Mayor Mike Evans has done much of Gretna's city business from his truck or from local coffee shops. He told KETV that the new Community Complex going up under the water tower off Highway 6 will give him his first office. The $33 million building is due to open in February 2027. It will sit on the east side of the highway, where drivers heading into town will see it.
Back on McKenna Avenue, City Hall, the Old Fire Hall, the main library and the children's library are all for sale. According to the mayor, the money from selling old city property is one of three sources paying for the new complex. So the new building and the future of downtown are tied together. Whoever buys those four buildings will shape McKenna Avenue for years, and the city has said it will pick buyers on more than price.
What the New Building Puts Under One Roof
Right now, Gretna's adult library and children's library run out of separate buildings. At the new complex they will share one. City administrator Paula Dennison told KETV the adult and teen library will be on the second floor and the children's library on the first.
The rest of the building goes well beyond city offices. Here's what the city and KETV have described:
- City Hall and city offices, plus room for more staff as the city grows
- Space for weddings, celebrations and larger meetings, which the city's Fall 2026 Mayor's Newsletter calls "much-needed"
- A teaching kitchen that can be rented
- A makerspace with machines open to the public. "Anyone can rent the machines," Dennison told KETV. "Whether they're crafters, sewers, or need 3D printers."
- A community hub area and a promenade, with a mixed-use development around the building
The building is also sized well past the Gretna of today. Dennison told KETV it has enough city and community space for Gretna to triple or even quadruple in size. "As the city grows, we can finish out space as well as add to either wings running north and south over the next 100 years," she said. "We're going to build it once."
The city's Community Complex page is where updates will be posted as the opening gets closer.
The Price Tags on McKenna Avenue
The library buildings and City Hall have been listed for sale since late spring 2026, according to the mayor's fall newsletter. In August, KMTV reported the asking prices. City Hall and the Old Fire Hall have to be sold together.
| Property | Address | Asking price, August 2026 | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| City Hall + Old Fire Hall | 204 N. McKenna Ave. | $1.5 million, sold as a pair | Described as historic in KMTV's August report |
| Main library | 736 South St. | $500,000 | Building dedicated June 14, 1992 |
| Children's library | 119 N. McKenna Ave. | $350,000 | Opened February 21, 2012, in a former post office that later housed The Coin Emporium |
Together the asking prices come to $2.35 million, a small slice of a $33 million project. The city has never presented the sales as its main funding source. Evans told KETV the building will be paid for with bonds, state grants and the sale of old city property. "We're not going to affect taxes at all," he said. Since the dollar amount is small, how the city picks buyers matters more than the price it gets.
Why the City Is Looking for "Stewards"
Austin Obermeyer is the real estate representative working with the city on the sale. He was blunt with KMTV about what the city wants. "The city's main motivation for selling these buildings in part is monetary that they get a fair price for their buildings, but the biggest thing for the city and what they're looking for is like I said before stewards of these buildings, people that care about downtown, people that care about the city of Gretna," he said.
In the same KMTV report, he was just as specific about the kind of use the city hopes for:
"We think the best next use for them is some sort of business, businesses that will bring an energy to downtown that they're looking for, a vibe hopefully somebody that can kind of create this halo effect."
The process gives residents a way to follow along. Every offer goes through the city, and the City Council votes on it. The mayor's Fall 2026 newsletter said the Council was "evaluating several exciting proposals" for the properties. Council agendas and meeting packets are posted in the city's Agenda Center.
The newsletter describes the move as "an exciting opportunity to bring new businesses, jobs and amenities to our evolving downtown." City officials told KMTV they hope to move into the new building at Gretna Crossing Park and leave the old ones by late February or March 2027.
A Library That Keeps Moving to Keep Up
This won't be the library's first move. It has changed buildings each time the town outgrew the last one, and it has often moved into buildings meant for something else. Here's the history from the Gretna Public Library:
- 1929: The library started in the town's fire barn.
- 1937 to 1938: Standard Oil gave the Gretna Women's Club an abandoned gas station at 253 S. McKenna Ave. It was dedicated as a library on May 31, 1938.
- 1992: The current main library building at 736 South St. was dedicated on June 14.
- 2012: The children's library opened on February 21 at 119 N. McKenna. The building had been the community post office in the 1960s and later The Coin Emporium.
The 2012 move worked the way the city now hopes the sale will work in reverse. An old downtown building was rebuilt for a new public use. Now two library buildings are going back on the market, and the city is asking buyers what they would do with them.
The new building keeps a piece of that history. Evans told KETV that a mural of historic Gretna will greet visitors on the first floor, and some bricks from the old buildings will be built into the new structure. "We're just real proud of where we came from," he said.
The Blocks the New Owners Will Join
Whoever buys these buildings will land on blocks that have already been changing. A January 2026 Gretna Media feature named several newer businesses on McKenna Avenue. Among them were Candle House, Kathy's Bar and Grill, which took over the former Brag N' Rights space, and Wander + Wonder Kids Play Cafe, which had recently opened. Grow Omaha reported in July 2025 that Wander + Wonder was going in at 120 N. McKenna, next to Prim Studios. That address is one number off from the children's library at 119 N. McKenna.
That mix tells the Council what's already working on the street. A kids' play cafe, a candle shop and a bar and grill each draw people for different reasons and at different times of day. They're the kind of foot traffic Obermeyer's "halo effect" depends on. The children's library has drawn families to that block since 2012. Whatever replaces it will either keep that traffic coming or change who walks the block.
Obermeyer summed up the stakes for KMTV: "Any city that has a healthy downtown I think has a healthy environment across the board, I think that if you can keep that soul of the city and take care of the historic part of it I think everything just grows around that."
Between Now and the Move
The new building's park already gets busy before the doors open. The Gretna Area Chamber's free Gretna Community Turkey Trot runs Thanksgiving morning, November 26, from 8 to 11 a.m. at Gretna Crossing Park, 20907 Jansen Drive. There are three-mile and one-mile routes, and organizers ask everyone to bring nonperishable food for the Gretna Neighbors Food Pantry.
Until the move, the main library at 736 South St. and the children's library at 119 N. McKenna stay where they are. After the move, McKenna Avenue gets its next set of owners, chosen by Council vote with downtown in mind.
Charlie and Trista Stewart have spent their careers in construction and development, so they read a sale like this one by the building itself. A 1992 library, a former post office and a City Hall paired with an old fire hall each come with different renovation scopes, costs and timelines. If you want to talk through what it takes to reuse an older downtown Gretna building, or what new neighbors on McKenna could mean for your own property, The Home Team offers a free consultation.
