Posts Tagged ‘Brook Stockberger’

Article courtesy of Las Cruces Sun-News

By Brook Stockberger

LAS CRUCES – L&M Radiator Inc. is moving its El Paso manufacturing facility to Las Cruces as it seeks room to expand, and those interested in a job with the company can meet with representatives on Thursday at Dona Ana Community College’s Career Expo 2011.  The job fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the school’s central campus at 3400 S. Espina St., in rooms 75, 77 and 79.

L&M Radiator President Dan Chisholm said that the company had closed the El Paso facility for a while, but reopened and rehired its employees. Now it needs more room and turned its eyes to Las Cruces. “We are doing some limited production there now,” Chisholm said. “Our business has seen a tremendous amount of growth over the last year.”

He said initial reports that the company could hire up to 200 workers might be too high of a number, but that as his company works with others in the area, it is conceivable the overall job impact could reach eventually that level. For now, the more than 60 workers at the El Paso facility are being offered the chance to work in Las Cruces.

“We’ll see who is willing to relocate and how many stay with us,” Chisholm said. “I hope they all do, they’re very good employees.”  He said L&M will need to hire workers in Las Cruces as well.

“(We’ll need) welders, fabricators, assembly people – anybody who has a mechanical background,” Chisholm said. “Certainly we do a lot of training.” Las Crucen Nick Guerrero said he plans to go talk to the company on Thursday. “I know mechanical (work). I used to work for the NASA test facility doing all sorts of stuff,” Guerrero said.

The Minnesota-based company that manufactures large radiators and other cooling systems plans to set up a location in Las Cruces in the building that used to house the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. at 2100 S. Valley Dr.

L&M Radiator, which also has locations in Mexico, Australia and Germany, makes cooling systems for heavy machinery, buses, oil field equipment and others. It sells products under the brand name Mesabi flexible core heat exchangers.

More information about the company can be found online at mesabi.com.

Brook Stockberger can be reached at (575) 541-5457.

Article courtesy of Las Cruces Sun-News

By Brook Stockberger

LAS CRUCES – A Minnesota-based company that manufactures large radiators and other cooling systems plans to set up a location in Las Cruces in the building that used to house the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. at 2100 S. Valley Drive.

Edgar Lopez of Investment Management Associates Inc., and a board member of the New Mexico Border Authority, said that L&M Radiator Inc. of Hibbing, Minn., could hire as many 60 workers by July and ultimately as many as 200 as the facility operates multiple shifts.

“They make huge, industrial-sized radiators,” said Lopez, whose company performs property management and retail development. Lopez’s company represented the bank after the building was repossessed, he said. Eventually L&M Radiator, which mothballed a plant in El Paso two years ago, took interest in the location.

“These will be great jobs,” Lopez said. “Not just minimum-wage jobs, but skilled jobs.”

Christine Logan, the city’s economic development administrator, and Davin Lopez, CEO and president of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, confirmed the news. Lopez said his organization can be of assistance to the company.

“We are currently looking to work with them on job training dollars and federal job hiring incentives,” Lopez said.

A message left with L&M Radiator’s home office was not returned by Tuesday afternoon. Lopez said he expects the company to soon issue a news release about hiring plans.

L&M Radiator laid off 67 workers in 2009 at its plant at 6966 Market St. on the east side of El Paso. The plant had been in operation in El Paso for 30 years. A downturn in the oil/gas and mining industries – L&M’s main customers – coupled with the recession substantially reduced sales, the company reported at the time.

L&M Radiator, which also has locations in Mexico, Australia and Germany, makes cooling systems for heavy machinery, buses, oil field equipment and others. It sells products under the brand name MESABI flexible core heat exchangers.

Vic Kolenc of the El Paso Times contributed to this report.

Brook Stockberger can be reached at (575) 541-5457.

Article courtesy of Las Cruces Sun-News

By Brook Stockberger/Sun-News Business Editor

LAS CRUCES – A project that will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the Santa Teresa area and would create a lot of jobs seems to be back on track.

Gov. Susana Martinez will be in southern Doña Ana County Friday to announce that Union Pacific Railroad plans to invest more than $400 million toward the total cost of the project with construction beginning after the governor and the state legislature pass a related tax incentive.

More details will be released at Martinez’s announcement, but there has been talk for years about relocating the Union Pacific hub out of El Paso and into the Santa Teresa area.

In 2006, Union Pacific announced the planned relocation. In 2008, the company reported that the project would create 60 new jobs and also bring 285 jobs that will be relocated from El Paso. At the time, Luis Heredia, director of public affairs for Union Pacific, said the company hoped construction would be completed by late 2010 or early 2011. That obviously did not happen, but Friday’s announcement seems to point to the fact that the project is back on track.

