Since opening last December, the North Omaha Visitors Center (NOVC) has found its stride as a conduit for the community’s rich history, culture and the renaissance happening there.
Despite a strong reception from users and partners, the idea of North Omaha tourism, much less a visitors center to support it, was a hard sell not long ago. Only in the last few years has the long-underserved district seen a development surge. That gave founder Preston Love Jr. the vision for actively lobbying North O as a tourist area.
His clarion call largely fell on deaf ears. But with the center’s arrival at 2205 N. 24th St. as a place-maker for the historic 24th and Lake corridor and beyond, the idea of North O as a destination finally has legs.
Love hails from a prominent North Omaha family. His late namesake, Preston Love Sr., was a musician, educator and author who loved regaling people with stories about 24th Street’s once vibrant live music scene. A new North 24th staple, North Omaha Music and Arts (NOMA), was formerly Love’s Jazz & Arts Center, named in honor of his father.
Both father and son are well represented at NOVC, adding to their personal legacies as North O icons.
A once star prep and collegiate athlete at the University of Nebraska, Love Jr. went on to manage the presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson. Since returning to Omaha he’s become founder-director of Black Votes Matter, North Omaha Legacy Tour and 4Urban. He leads civil rights pilgrimages to the Deep South. The adjunct professor, public speaker and author has run for governor and U.S. senate on Democratic tickets. When he came back to his hometown in the early 2000s, he saw a community decimated by decades of disinvestment. The thought of North O as a tourist magnet was laughable then, he said. Plenty of historic sites existed. But there was scant new activity and nothing tying past and present together.
“For most of my adult life North Omaha was not a candidate for tourism,” Love said. Referring to the title of a famous movie, he said there “was little good but plenty of bad and ugly.”
Things have changed.
“The more walking tours we did and the more feedback we got it began to crystalize. I saw the potential not for a center per se. I saw the reality that North Omaha has emerged in the last five to seven years as a valid and credible district,” he said.
Fast forward to today, when as the result of transformation in attitudes and brick and mortar developments, he said, “the center has become the hub of what North Omaha is becoming.”
“There is something very large about the history, culture and economy of North Omaha,” Love added. “North Omaha is on the move. The center is the hub of that. That’s exciting.”
Executive director of operations and projects Veta Jeffery said feedback from the community tells her the center’s being embraced.
“They’re delighted by this new resource. Unlike other venues that speak only to what they do we are an organization whose main purpose is highlighting everybody else. It’s not just about us. It’s about us and all the other assets that make up North Omaha,” she said.
The Union for Contemporary Art just down the block is one of those assets. Executive Director Lakesha Green is bullish on what NOVC means for her venue and others.
“I think the center fills an important gap in North Omaha’s growing cultural ecosystem,” she said. “As more organizations, businesses, cultural institutions, restaurants, public spaces and community initiatives emerge, there is an increasing need for a place that helps connect all of those pieces. The Center doesn’t have to do everything itself. Its greatest value may be in connecting people to the people and organizations already doing the work. The Union can serve as one piece of that larger ecosystem, while the Visitors Center can help residents and visitors discover what else North Omaha has to offer.”
The estimated $2 billion in new investment (spent and pending) pouring into the community comes from several sources, including federal dollars, state recovery grant funds, City of Omaha TIF funds as well as foundation and entrepreneur investments. Variously known as The Street of Dreams and The Deuce in its heyday, when live entertainment and businesses of every kind thrived there, North 24th fell on hard times following civil unrest, white flight and urban renewal. It has found new stability in anchors North End Teleservices, Omaha Economic Development Corporation, The Omaha Star, Union for Contemporary Art, NOMA, Fair Deal Market, Great Plains Black History Museum (GPBHM), Culxr House, and newly renovated Salvation Army North Corps. Major projects on the drawing board are new NOMA and GPBHM facilities, Star museum expansion, and a much anticipated but still unrealized North End mixed use development project.
