340
Ontic Properties
13233 C Street Omaha NE 68144
ontic.properties
Adrian Suarez
adrian@onticproperties.com
+1 (402) 212-0848
Yes
Adrian Suarez, Co-Found; Jaime Suarez, Co-Founder
This proposal would be to launch a new group, the Omaha Startup Collaborative. Jaime and Adrian are entrepreneurial brothers how have started many different business over their young lives. They started their first business when they were 21 and 17 years old. From there they have experience in retail, restaurants, land development, infill projects, and home construction. All those business have been started by Jaime and Adrian
Omaha Startup Collaborative
4150000.0
3550000.0
Combination of capital project and service/program
The mission of Omaha Startup Collaborative (OSC) is to support entrepreneurs in the historically impoverished areas of Omaha by providing an affordable supportive office space to establish, develop, and grow while being supported by their peer group. One thing that entrepreneurs in the Eastern half of Omaha need is space, especially those in North and South Omaha. The greatest needs are space for a desk and a computer, space and privacy for zoom calls, an empowering place for meetings with customers or vendors, and a productive area to work in. Most homes in North and South Omaha are small, multifamily, multigenerational, and or older construction that does not facilitate a home office. OSC will support entrepreneurs by providing a flexible shared workspace, private offices, meeting rooms, shared Kitchen, and other shared spaces. OSC's goal is to be able to move entrepreneurs from the kitchen table to a collaborative space where they can work from without the financial barriers of having to rent a traditional office or warehouse space. The idea is that the OSC would be the transitional space to provide entrepreneurs with a stepping stone before having to commit to renting out office/retail space for their business. Allowing them the opportunity to gain experience and evaluate their business before incurring potentially burdensome overhead. Once the business is more established, they would graduate on to their own rental space freeing up space for the next entrepreneur. Goal is to establish three locations, one in South Omaha, one in North Omaha, and one just south of Downtown.
site acquisition can happen as soon as project is approved. Improvements can be completed within a year.
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Long-Lasting Economic Growth (i.e., a proposal that will foster gainful employment opportunities and financial investment in the area, leading to the creation of generational wealth and widespread economic vitality in North and South Omaha) Transformational (i.e., a proposal that will help energize, recharge, or spur significant and favorable advancements in North or South Omaha's function or appearance)
Other Infrastructure (i.e., develop or improve broadband, business districts, roadways, sewer, etc.) Sustainable Community (i.e., create or enhance housing, services, education, civic uses, recreation, etc.)
Goal of OSC would be to provide the physical space from which those wanting to start their own business and pursue their own goals. In South Omaha, OSC would help supporting the biggest strength and help them make the next step up in their company by offering the needed professional office spaces. For North Omaha it allow for those in need to have access to infrastructure that lacking in many parts. Also provides a central place to bring together those already offering services and programs into a shared workspace. OSC locations would become information centers for their communities.
These locations would help those entrepreneurs have others come to them into their community. These locations would be built on underused buildings that would be vacant and become a nexus of activity to also help support the surrounding community.
Having a professional space will allow entrepreneurs who might not be able to adapt to a new modern workplace where Zoom conference calls are becoming the norm. OSC would offer rooms for those online meetings that would offer a professional appearance, not in the kitchen, dogs barking, cats jumping on the keyboards, or family coming in not knowing a meeting is taking place. OSC would also offer high speed broadband internet to all it members along with technology needed in today new economy.
Secretarial, business coaching, entrepreneurial and maintenance staff with wages between $18 to $40 per hour
There would be 15-25 permanent jobs created with all three locations
We anticipate 30-40 temporary construction jobs during the development phase of the project
he construction jobs will be between $25-$45 per hour
OSC would anticipate office and work space for about 100-200 users with a full grant allowance with an unknown magnitude of temporary and permanent jobs created by our member entrepreneurs at OSC
Entrepreneurs have always been the driver of new jobs in the US. By supporting the entrepreneurs in historically impoverished and blighted areas of Omaha the impact to the community would be greatest.
OSC would help entrepreneurs grow and be successful and the modest fees they would pay would support the builds and services they receive. As the entrepreneurs grown and moveout, they become success stories and OSC would work those success stories and turn them into mentors for the next up and coming entrepreneurs.
