Posts Tagged ‘Aerospace’

MVEDA would like thank everyone who was able to attend Friday’s Regional Economic Development Forum, titled “A Tale of Two Ports.”  Those who attended were able to hear directly from leading experts on both the opportunities and challenges we face in Southern New Mexico in growing our region’s two commercial ports of entry, both the Santa Teresa Port as well as Spaceport America.

The MVEDA Board of Directors and Staff want to give special thanks to our key note speakers:

• Francisco Urango, Corporate Vice President and Chief Business Operations Officer for Latin America,for Foxconn.   Foxconn is the largest contract manufacturing company in the world with a significant manufacturing presence in San Jeronimo, next to the Santa Teresa Port of Entry,

• Carissa Bryce Christensen, founder and Managing Partner of The Tauri Group, an analytic and engineering firm based in Alexandria, VA, which provides expertise on the economic, market, technology and policy issues associated with commercial spaceflight, and

• Dr. Lowell Catlett, Regent’s Professor/Dean and Chief Administrative Officer at NMSU’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.  Dr. Catlett is also a national speaker and futurist on trends associated with technologies and their implications on the way we live and work.

Special thanks also go out to our expert panelists that included:

• Juan Massey, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Verde Realty,

• Jerry Pacheco, Executive Director of the International Business Accelerator,

• Andrew Moralez, Executive Director of the New Mexico Border Authority,

• Zoe Gisela Richmond, Director of Public Affairs for Union Pacific,

• Robert X. Martinez, VP of Construction Management for Gerald Martin,

• Keith Beck, VP and General Manager of the Jacob’s Technology Test and Evaluation Center,

• Wayne Savage, Program Manager of Progressive Construction Management, and

• Mark Lautman, Principal of Lautman Economic Architecture Partners, LLC.

For those of you who could not attend, we will be placing parts of the presentations on our website in the coming weeks.

Q1 2010-’11 Activity

MVEDA entered the 2010-’11 Fiscal Year with twelve, high-priority projects, consisting of approximately 1,200 jobs with a realistic chance of closing in the current fiscal year.   Approximately 1/3 of those jobs (as illustrated in the blue on the chart below), consisting of primarily manufacturing and renewable energy companies, show a very strong chance of closing.  What this means to MVEDA’s internal operations is that we have turned much of our attention this past quarter towards the project management needs of our clients.

Additionally, MVEDA continues its aggressive marketing campaign and year to date we have developed 22 new leads consisting of approximately 925 employees and 785,000sf of required space.   In comparison to last year, total new leads are slightly down and we see a shift in industry specific leads especially within food processing which currently represents 25% of all our new 2010-’11 leads as compared to only 3% of total leads for the same period last fiscal year.

Manufacturing/logistics and aerospace also showed some slight growth as a percentage of total leads while renewable energy leads dropped to 21% of total leads YTD 2010-’11 compared with 32% for the same period last fiscal year.  Additionally, whereas a large portion of our renewable energy leads last year were involved in manufacturing, we see a much larger portion of this year’s renewable energy leads involved in renewable energy generation.

With respect to employment trends in the region versus the rest of the United States, the Las Cruces market has fared very well.  In a September 2010 report by Garner Economics LLC, which measured job growth trends amongst 158 U.S. metros, Las Cruces was recognized along with 15 other metros as setting new record employment numbers.  Garner Economics’ report quoted:

“The July 2010 employment numbers also show that sixteen metros have set new records; surpassing July peak employment totals from the previous five years (see map and table).”

As illustrated in the map and table provided as part of the Garner Economics report, Las Cruces NM was ranked 8th amongst these 16 cities in terms of the percentage increase in jobs with over 1,900 new jobs added over July 2009.

In the upcoming months, MVEDA will continue to be active in several events.   Later in October, MVEDA is sponsor to ISPCS as well as to the VC Speed Dating Event put on by the Arrowhead Center.   We will also be attending the BizTech 2010 Expo in El Paso.

