Denny Sciscoe is an Omaha native who graduated from Burke. He pursued a degree in construction engineering at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. During college Sciscoe worked part time as a pipe insulator around the metro. His decision to pursue construction engineering came from seeing project manager’s pull up to job sites in nicer cars and less dirt under their nails. Before graduating, Sciscoe got a position as a project manager at a local construction company and continued this job post-graduation.

The company Sciscoe worked for did a couple of jobs with Lund, which is also where his cousin was working at the time. Seeing the freedom his cousin had access to was very appealing to Sciscoe. The freedom is ultimately what drew him into real estate. Sciscoe is the director of industrial realty at Lund Company. Though the job is a 9-5, Sciscoe gets to set his own schedule. He can pick up his kids whenever need be.

Siscoe’s area of expertise is in industrial real estate. He looks for warehouses for shipping, storage, workshops etc. In 2018 and 2019 Amazon began catapulting industrial real estate and covid blew the industry into the atmosphere. People were couped up at home ordering goods online, so everyone was looking for more warehouse space. “The anticipated growth of 5 years happened in 12 months,” Sciscoe says.

The most challenging thing affecting industrial real estate right now is finding space. The demand is high, so finding buyers for properties is not an issue. There is also plenty of land, but the infrastructure of available land doesn’t exist. The plots of land available need to get sewer lines, power lines, roads, all of which may be more expensive than they are worth. We’re seeing a lot of growth in Southwestern Omaha along highway 50 and highway 370, due to the interstate access. Bellevue and Council Bluffs are becoming popular for industrial real estate due to their available labor and access to I-29 and I-80.

Cold storage warehouses have been mixing in with industrial. Cold storage has become a buzz word in the industrial real estate space because they are expensive and challenging buildings to build. Cold storage warehouses are freezer/cooler housing foods or medicines. Insulation and climate controls are needed to keep the building at the temperature necessary for the housed goods.

Some people hear industrial real estate and think of smoke fumes and gray skies, however, the new warehouses being built do not fit that mold; they are clean and well ventilated.