by: Michelle Leach  |  published in: Midlands Business Journal

Metro growth is represented by the numbers, with the private sector netting 5, 100 new jobs for 12 months ending July and a 1.2 percent boost in home sales for the fourth consecutive quarter. In addition to development projects spanning the city core and farther West, initiatives associated with STEM jobs, entrepreneurship in targeted areas, and opportunities for existing businesses in the likes of international markets.

 

These factors are coupled with national attention such as a buzzy Forbes study picked up by Yahoo News, which ranked Nebraska sixth in “Best States for Business.”

 

“We’ve been buoyed statewide by the ag economy,” said the Greater Omaha Chamber’s Economist in Residence Scott Strain. “In Omaha, we grow steady and stable. We’re a diversified economy, and not really overexposed.”

 

In addition to highlights (net jobs, home sales) from its most recent Greater Omaha Indicators Report for August, Strain referenced its business barometer, listing new and expanding employers.

 

“The backbone has been really solid growth in education and health care services,” Strain said, with the latter eclipsing the former.

 

A notable example from the report is Strategic Health Solutions adding 70 jobs to the market.

 

Other expanding health care organizations on the list include Family Urgent Care of Omaha, Kohll’s Pharmacy and Home Care and Promontory Healthcare Cos.

 

Strain also highlighted high-growth sectors like technology, including financial software and data center, and in the biosciences.

 

To this end, Strain noted in conjunction with VP of Public Policy, Wendy Boyer, and via a partnership with The AIM Institute and research firm The MSR Group, the Chamber is embarking on a survey to identify companies’ potential need for computer science-oriented talent.

 

Findings will help guide universities, according to Strain, when it comes to developing or accelerating the volume of talent in this growth area.

 

The metro has a running start.  “One in the three people in the metro has at least a bachelor’s degree,” Strain said. “It’s an educated workforce.”

 

While not unique to Omaha, Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Economic Development, Cassie Seagren, highlighted the need to link educational institutions and the business community.

 

Overall, Seagren said the outlook, given what she’s seen over the first three quarters of the year “is very positive.”

 

“We’ve continued to see an upward tick in growth,.and that’s evidenced by the number of permits ,” she said, also noting the metro has regained jobs lost during the recession and then some.

 

Strain addressed the notion that net jobs were more than half those reported August 2012 (at almost 11,000), saying it’s not uncommon for growth to “ease off” after rapid boosts in the early stages of recovery.

 

Non-residential permits, via the indicator report, were higher year-on -year in the first seven months of 2013 in all but, in a seasonal nod, the winter months -January, February and March.

 

“The number of people I’m meeting with for projects is off the charts,” Seagren said, highlighting the metro earning Site Selection Magazine’s third-place honors for cities under 1 million people, and based off of the volume of economic development projects.

 

Seagren said, as of March, she attributes six businesses relocating to Nebraska to Omaha’s hosting the Industrial Asset Management Council’s bi-annual national conference, bringing together management and real estate execs and economic developers in one place.

 

“Some of them might have been ones we were working on leading up to the conference, but we got them here,” Seagren said, reinforcing the power of events to change the lingering perception of Omaha as a tumbleweed town.

 

Expansion across the metro, from west to a downtown resurgence, brings with it, its own challenges.

 

“From a city perspective, we need to keep up with the growth and make sure we have the resources necessary to accommodate that growth,” Seagren said. “It’s a Catch-22. Development does spur economic activity and revenue coming into the city via property taxes… but at the same time we must have a budget that can support where we’re going.  “The city will also be watching how statewide tax reform will unfold.

 

In the case of the Omaha Economic Development Corp., its carving out a new district, Fair Deal, this pays homage to the “Fair Deal Cafe” (“Black City Hall”) at 2118 N. 24th St. of cultural and historical importance to as a hub during the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s.

 

The district is multi-faceted, according to President Michael Maroney, who highlighted 40 apartments for seniors and five single family homes.

 

“The houses have been completed very recently and they achieved a five-star energy rating, “he said last week, noting senior development will be completed in 30 days.

 

To complement the area’s housing, the plan is to put in a learning center, “micro retailing” and artist studio space.

 

Maroney noted these initiatives play into revitalization of the North 24th Street corridor.

 

The Nebraska Business Development Center has also developed targeted North and South Omaha business workshops.

 

While State Director Robert Bernier said in late September that there were no business loans or starts emerging from its North Omaha-geared group, 23 of the 27 South Omaha businesses it counseled secured micro-loans to start or expand.

 

“The total was $119,790,”he said.  A new initiative for the NBDC involves partnering with the U.S. Commercial Service and SBA to deploy an international trade assistance work shop.

 

“They learned how to prepare for the international marketplace, including the process of sales, shipping and getting paid,” Bernier said.