I had the cover story again for the latest issue of L magazine. It was on Joe Hampton. I've always wanted to spend some time with him chatting and I'm glad I got the chance. He is a true leader of Lincoln. I've known his daughter, Lori, for quite some time now and I'm glad to hear that they enjoyed the story. That was very important to me.
Enjoy it for yourself.
Joe Hampton. By Brian Reetz
While many people have diplomas lining the walls of their offices, color photographs of completed projects are prominently displayed on the walls in the conference room of the Hampton Enterprises offices. They are beautiful photographs of the Cooper Branch of the YMCA of Lincoln, the First National Bank building at SouthPointe and the Grand Theatre in downtown Lincoln, among others.
Because the leader of Hampton Enterprises, Joe Hampton, is a doer, who’s never been afraid of a hard day’s work. Because of that, his successful company is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
“When I look back over 60 years, I arrived here with nothing and now I’ve got something,” Hampton said, who moved to Lincoln from his family’s little acreage near Chadron. “I’ve always had a strong belief to not be afraid to take that step forward but make darn sure your back foot is on firm ground before you lift it.”
Hampton moved from western Nebraska because he saw an opportunity as an electrical apprentice. When his mother needed medical attention, the family came down to Lincoln for hospital care. While Hampton was “roaming” around the town, he stopped into a few electrical shops and found that for the same job he was doing back home for 70 cents an hour, he could make 95 cents an hour in Lincoln, plus they paid overtime. So he moved to town and went to work in 1947. Working overtime as much as he could to gain some seed capital, Hampton was able to buy a lot for $400 at 41st and L Streets and on it he decided to build a house -- starting it in 1948 and finishing in 1949.
“I’d take a half day off on Sunday and go to church,” Hampton said of the long hours of building the house in his spare time. “That is the way you have to head. Having grown up in the 1930s, you are just instinctfully conservative and if you had a little money, you saved it.”
After some negotiating with the buyer, Hampton would eventually sell the house for $9,800, a profit of $800, which was a “fair piece of money at the time,” according to Hampton. It also gave him some more capital.
“I felt if I was successful with that house, I would build another one, so I kept going,” Hampton said. “In the late 60s/early 70s, I had built a couple of small office buildings for people so I decided that if it was a profitable investment for them, why wouldn’t it be for me?” So his first office building was down at 56th and South. “I built that and just kept going,” he added. “As I could acquire capital or lending capabilities I would build a small office or retail building and keep it. Today that represents 600,000 square feet of commercial space, which is a strong underpinning of the company as it exists today.”
So from growing up in the middle of the Great Depression in western Nebraska to operating Hampton Enterprises, Inc., an employer of 60 workers comprised of commercial land development, property management and commercial construction, is truly amazing. But Hampton has also been active in the community having been the President of the Lincoln Home Builders and President of the Lincoln Independent Business Association. He’s served on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Committee, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce Board, the Tabitha Board of Directors and multiple bank boards. He’s also been active as co-chairman of the YES Committee for Lincoln Public Schools and the Aging Task Force for the Downtown Senior Center.
And to think with all of that all he really wanted to do was be a pilot. Yes, Hampton’s dream was to fly the friendly skies.
“I tried to enlist in the Air Force but because of my eyesight I couldn’t get in,” he said. “It’s ironic. I quit smoking and saved the money that I was spending on smoking and put it in a jar. I think it was like $14 and that is what it cost to take a flying lesson (he took lessons from Frank Snook in Chadron and from Tom Umberger in Lincoln). I ultimately got a pilot’s license and flew for quite a few years. I don’t regret it and I’m far better off (giving up smoking for his pilot training). I used to fly those learjets with Donald Duncan. He was a great individual.”
After flying for 35 years, the 83-year-old Hampton decided to stop around 10 years ago. “I realized that it takes repetition and you have to do it almost every day if you are going to be flying instruments. I know I came in one night above the clouds so you had to come down through them to land. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. I thought there would be nothing to it. When I got down to minimum altitude, which I believe was 400 feet, the runway wasn’t there. So I quickly declared an emergency and pulled back up and went around. I realized that I just wasn’t paying attention. I had to make another approach and there was nothing to it but about a month later I decided that unless I can stay really sharp at it you should quit, so I quit. And I miss it!”
