By Steve Jordon, Omaha World-Herald, Neb. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
May 25--Grandmother's Restaurant at 8989 West Dodge Road, a dining favorite in midtown Omaha for nearly 25 years, will close within 30 to 60 days, and the property will be sold to a developer, co-owner Dean Rasmussen said Thursday.
Road construction along Dodge, 90th Street and Indian Hills Drive, and plans to change the access to the property were factors in the decision, Rasmussen said, but it was the developer's offer that prompted the sale.
'It was the right price at the right time,' he said. 'We weighed the economics of it and made the business decision to sell.'
Rasmussen, whose principal partner in Grandmother's Inc. is former Sen. Bob Kerrey, declined to name the developer or the price. He said the developer didn't disclose plans for the building or for the land, which covers about two acres.
Methodist Health System, which owns the property east of the restaurant and has been expanding its campus, is not buying the land, said Steve Long, president of Methodist.
Walgreen's, which has four drugstores under construction in Omaha, has no plans to build there, according to a spokeswoman in the chain's corporate office in Deerfield, Ill.
The southeast corner of the busy 90th and Dodge intersection is prime commercial real estate. Street reconstruction there is intended to improve traffic flow and access, said Charlie Krajicek, traffic engineer for the City of Omaha.
Rasmussen said Grandmother's will shutter the restaurant and remove the equipment and furnishings before the sale closes in 30 to 60 days.
He said he hopes as many of the restaurant's 85 employees as possible will switch to jobs at the company's six other Omaha restaurants -- Grandmother's at 82nd and L Streets, four Don & Millie's and Tony Roma's at 132nd Street and West Center Road.
The company also has Grandmother's and Don & Millie's restaurants in Lincoln.
Since it opened in 1978, the 90th and Dodge restaurant has been successful and developed a strong clientele that continues to this day, he said. 'It's been a great location.'
Rasmussen said he began thinking about the restaurant's future as plans for the street work got under way because the construction causes temporary access problems for some customers.
And permanently closing the frontage road that runs on two sides of the restaurant raises long-term questions about the restaurant.
A planned new entrance would have brought cars into the restaurant parking lot at the unattractive back of the building, next to its trash container.
Rasmussen said Grandmother's considered an extensive renovation of the restaurant and other options but hadn't put the property up for sale when the developer made an offer.
'This just popped up,' he said.
The corner was the last piece of the Indian Hills property owned by the Swanson family, which founded Swanson Foods, Rasmussen said.
Grandmother's paid about $360,000 for the land and constructed the restaurant after opening the other Grandmother's restaurants in Omaha in 1973 and in Lincoln in 1976.
What will be done with the proceeds from the sale?
'We'll probably build more restaurants,' he said, although there are no firm plans today. 'We're always looking for good locations.'
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(c) 2002, Omaha World-Herald, Neb. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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