OMAHA — Five leaders who helped shape the Omaha metro area’s commercial real estate landscape are to be recognized during an annual industry event that has spanned 36 years. The 2025 honorees are to be inducted Aug. 22 into the Omaha CRE Summit Hall of Fame.

They are: Bob and Doug Dreessen, board chair and president, respectively, of TD2 (Thompson, Dreessen & Dorner) engineering and surveying; David Maenner, senior vice president of CBRE Omaha; Michael Matejka, real estate attorney at Woods Aitken Law; and Nancy Pridal, board chair at Lamp Rynearson engineering.

“Over the course of their careers, each of these honorees has been pivotal and instrumental in moving the development and growth of our region forward,” said Jerry Slusky, a real estate attorney who founded the conference in 1990.

At the time, Slusky recalled, he had been teaching a course at the Creighton University School of Law, and the commercial real estate industry was depressed. He suggested to the dean that a workshop would be more impactful.

The event started with about 125 attendees and has evolved into an all-day conference, with a registration fee, at the CHI Health Center. Chris Mensinger, senior vice president at Colliers International, co-directs the event.

This year, up to 900 real estate, business professionals and other participants are expected. The 2025 theme is, “Next Chapter: Growth, Change, and Opportunity.”

A luncheon ceremony will feature the hall-of-famers and other award winners selected by a committee of industry representatives. Awards include:

• “Development of the year,” which recognizes a project that stands out in scope and influence on further development, goes to the 37 West Farnam mixed-use project. In Omaha’s historic Blackstone District, the 10-story building features retail space, 160 market-rate apartments and a 384-stall parking garage to ease parking problems in the entertainment district. Developers are Clarity, GreenSlate and Park Omaha.
• The ‘Summit award,” which recognizes a project that has outstanding and rippling regional impact, goes to the Catalyst project led by GreenSlate Development and Koelbel & Co. The 170,000-square-foot co-working hub for healthcare and technology businesses is just west of the main campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
• “Deal of the year,” which is awarded to brokers for a complex and community impactful transaction, goes to a team that worked on the relocation of engineering firm Olsson to the Row at Heartwood Preserve in west Omaha. The team: Martin Patzner and Jason Fisher of Cushman & Wakefield/The Lund Co.; and Steve Sheppard, Nick Weideman and Bennett Ginsberg of CBRE Omaha.
• Slusky said the summit’s agenda reflects and delves into the most recent trends in commercial real estate. It features panels on topics such as Making Municipal Incentives Work and Legislative Insights and Updates.

Keynote speakers include Nate Kauffman, Omaha-based senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, who will talk about economic trends, and Heath Mello, CEO of Greater Omaha Chamber, who will lead a discussion on the area’s economic and talent pipeline future.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/five-commercial-real-estate-leaders-...