Steve Neiger has started his term as president of NAIOP Southern Nevada as it kicks off its monthly educational breakfast sessions this week and said getting the federal government to make more land available for development is the No. 1 issue for the organization in 2026.
Neiger, a principal and managing broker of CAST, has been a member of the commercial development organization for more than 15 years and has served on the board for a handful of years. He also has served as chair of the Government Affairs Committee after being on it for several years as a member.
NAIOP launches its monthly breakfast educational meetings Thursday at The Orleans discussing the key insights that will move the commercial real estate markets in 2026. Panelists include Peter Kroner, director of national industrial market intelligence at Avison & Young and John Restrepo, principal at RCG Economics. Kyle Nagy, a founder and director of CommCap Advisors, will moderate the panel.
Q: What is NAIOP and who are its members?
A: It is the premier real estate development trade organization in the United States. Anybody in the process (of development) from dirt to a building full of businesses listed for sale are our members. I believe we have the most comprehensive brain trust in Southern Nevada. We have the most experience and knowledge across so many different professions and trades. Our members offer up that knowledge and expertise to help our community whenever we are called upon.
Q: What is your goal as president in 2026?
A: There is a lot going on at NAIOP. It is a great organization with a lot of volunteers who do incredible things every year. We’re going to keep doing that and be a public gathering space for the business community. We’re also going to continue pushing on education and advocacy, which is something I worked very hard on with government affairs. Over the years, it has grown and evolved to be an incredibly impactful and active group of folks. There’s a lot of issues our community continues to face. We will help our leaders deal with them by developing coalitions with other growth-minded trade organizations and continue advising and supporting our leaders through the public and private sectors for the best interest of our community. NAIOP is the voice of reason in the room in a lot of cases, and I want to be able to continue to be that and be an asset.
Q: What do you want to educate and advocate for in your term?
A: Every issue the commercial real estate development industry faces. There’s quite a few. There are issues we help with on the local level, state level and federal level. Obviously, land is a federal issue. Land is the biggest issue. There are a lot of different approaches and perspectives and a lot of different efforts from folks to try to make that happen. There are a lot of efforts at the local level to push through administratively with the federal government to get more land outside of the (federal disposal boundary). It takes an act of Congress, which is very difficult.
Q: How concerned is NAIOP about the availability of land?
A: I think it’s our biggest issue. If you look at it from the economic development perspective, keep in mind NAIOP’s always had the mentality of what’s good for the community is good for the commercial real estate development industry. Economic diversification and growth are good for the community and important for our growth as well. Fortunately, there are a lot of great organizations in our valley and state that are working on that and NAIOP is one of them. We’ve already lost out on billions of dollars in economic development opportunities because great companies want to move here, but we don’t have enough contiguous parcels large enough and ready in the near term to build a new headquarters in Southern Nevada. That will continue to be an issue.
Q: What are you looking for at the state level?
A: Our priority is economic diversification and helping the governor and elected officials at the state level find reasonable solutions to the challenges we face. That changes every legislative session.
Q: What about the local level?
A: We have developed a lot of great relationships with the different municipalities; and little issues that come up are development related, and larger issues come up that we try to be an asset and resource for. NAIOP has a group within the Government Affairs Committee that makes it a priority to meet at least once a year with all the municipalities and Clark County to work through procedural issues.
Q: How many members does NAIOP have?
A: 800. We are in the top 10 of the entire country, which per capita is significant. We’re probably the smallest metropolitan area in the top 10 largest chapters in North American, which is a great accomplishment. It speaks to the great number of people that we have in this town.
Q: What functions does NAIOP have?
A: Our committees have the best events in the state from mixers to golf to bowling to the most informative guest speaker panels in town. Our breakfast programs are the best place to get the most informed opinions on the most relevant issues in Southern Nevada. They are open to the public so everyone is welcome to them. For 2026, I would like to see more people from outside of the commercial real estate development industry at our breakfast programs.
Q: What is the state of the commercial real estate development industry, starting with retail since that’s your background?
A: NAIOP covers all sectors of commercial real estate. The primary ones are office, retail, industrial and multifamily there as well. Each of them have some issues they are working through but Southern Nevada as a market is good for all of the sectors. Fortunately, we’re not nearly as affected by some of these challenges affecting other parts of the country. That speaks to the strength of our economy and strength of our people.
Q: Anything specific with retail you want to mention?
A: Low vacancy rates generally mean you need more of the product. Retail has been challenging to develop since the internet and e-commerce. The face of retail and what the shopping center looks like and different types of retail spaces from strip centers, to lifestyle centers to regional malls have all evolved. There’s still a lot of needs out there, and there are several parts of the valley where those needs aren’t being met sufficiently.
Q: What are you expecting for the economy in 2026?
A: I think we’re pretty optimistic. Obviously, 2025 came with a lot of uncertainty from the national level and globally with geopolitics. The challenges and uncertainty of the global economy and everything that’s going on concerned a lot of folks and most of that concern has been addressed. There is a lot of pent-up optimism for 2026, and I think we will see a lot of that pent-up optimism play into a lot of growth and economic activity. We’re very hopeful. Uncertainty is not great for growth and the business community, and as that uncertainty dissipates you will see a lot more folks get back to work and do a lot of great things.
