Brand-new developments are breaking out across the state of Nebraska. The Cornhusker State’s three major meetings destinations—Omaha, Lincoln and Kearney—are welcoming new hotels, entertainment options and major upgrades to airports and meeting spaces.
Hot off the presses, here’s Nebraska’s latest meetings news.
Omaha
Omaha is in the midst of $9 billion development including major upgrades to the city’s airport and convention center—the CHI Health Center.
CHI Health Center
Expected to be completed in 2027, the $200 million convention center renovation and expansion will add 24 meeting rooms to the mix, bringing the center’s total to 41 rooms.
Additionally, the expansion will add 90,000 square feet of space, bringing the center’s total square footage to 420,000. The center is also adjacent to an 18,300-seat arena.
The newly expanded CHI Health Center is booking into 2034 with leads pending for 2035.
On February 16, Omaha’s Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority (MECA) held a topping-out ceremony to commemorate placing the final beam in the convention center’s construction. Mattie Scheeter, vice president of sales and services at Visit Omaha, delivered an update on the construction progress.
“From June 2027 until September 2027, they’re going to move into the existing space so that everything cohesively matches,” she said. “It will be really nice [with] new bathroom updates, new fixtures; they just got new carpet. It’ll be one cohesive building. By 2028, we’ll have a brand-new convention center.”
[Related: Detroit’s Historic Hotel Renovation and a Convention Center Expansion in Omaha]
Omaha Airport
Less than five miles or, as Scheeter described, “two left turns” from the convention center, the Omaha Airport is doubling in size in a $950 million modernization project which will be completed by 2028.
Components of the renovation include parking modernization, a reconstruction of the terminal entrance, a new curbside roadway complete with a glass canopy and a streamlined TSA process.
“All of the food offerings are going to be behind TSA,” Scheeter said. “Right now, we’re a very pre-9/11 airport where you come and there [are] some bars, but then you go behind the TSA checkpoints and there’s one option in either terminal.
“Now once you get beyond TSA, there’s going to be a lot of local food options and coffee shops,” she said. “That’s going to be a cool first impression when attendees get to Omaha.”
A bonus for meeting planners and attendees, Omaha’s main convention hotels still provide complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport, “which is also a dying amenity in a lot of destinations,” Scheeter said.
“You could hop on the shuttle and you are at the front door of your hotel or the convention center usually in under 10 minutes.”
Downtown Streetcar
In a January interview with Adam Straight, CEO of MECA, shortly after he stepped into his new role, he joked, “We’re going to be great in ’28.”
In addition to the anticipated completion of the city’s convention center and airport developments, 2028 will also bring the debut of Omaha’s new streetcar, which attendees can benefit from when it comes online. The $421 million streetcar will have a stop near the convention center and its adjacent hotels.
[Related: From Super Bowls to Omaha: Adam Straight's Dynamic Meetings Career]
The three-mile route will run downtown and through two different Omaha neighborhoods. The streetcar will be free of charge.
“I think it’s going to be nice to have attendees of conferences be able to jump on and go through Midtown Crossing, go to the Blackstone District, loop back downtown and just see little hidden gems that are not but five minutes from downtown,” Scheeter said.
The RiverFront
The final phase of the $325 million development of The RiverFront, a 72-acre park managed by MECA, came online in 2022. The RiverFront can serve as an offsite venue for groups.
Scheeter said The RiverFront offers a lot of green space that groups can rent, including the Performance Pavillion and Event Lawns.
“It was three separate parks and they didn’t connect or lead anywhere,” she said. “The idea behind it was to connect it all, make it very pedestrian friendly, walkable and then add a ton of activations to downtown.”
The three parks—Gene Leahy Mall, Heartland of America Park and Lewis and Clark Landing—offer offsite activities for groups including volleyball, bocce ball and pickleball. Lewis and Clark Landing backs up to the convention center.
The RiverFront is walkable from the convention center, making it a seamless option for groups looking for an offsite venue without needing transportation.
“It’s just a really good time to be in Omaha,” Scheeter said.
Lincoln
Last year in Lincoln, nearly 500 hotel rooms joined the city’s downtown market. These additional rooms combined with airport renovations and an exciting entertainment development underway mean Lincoln is leveling up its meeting offerings.
Lincoln’s Latest Properties
Lincoln welcomed three new hotels in 2025—Residence Inn by Marriott Lincoln Downtown, Hampton Inn by Hilton Lincoln Downtown and Drury Plaza Hotel Lincoln Downtown.