Streetscape upgrades by the North Omaha Business Improvement District have given the corridor a clean, fresh look, making it a prime staging area for the annual Christmas in the Village and biennial Native Omaha Days. Christmas in the Village last December was, Jeffery said, the center’s “coming out party.”
Adding stability are North 30th Street anchors Highlander Village, Metropolitan Community College Fort Omaha campus, Salem Baptist Church, Nebraska Urban League and Charles Drew Health Center.
Coming potential game-changers include:
– Inland Port Authority North Omaha Innovation Zone
– Malcolm X Memorial Foundation expansion
– Mount Moriah Intergenerational Center
– Expansion of world boxing champion Terence “Bud” Crawford’s B&B gym and youth academy
“All of that stuff is going on, Things are popping,” Love said.
What had been missing was a dedicated entity that not only informs residents and tourists about North O’s legacy, including great figures it’s produced in various fields, but that connects folks to the community’s landmarks, attractions and assets that range from historical and entertainment sites to eateries, stores, churches and parks.
Enter NOVC, aka, “The Soul of Omaha.”
“We have the luxury of helping facilitate all of these other projects in a hospitality or transportation or educational sort of way,” Love said. “We will always be the hub attached to all these things. We’re proud and honored to be at the center of all of that.”
The Union’s Lakesha Green sees “tremendous potential for the center to become an important gateway for people to discover the history, culture, businesses, artists, organizations and community assets that make North Omaha unique”
“North Omaha has an incredible wealth of cultural and historical treasures, but one of the challenges has always been making those resources easier for residents and visitors to discover and navigate,” Green said. “Ultimately, I see the center as a potential front door to North Omaha – a place where someone can walk in, learn about the community, receive a recommendation, discover an event or organization, and leave with a reason to explore another part of North Omaha. That kind of connectivity can have a significant cultural, social, economic impact over time.”
She agrees with Jeffery and Love that a true market test for its impact will come with Native Omaha Days next August.
“Native Omaha Days brings people back to North Omaha from across the country and creates an incredible opportunity to showcase everything happening in the community,” Green said. “Having a centralized visitor resource that can provide information about … attractions would be extremely valuable. It offers an opportunity to help visitors experience more of North Omaha beyond the events specifically associated with Native Omaha Days.”
The event can’t come soon enough for Jeffery.
“Oh, man, we’re so excited,” Jeffery said. “That will be the first Native Omaha Days we will have been open. We’re already talking to various families that have a lot of members that come back to make sure the center gets on their itinerary.”
Year-round though, Jeffery said, “Part of our charge is to help inspire people to go explore North Omaha, helping them understand where they can eat, shop and spend time at other places there are to visit. We love that piece.”
In a bid to market North O statewide the center applied and got approved as an official stop for the Visit Nebraska (Nebraska Tourism) Passport Program, which Jeffery said “has been a joy.”
“We’ve had several people come in who’ve completed the entire Passport Program,” she said. “It’s exciting for them and us because they wouldn’t have gotten here otherwise.”
Staff educate visitors about a display of hometown heroes owning a national imprint (Symone Sanders, Terence Crawford) and a timeline of groundbreakers who achieved firsts (Bob Gibson, Marlin Briscoe, Cathy Hughes) featured in photo montage wall displays.
“If you’re not from Omaha you don’t know that Omaha has culture, history, greatness because the people on that wall, even though they have a national or international footprint, you don’t associate them with Omaha,” Jeffery said.
Even some Nebraska natives and residents, she said, are unaware of that history and these figures.
“North Omaha is a place I dare say that many residents take a little for granted, Many that have left here may have forgotten about the jewels that are here,” Jeffery said. And many that don’t spend time down in North Omaha may be completely blind to the fact of how historic a place we have and the beauty that’s here.”
That’s where NOVC comes in.
“It has in so many ways created the roots for discovery,” Love said, “even for folks taking part in family reunions and looking for something to do.”
