By Alec Gorynski, Senior Vice President for Economic Development at Select Greater Omaha and Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, and Luke Peltz, Vice President at Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development
Every region has a familiar pitch: a skilled workforce, available sites, reliable infrastructure, competitive utilities, research institutions and incentives, too.
Every one of those things matters. But after years of working with companies deciding where to locate, expand, start or invest, we’ve come to believe that evaluating those factors individually misses the point.
Businesses don’t choose where to invest because a region excels at one particular thing. They choose places where everything they need to succeed already exists and works together.
That’s the thinking behind the AgWorks Corridor.
Spanning 11 counties across Nebraska and Iowa, the AgWorks Corridor wasn’t created to invent a new story about the Lincoln-Omaha region. It tells the story that’s already there. Surrounded by one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions, the corridor brings together research institutions, feedstocks, manufacturers, startups, workforce, infrastructure and established companies into a single agricultural ecosystem.
In other words, the AgWorks Corridor has all the ingredients businesses need to succeed.
That phrase — “all the ingredients” — has become something of a shorthand for us because it captures the difference between marketing individual assets and understanding how businesses actually make investment decisions. Companies don’t evaluate talent separately from supply chains. They don’t think about innovation without also thinking about commercialization, infrastructure and customers. They evaluate whether the entire system gives them the confidence to grow.
And that’s a different conversation.
Collaboration Over Competition: Where Everyone is Working Together
The strongest regions aren’t defined by one competitive advantage. They’re defined by how those advantages reinforce one another. And AgWorks Corridor brings together our whole region in the way that we’re already working.
Our city, county and state boundaries are less important than the ways in which this region gives businesses access to the people, suppliers, research partners and infrastructure they need to succeed.
By working together, we are presenting a broader range of sites, a deeper labor market, stronger research partnerships and a more complete business ecosystem than any one community could offer on its own.
It’s a better approach to economic development.
What Does “All the Ingredients” Actually Mean?
When we talk about the AgWorks Corridor having all the ingredients, we’re talking about much more than geography.
The region combines the assets companies need across every stage of growth from early research and product development to manufacturing, commercialization and global distribution.
It starts with proximity. Located in the heart of one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions, companies have immediate access to the inputs that power food production, industrial bio and advanced manufacturing. They are close to both the raw materials they depend on and the customers they ultimately serve. When supply chain costs can account for a significant share of operating expenses, that proximity becomes a competitive advantage.
Just as important is specialization. More than 700 companies employing 37,000 people across the agricultural value chain have created one of the country’s most concentrated agricultural business ecosystems. That concentration means businesses aren’t entering a market that’s still trying to build expertise. They’re joining one where experienced workers, suppliers and industry partners are already in place.
The region’s infrastructure strengthens that advantage even further. Nebraska’s 100% public power system, competitive electric utilities in Iowa, abundant water resources and multimodal transportation network give companies the reliability and capacity they need to scale efficiently.
Perhaps most importantly, those assets don’t exist independently. They reinforce one another. That’s what transforms a collection of regional strengths into an ecosystem.
Innovation Is Part of the Ecosystem, Not Separate From It
As we’ve continued developing the AgWorks Corridor, one lesson has become increasingly clear: innovation deserves a bigger role in the conversation.
And it’s bigger than startups. The region’s research institutions — which includes the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Innovation Campus and the University of Nebraska Medical Center — help companies develop new technologies, advance research and move ideas toward commercialization.
Connections to private industry create opportunities for companies to collaborate on research, test new technologies, commercialize discoveries and bring products to market faster.
For a growing business, access to research matters. Access to researchers matters. But access to an ecosystem where those relationships already exist is even more valuable.
Innovation isn’t another asset on the list. It’s woven throughout the ecosystem.
AgWorks Corridor Tells a Story That’s Already True
The AgWorks Corridor isn’t creating a new agricultural economy. It’s giving shape to one that’s been operating for decades.
The companies, research institutions, workforce, manufacturers and infrastructure have always been here. What’s changed is the decision to organize those strengths into a single regional story that reflects how businesses actually evaluate locations.
From a business decision maker and site selector perspective, the question isn’t where one city ends and another begins. It’s whether the region functions as an integrated place to invest, innovate and grow.
That’s the story AgWorks was built to tell.