The Northern Nevada Business Weekly recently caught up with some of the region’s economic leaders to talk about the state of the economy and what residents and business leaders can expect in 2022 and beyond.
In August 2021, Phil Cowee took over as executive director of the Northern Nevada Development Authority, which serves the “Sierra region,” composed of Carson, Douglas, Lyon, Mineral and Storey counties. Cowee replaced Rob Hooper who retired.
The NNBW spoke in mid-January with Phil Cowee about the state of — and future potential for — the economy in rural Northern Nevada. The following Q-and-A has been edited for length and clarity.
NNBW: You've been Executive Director for NNDA for a little over four months now. What have you been up to since August when it comes to outreach to businesses in other markets to seek out attractive relocation opportunities?
Cowee: A couple of my priorities that I am really focused on, No. 1 is workforce development. I think that that's hugely important — not only for maybe workers that are looking for new skills, but also for our younger people coming out of high school. It's my belief that I don't think every kid needs to go to college, that I think that there's really, really great opportunities right now for young people to really get ahead quickly.
And then one of the other issues that I think is really important in our Northern Nevada area … obviously we hear about it every day is workforce housing. So, how do we try to get those opportunities and almost sell that to some of our counties that, in order to get business growth in Northern Nevada, we're going to have to provide some type of an affordable housing product that employees can get into.
NNBW: Would you describe 2021 as a successful year for the NNDA, a challenging year or maybe of somewhere in the middle?
Cowee: I would say it's been a very successful year. Obviously, we're getting a ton of interest from companies looking to come to Northern Nevada. Our area is very much ripe for a lot of business growth (helped by) the fact that we're a one-day truck transit from about 60 million people. Especially as we've seen over the last few months, this kind of supply chain breakdown of trying to get goods from overseas, there's a huge demand for trying to figure out how to onshore a lot of those products. And we've seen a tremendous interest also from East Coast companies that are looking to try to get West Coast presence. So that's another huge area … we're primed to get a lot of those companies as well.
NNBW: How do you foresee Northern Nevada adapting to this one-two punch we're feeling right now when it comes to both supply chain issues and a labor shortage amid the so-called “Great Resignation?”
Cowee: Yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of reading on that. I think November was the highest month ever recorded for people quitting their jobs. And it’s not only a Nevada problem. I think it's a U.S. problem. So, I think that that's one of our real focuses for the companies that we're trying to bring in. It's no longer a matter of bringing in call centers that pay $11 or $12 an hour — you're just not going to get the workforce.
One of the things that we really try to stress to companies is … you have to come in here with higher wages, because people aren’t going to be able to live in Northern Nevada and work at some of these companies if they're not paying the higher wages. And if they do come in and if they bring a workforce with them, there are other companies here that'll steal their workforce as quick as they can bring him in and pay him higher wages. So, it’s really become an area where, unless you're going to pay higher wages, it's going to be hard to locate here.
NNBW: When it comes to the housing market, median prices are rising and the middle class is being pushed out as more cash-heavy buyers flock to this region. Unlike the Great Recession, there's really no bubble that's going to burst. So, as agencies continue to attract more companies and workers, what can be done to address the housing challenges in this region?
Cowee: It’s a difficult issue. I mean, just the different jurisdictions we work with … if you talk about Douglas County, they'll pretty much say that they're looking for that higher-end person to come in and move into Douglas County, but they don't want workforce housing. They want to have companies, but they want their employees to either live in Lyon County or Carson and commute in.
Then you’ve got Carson, they're a little bit landlocked. I think Carson is they're doing a fairly good job as far as addressing some of the affordable housing needs, though — I know that they have some projects that are on the books that they're building to kind of address that need. With Lyon County … as far as the Dayton Valley goes, I think the political appetite right now is not to build affordable housing.
Another thing to that is the education piece, because when you say, ‘affordable housing,’ immediately people (think), ‘Section 8,” they think of those types of neighborhoods that are run down, but that's not really what we're talking about. We're trying to talk about some attainable housing for the workforce that's coming in. But even out in Mineral County, one of our smaller counties, they have the same type of problem to with workforce housing.
So, it's a problem that's all over the area. I know Lyon County right now looking at a lands bill (the Truckee Meadows Public Land Management Act). I know Washoe County is looking at the same thing. So, I think it's going to take some of that, trying to lower that land basis a little bit to be able to attractively build some affordable-type product, because right now, when you have a huge land base going into a development, then you have increased construction costs and increased labor, there's just not, there's not a lot of inputs that are going in there that you can cut to make housing affordable.
NNBW: It’s often said Northern Nevada is set up better than Southern Nevada to rebound from the pandemic and future recessions due to an economic shift the past 10-15 years from gaming and hospitality to embracing industries like advanced manufacturing and technology. How do you see this region's favorable position evolving in 2022 and beyond?
Cowee: There are definitely a lot of different skilled jobs that are coming in. One of the things that I look at for 2022 and beyond is that workforce development piece, really taking a lot of the workers that we have here and having them learn new skills for some of the jobs that are coming. I even look at like a lot of those hospitality workers in Southern Nevada — I mean, if they were to come up here, I mean, they could get a job this afternoon if they really wanted one. I mean, if you look around at all the ‘now hiring’ signs out there now, there's just so much opportunity. And now with Panasonic doing their new (campus) in Reno … we've kind of been called the little Silicon Valley of Nevada, and I think that that we're even going to see more of that, those tech and other skilled jobs are going to continue to come.
NNBW: What are the top goals of the NNDA for 2022?
Cowee: I think we're going to continue to work on workforce development, and we have some great partners in that, too. (Western Nevada College) has just been phenomenal as far workforce development. We've had meetings with companies and with WNC as far as how they can try to upskill some of the workers that they currently have … we've had those conversations already, and I think those will continue in 2022.
And again, with workforce housing — it's not something that's easily solvable, but I think the education piece that we can provide is just so important. I always hear these jurisdictions say that they want these companies to come, but they have to realize there has to be that that obtainable housing piece behind that, too. You can't bring a 300-person company into our area and expect that their workers are going to be able to live somewhere within a two-hour drive. I guess if you want to go out to Lovelock and commute in, there might be opportunities there, or in Hawthorne, but most people don't want to do that, so we just have to figure out how to build some affordable-type projects.
NNBW: Lastly, if you could go back two years before the pandemic and give business owners and community leaders a piece of advice, knowing what was to come, what would that be?
Cowee: It's been a wild ride. If I had some advice, it would probably be to just be agile. I've seen people adapt and change their business model, and in some of those business models, I don't think we're going to ever change back. For example, I have a local restaurant in Dayton where (the owner) adapted to the takeout model and did really quite well during the pandemic. Now his hours are 11-7, because basically he can get one shift of employees, and he doesn't want to do more, and I think he's figured out that can almost be more profitable than staying open that extra hour or two at night. So, a lot of this stuff I don't think is ever going to change back.
So, I think it's just “be agile.” You know, entrepreneurs have been tested like never before, and I think that a lot of them have done a tremendous job. Obviously, there were some that were probably on the cusp of going out of business before the pandemic that went away, but the ones that have stayed, I think are they're going to be well positioned for the future, and any other disruption that may come.
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