Officials ceremoniously cut a ribbon for the Catalyst grand opening on the evening of Wednesday, June 28, 2025. Pictured from left are University of Nebraska Medical Center interim Chancellor Dele Davies; University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold; Koelbel and Company Vice President Dean Koelbel; Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen; and Greenslate Development’s Jay Lund and Clay Vanderheiden.
OMAHA, Nebraska (May 29, 2025)—The Catalyst building in the Edge District kicked the tires on its brand new facility last night with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting during a Grand Opening event.
The first of a three-phase development, the $97 million cross-functional building is about 170,000 square feet that will house a combination of research scientists, healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs and investor groups.
“This is huge for Omaha, huge for Nebraska and huge for generations and generations to come,” Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen told an estimated crowd of 150 during brief remarks.
Big Grove Brewery, an anchor tenant at the new Catalyst building, provided free drinks and food for guests during the grand opening event on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Big Grove is expected to open the doors to its restaurant and craft brewery in July.
UNMC’s portion of the investment was $29 million, which will amount to nearly 41,000 square feet of space. Much of that space will be dedicated to research including the addition of more lab space in later phases.
“But at the end of the day, until that exercise in research improves a human life, it is just that: An exercise,” University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold said.
Bringing together the researchers, entrepreneurs and UNeMed—UNMC’s technology transfer and commercialization office—into one building has the potential to create new connections and foster more innovative solutions, Dr. Gold said.
Additional speakers at the ceremony were UNMC interim Chancellor Dele Davies; lead developer, Dean Koelbel, Vice President of the Denver-based Koelbel and Company; and Corrine Wardian, the community manager at Catalyst.
According to a thorough report in the Nebraska Examiner, the Catalyst building is already 20 percent full with 18 tenants.
UNeMed is among that first cohort of foundational tenants: A seemingly perfect fit for an office that specializes in commercializing university innovations and discoveries. In the last five years, UNeMed has processed 526 new inventions from UNMC and UNO innovators, leading to 76 license agreements and 19 startup companies.
“The upside is we’re around people that are thinking like us, want to do work like we do,” UNeMed CEO Michael Dixon told the Nebraska Examiner.
Catalyst was built on the ashes of Omaha Steel Casting, an industrial tract originally established back in 1906. The old foundry provided steel in the construction of the state capital building in 1922 and produced artillery shells and amphibious landing craft that stormed so many beaches during World War II.
A key feature of Catalyst was in keeping a lot of that history intact and as a visible part of the now-modern facility.
“You cannot create this kind of stuff,” Greenslate Development’s Jay Lund told the Nebraska Examiner. “Once you lose it, it’s gone forever.”
Read the entire Nebraska Examiner report here: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/05/28/old-omaha-steel-plant-reborn-as-catalyst-medical-centric-office-hub-investment-reaches-97m/
