.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;}
Roger Langpaul is a man who knows how to act on information.

The Greater Des Moines businessman has spent a good part of his career focused on real estate investment and management. He was part of the crew that launched the development of West Lakes; he has had an investment interest in the Davis Brown Tower in downtown Des Moines.

In a couple of years, Langpaul will be able to look at the new stadium for the Omaha Royals and say, “I had a piece of that.”

A big piece, all thanks to five women – one of whom is his wife, Maggie – and their fathers, Ed and Irv Schewe (pronounced Shee-vee), not to mention a phone call in February 2009 from an accountant who provided a piece of information about which Langpaul, an Omaha native who has lived in Greater Des Moines since 1987, was unaware.

Officials in Sarpy County, Neb., had put out a request for proposals to build a new stadium for the area’s Triple-A baseball team.

Langpaul represents his wife, her sisters and their cousins in Schewe Farms Inc., which operates farms purchased in the 1970s and 1980s by Ed and Irv Schewe as an investment that would help provide for their daughters.

One of those farms consisted of 310 acres located about 15 minutes southwest of Omaha, not far from Interstate 80 and linked to the outside world by five streets – five pathways for baseball fans to get into and out of a stadium. The Schewe brothers had an eye for “well-located” farms, Langpaul said.

“We answered the request for proposals, and the race was on,” he said.

Langpaul put together an offer to sell the county 31 acres for its stadium. His was the 12th and final proposal.

After making the offer, he also determined that the county could not afford to buy land and build the stadium, estimated to cost about $26 million.

He consulted with the sisters and cousins and persuaded them to give the land to the county in exchange for some concessions, namely that the county would pay for two streets, a lighted interchange and the extension of utilities to the park – and any future development the family would approve for the remaining 279 acres.

County supervisors accepted the offer after a consultant said it would be less expensive to build the infrastructure than to buy the land, which was estimated to have a market price of about $1.5 million.

“We weren’t on anybody’s radar; we just came out of nowhere and made our proposal,” Langpaul said.

The ballpark effort won Langpaul a “deal of the year” award from Nebraska’s Commercial Real Estate Workshop (CREW) Midwest.

Langpaul’s 360 Real Estate Services Inc. also has a family tie; his son, Chris, serves as secretary and treasurer and will guide the development of the remaining land.

The plan is to have a mix of commercial and residential development, with a focus on family-oriented entertainment.

The state has decided to build two dams on nearby watersheds, creating a 130-acre lake on the west side of the land. The lake will be maintained by the city of Papillion’s parks and recreation department, which has grasped another Langpaul idea: to build youth league athletic fields on part of the lake grounds.

After the city decided to run with that idea, Langpaul suggested that the Omaha Royals allow youth league playoff games in their new stadium.

“The Royals thought that was a great proposal,” he said.

The idea is to bring as many people to the development as possible, Langpaul said. The new stadium will seat about 8,000 fans, but there will be a need for restaurants and other attractions to keep people coming to the development.

Langpaul has identified about 19 acres that he hopes will be the location of a senior living center that would provide assisted and independent living units. He has floated ideas for an ice arena, also.

He believes that residential properties will be in demand at the development; a report shows that Sarpy County will have a shortage of such properties in the next two or three years.

Langpaul estimates that properties at the Schewe Farms development eventually will have an assessed valuation of $250 million. He notes that the Schewe brothers bought the land for about $2,000 an acre.

The family also has another connection to the stadium project. While operating their Standard Iron Works in Omaha, the Schewe brothers installed the first seats at Rosenblatt Stadium, the current home of the Royals.