However, with a deep interest in aviation, Hampton got involved in giving back to the community in another way as well. In the 1960s, the Air Force deactivated the air base for the second time and they formed an Airport Authority to operate it. Hampton decided to run for the Lincoln Airport Authority and he got elected. He served there for 14 years from 1963 to 1977. “That was a great experience. My grandfather instilled in me that life is short and if you are just a taker it is a lot shorter. If you really want to be responsible you need to put some back in.”
Serving on the Airport Authority also led to another important part of his life. He ventured into politics because of a decision he saw made by members of an elected body. “In the mid-70s, IBM had almost purchased a section of land out on 120th,” Hampton said. “The political structure at that time was to not allow anything to go into the Stevens Creek area. The mayor sent the planning director and the chairman of the planning commission back to New York to tell IBM that they are just delighted that they would buy land in Lincoln but that they don’t plan on extending utilities in that direction for the foreseeable future.” The result was that IBM didn’t locate in Lincoln. “That was enough to motivate me to run for council.”
He was first elected to the City Council in 1977 and he served for 12 years. During that time he was the Chairman of the Council for six years (1981 to 1987).
“I enjoyed it about 85 percent of the time,” Hampton said. “It’s an important segment for the affairs of the community. When I first went on (the city council) I was a voice in the wilderness. But ultimately the economy wasn’t very good and as a result of that of the seven members, five understood what it took to make something work. We were able to make some decisions. They floundered around for years on finding a new landfill and we made that decision and built one. We were rapidly running out of water and we made a very serious decision and because of that Lincoln still has an adequate supply of water at a competitive rate. We made a decision to encourage the creation of the west bypass and the extension of Capitol Parkway.”
Hampton jokingly said that he spent “100 years over a 12-year period” on the council. But after three terms he decided it was time to get back and devote more time to his business.
“There never was a grand plan,” Hampton said about his business, adding that he never had the desire to be a huge construction operation. In fact, he said he wouldn’t want it because the bigger you get the harder it is to maintain control of quality. “Never get yourself too far in debt. Try to acquire some capital. When an opportunity emerges, be in a position that you can take advantage of it. Nine times out of 10, those opportunities don’t happen when you are ready. They happen and you have to be prepared. Can I handle this or can I not?”
Much of the early opportunities were in residential construction. During that time, Marjorie, his wife, worked closely with the business keeping the books and doing interior decorating of the homes. She stayed with that until 1970. “We were doing it in the home and then after we built that building she said its time to move the office and I’m not going. She’s always been a big help.” And as for children, his son, Bob, grew up in the company but eventually moved on to start his own company. His daughter, Lori, always had a creative talent and moved to New York after college to work in the fashion industry before moving back to Lincoln a few years ago.
It was working with commercial developments when Hampton Enterprises really took off. The 70th and A Streets area of Lincoln was the edge of town and there were two 80-acre parcels of ground. One started down on South Street and came up to 70th and the other down to A Street. They became available and Hampton thought long and hard and negotiated and bought the south 80, which is now Lincolnshire. “People said that I went too far out and that it wasn’t going to work and that I paid too much money for it. I paid $2,000 an acre. Try to find $2,000 an acre ground today! It worked pretty good.”
Hampton has always stuck to his core beliefs of credibility, quality and performance. Drawing from some of his early mentors, business associates and friends including Jack Highland, Ernie Guenzel and Dale LaBaron, he believes in looking after other’s interests as if they were his own. “If we are building something for other people, we treat it as if it was our own. If we say we are going to do something, we do it. We are concerned about quality and performance. After 60 years, we do have the recognition in the community and that people are able to work with us with a comfort level.”
Hampton, who was recently honored with the Nebraska Distinguished Entrepreneur Award through the University of Nebraska, continues to stay busy. The company’s largest project currently is the cooperative benefit association building at Firethorn -- a 45,000 square foot building. They are also building a $10 million retirement community up in Fremont as well as doubling the size of the Lancaster County event center, adding 180,000 square feet.
