Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

SIX QUESTIONS:

Consultant says low taxes not enough to draw business here

sallie_doebler

Christopher DeVargas

Sallie Doebler, president of NAIOP, sees opportunities for growth in the industrial real estate market.

At a time when legislators are debating the pros and cons of whether to tax — and whom to tax — to help rescue Nevada from fiscal calamity, Sallie Doebler has a daunting task in front of her.

Namely, how to sell Nevada to prospective new businesses.

Although she describes herself as an optimist, without a doubt times have been bleak.

Her group, Southern Nevada’s chapter of the NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association, has lost half its membership in the past three years because of job losses and the slowdown in construction.

Doebler, president of the group once known as the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, 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 dried up in Las Vegas.

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

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, right?

There’s something to that. 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 who 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?

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.

How do you tout Nevada?

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.

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

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 to get off the political agendas and let’s get the state back on track.

A longer version of this interview appears in the current edition of In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication of the Las Vegas Sun and on the Web at lasvegassun.com.

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