At its May meeting, the Omaha Inland Port Authority (OIPA) board approved insurance coverage to protect its operations and advanced a range of development initiatives, including the Airport Business Park and the proposed Innovation District.
The executive committee discussed housing opportunities and guidelines for public Zoom access to meetings, while the governance committee continued its recruitment of an executive director and work on updating OIPA bylaws. The operations committee announced that OIPA’s new offices will be ready for occupancy after May 1, and reported that 30 qualified candidates have applied for the executive director role. A shortlist will be compiled for interviews in June, and a potential board retreat is being considered for August to align strategic goals.
The real estate committee shared plans to collaborate with Spark, the Omaha Municipal Land Bank and other local organizations to shape growth within the port district. An at-risk analysis of the area was completed by Holland Basham Architects, who also submitted a proposal to create a housing master plan. The committee recommended creating a unified communications strategy for sharing development opportunities and encouraged OIPA’s participation in the upcoming “Reignite 2 Unite Developers” symposium in June.
The Community Advisory Committee is working with UNO to create a multilingual community engagement survey and plans to send members to Kansas City with OIPA board members to study other port models.
Meeting documented by Jeff French and Vince Furlong
Read full meeting notes here
