Faced with a low
unemployment rate and a need for young professionals, Omaha and
Nebraska leaders must step up and build a more inclusive climate to attract and retain talented workers, several corporate leaders said during Friday’s commercial real estate Summit.
“We have to quit fighting the demographics,” said Michael Dunlap, Nelnet’s executive chairman, citing the resistance by two governors to issuing driver’s licenses to young immigrants brought here illegally as children. A presidential directive exempts them from deportation, and Nebraska is the only state that denies them driver’s licenses. A bill to reverse that policy advanced Friday in the Legislature.
Dunlap said many don’t want their state to be looked at like another “Arkansas or Indiana,” a reference to two states in the spotlight because of legislation that some said would sanction anti-gay discrimination. The Indiana legislation led some high-tech business leaders to speak out, and entertainers to cancel tours.
The Lincoln-based Nelnet head was a panelist — along with Clark Lauritzen, executive vice president of First National Bank, and George Little, chairman and CEO of HDR — at a workshop titled: “A View From the Top: How Our Business Leaders Are Planning for the Future.”
Lauritzen, noting the “mobile” nature of today’s
millennial labor force, brought up the need to be inclusive to compete
with other metropolitan areas. “If we’re not welcoming, they won’t move
here.”
And earlier, Tim Burke, CEO of the Omaha Public Power District, drew applause when he said chambers of commerce should take heed of how potential talent in other states are turned off by policies that don’t welcome certain lifestyles. “We have to talk about how these kinds of policies affect our state.”
The push toward more inclusive policies was among the themes that surfaced at the 26th annual Summit, which drew about 650 people to the CenturyLink Center. The event, founded by real estate lawyer Jerry Slusky of Smith Gardner Slusky Law, focused this year on reliance between business and real estate communities.
Barry Zoob of Colliers International, a co-organizer, noted Mayor Jean Stothert’s letter of support this week for the legislative bill that would allow driver’s licenses for young immigrants allowed to remain in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. Stothert was at the conference.
Zoob said such stands and support are relevant to the commercial real estate industry, which relies on business and job growth.
Also during the Summit, city and transportation leaders told participants that the 8-mile Bus Rapid Transit line from downtown to the Westroads is on track to be up and running in 2018. Not only is it expected to usher in $450 million in economic development along that corridor, but experts said it also can speed up and change the way real estate is developed.
Jerry Reimer of Urban Village said a midtown apartment complex his firm is working on could be done already if a parking structure had been less of a challenge and alternative transportation modes were available.
“How can it not be an economic stimulus?” he said of the rapid bus line.
Mike Moylan of Shamrock Development said more mass transit options would relieve the need for as much parking around downtown retail and residential projects. He said that could create more room for housing and, in turn, attract more retail services.
At a retail-related workshop, panelists said online sales are the driving focus of retailers big and small, but brick-and-mortar stores still dominate.
For most traditional retailers, online sales account for about 9 percent of business, but about 90 percent of transactions are still completed in a physical store. About 1 percent are made via catalogs, said Scott Morey, executive vice president of General Growth Properties, which owns Omaha’s Oak View and Westroads Malls.
The figures on online sales also mirror catalog sales when they were in their prime, Morey said. Online sales also go up about three to five times in a particular market when a retailer opens a store there.
Mall traffic is also up in high-grossing malls, Morey said, but consumers are becoming more targeted in their approach. Customers who used to average about five stores per trip are now visiting three. “The days of a retailer opening 1,000 stores at once are over.”
The challenge, said Mark Carson of Fat Brain Toys, is making sure the experience across different channels isn’t lacking.
“Sometimes bricks-and-mortars seem like they are competing with themselves online,” Carson said.
Fat Brain experienced in-store pickup as a growing trend. Up to 10 percent of online sales are picked up in the store during the holidays.
Also Friday, the team behind the Pacific Life office building at Aksarben Village received the Deal of the Year award. Development of the Year went to NuStyle Development for multiple projects.