Finally, if you were not already aware, the MVEDA staff is now settled into our new offices in the First Community Bank Building in downtown Las Cruces.  Our formal address is: 1st Community Bank Tower, 277 E. Amador, Suite 304, Las Cruces, NM  88001.  We hope you can all stop by and visit us in the very near future.

LAS CRUCES, NM – The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has announced that Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwell, Texas, plans to launch three NASA-funded tests of their vertical takeoff and landing rocket technology from Spaceport America this winter.

“These launches mark an important step in NASA’s plan to empower the emerging commercial spaceflight industry to assume a greater role in the nation’s space program,” said Rick Homans, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. “Spaceport America is the launch pad for this new industry, and Armadillo’s decision to launch here affirms our important position.”

Armadillo Aerospace is developing new vehicles that can launch small payloads to suborbital “near space”, which NASA defines as altitudes between about 19 and 106 km, and return them safely to earth.

“Armadillo is proud to pioneer reusable rocket technology for the commercial space industry and Spaceport America provides the perfect place for our launches,” said Neil Milburn, Vice President of Program Management at Armadillo Aerospace. “We selected Spaceport America because of its geographic advantages, dedicated staff, technical experience, flexibility and its low cost. We need exactly this kind of support to be successful.”

Milburn said Armadillo will move its test operations to Spaceport America for two NASA-funded CRuSR (Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program) flights to 15 kilometers, under the Amateur Class III waiver, and a subsequent fully licensed or permit flight to at least 40 kilometers this winter.

Armadillo’s grant will help fund flights from Spaceport America, and was made possible through NASA’s CRuSR program, which establishes a series of suborbital

flights that will yield many benefits to NASA by providing access to 3-4 minutes of microgravity for experimentation, discovery and testing. According to Homans, it’s NASA’s goal to help private firms develop suborbital spacecraft that will eventually provide the nation with much lower-cost and much more reliable access to orbital space. Spaceport America anticipates playing a critical role in the CRuSR program.

Homans added that the Armadillo announcement comes just two weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded at least $5 million to New Mexico State University to develop a Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation.

“These announcements, coming one on top of another, are big news for Spaceport America,” Homans said.

Armadillo Aerospace is a leading developer of reusable rocket powered vehicles. Founded in 2000, Armadillo Aerospace has an unequaled experience base with over 200 flight tests spread over a dozen different vehicles. The company has done work for NASA and the United States Air Force, and flown vehicles at every X-Prize Cup and Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge event, including those held in New Mexico from 2006 to 2008. The firm has plans to provide a platform for civilian access to suborbital space via a recent marketing agreement with Space Adventures, Ltd.

Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services since 2006. The state-of-the-art launch facility is under construction near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and is expected to become fully operational in 2011. Officials at Spaceport America have been working closely with leading aerospace firms such as Armadillo Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, Lockheed Martin, Moog-FTS, and UP Aerospace to develop commercial spaceflight at the new facility. The economic impact of launches, tourism and new construction at Spaceport America are already delivering on its promise to the people of New Mexico.

(For additional information and images of Spaceport America go to www.spaceportamerica.com or contact David Wilson @- 575-524-8118)

Click on graphic to download

Thank you to all who attended Tuesday’s Business on the Border Luncheon where Dr. Chris Erickson from NMSU provided his economic outlook and forecast for Las Cruces and the region.  Dr. Erickson presented employment information illustrating that although Las Cruces has fared better than both the national average and New Mexico as a whole, in terms of employment growth, we are still behind our peak employment numbers experienced in the mid 2000’s.  Dr. Erickson stated that it will take approximately three years to catch back up to those previously experienced levels.   Dr. Ericson also commented that although it appears that the country as a whole is moving out of the current recession, which has lasted a staggering 20 months, we must nevertheless not rule out the possibility of a double dip recession.  If you are interested in a copy of Dr. Erickson’s presentation, it can be downloaded by clicking the graphic.

