Q&A: Sallie Doebler

By Buck Wargo

Monday, Feb. 28, 2011 | 3 a.m.

Sallie Doebler has a daunting task in front of her.

Her group, Southern Nevada’s chapter of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, has lost half its membership in the past three years. Its members have taken the biggest hit in the recession with job losses and lack of work because of the slowdown in construction.

Doebler, president of the NAIOP, was even caught up in that herself, handling business development for United Construction. The Reno-based company shut its office a year ago as development projects dried up in Las Vegas.

Doebler has since started a consulting company to work with contractors, engineers and architects to build relationships and lure business.

IBLV: What’s the state of your industry these days?

Doebler: I’ve seen in the past four weeks there’s starting to be a shift in strategic thinking with people. I think they recognize we aren’t going to have an instant turnaround. I think there’s more optimism. Some of it is tenant-improvement based. There have been a couple of good projects that have come in at a good size. I think people are recognizing that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. With business development and relationships you can’t wait for things to turn around and then start the process. You have to stay on the radar. It’s a very positive factor that people are changing their thinking at the beginning of the year.

When do you see projects starting to resume?

I think we’ll probably see 2012 if we’re lucky and maybe 2013. I think what’s interesting is brokers are telling me there’s a lot of empty product out there, but when you start pulling out the product that’s not going to be leased or sold until it’s reinvented, there may not be much marketable product out there as you think. It’s reinventing some of that product that probably shouldn’t have been placed out there to begin with. It’s not as bad as the numbers because some of that space shouldn’t have been built and can’t get filled.

What can be done?

Maybe they can change the footprint inside the building. So maybe something that wasn’t built as a call center can be turned into a call center.

What’s going to change things in your industry?

The big unknown is the effect on economic development. That’s the big push that everybody is on and NAIOP is center stage on that.

Are there opportunities to build?

If you look at a certain size of industrial, that product isn’t here. If you have a 300,000-square-foot user coming in, you may have to do a build-to-suit on it.

Are we going to see more companies close in 2011?

I think we’re going to see a continuation of it. People have done a pretty good job of having to reinvent themselves and redo their business model. There are going to be people who held on as long as they could and just can’t do it anymore. That’s too bad. To some extent it does correct the market, but there are some really good companies that have been caught up in this.

What is NAIOP?

Originally, NAIOP was known as the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. They rebranded it two years ago to Commercial Real Estate Association because our members were doing more than office and industrial. There was all this mixed use with retail. NAIOP is an umbrella organization related to almost anything in commercial development and real estate. It’s architects and engineers and attorneys and environmental specialists. It’s a pretty broad based.

What is the organization’s membership?

We’re just under 500. We had 985 in 2008. To a big extent, a lot of those are jobs that just aren’t here anymore. Companies like the one I was working for closed the local office, and that has a lot to do with it. One thing we’re really working on this year is really to show people the value of NAIOP. We have been pretty successful with that. It’s really a big focus for us.

What do you do?

There are three things that we always focus on: government affairs, education and networking. All of those are really important and what our members are looking for. But what I think with the challenging times one of our big focuses is government affairs. We’re really involved in the economic development process. We don’t feel we’re the solution to economic development, but we think we really are a big part of it. For so many years, the first connection with potential new partner in Nevada is with a broker and developer. We’re very often the first line of that. We are trying to figure out how we can best funnel that information to the people who can take it and run with it.

What is your response to Gov. Brian Sandoval wanting to spend $10 million for economic development?

It has been dramatically underfunded for a long time. It’s a start and shows a focus. It’s not going to be an easy fix, but we have to start. We have been talking about this for years and years and how do we do it? We have to do it now. Now it’s a matter of survival. The good news is people are saying, “We get that now.” We have to do what’s we can right now to get our economy back on track.

What’s the short-term solution?

It’s just finding people to come into the state and start filling up space.

How do you do that?

I think there’s marketing involved and targeting. There are a lot of good things about Nevada and about our school system that don’t really get promoted as good as we could. That’s a discussion we are having now: How do we get the good stuff out there?

But how can you say there are good things about the school system when the state is ranked near the bottom in the country in education?

UNLV for one, there are a lot of great things going on. Who knows it has Nobel Prize winners on staff there? It has students that have gone on to Harvard Law, and a really sophisticated biotech department. That word is not getting out. We know one of the great tie-ins to economic development is a great university system.

But when a university system is facing all these cutbacks, how do you have a great one?

