Applied Underwriters Inc. may be best known as a global risk-services company, but with Heartwood Preserve, the company has taken on a new role: developer. Spanning 500 acres at 144th and Pacific Streets, with 250 acres south of Pacific and another 250 acres extending north to Dodge Road, Heartwood Preserve is a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly destination designed for gathering, living, working, shopping and recreation.
And Omaha’s natural beauty sits at the heart of Heartwood Preserve. Applied Underwriters has designated approximately 20 percent of the total land for greenspace that includes Heartwood Park, which, for the past two years, has been hosting year-round events, underwritten by Applied Underwriters and offered to the public for free. Events include concerts, outdoor movies, a kids activity club, kite festivals, Winterland ice rink, and many more.
Heartwood Preserve recently rolled out a new Friday evening farmers market event, pickleball courts and is working on “The Barn,” a state-of-the-art events structure adjacent to the park. When completed, the development will feature eight miles of bike paths and walking trails, all alongside native grasses and more than 10,000 trees. The Greenways System also serves an important purpose: 14 sculptural limestone basins were designed to store as much as 55 million gallons of water onsite. Not only are the basins beautiful, but they also protect all of Heartwood Preserve as well as neighboring homes and businesses from potential flooding.
A strong desire to give back to the people of Nebraska led Applied Underwriters Chairman Steve Menzies to create Heartwood Preserve. “The state has been a great source of individual employees and business accumulation since the company opened its operations campus here in 1998,” explains Jeff Silver, Applied Underwriters’ executive vice president. Silver sits on Heartwood Preserve’s architectural control committee, which ensures the development meets Menzies’ unique vision. “Steve was not interested in just putting buildings on land. He wanted to create a place. He imagined a home for Applied Underwriters, for our staff, and the Omaha community at large. Heartwood truly represents Omaha’s next chapter.”
Heartwood Preserve is intended to be a true community, in which generations live down the street from one another and families can walk to nearby restaurants or events. The overwhelming interest in Heartwood Preserve is a testimony to Menzies’ goals. The commercially zoned areas are 90 percent spoken for and the housing developments — The Arbour, Broadmoor, The Estates and Spruce — are filling quickly.
Work, Shop and Play
Heartwood Preserve’s beginnings were serendipitous. Menzies proffered a deal with the DeMarco family for its 250 acres of land at 144th and Pacific. Around the same time, Boys Town offered Applied Underwriters the adjacent 250-acre parcel of land north to Dodge Road. “It has always been interesting to me how the Boys Town property also was exactly 250 acres,” Silver says. “There’s no rhyme or reason to it; it’s like it was meant to be.”
In 2016, with 500 acres to develop, Heartwood Preserve was born.
Among Menzies’ top priorities for the development was a state-of-the-art office building for Applied Underwriters’ 1,000 employees. This month, employees begin moving from three buildings in Omaha’s Old Mill business park into their new 270,000-square-foot office space within Heartwood Preserve. The building boasts its own data center, electrochromic glass that tints itself throughout the day to minimize glare and promote energy efficiency, an underground parking garage, two car washes and an 80-foot atrium, all while maintaining 50 acres of natural habitat.
While Applied Underwriters’ new headquarters began taking shape, BMW of Omaha was the first business to open in Heartwood Preserve about six years ago, followed by Valmont’s world headquarters (Valmont provides agriculture and infrastructure products and solutions globally). Since then, a variety of national, regional and local tenants have made a home in Heartwood Preserve’s 2 million square feet of Class A office space. Single- and multi-tenant, as well as build-to-suit leases, are available. Among them are Carson Group, PayPal and Union Bank & Trust.
Lanoha Real Estate is developing The Row at Heartwood Preserve, a 40-acre mixed-use property that serves as the heart of the development. Olsson, an engineering and architecture firm that provided engineering services for the first completed building in The Row, consolidated its 300 local employees into the second and third floors in June. A 160-room boutique hotel under Marriott Bonvoy’s Autograph Collection is slated to open in 2027.
Shopping and dining options already open to the public within Heartwood Preserve include 30 Hop, Apiary Social Club, Charleston’s, Gunderson’s Jewelry and Mahogany Prime Steakhouse. Capital Grille, a nationwide fine-dining establishment, will soon locate its first Nebraska restaurant in Heartwood Preserve. Woodhouse Spa, a resort-level luxury spa with 91 locations in 25 states (not affiliated with Woodhouse Automotive Group), is also slated to open its doors this fall.
Finding a Place to Call Home
The people of Heartwood Preserve will create the vibrant community Menzies envisions. To ensure multiple generations are interested in making Heartwood Preserve home, various types of housing are available, including some homes unlike any others in Omaha.
For renters, Broadmoor offers market-rate studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment homes. Amenities include hidden parking, a two-level fitness center, swimming pool and co-working spaces. Move-in is scheduled to begin this month. In addition, Spruce will offer single-family rental homes with garages, alleviating the down payment required on a house. (Spruce also constructed Aerie Blue Sage, which is a rental community across 204th Street from Elkhorn South High School.)
