrium that will beckon the public, a “sky lobby” with services for employees and top-floor meeting spaces with 360-degree views of the city.
“Part of the spirit of this is how we bring people together,” Blackledge said. “We believe it will truly be a beacon for our associates, for new generations of talent, and for the community.”
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Mutual of Omaha, based near 33rd and Dodge Streets for more than eight decades, for years has been studying its facilities needs and pondering a potential new headquarters.
Mutual was approached more than a year ago by developer Jason Lanoha, who proposed the insurance company build its new headquarters downtown.
Blackledge said it certainly would have been cheaper for the company to build on vacant ground somewhere in the suburbs. But he said Mutual of Omaha’s board liked the idea of investing in the future of downtown and locating in the heart of the city.
“Omaha is in our name,” Blackledge said. “We bought in early to what we see as the positive economic impact of this project.”
Initially, Lanoha’s focus was to locate the tower on the long-vacant block it owned at 14th and Dodge, site of the former Union Pacific headquarters.
Lanoha also suggested that Mutual of Omaha ask the city if it would be willing to reroute its developing streetcar system to include the new headquarters site along its path. So Mutual approached the city in September 2021 with just such a plan.
At the time, the city was in the process of relocating the downtown library and quietly considering half a dozen potential developments for the site. Rather than mess with the streetcar route, the city instead offered up the library site to Mutual.
Blackledge and Stothert jointly announced plans for Mutual’s new headquarters in January. But up until now, its precise number of stories and height were not known. Those couldn’t be determined until the company’s exact space needs were determined and plans for the building’s specifications drawn up.
That planning is now complete. Mutual’s 677-foot tower will top the 634-foot First National Bank Tower, which has been the city’s tallest since it opened in 2002.
First National’s tower can still lay claim to having the most stories — 45, which is one more than the new Mutual building. Mutual’s will be taller in part because its floors will be spaced farther apart, the result of a modern air-handling system that’s among the building’s features.
Blackledge said other features of the building will include:
A “sky lobby” that will greet associates as they enter from the parking facility. Located on floors 16 through 20, it will feature a variety of food services, a fitness center, employee wellness services, a technical support center to service employees’ laptops and other devices, and meeting spaces.
The three lower floors of the sky lobby will feature outdoor terraces with sweeping views of downtown, outdoor dining, meeting and fitness spaces.
The 44th floor will offer views in all directions from a two-story atrium and hold large conference rooms and other meeting spaces.
The public street-level lobby will feature displays paying homage to the company’s history, the services it offers and impact.
A parking garage extending up through the 15th floor can hold 2,200 vehicles. The city has agreed to pay nearly $100 million for the garage, recouping the expense by leasing the spaces to Mutual employees during the day and to downtown visitors during off-hours.
Blackledge said city ownership and shared public-private use of the garage is more efficient and will benefit both Mutual of Omaha and the city.
“I know people will look at that and say, ‘The city is just giving you a parking garage,’” Blackledge said. “Well, no, the city is building a parking garage, and we’re going to lease it from them. The city is in the parking business, and they do it pretty well, it’s my understanding. I think that’s a win-win.”
At 800,000 square feet, the new headquarters will be half the size of Mutual’s current 1.7 million-square-foot campus.
Blackledge said that’s taking into account that the work-from-home and hybrid work models induced by the pandemic will continue into the future. It’s believed only about 2,400 of the company’s workers will be in the building on any given day.
Some workers will have formal desks. Others who primarily work from home will have shared “hoteling” space when in the office.
Blackledge said the company worked closely with its design partners to create a headquarters that is appropriately sized, designed to foster collaboration, and adaptable to new ways of working that could emerge in the future.
Blackledge said the building will also be more cost-efficient to operate than the company’s current headquarters.
The building won’t have an executive floor. Senior leaders will be positioned near the workers of the divisions they oversee.
Blackledge is not even sure there will be a formal CEO’s office. During the pandemic, he said, he’s become used to putting a laptop in a backpack and roaming around Mutual’s current headquarters, interacting with other executives and workers.
“I’m really loving it,” he said. “There’s nothing so far where anyone has tried to design an office for me.”
Mutual has a number of partners on the project in addition to the city and Lanoha Real Estate. Mutual is working with a design team that includes global architecture firm HOK; design architect Pickard Chilton of New Haven, Connecticut; architect of record Kendall/Heaton Associates of Houston; and Omaha’s Alvine Engineering.
JE Dunn Construction Group, a major construction company whose primary office is in Kansas City, is the general contractor.
For its part, the city has advanced numerous pieces of the project. The City Council approved $1 million to demolish and prepare the library site, passed some $60 million in tax-increment financing to help Mutual pay for public improvements related to the project, and backed the development agreement.
Blackledge said he has not yet spoken to Clark Lauritzen, president of First National, to break the news of the size of Mutual’s building.
“We were never in an arms race to build the biggest one,” Blackledge said.
In fact, if someone else wants to one day add a taller one to Omaha’s skyline, Blackledge said, that’s all the better.