Omaha is fortunate to have Warren Buffett as a lifelong resident; or perhaps an even greater benefit is that so many of Berkshire Hathaway’s early investors — friends and family of Mr. Buffett, now multimillionaires — still live in Omaha and support the city’s economic and cultural endeavors. Many Berkshire investors, along with other Omaha residents and corporate entities, made generous donations, either individually or through foundations, to the city’s Joslyn Art Museum, the Durham Museum (the former Union Rail Station), the Holland Performing Arts Center, the University of Nebraska Omaha and the Omaha Community Playhouse. In addition, they have supported countless civic projects, research centers, downtown real estate projects, schools and scholarships.

Although Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s company, employs just 24 staff at its downtown headquarters, the firm’s purchases of more than a dozen Omaha companies, including the Nebraska Furniture Mart, Oriental Trading, Northern Natural Gas and Mid-American Energy, combine for an annual payroll of local Berkshire companies of $330 million and almost 8,000 employees.

“There is so much money in this community, and good things have happened because of the fact that my dad happened to make all this money for people. We have this wonderful group of shareholders who got very lucky and happen to be very generous,” said Susie Buffett, Warren Buffett’s daughter, to Omaha World Herald business reporter Steve Jordon, for Jordon’s recently published book, The Oracle & Omaha.

While the success of Berkshire and the generosity of its investors have provided wonderful benefits to the city, it is not the main reason for Omaha’s unique business culture or its low unemployment rate of 3.2 percent. Affordability; a well-educated, hard-working labor force; and business-friendly state and city regulations set the stage for Omaha’s reputation as a good place to live and do business.

In 1863, when the Union Pacific Railroad opened its headquarters here and started building the nation’s first transcontinental rail line from Omaha to the West, the city became one of the country’s leading business centers. Brick manufacturing, breweries, smelting, cattle trading and stockyards all followed on the coattails of the railroad business, laying the groundwork for Omaha’s 150 years of a corporate-friendly environment.

Today, the city hosts headquarters of five Fortune 500 firms (Berkshire Hathaway, Union Pacific Railroad, ConAgra Foods, Peter Kiewit Sons Construction and Mutual of Omaha), as well as TD Ameritrade, West Corp., Werner Enterprises, Valmont Industries and, since 1917, Omaha Steaks. Omaha ranks eighth among the nation’s 50 largest cities in billionaires per capita and in the number of Fortune 500 companies with offices in a city. No other U.S. city ranks as high on both lists.

Within the past 10 to 15 years, major private and public city projects like Aksarben Village, CenturyLink Center (Qwest Center until 2011), ConAgra’s riverside downtown headquarters and the adjacent Heartland of America Park sparked Omaha’s urban transformation, and even more striking projects followed. Seven years ago, the $92 million, James Polshek-designed Holland Center opened downtown, quickly becoming one of the country’s finest performing arts centers. The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, a graceful 3,000-foot walking and biking bridge spanning the Missouri River, rises 60 feet above the water connecting Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Omaha’s riverside redevelopment district. Opened in 2008 at a cost of $22 million, the white cable-stayed bridge, illuminated at night in a rainbow of colors, is the city’s most iconic structure, capturing Omaha’s vision to become a more dazzling, culturally oriented city.

Other downtown projects include the 2009 addition to the 400,000-square-foot Gallup University Riverfront Campus building on the Missouri River. The second phase of the glass-sheathed Riverfront Place condo opened in 2011 near Kerrey Bridge. A $44 million, glass-cube Gavilon headquarters building is scheduled to open this month across the street from Union Pacific’s gleaming headquarters tower, and a new Hyatt Place (the first Hyatt in Nebraska) will open in 2014.

The attractive green-glass, 2-year-old Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska building is adjacent to Aksarben Village, an ongoing mixed-use development west of downtown with residential, retail and health care projects expanding to the edge of the University of Nebraska Omaha campus. Another major development is Midtown Crossing, started in 2006 by Mutual of Omaha, a city firm since 1909. Midtown Crossing has become a vibrant urban district with upscale restaurants, a five-screen Cine-Dine theater, residential and office space, and an Element by Westin hotel.

Developers are maintaining historic building façades throughout the city while gutting interiors for spectacular urban living lofts and commercial space. The Burlington Train Station (1898); the Paxton building (1928); the Barker Building (1929); the Northwestern Bell Building (1950s); the Orpheum Theater (1927); and the Northern Natural Gas Building (1950), now called the Highline Building, along with structures in the more established Old Market area are much-desired business and living locations.

CenturyLink Convention Center © CenturyLink Convention Center

NoDo (north downtown), once a largely derelict, post-industrial section of Omaha, has transformed because of CenturyLink Center; the adjacent Hilton Hotel (a full-service Marriott is coming shortly); and the new 24,000-seat, $131 million TD Ameritrade Park, site of the College World Series. These venues have led to new hotels, restaurants and businesses nearby, including the Mastercraft Building, a former 140,000-square-foot, three-block-long, 1941 furniture factory that is ground zero for Omaha’s high-tech startup firms. Companies like Mind Mixer, q3systems, Vireo and Bingo Studios work in large, high-ceiling rooms with clerestory windows, brick walls and extremely fast Internet connections. Along with Kansas City and Des Moines, Omaha is considered part of the Silicon Prairie, where high-tech entrepreneurs find low rents, access to angel funding, nearby academicians and a casual family lifestyle. And it doesn’t hurt having Google’s new $1.5 billion data center just across the river in Council Bluffs.

“I think there’s a collective ‘we’ about building a high-tech community here and feeling like you’re part of something that’s bigger than you, but it’s early enough in the process that you can have a tangible impact,” said Omaha native Jeff Slobotski, co-founder, Silicon Prairie News. Slobotski’s Web publication receives almost a million unique visitors a year. Based in the Mastercraft Building, it covers high-tech entrepreneurs and technology conferences in the Midwest.

SCENIC DRIVES

Discover Omaha’s best-kept secret, its late-1880s boulevard system designed by H.W.S. Cleveland, now part of the city’s Green Streets initiative. Along the original interconnected 16 boulevards, some landscapes and streetscapes look much like they did a hundred years ago. You’ll also pass modern museums, cafés and shops. Obtain maps from the Omaha Parks Department.

For a half-day drive, head north on U.S. 75, passing Fort Atkinson State Historical Park, with hiking trails near the Missouri River. The highway becomes the Lewis and Clark Scenic Byway and continues north 60 miles through the early Nebraska settlements of Tekamah and Decatur. At Decatur, cross the river on the $1 toll bridge into Iowa and drive south on I-29 to Exit 75; pick up the Old Lincoln Highway (Route L20) before entering Council Bluffs and the bridge back to Omaha’s Riverfront District.

Or head south on U.S. 75 through Bellevue and detour to nearby Papillion, rated fifth Best Small City in the U.S. by Money magazine. Continue south on Route 75 to Plattsmouth, a town of 6,500 that was a small trading post in the 1800s and has retained much of its character. Browse along Main Street’s shops and see the 1892 Cass County Courthouse. Just 27 miles south is Nebraska City, a historic town with art galleries, museums, apple orchards, farmers’ markets and the Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Center. Have lunch, meander around town and return to Omaha in less than an hour.