Contact the writers: 402-444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com; 402-444-1414, paige.yowell@owh.com
Nebraska leaders must step up and build a more inclusive climate to attract and retain talented workers, several corporate leaders said during Friday’s commercial real estate Summit.
“We have to quit fighting the demographics,” said Michael Dunlap, Nelnet’s executive chairman, citing the resistance by two governors to issuing driver’s licenses to young immigrants brought here illegally as children. A presidential directive exempts them from deportation, and Nebraska is the only state that denies them driver’s licenses. A bill to reverse that policy advanced Friday in the Legislature.
Dunlap said many don’t want their state to be looked at like another “Arkansas or Indiana,” a reference to two states in the spotlight because of legislation that some said would sanction anti-gay discrimination. The Indiana legislation led some high-tech business leaders to speak out, and entertainers to cancel tours.
The Lincoln-based Nelnet head was a panelist — along with Clark Lauritzen, executive vice president of First National Bank, and George Little, chairman and CEO of HDR — at a workshop titled: “A View From the Top: How Our Business Leaders Are Planning for the Future.”
Lauritzen, noting the “mobile” nature of today’s
millennial labor force, brought up the need to be inclusive to compete
with other metropolitan areas. “If we’re not welcoming, they won’t move
here.”And earlier, Tim Burke, CEO of the Omaha Public Power District, drew applause when he said chambers of commerce should take heed of how potential talent in other states are turned off by policies that don’t welcome certain lifestyles. “We have to talk about how these kinds of policies affect our state.”
The push toward more inclusive policies was among the themes that surfaced at the 26th annual Summit, which drew about 650 people to the CenturyLink Center. The event, founded by real estate lawyer Jerry Slusky of Smith Gardner Slusky Law, focused this year on reliance between business and real estate communities.
Barry Zoob of Colliers International, a co-organizer, noted Mayor Jean Stothert’s letter of support this week for the legislative bill that would allow driver’s licenses for young immigrants allowed to remain in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. Stothert was at the conference.
Zoob said such stands and support are relevant to the commercial real estate industry, which relies on business and job growth.
Also during the Summit, city and transportation leaders told participants that the 8-mile Bus Rapid Transit line from downtown to the Westroads is on track to be up and running in 2018. Not only is it expected to usher in $450 million in economic development along that corridor, but experts said it also can speed up and change the way real estate is developed.
Jerry Reimer of Urban Village said a midtown apartment complex his firm is working on could be done already if a parking structure had been less of a challenge and alternative transportation modes were available.
“How can it not be an economic stimulus?” he said of the rapid bus line.
Mike Moylan of Shamrock Development said more mass transit options would relieve the need for as much parking around downtown retail and residential projects. He said that could create more room for housing and, in turn, attract more retail services.
At a retail-related workshop, panelists said online sales are the driving focus of retailers big and small, but brick-and-mortar stores still dominate.
For most traditional retailers, online sales account for about 9 percent of business, but about 90 percent of transactions are still completed in a physical store. About 1 percent are made via catalogs, said Scott Morey, executive vice president of General Growth Properties, which owns Omaha’s Oak View and Westroads Malls.
The figures on online sales also mirror catalog sales when they were in their prime, Morey said. Online sales also go up about three to five times in a particular market when a retailer opens a store there.
Mall traffic is also up in high-grossing malls, Morey said, but consumers are becoming more targeted in their approach. Customers who used to average about five stores per trip are now visiting three. “The days of a retailer opening 1,000 stores at once are over.”
The challenge, said Mark Carson of Fat Brain Toys, is making sure the experience across different channels isn’t lacking.
“Sometimes bricks-and-mortars seem like they are competing with themselves online,” Carson said.
Fat Brain experienced in-store pickup as a growing trend. Up to 10 percent of online sales are picked up in the store during the holidays.
Also Friday, the team behind the Pacific Life office building at Aksarben Village received the Deal of the Year award. Development of the Year went to NuStyle Development for multiple projects.
Contact the writers: 402-444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com; 402-444-1414, paige.yowell@owh.com