It’s really a big challenge and quite frankly it’s a daunting one, and I applaud the (UNLV) president’s aptitude to recognize that. Despite what’s going on, he’s still going to make it the best university he possibly can. But this is something that’s going to be part of the discussion. I think we are starting dialogue.

What is NAIOP’s position? Is it important to make investments or just slash the budget?

We’re not going to tell the governor how to budget the state. We’re certainly in favor of anything that’s pro-business and what it takes to get to that point we’re in favor of. We are certainly going to support the university system. We can’t take a position on the budget aspect but we can take a position on what can we do to help the solution of getting more job recovery in Nevada. We’re going to leave a lot of that to the legislators because that’s what they’ve been elected to do. From our standpoint, we certainly applaud good fiscal responsibility. They’re evaluating a lot of the expenditures, period. And that’s healthy.

But how important are taxes to attract businesses, compared with investments for infrastructure and everything else?

What we do see more and more is that it’s not low taxes that bring companies to Nevada necessarily. I think that’s something everybody’s really agreeing on now, which is why the whole package is important of what makes this a good place for people to come and do business, and live and bring their families.

If a company is basing its decision solely on taxes, you probably don’t want that company in the first place.

There’s something to that. I think a lot of the tax issue is not only about bringing people here but it’s also a matter of the people here surviving. I think that’s what a lot of the tax issue comes from — to not put additional tax responsibilities on people that are already really challenged. It’s very difficult for companies in our industry that have already greatly reduced their staffs, and most companies have taken pay cuts. They have already pared down as much as they possibly can.

But how do you make companies want to come here, but be fiscally responsible?

I think one of the things it gets back to is what makes Las Vegas an attractive place to do business. Why do they want to come to Southern Nevada versus going to Arizona or another region? We have to give people a good reason to want to come.

What is the reason you give them to want to come?

There are good university programs. It’s the climate. We are certainly business-friendly. We have a big workforce. It may not be a high-tech workforce, but there’s a 24-hour workforce.

The state has been poor at diversifying the economy and luring companies. What makes you think it can be done now?

It’s a big challenge. Gov. Sandoval has been making it a focus. I don’t know that it’s been a focus that it has been now. I think everybody realizes we got to do it now. We are probably behind the eight ball.

You talked about short term, but what’s the long-term strategy for helping the economy and filling space?

They’re identifying clusters to go after (in the state’s blue ribbon task force on economic development). There are lots of great opportunities, such as medical, with the retiring population.

How realistic is it to believe we can diversify the economy?

I think when I moved here 15 to 16 years ago and someone said we’re going to have a world-class cancer facility and world-class Alzheimer’s facility downtown, I don’t think anybody would have believed that. To me, that’s a shining example of being able to make it happen.

So you’re optimistic?

I’m optimistic. I don’t think it’ll be easy, but I think it gets to be synergistic. We have a lot of good things going for us in Southern Nevada in general, and now it’s time to work together get off the political agendas and let’s get the state back on track.

What are you worried about?

One of the things we’re focused on is the potential to get a lot of renewable energy here. It’s not just getting the solar fields here. We’re getting the solar fields here, but it’s the manufacturing and research and development. The ability to have some of this land in an easy process is a pretty big factor.

What do you mean?

When you’re working with the Bureau of Land Management it can become an arduous process to get the land released. That’s a big focus of ours with the federal government.

What about the state?

Obviously a lot of state aspects are going to be taxation. One of the things that’s coming out that’s interesting is there’s a focus on using Nevada-based companies and Nevada-based employees to do some of these (government projects) as opposed to bringing people from out of state. I think that’s important.

How do you do that?

If you do a ranking system, you can do preferential rankings.

What are the other issues you’re watching?

Transportation because obviously we need a better highway between Las Vegas and Reno and Las Vegas and Phoenix to help move goods around.

What’s the mood of your members?

It’s definitely more positive in the past four weeks. They’re talking to people who are coming from outside of Nevada. Architects are getting busy again. There are a lot of retail tenant improvements going on. The feeling is that we are bouncing along the bottom, but it’s not the death spiral. People can look at this logically because they can kind of see the end of the tunnel. They have a feeling for what’s ahead of them so they can plan better.

What is it going to be like in five years?

As one of the guys said (at an economic development conference), don’t waste a good recession. This is the point where people need to rethink and retool the way they’re doing business. I think everybody is looking at their business model and asking, “What am I going to be in the market and how do I restructure my business?”

What do you see happening within the development community?

Hospitality will come back but construction is a different issue.

When do you see this turning around?

We see ourselves easing through it. I think 2012 is going to start looking better and 2013 is hopefully going to look a lot better. Everyone is concerned about survival right now.