North Omaha Grocery Store Moves Closer to Groundbreaking at 25th and Lake

For years, conversations about food access in North Omaha have centered on what the community does not have. A new project near 25th and Lake is preparing to turn that conversation toward what the neighborhood helped create.

Heart Ministry Center is moving forward with plans for a roughly 24,000-square-foot, full-service grocery store at 2511 Lake Street designed with direct input from North Omaha residents.

The project is scheduled to break ground Sept. 19, 2026, marking a significant step toward bringing another source of fresh, accessible groceries to an area where residents have long faced limited full-service grocery options.

What makes the project particularly noteworthy is how extensively community voices were included in its development.

Heart Ministry Center gathered feedback through 425 community surveys and seven focus groups, giving residents an opportunity to weigh in on what they want and need from a neighborhood grocery store.

More Than a Place to Buy Groceries

The planned store could also become a neighborhood employer.

Plans call for approximately 30 to 40 local jobs, adding an economic-development component to a project primarily aimed at improving food access.

Heart Ministry Center plans to operate the grocery store as a social enterprise. In addition to hiring from the broader community, the organization says employment opportunities will be available to graduates of its Fresh Start job-training program.

A neighborhood grocery store can have an impact well beyond its aisles. It can mean a shorter trip for a family buying dinner, easier access to fresh fruits and vegetables for seniors and residents without reliable transportation, and paychecks for people who live in the surrounding community.

Residents Helped Shape the Store

Community feedback is influencing more than the building itself.

Residents identified issues including affordability, evening and weekend hours, security and local hiring as priorities.

The store is expected to offer fresh produce, meats and everyday grocery essentials. Plans also call for a full-service butcher shop.

Heart Ministry Center says the store will not sell alcohol or tobacco and will not include gaming machines.

The project also plans to include community space and employment opportunities designed to extend its impact beyond grocery shopping.

A Significant Location

The location carries particular significance for North Omaha.

The North 24th Street corridor was historically one of the centers of Black business, entertainment and community life in Omaha and was once known as the Street of Dreams.

Bringing a full-service grocery store near 25th and Lake places the project within that larger history of commerce and community life.

What Black Omaha Will Be Watching

The Sept. 19 groundbreaking is the beginning of the story, not the end of it.

As part of BlackOmaha.com's Village Development Watch, we will follow the project as it moves toward construction and opening.

Among the questions we'll be watching:

• How many of the promised jobs go to North Omaha residents?
• What will grocery prices look like?
• Which culturally relevant products will be carried?
• Will Black-owned and North Omaha businesses have opportunities to become vendors?
• How will community feedback continue to influence the store?
• When will construction be completed?
• When will the grocery store officially open?

For North Omaha, the significance of the project will ultimately be measured not simply by the building that rises at 2511 Lake Street, but by who benefits once its doors open.