From an economic development perspective we enter the new fiscal year cautiously optimistic.  Over the past fiscal year, MVEDA has developed over 100 leads and over 45 initial site visits.  We also carry forward a strong pipeline of projects which we believe have a strong chance of closing in the coming fiscal year.   We are also experiencing much more diversification amongst the types of industries that have expressed interest in the region.  MVEDA’s top 10 active prospects include 3 manufacturing companies, 2 aerospace companies, 2 renewable energy companies, one food processing company as well as one high tech company.   Together these 10 prospects potentially could create the need for over 2,000,000sf of space and create as many as 600 to 700 jobs.

We are also beginning to see some recurring themes in terms of the anecdotal data we pull from prospects.  For example, whereas over the past fiscal year it appeared financing was the leading driving indicator of a business’ locate decision; we are now seeing more inquiries once again surrounding work force needs.   Additionally we are receiving more inquiries for build-to-suit opportunities as opposed to existing inventory.  Both questions lead us to believe that access to capital is slowly becoming more available which should bode well for economic development initiatives.

This past fiscal year, we also showed success in developing opportunities within the rural areas of the County.  MVEDA conducted site visits to Hatch, Rincon, Anthony, Chaparral, Santa Teresa and Sunland Park amongst other locations.  We are proud to say that one of these actually led to the “locate” of Universal Plastics in Anthony, NM.

Although optimistic, we cannot lose sight that there is still much to do to spark economic development within the state and region. The MVEDA Board of Directors and staff met last week to outline our strategic plans for the new fiscal year.  At the session, MVEDA updated its regional economic development SWOT analysis and recognized that although we have been successful in addressing many of our economic development weaknesses, there are several new arising threats and barriers that we must be aware of.   They include:

1. Uncertainty of a new administration:  A new administration always puts pause in private sector decision making.  Will the next administration be business friendly?
2. Uncertainty of business attraction incentives:  Recently the State has been experiencing budgetary challenges with its most “tried and true” incentive; Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP).  Recent changes have lowered the reimbursable amount on JTIP funding in urban areas (ie…Las Cruces) from 50% to 30%.  Incentives such as JTIP are the only tools most economic development programs across New Mexico have to be competitive in business attraction.  Will they be further reduced?
3. Regional and Local Incentives:  Serious consideration needs to be placed into the development of localized incentives for economic development.  Communities throughout the country, especially in Texas have economic development funds by which they can tap into for job creation.
4. Border competitiveness:  Recently El Paso announced the acquisition of 1,000 acres of land in Tornillo for the development of an industrial park with a port of entry which they will break ground on in 2012.  How will this affect our port of entry and future economic development opportunities in Santa Teresa?

These are challenges that MVEDA recognizes and, as an organization, must consistently retool our marketing efforts and plan strategically to deal with new challenges that arise.  And we can only hope that a “double dip” by the national economy is avoidable.

I look forward to seeing everyone at our next Business on the Border Luncheon where MVEDA will be providing a year end re-cap.  We will also have a guest speaker from the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program which is a program that leverages technology and expertise at our National Laboratories and can provide up to $20,000 in technical support to companies in the region.

MVEDA’s Business on the Border Luncheon this past Tuesday featured a group of commercial lenders who addressed some of the obstacles to obtaining financing faced by today’s business owners.  Our panelists/speakers included Kim Hakes from Citizens Bank, Michael Cheney from Wells Fargo, and Clyde Hudson from USDA, each providing perspectives on the state of available financing in today’s economy.   We thank them for taking their time and expertise they provided to the group.  Access to financing is a subject matter that is not only important for the sustainability of all local businesses, but it is also extremely relevant with respect to economic development and business attraction.