Brook Stockberger can be reached at (575) 541-5457

Article courtesy of Las Cruces Sun-News

By Brook Stockberger

LAS CRUCES – The economy may not be great, but compared to other parts of the country, the Las Cruces area has fared well. For the second straight year, the Las Cruces area has been placed in the top 10 of the Milken Institute’s 2010 Best-Performing Cities list.

Las Cruces is ranked No. 8 this year on the Smallest Metros list. Last year the city was No. 9. The Milken Institute reports that, “Researchers found that metros whose economies are heavy on service industries such as health care and on large government employers like military bases have been shielded from the job losses suffered by cities more closely tied to the housing and financial sectors.”

Fargo N.D. topped the list. Farmington was ranked No. 106 and Santa Fe was 110. In the Largest Metro list, El Paso was ranked No. 9 and Albuquerque was ranked 64th.

Davin Lopez, president and CEO of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, said such lists do not necessarily bring in new business, but they do help with recognition. “What it does show is our sustainability; we have a nice mix of private and public sector (business),” Lopez said.

Amanda Olivarez Cruz, executive director of the Hispano Chamber of Commerce de Las Cruces, said, “This is a big deal for Las Cruces. The way the economy has been going, we still have businesses opening.”

To read more, go online to bestcities.milkeninstitute.org.

Brook Stockberger can be reached at (575) 541-5457.

Article courtesy of Las Cruces Sun-News

By Brook Stockberger

LAS CRUCES – If you’ve been following the news about Spaceport America, you know that construction has been well under way. The mythical-sounding place where humans can pay to take a ride into space – and, less mythical but probably more common, where companies can launch payloads – broke ground in June 2009.

“It’s chugging along,” said Rick Homans, director of New Mexico Spaceport Authority, of the $200-million project. “Pretty much all the construction is on track.”

The nearly two-mile runway is about 95 percent completed; the three-story, 110,000-square-foot terminal hangar facility has started to take shape; and the white dome of the airfield rescue fire facility flanks the larger hanger. Anchor tenant Virgin Galactic continues to test its craft in the Mojave Desert.

“We’re looking to be operations-ready in 2011,” said Spaceport spokesman Dave Wilson. “It’ll be ready for Virgin, but we don’t know when Virgin will be ready.”

So while the work continues, something just as big and important looms.

“We’re going full swing into the parallel track of moving from a construction site to an operating spaceport,” Homans said. “The construction phase has been so all-consuming for the last 18 months, it’s hard to think there’s a whole bunch of additional work to do that has greater complexity to it than the actual construction itself.”

Obviously, if you pay top dollar to go into space, you want to return safely.

“You start thinking of the day on the horizon when we’re a (full functioning) launch facility, we have to have a spaceport staff, contractors, equipment, everything operating seamlessly, flawlessly,” Homans said. “But most importantly, we have to have anticipated and drilled and trained for every potential problem or emergency or unexpected occurrence that could happen, and that takes a lot of planning.”

Recently, New Mexico State University’s Space Grant Consortium was selected as the Federal Aviation Administration’s Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation, which enables NMSU to serve as the hub of a minimum $5 million, five-year research coalition addressing key challenges in the development of the commercial space industry. Homans said the center is expected to provide input for the shaping of regulations and operating procedures and practices for this new industry.

“The FAA COE role is still to be determined,” said Pat Hynes, director of the space grant consortium. “The FAA is the organization that will make the determination on what they want the COE to do.”

Either way, the fact that the spaceport is now a going concern has stirred up excitement.

“No question, from a client standpoint, there are a lot more inquires,” said Jim Hayhoe, who operates Spaceport America Consultants. “There will be a lot of specific supply chain needs for Virgin Galactic.”

Chicago-based David Houle, a writer and strategist who travels the world talking about the future and global trends, visited Spaceport America for the first time Friday.

“This is large and breathtaking,” Houle said.

He said he understands why some people were dubious as to whether such a fantastical sounding facility would ever actually take root. He said it is easier to not get your hopes up about such a groundbreaking venture, but, a visit to the spaceport would put those doubts aside.

“People live in their times,” Houle said. “Some people used to say, ‘Man will never fly.’”

Even with all of the advanced technology to be put in place, Wilson said one of the important projects has been the road, currently dirt, that runs south out of the location. It connects the spaceport with I-25 and cuts travel time from Las Cruces to less than an hour.

“This is critical,” Wilson said. “It’s important for the workers who will come from Dona Ana County to have a shorter commute.”

Brook Stockberger can be reached at (575) 541-5457.