There are several shared workspace operations throughout the country and more affluent areas of Omaha. There is nothing in North or South Omaha that offers this kind of support. OSC would provide a professional workspace with modern technology and amenities to help fuel their growth.
One of the greatest outcomes that we will be able to measure is the graduation rate of our successful entrepreneurs. We will be able to measure our business education from our coaches and staff directly from this metric. Every member that grow too big to stay at our collaborative will create jobs and opportunities for other members of the community.
This will be measured by tracking software that keep track of our successful entrepreneurs and will be transparent
Nothing creates more secondary or co-investments than a successful startup. Our goal is to help as many people from our service areas achieve their dream of having a successful business.
Yes
Prospective partners would include, Catholic Charities, Latino Center of the Midlands, Midland's Latino Community Development, Latino Economic Development Consul, Camera De Comercio Hispana, United Way, OneWorld, Omaha Economic Development Corporation, Omaha Land Bank
No
No
Locations OSC currently does not have any locations under contract or in operation. As mentioned above, an operation like this is cost prohibitive and would require support from the Omaha Economic Recovery Act to be established. Our first target location would be at 3510 South 24th Street. It is a beautiful old building that would serve as host to about eight private offices and support membership of between 20-30 entrepreneurs. The building is on the smaller size with around 3,500 square feet available. This location would be ideal to service those in South Omaha yet being accessible being located just north of the I-80 off ramp. This building also offers the opportunity to provide additional storage space or workshop space from one of its two garages. The building is currently for sale for a listed price of $650,000. We are estimating on needing to spend $550,000 between improvements, fixtures, desks, cubicles, computers, IT systems, software licenses, and capital reserves. For this location we would be requesting a grant totaling $975,000. The developer would cover the remaining costs by guaranteeing a loan. Our second target location would be at 1474 South 16th Street. It's an old warehouse that is currently vacant and ideal for redevelopment. This building is located just south of Downtown and close to the emerging Little Bohemia district. While gentrification is good to bring investment to neglected parts of town, it also drives prices up for previous affordable retail/office locations. This building is much larger, with at total 20,016 square feet with 10,216 square feet on the main level with 9,800 square foot basement. This building offers greater flexibility to provide more office suites and workshop/storage for members. The building is listed for sale at an undetermined price, but previous listings showed a price of $700,000. This location would require additional improvements as the building and parking lot are in poor condition. The investment would provide greater impact to the community and offer better parking and access than the location off 24th Street. We estimate needing to spend $850,000 for improvements, fixtures, desks, cubicles, computers, IT systems, software licenses, and capital reserves. For this location we would be requesting a grant totaling $1,275,000. The developer would cover the remaining costs by guaranteeing a loan. Our third target location would be in North Omaha in the area boarded by Florence Boulevard and 30th Street and Cuming Street and Ames Avenue. There is currently no building for sale that would be ideal for the shared workspace concept, however a location would be identified by partnering with other organizations in the area like the Omaha Economic Development Corporation, Omaha Land Bank, or the City of Omaha. There are numerous vacant lots or underused buildings in the area that could be built or remodeled for our use. Ideally this location would be around 6,000 square feet with convenient access and parking. We are estimating that a new construction or remodel of a building this size would be around $950,000. We estimate needing to spend $450,000 for improvements, fixtures, desks, cubicles, computers, IT systems, software licenses, and capital reserves. For this location we would be requesting a grant totaling $1,150,000. The developer would cover the remaining costs by guaranteeing a loan. These initial locations would serve as a launching point and future locations could be added to further expand the access to all parts of Omaha. With the estished OSC locations could be leveraged to replicated in other parts
Within one or more QCTs
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Cost estimates were provided by our experience in real estate development and recent projects started/completed in 2022
No
Business plan uploaded
Business plan uploaded
Yes
Business plan uploaded
Business plan uploaded
Business plan uploaded
Omaha Economic Recovery Act Grant is essential for this proposal
Yes As the OSC grows and builds up cash reserves another goal would be for the Collaborative to be able to provide financial assistance through investments or grants to the businesses starting out. With this model success would build success and would ensure that the Collaborative would be a perpetual influence in the growth of entrepreneurs in North and South Omaha for years to come.
Business plan uploaded
Business plan uploaded
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Plans and detailed descriptions, including pictures and a map of the site location/surrounding area Pro Forma