Photo by Gabriel Vasquez, Las Cruces Bulletin

We find that as economic developers, we are being asked more and more to find localized financing solutions to companies looking at expanding into the region.   This is a significant shift from just two years ago when the primary concerns of clients were workforce labor and real estate.  Therefore it was positive to hear from our banking panelists that they were beginning to see a recovery in commercial lending and it was great to hear from Mr. Hudson how active USDA has been in their lending programs during these challenging economic times.

At MVEDA, we are also looking to identify and work with programs that might assist with business financing needs.  We are also pro-actively marketing and promoting the business assets we have in the region that make us great destination for certain industries.  In mid-March, MVEDA joined the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce and New Mexico State University as part of a delegation that went to Washington, D.C. to promote and support activities at White Sands Missile Range.  In April, MVEDA will be participating in two aerospace tradeshows, Space Access 2010 in Phoenix, and the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.  This is part of MVEDA’s continued support of Spaceport America and growing our commercial aerospace potential.  Finally, in the last week of April, MVEDA will be attending the International Asset Management Council (IAMC) Conference which is made-up of leading site selection consultants and corporate real estate decision makers from throughout the country.

MVEDA’s lead generation is still very active led by the renewable energy cluster which makes up 34% of all of our leads for the year.  This past month showed stronger industry balance in new leads generated with the biggest increase in lead generation found in the business/finance sector.

MVEDA’s Business on the Border Luncheon on March 2nd featured a commercial real estate update.   The discussion shined a positive light on the economic environment surrounding the real estate market and where we can be looking for opportunities ahead.

The panel consisted of:  John L. Hummer, Owner/Broker with Steinborn TCN Commercial Real Estate; Gil Jones, Associate Broker with NAI 1^st Valley Commercial Real Estate; Donnie Brainard, President/Qualifying Broker with Alameda Property Group; and Rick Stoes, Managing Director for Grubb & Ellis.

Economic highlights from the discussion included:

• National and regional retailers are beginning to show activity,
• Improvement in new store openings and slowing of store closures compared to last year,
• Strip retailers are more aggressive on store openings,
• Stabilization of lease rates,
• Growth at Ft. Bliss expected to boost regional economy by $4 billion annually,
• Significant increase in venture capital money looking to be placed. Majority of which is coming out of Mexico, and
• Conventional financing will continue to be difficult to obtain.

The panelists graciously agreed to let us post their presentations and they can be down-loaded by following these links:

• John Hummer’s presentation (PDF – 570 KB)
• Gil Jones’ presentation (PDF – 935 KB)
• Donnie Brainard’s presentation (PDF – 1.5 MB)
• Rick Stoes’ presentation (PDF – 1.3MB)

As for the first two months of 2010, MVEDA’s lead generation activity has been quite high.  Entering the month of March, our lead generation is 176% higher than this same time last year, and our prospect activity is at 111% of our YTD goals.  In the month of February alone, we had over 14 new leads and 5 site visits by companies interested in the region.  Renewable energy continues to lead the way representing 1/3rd of all our new lead generation, followed by manufacturing and logistics firms.  Over the past couple of months we have also seen some increased interest in the aviation and aerospace sectors.

MVEDA’s marketing efforts remain aggressive.  Since mid-January, MVEDA participated in two prospecting missions with the New Mexico Partnership to Southern California and Dallas regions.  We also attended the Medical Design and Manufacturing Trade Show in Anaheim and participated in the National Security Technology Conference that took place in Las Cruces last week.

Although lead generation and prospecting activity is quite high, the difficulty in closing deals and in job creation surrounds financing.  This became a topic at our Business on the Border luncheon and has been a growing challenge over the past year.  As economic developers, we are being asked more and more to identify financing solutions for our clients which as a result is forcing us to identify alternative financing routes, such as through State and Federal programs, or through equity programs and grants.  Suffice it to say that this will be a continuing discussion, but enables us to retool, as well as, rethink strategies that will create new opportunities and future growth in Dona Ana County.