The Drury property debuted as the brand’s first hotel in the state of Nebraska. The 210-room hotel boasts more than 2,400 square feet of meeting space for 288 guests.
The Hampton Inn is a unique property because of its residency in a 100-year-old historic building. Located in the former Gold’s Building, the renovation preserved the building’s original brick walls, concrete columns and 14-foot ceilings. The 103-room boutique-style hotel has one meeting space.
The Residence Inn brought an additional 122 rooms to the city’s market. Located In Lincoln’s Haymarket District, the property has a boardroom for 24 guests.
“It’s definitely a good time to check Lincoln out if you haven’t in a while,” said Derek Feyerherm, vice president of operations and development, Visit Lincoln, “just because of how many new hotels are online in such a short amount of time.”
Lincoln Airport
Lincoln Airport finalized a complete overhaul and expansion of its terminal in 2023.
“If you had gone to Lincoln before, it was an underwhelming experience flying into the airport,” Feyerherm said. “Now, it’s absolutely beautiful. They spent a lot of time on the design of it, and with that has come new flights into Lincoln as well.”
Here’s an update on new airlines and flights coming into Lincoln:
- Breeze Airways now offers flights to Orlando, Las Vegas and Orange County, California.
- American Airlines is joining the Lincoln Airport portfolio this summer. The airline will be flying to Dallas and Chicago.
- United Airlines is adding a seasonal flight to Phoenix.
“I don’t think any of that would have been possible had there not been a new terminal that was constructed to attract those business travelers,” he said.
[Related: 3 Big Ten Universities That Double as Meeting Venues]
A New Downtown District Is Coming
Lincoln is also starting construction on its main road that runs through downtown. The construction project will pave the way for a “music row,” which will consist of different, unique music venues, large and small.
The venues lining “O” Street will become the city’s music district. The project began this spring, and the final phase will be completed during the fall of 2027. The initial two phases will be completed by next spring.
Project “O” Street will improve infrastructure and provide better public spaces including landscaping, enhanced lighting and other amenities that support shopping, dining, festivals and foot traffic.
“We’re really going to see our music scene take off by having a dedicated music district in the downtown area,” Feyerherm said.
Kearney
With more than 150,000 square feet of meeting space, Kearney continues to grow. From major meeting hotels to new offsite venues and developments in the pipeline, Kearney is not only investing in its meetings market, but also the entertainment that makes events so engaging and memorable.
“There’s this underdeveloped land that I’m sitting on that is going to grow,” said Sarah Focke, executive director, Visit Kearney. “The development in this whole area is going to be entertainment-driven to help support new sales tax initiatives. In a year, I could probably state that two or three more entities have been announced or are being built.
“There’s only more to come,” she added.
With a population of over 35,000, Kearney is the gift that keeps giving. Catch up now with Kearney’s latest developments.
Drop Zone
Drop Zone is a golf and pickleball venue that serves as an offsite option for groups. The facility opened in early April.
“It’s a Topgolf hybrid,” Focke said. “There are 32 bays, there’s outdoor pickleball and an outdoor putting course.”
[Related: Getting Into the Swing: Fun Golf Games for Everyone]
Meeting specs at Drop Zone include two spaces for up to 60 guests. The venue also has a boardroom for 10.
“That is nice [and] something new that groups can take advantage of for evening entertainment,” Focke said.
Crowne Plaza
Kearney offers 2,000 hotel rooms destination wide. More than 170 of those rooms are at the Crowne Plaza Kearney by IHG, which came online in 2022.
The Kearney property is the sole Crowne Plaza in Nebraska, with 75,000 square feet of meeting space under one roof including 35 meeting rooms. The largest is a 14,400-square-foot ballroom that can hold up to 900 people.
The Crowne Plaza is attached to the 75,000-square-foot Younes Conference Center North.
The walkable campus on which the property is located features restaurants and more than 1,000 guest accommodations.
Kearney also welcomed two new Hilton properties in June 2025. The Tru by Hilton Kearney has 87 rooms and the Home2 Suites by Hilton Kearney has 63 rooms.
“One comment I’ve heard from meeting planners is they can see the pictures, they can read information, but when they get here they’re kind of blown away by everything that we offer for the size of our community—and we’re growing,” Focke said. “I think for the amount of hotel rooms, meeting space and restaurants that we have to offer, you just don’t see that in a [typical] 35,000-population town.
“Once people get here, they’re very surprised,” she added. “It’s very Midwestern hospitality.”
