Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Boberg’

Release Courtesy of NMSU Communications & Marketing Services

Photo Courtesy of NMSU

Bulldozers are rolling through a chunk of desert owned by New Mexico State University. The heavy equipment is building a new road and laying utilities to better connect NMSU’s Arrowhead Business and Research Park with the rest of campus. The project is also expected to help attract new investments, new clients and eventually thousands of high-paying jobs to the park.

The road will extend south for approximately one mile from the intersection of Payne and Wells streets to Sam Steel Way, which runs parallel to Interstate 10. Construction is scheduled to be complete in March 2010.

The project represents nearly $2 million in investments, including a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Other money for the project came from the state of New Mexico, local road funds, the New Mexico Department of Transportation and NMSU.

“The road will really open up the whole park,” said Kevin Boberg, Arrowhead Center’s CEO. “We can’t do any other development without the utility backbone the road delivers.”

The business and research park is located on the south end of NMSU’s Las Cruces campus between Interstates 10 and 25. The first 11 acres of the 257-acre park are already in development. The most recently completed building, Spaceplex 2, is home to General Dynamics and opened last summer.  The next building scheduled for construction will be nearly 8,000 square feet and be broken into smaller, 1,700-square-foot pads for businesses intending to establish themselves before jumping into larger spaces.

Other plans for the research park include working with the Las Cruces Public School District to construct an early college high school where high school students could take college-level courses for credit.

“Without the infrastructure, we wouldn’t be in a position to take advantage of these opportunities,” said Vickie Galindo, Arrowhead Center’s director of workforce innovation and business development. “We would not have been able to make this happen without the EDA and help from New Mexico Secretary of Economic Development Fred Mondragon.”

New Mexico Economic Development Department Secretary Fred Mondragon presented the Arrowhead Technology Incubator (ATI) with a certificate designating ATI as a “Certified Business Incubator” on Thursday, September 10, 2009.  The “Certified Business Incubator” designation program was created through legislation in 2005 establishing requirements for state incubator facilities that provide business support and assistance to accelerate the successful development of start-up and fledgling companies of entrepreneurs.

Dr. Kevin Boberg (center) accepts certificate from Secretary Mondragon (left)

The ATI offers five areas of focus through Technology Innovation Programs related to NMSU innovative research directions as well as the state of New Mexico economic development clusters. The programs include:

• National Security
• Digital Media
• Space and Aerospace
• Biosciences
• Energy and Natural Resources

During his remarks, Secretary Mondragon noted that over 90% of small businesses that start in business incubators succeed.  He noted that much of the funding for improvements at the Arrowhead Technology Incubator was due to successful grant applications to the Economic Development Administration (EDA).

In accepting the certificate, Arrowhead Center CEO Kevin Boberg was joined by several ATI staff and a number of the Arrowhead Advisory Committee members.

For more information about the Arrowhead Technology Incubator, please visit their website.