But the big question for this doer is, is there something you have always wanted to do but haven’t done yet? After a long pause he said, “Have the same legs as when I was 65. When I was 65, I skied 70 days.”
Enjoy it for yourself.
Joe Hampton. By Brian Reetz
While many people have diplomas lining the walls of their offices, color photographs of completed projects are prominently displayed on the walls in the conference room of the Hampton Enterprises offices. They are beautiful photographs of the Cooper Branch of the YMCA of Lincoln, the First National Bank building at SouthPointe and the Grand Theatre in downtown Lincoln, among others.
Because the leader of Hampton Enterprises, Joe Hampton, is a doer, who’s never been afraid of a hard day’s work. Because of that, his successful company is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
“When I look back over 60 years, I arrived here with nothing and now I’ve got something,” Hampton said, who moved to Lincoln from his family’s little acreage near Chadron. “I’ve always had a strong belief to not be afraid to take that step forward but make darn sure your back foot is on firm ground before you lift it.”
Hampton moved from western Nebraska because he saw an opportunity as an electrical apprentice. When his mother needed medical attention, the family came down to Lincoln for hospital care. While Hampton was “roaming” around the town, he stopped into a few electrical shops and found that for the same job he was doing back home for 70 cents an hour, he could make 95 cents an hour in Lincoln, plus they paid overtime. So he moved to town and went to work in 1947. Working overtime as much as he could to gain some seed capital, Hampton was able to buy a lot for $400 at 41st and L Streets and on it he decided to build a house -- starting it in 1948 and finishing in 1949.
“I’d take a half day off on Sunday and go to church,” Hampton said of the long hours of building the house in his spare time. “That is the way you have to head. Having grown up in the 1930s, you are just instinctfully conservative and if you had a little money, you saved it.”
After some negotiating with the buyer, Hampton would eventually sell the house for $9,800, a profit of $800, which was a “fair piece of money at the time,” according to Hampton. It also gave him some more capital.
“I felt if I was successful with that house, I would build another one, so I kept going,” Hampton said. “In the late 60s/early 70s, I had built a couple of small office buildings for people so I decided that if it was a profitable investment for them, why wouldn’t it be for me?” So his first office building was down at 56th and South. “I built that and just kept going,” he added. “As I could acquire capital or lending capabilities I would build a small office or retail building and keep it. Today that represents 600,000 square feet of commercial space, which is a strong underpinning of the company as it exists today.”
So from growing up in the middle of the Great Depression in western Nebraska to operating Hampton Enterprises, Inc., an employer of 60 workers comprised of commercial land development, property management and commercial construction, is truly amazing. But Hampton has also been active in the community having been the President of the Lincoln Home Builders and President of the Lincoln Independent Business Association. He’s served on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Committee, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce Board, the Tabitha Board of Directors and multiple bank boards. He’s also been active as co-chairman of the YES Committee for Lincoln Public Schools and the Aging Task Force for the Downtown Senior Center.
And to think with all of that all he really wanted to do was be a pilot. Yes, Hampton’s dream was to fly the friendly skies.
“I tried to enlist in the Air Force but because of my eyesight I couldn’t get in,” he said. “It’s ironic. I quit smoking and saved the money that I was spending on smoking and put it in a jar. I think it was like $14 and that is what it cost to take a flying lesson (he took lessons from Frank Snook in Chadron and from Tom Umberger in Lincoln). I ultimately got a pilot’s license and flew for quite a few years. I don’t regret it and I’m far better off (giving up smoking for his pilot training). I used to fly those learjets with Donald Duncan. He was a great individual.”
After flying for 35 years, the 83-year-old Hampton decided to stop around 10 years ago. “I realized that it takes repetition and you have to do it almost every day if you are going to be flying instruments. I know I came in one night above the clouds so you had to come down through them to land. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. I thought there would be nothing to it. When I got down to minimum altitude, which I believe was 400 feet, the runway wasn’t there. So I quickly declared an emergency and pulled back up and went around. I realized that I just wasn’t paying attention. I had to make another approach and there was nothing to it but about a month later I decided that unless I can stay really sharp at it you should quit, so I quit. And I miss it!”