Doris Moore joined some 30 loved ones from St. Louis, Atlanta, South Carolina and Omaha for a July family reunion that visited NOVC.
“Staff were friendly, professional and provided captivating information on the contributions of some of Omaha’s finest,” Moore said. “Many of my guests were unaware of the impact of Omaha natives to the nation and/or the world. On our follow-up call, several relatives stated that this was an interesting highlight of the trip. In addition to the North Omaha Visitors Center, we visited the Great Plains Black History Museum and the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation.”
Being a destination and connecting point is the very ecosystem effect Jeffery and Love envision.
“We’ve had folks from some really big family reunions come through here and other North O venues,” said Jeffery “We’re having conversations with some of our largest families about making the center part of their activities.”
Nicole Mitchell belongs to one of those families. She’s eager for friends and loved ones to experience it.
“NOVC is exactly what the community needs,” she said. “This is more than a traditional community center, it is living knowledge and expression of North Omaha’s culture and identity. It is a place to learn, remember, celebrate and discover. Most importantly, it gives North Omaha a place to tell its own story, on its own terms, honoring the people and history that shaped the community while creating opportunity and a stronger future for generations to come.”
Besides having “a cool energy and vibe,” she said, “It’s a place where everybody knows your name.”
“We’ve expanded our imagination of what types of events are even possible,” Jeffery said. “Whether anniversary celebrations, birthday parties, women’s events, community gatherings, campaign rallies, we’ve covered the gamut.”
Its coffee shop, gift store, conference room, lounging area and Wi-Fi accessibility help it fit most any small occasion.
As of August, she added it’s served over 2,000 customers and held over 100 events in the venue.
Attracting and serving Black conventions is a goal.
“That’s the next phase,” Love said. “We’re going to lead that effort of selling North Omaha nationwide.”
The intimate facility is also a cozy destination as a work or hangout spot.
“I see the excitement of people coming in and finding their space and making it home,” Jeffery sad, adding it’s a place where personal, social, business compacts get made. “There are intentional and by chance meetings and decisions.”
The synergy that happens there, she said, has some referring to it as Black City Hall, the moniker given the original Fair Deal Cafe on North 24th.
NOVC’s a go-to spot for Omaha resident Merritt Smith for business meetings or chilling with friends.
“It’s a nice place to connect with real, old school Omaha people,” Smith said. “That’s a feeling. It’s a warm expression. It’s a real friendly atmosphere. I can come here for an hour or two and somebody I know is going to walk through the door. I love coming down here.”
The center is in some ways the culmination of two decades worth of North O tours Love has led.
“‘The vision for the need for something like the center goes back about 20 years when I first started to do walking tours of North Omaha,” he said.
What began as guided tours by foot evolved into charter bus tours. Steeped in history and dripping charisma, he and his tours became much in demand. People can now book them through the center
“The Nebraska Tourism commission gave us a visionary award almost two years ago and we’ve begun to work very closely with Visit Omaha,” he said.
He finds it ironic he’s being lauded for something he couldn’t get people to take seriously.
“It took awhile for folks even within North Omaha to get a hold of it. I don’t think Nebraska or the city or North Omaha understood the potential of what the center and its pieces could mean to North Omaha going forward,” he said.
Even when tangible change became evident and the rationale for a center was obvious, he said the initial request for funds was turned down. He feels part of the reason was fatigue among potential funders over his beating the drum of tourism so long.
He said he can remember “so many times where I would go to meetings and talk about tourism” and get raised eyebrows or blank stares.
“All the years prior the city didn’t even consider North Omaha as a tourism center. What would we tour? But as times changed that scenario changed and then me and Veta began to understand North Omaha had all the attributes to become present and future a great tourism venue with an impact on economic development,” he recalled. “Once people figured that out, then things happened. About four years ago we began to put some imagery together on what a center would look like.”
Then the project was awarded a $950,000 grant from the state’s North & South Omaha Recovery Grant Program administered through the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.
