Planning and Competing with Douglas Obletz ’77

Doug Obletz’s development and project management consulting firm, Shiels Obletz Johnsen, has worked on many nationally recognized projects, including the design, construction, and operation of Portland, Oregon’s world-famous light-rail transit system and new streetcar lines. However, says Obletz, his firm is shifting toward developing complex, urban, mixed-use projects that combine mixed-income rental housing with local landmarks and large commercial uses, such as full-service grocery stores and, in one case, a public library.

“Owning and running this business over the last 20 years has been a huge endeavor,” said Obletz, “and it’s been a very rewarding part of living in Portland and working with the community on projects that ‘meet the market’ at an appropriate development scale and have broad public benefits.”

Obletz is also a successful, nationally ranked age-group duathlon competitor, qualifying in November for the Long Course Duathlon World Championships. Duathlons are typically run-bike-run races of various distances; Obletz’s championship race will include a 10-mile run, a 50-mile bike ride, and another seven-mile run. To compete in this event, he’s traveled the world with his wife, Rebecca (an Ironman World Championship competitor), and their two sons, also athletes.

Obletz says he has CC to thank for many of the skills that have made him successful — both in business and in competitive sports. “Skills that I learned on the Block Plan are still highly useful today, as far as the ability to organize and to concentrate all the way through the completion of a project,” he explains. He says the “interactive teaching experience” he had as a CC student is very similar to the team-oriented business environment he creates for managing complex development projects: “That has been instrumental in how I run my business.”