Mayors discuss future of business in the Las Vegas Valley

Las Vegas Valley’s city leadership put up a united front while discussing the state of business in the region.

Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley, Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero and North Las Vegas Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown gathered Monday at The Orleans Hotel and Casino for a Meet the Mayors Business Power Luncheon.

“The three of us are very close. We work together. We lunch together,” said Berkley. “I think that’s very important for the entire community that all of the mayors are working well together.”

The event featured a question-and-answer session moderated by Vegas Chamber President and CEO Mary Beth Sewald and Hugh Anderson, chief wealth strategist for Hightower Las Vegas. Conversations centered around each city’s developments and financial challenges.

“Sometimes a business will come to us that’s not right for Henderson, but it may be a fit for North Las Vegas,” said Romero. “We work across jurisdictions as well to make sure a win for Southern Nevada is a win for all of us.”

Berkley spoke about Las Vegas’ developments, including a $32 million parking garage in the Arts District and new housing developments in Symphony Park and the Cashman Center.

Berkley’s main concerns for the business development in the city of Las Vegas were water and homelessness.

“If there’s going to be a limitation to our growth, it’s going to be water,” said Berkley. “You can’t manufacture water, and the federal government just decided to remove, I think, they want to cut our water supply by 71 percent. That’s unacceptable, and we’re going to be fighting that because that is something that cannot possibly work with the city of Las Vegas.”

Berkley used the water discussion to spotlight the partnership between Southern Nevada Water Authority and Israeli technology.

“Southern Nevada Water Authority does a remarkable job in husbanding this very precious resource, and they work very closely with the Israelis,” said Berkley. “A lot of what the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the mechanism they utilize to continue to stretch the water for all of us, is Israeli technology, and it has served all of us well.”

Goynes-Brown spoke optimistically about ongoing construction of Hylo Park and the new Nevada State University campus.

“There’s always collaboration between our jurisdictions, and I think that’s very important,” said Goynes-Brown. “I also know that we do a pretty darn good job of water conservation here across the state of Nevada.”

Romero spotlighted the Haas Automation facility, which she says will bring up to 2,000 jobs to Henderson. To ease Haas’ workforce pipeline concerns, the city worked to create a training program to accredit people looking to become proficient in advanced manufacturing for their facility, said Romero.

“We have businesses coming in that are just really diversifying our economy and making it so that we can sustain through the ups and downs that are happening in the economy,” said Romero. “We have a very pro-business leadership team in the city of Henderson.”

Event guest Bryan Fukuzawa works with local workforce development as the Vice President of Mission Programs at Goodwill of Southern Nevada. Fukuzawa attended the event looking for insight about what developments are coming to town in hopes of creating a pipeline of qualified people for upcoming jobs.

“I really loved to see the alignment that we have within … the city of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson,” said Fukuzawa. He said how having continuity between the cities helps his company with its initiatives because it doesn’t have to come up with different business strategies for each area.

Suzette LaGrange, managing director of Avison Young, a global commercial real estate firm, also attended the luncheon.

“I’m very involved in the development that happens here,” said LaGrange. “We have three of the most dynamic leaders. I think they’re all pro-business. They’re all about getting things done.”

Contact Kalohe Danbara at kdanbara@reviewjournal.com.