With funds solidified and committed, Jeffery said the team secured the former site of the North Omaha postal station and Salem Pantry as the center’s home. The building’s owned by Omaha Economic Development Corporation (OEDC), whose executive director, Michael Maroney, is glad to add the center to a North 24th corridor still in need of more venues and consumers.
“The Visitors Center is a welcome addition to attracting new people to the area,” he said. “OEDC rehabilitated the building in collaboration with the center and is currently leasing it to them. As North Omaha is beginning to see substantial development occur, the center is well positioned to help people connect the past to the present and the future.”
NOVC’s primary designer was Davielle Phillips with Holland Basham Architects. He gave the digs a contemporary openness without neglecting cozyness with its public and semi-private spaces, and a cool vibe without sacrificing warmth with its display walls and blend of wood, tile and natural plus ambient lighting.
A key partner in helping shape the center’s strategy and branding was Omaha firm Stable Gray, who also created NOVC’s “Firsts history timeline” wall design.
The strategy leans into a kind of it-takes-a-village philosophy.
“It’s understanding that when it comes to economic development there’s a need for all our our zip codes to play a major role in the economic growth of the community and the city,” Jeffery said. “Looked at in that context the visitor’s center makes sense because it allows us to create something that can generate funds, provide a gathering space where there was none, serve the community and create ecosystems in the ways we’ve been able to, and continue to develop where Preston’s vision started, with tours. Not to mention the center’s full service coffee shop (Martha’s) that employs people. The gift shop supports the wares of local vendors (artists, authors, food product makers). All of it started coming together.”
Love and Jeffery leveraged their skills to push things forward. Coming from a banking, economic development and community engagement background in Missouri focused on empowerment, opportunity and public-private partnerships, Jeffery was hired to lead the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce in 2023. She was its first and only African American president and CEO. After leaving the chamber she stayed in Omaha. Her husband, Tony Jeffery, is an ordained minister and after pastoring stints he now directs the Empowerment Network’s Cradle to Career program.
Meanwhile, Jeffery and Love forged a friendship and partnership.
“Preston became a great friend,” Jeffery said. “We took on some endeavors together.”
Helping get the center imagined, funded and built was “a blessing,” she said, “because not being from North Omaha it sped up my learning process.”
She’s gotten to meet many figures feted there, including Radio One founder Cathy Hughes, who visited the center.
“Were trying to get all of the living honorees here. We’re working on getting world boxing champion Terence “Bud” Crawford. Omaha Mayor John Ewing is heavily involved and a great fan. Former Omaha City Councilwoman and Nebraska legislator Brenda Council comes in often. Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers is here. We’ve had Nebraska’s longest serving state senator, Ernie Chambers, in the building.”
Complementing Jeffery’s technical expertise is Love’s heart.
“I was the visionary and she had experience being a catalyst in other parts of the United States with big projects that accentuate the community,” Love said. “…I had the vision. Veta had the experience. It took us a while to really realize that. I don’t know that we designed it that discreetly but that’s what it has turned out to be, and it’s a great marriage.”
“And so I’m here because the need was here,” Jeffery added. “It also allowed me to be part of creating something that’s going to lead us into the future.”
She and Love look forward to adding names and pictures of new heroes and trailblazers on the walls.
“The legacy of the Love family will get diluted over time and they’ll be many other legacies rooted in the center,” Love said. “That will make me happy.”
“I think the true measure of legacy building is creating legacy behind you, and that’s what Preston’s doing,” Jeffery added.
That extends to young people he’s trained now leading guided tours.
“Everything we can do to preserve and pass on means that it gets to live on into perpetuity,” she said.
Jeffery can identify with visitors struck by how much North Omaha has to offer and she’s glad to be part of sharing that story.
“Being new to Omaha and learning so many different facets of this community, I’ve been able to see the beauty and significance of this community. It’s well worth preserving and celebrating,” she said.