The Estates, which consists of 50 half-acre-plus lots for single-family custom dream homes, is sold out. However, there are lots available in The Arbour, a 30-acre parcel. This residential development will feature roughly 150 custom single-family homes and 14 dual-family homes (more dual-family homes will be developed depending upon interest), as well as 60 rowhouses, in which only five homes share walls. The Arbour Building Group, a partnership between local custom-home builders G. Lee Homes and Silverthorn Custom Homes, is the creative powerhouse behind the neighborhood.
Greg Frazell, co-owner of G. Lee Homes, says Applied Underwriters’ team had a distinctively urban vision for The Arbour. The lots are narrow, resulting in houses approximately 25 feet wide, but these homes top out 10 feet taller than traditional homes, at 45 feet — creating the vertical, dense setting Applied Underwriters’ team sought.
Although there are specific floor plans for buyers to choose from, Frazell and Matt Caniglia of Silverthorn Custom Homes still customize each home for its unique topography while meeting Applied Underwriters’ architectural control committee’s goals and homeowners’ specific needs.
“Each home will have either traditional access — the garage and entryway are on the public street — or urban access, where entry can come from the public street or a green space and the garage enters from a rear alley,” Frazell explains. “A house may have a level-one garage with a level-two entry or vice versa. The topography of the specific lot determines the entry. Then we apply a custom concept specifically to the buyer: They may have five kids and need this many bedrooms or have grandkids who visit occasionally and only need two bedrooms or need an elevator because they are aging in place.”
Because of The Arbour’s density, building materials are an important part of the neighborhood’s design. In addition to being consistent in color and texture with the rest of Heartwood Preserve, Frazell says durability was a top concern for Applied Underwriters. Fiber-cement siding will be installed on every home, and each roof will feature Class 4 hail-resistant shingles. “We have had hailstorms and tornadoes come through recently,” Frazell notes. “We don't want to disrupt the neighborhood with contractors having to fix things after a weather event, so durable exterior products are important.”
The intense focus on the exterior of The Arbour’s homes dovetailed into high-level finishes inside. Kitchens include Miele appliances, a German brand known for elegance and technology. These thoughtful features, as well as Heartwood Preserve itself, are what Frazell says will draw buyers to The Arbour’s unique homes. “The amenities that Heartwood Preserve is bringing into the development, the way that Applied Underwriters invested in greenspaces, the walkability of the development, all of these things are what have had people interested in this specific development for years,” he says.
Creating a Lasting Legacy
For the local companies — often competitors — who have committed years of working together to make Menzies’ vision a reality, Heartwood Preserve is a unique and rewarding career point. “Instead of building and selling houses like we’ve done, Matt and I are working together to figure out different infrastructure for water availability, overseeing building sequences to maintain greenspaces for homes that have not been built yet — so many things not traditionally in our wheelhouses,” Frazell says. “We know we have one shot at this, and I think because of that, we put that much more thought into what we're doing.”
Frazell underscores that Heartwood Preserve is special because Applied Underwriters is not a developer. Menzies’ distinctive vision for the community already is receiving national attention for its thoughtful strategies. For example, Fast Company bestowed a 2025 Innovation by Design Award to Heartwood Preserve for its Greenways System. It’s only natural that an insurance company would take a proactive approach against flooding in its development, especially as threats of extreme rainfall continue to grow. The U.S. National Science Foundation reports extreme rainfall events in the U.S. could become up to 20 percent more severe within the next 45 years.
“This was Steve’s vision,” Silver remarks. “Where others saw drainage and detention ponds, Steve saw greenways and prairie. Where others saw land, he saw a future center of Omaha.”
As new businesses open, families move in and community spaces come to life, Heartwood Preserve is steadily becoming the destination Menzies envisioned years ago. Thoughtfully designed to balance growth with environmental stewardship, the development offers opportunities to live, work, shop and connect in one place. In doing so, Heartwood Preserve is creating not just a development, but a community designed to serve Omaha for generations to come.
“Where others saw drainage and detention ponds, Steve Menzies saw greenways and prairie. Where others saw land, he saw a future center of Omaha.”
Omaha's Next Great Gathering Place
Heartwood Preserve is more than a development — it's a vision for how a community can grow while staying connected to the things that matter most. Spanning 500 acres in west Omaha, the mixed-use destination brings together housing, shopping, dining, recreation, greenspace and business in one thoughtfully designed environment.
What makes Heartwood Preserve especially exciting for Omaha is its commitment to accessibility and community. Residents and visitors alike can enjoy concerts, outdoor movies, farmers markets, pickleball courts, walking trails and expansive green spaces designed for gathering and connection. At the same time, innovative features like the Greenways System help protect neighboring properties from flooding while preserving the area's natural beauty.
As new businesses open, families move in and community spaces come to life, Heartwood Preserve is becoming a destination where people can live, work, shop and play without leaving the neighborhood. It's a bold investment in Omaha's future — one that celebrates growth, conservation and community all in the same place.