However, with a deep interest in aviation, Hampton got involved in giving back to the community in another way as well. In the 1960s, the Air Force deactivated the air base for the second time and they formed an Airport Authority to operate it. Hampton decided to run for the Lincoln Airport Authority and he got elected. He served there for 14 years from 1963 to 1977. “That was a great experience. My grandfather instilled in me that life is short and if you are just a taker it is a lot shorter. If you really want to be responsible you need to put some back in.”
Serving on the Airport Authority also led to another important part of his life. He ventured into politics because of a decision he saw made by members of an elected body. “In the mid-70s, IBM had almost purchased a section of land out on 120th,” Hampton said. “The political structure at that time was to not allow anything to go into the Stevens Creek area. The mayor sent the planning director and the chairman of the planning commission back to New York to tell IBM that they are just delighted that they would buy land in Lincoln but that they don’t plan on extending utilities in that direction for the foreseeable future.” The result was that IBM didn’t locate in Lincoln. “That was enough to motivate me to run for council.”
He was first elected to the City Council in 1977 and he served for 12 years. During that time he was the Chairman of the Council for six years (1981 to 1987).
“I enjoyed it about 85 percent of the time,” Hampton said. “It’s an important segment for the affairs of the community. When I first went on (the city council) I was a voice in the wilderness. But ultimately the economy wasn’t very good and as a result of that of the seven members, five understood what it took to make something work. We were able to make some decisions. They floundered around for years on finding a new landfill and we made that decision and built one. We were rapidly running out of water and we made a very serious decision and because of that Lincoln still has an adequate supply of water at a competitive rate. We made a decision to encourage the creation of the west bypass and the extension of Capitol Parkway.”
Hampton jokingly said that he spent “100 years over a 12-year period” on the council. But after three terms he decided it was time to get back and devote more time to his business.
“There never was a grand plan,” Hampton said about his business, adding that he never had the desire to be a huge construction operation. In fact, he said he wouldn’t want it because the bigger you get the harder it is to maintain control of quality. “Never get yourself too far in debt. Try to acquire some capital. When an opportunity emerges, be in a position that you can take advantage of it. Nine times out of 10, those opportunities don’t happen when you are ready. They happen and you have to be prepared. Can I handle this or can I not?”
Much of the early opportunities were in residential construction. During that time, Marjorie, his wife, worked closely with the business keeping the books and doing interior decorating of the homes. She stayed with that until 1970. “We were doing it in the home and then after we built that building she said its time to move the office and I’m not going. She’s always been a big help.” And as for children, his son, Bob, grew up in the company but eventually moved on to start his own company. His daughter, Lori, always had a creative talent and moved to New York after college to work in the fashion industry before moving back to Lincoln a few years ago.
It was working with commercial developments when Hampton Enterprises really took off. The 70th and A Streets area of Lincoln was the edge of town and there were two 80-acre parcels of ground. One started down on South Street and came up to 70th and the other down to A Street. They became available and Hampton thought long and hard and negotiated and bought the south 80, which is now Lincolnshire. “People said that I went too far out and that it wasn’t going to work and that I paid too much money for it. I paid $2,000 an acre. Try to find $2,000 an acre ground today! It worked pretty good.”
Hampton has always stuck to his core beliefs of credibility, quality and performance. Drawing from some of his early mentors, business associates and friends including Jack Highland, Ernie Guenzel and Dale LaBaron, he believes in looking after other’s interests as if they were his own. “If we are building something for other people, we treat it as if it was our own. If we say we are going to do something, we do it. We are concerned about quality and performance. After 60 years, we do have the recognition in the community and that people are able to work with us with a comfort level.”
Hampton, who was recently honored with the Nebraska Distinguished Entrepreneur Award through the University of Nebraska, continues to stay busy. The company’s largest project currently is the cooperative benefit association building at Firethorn -- a 45,000 square foot building. They are also building a $10 million retirement community up in Fremont as well as doubling the size of the Lancaster County event center, adding 180,000 square feet.
But the big question for this doer is, is there something you have always wanted to do but haven’t done yet? After a long pause he said, “Have the same legs as when I was 65. When I was 65, I skied 70 days.”
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