Fly Together takes longtime Creighton-Kiewit partnership to new heights
Read more about Fly Together, the nearly $300 million initiative constructing and upgrading 11 new or reimagined recreational, athletic and outdoor spaces located on Creighton’s east campus and adjacent to the new 17th Street corridor.
The corridor will act as a “front porch,” welcoming Omahans and guests with its direct connection to the city's new urban village, the Builder’s District, home of Kiewit Corporation's headquarters.
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By Micah Mertes
The Kiewit name has long held strong at Creighton University. Now, the parallel projects of Fly Together and the Builder’s District taking shape in Omaha’s north downtown will bring each institution’s home base closer together than ever.
Anchoring the urban village is Kiewit Corporation’s headquarters, a 203,000-square-foot facility completed in 2021. The 10-block, $650 million Builder's District — developed by Noddle Companies and backed by Kiewit Corporation — has continued to grow significantly since then.
The Builder’s District will offer 600 apartments of prime living space for thousands of Creighton students, faculty and staff, as well as a world-class hotel, office space and locations for retail, dining and entertainment. (Read more about the Builder’s District here.)
“This is another chapter in the story of the longtime partnership between Kiewit, Creighton and Omaha,” said Trent Demulling, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Kiewit Corporation and trustee of the Peter Kiewit Foundation.
“As long as this city and these institutions have been around, they have worked hard to make Omaha, this state and the broader region stronger. That tradition goes back to our company’s modern-day founder, Peter Kiewit.”
Peter Kiewit, who passed away in 1979, was both the builder and benefactor to some of Creighton’s most notable facilities.
One of Kiewit’s first significant public donations went to Creighton in 1964 for the construction of Kiewit Hall, which started as a women’s residence hall before later expanding to all students. A decade later, Kiewit made the lead gift to construct the Kiewit Physical Fitness Center.
In the decades since Peter Kiewit’s passing, both the company and the foundation have made transformational gifts to support Creighton scholarships, programs, athletics and capital projects.
The Peter Kiewit Foundation, for instance, provided the funding for Creighton to acquire several properties and expand its athletic and residential facilities across the east side of campus, now making way for the Fly Together projects that will blend the University with the Builder’s District.
“Peter cared deeply about two things: education and Omaha,” Demulling said. “And Creighton University was and continues to be right at the intersection of the two. He knew that higher education and long-term, sustainable prosperity worked in unison, and that anything positive for Creighton was positive for Omaha. And vice versa.”
In addition to his philanthropic support, Peter Kiewit played an active role in Creighton’s development. He formed close friendships with former University presidents Rev. H.W. Linn Jr., SJ, and Rev. Carl Reinert, SJ.
(Subsequent Kiewit Corporation CEOs such as Ken Stinson, HON’24, Bruce Grewcock and the late Walter Scott, Jr., continued this tradition.)
In 1968, Peter Kiewit became one of the charter members of Creighton’s Board of Trustees when it was expanded to include lay members. The same year, he received an honorary Doctor of Law degree at Creighton’s commencement.
And in 1978, at the University’s centennial gala, Kiewit was declared a “Founder of the University” by the Board of Trustees, the Creighton president and in the name of the Society of Jesus. He was only the second individual to receive the honor at Creighton (the first being Mabel L. Criss, HON’62) and one of only a handful of laypersons at Jesuit universities in the U.S.
At the honorary event, Kiewit said that Creighton's progress can be measured by its new buildings, its new programs and the performance of its faculty, but he considered the best measurement "to be the character and performance of its graduates."
Around the time he received the honor, Peter Kiewit celebrated the parallels between the Kiewit and Creighton families — and the city they helped build together.
“Both the Creighton and the Kiewit families were builders,” he said in a speech. “They both had confidence in the future of the West that brought them to Omaha. They both had the courage, stamina and enthusiasm to accomplish what they set out to do.
“Creighton and Kiewit both believed that with hard work and total commitment, almost anything could be accomplished.”
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