Posts Tagged ‘MVEDA’

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.

Reports released by the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department indicate that the Dona Ana County economy continued to struggle during the third quarter of 2009.  According to the report, total reported gross receipts for all industries were flat when compared to the third quarter of 2008.  For the first three quarters of 2009, total reported gross receipts are 2.4% lower compared to 2008.

Total reported gross receipts from retail trade showed improvement during the third quarter, increasing 4.3% when compared to the third quarter of 2008. Year-to-date total reported gross receipts from retail trade for 2009 are down 2.7% compared to 2008.

The construction sector continues to be very soft.  Although there were no additional job losses between the second quarter and third quarters of 2009, total reported gross receipts from construction and mining were 16.9% lower in the third quarter of 2009 as compared to 2008. Year-to-date total reported gross receipts in construction and mining for 2009 are down 9% compared to 2008.

Compared to the third quarter of 2008, new single family residential permit valuations issued in the county increased 21.6% for the third quarter of 2009, but are down 12.3% through the first three quarters of 2009 compared to 2008. According to data from the Las Cruces Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Information Service for the month of September, 2009 the number of new and existing home sales increased 21.9% compared to the month of September, 2008. In comparison, the average sale price dropped 12.1%, from $228,447 to $200,738.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics, Dona Ana County’s unemployment rate in September, 2009 was 6.9%, down from 7.3% in June. This is significantly lower than the national rate of 9.8%, and lower than the state rate of 7.7%.  A recent report by the Milken Institute ranking the Las Cruces MSA in the top ten best performing small metros seems to indicate that this trend may continue.

Using a variety of sources, MVEDA tracks and reports changes in labor force, employment, construction permits and total reported gross receipts on a quarterly and annual basis. These economic indicator reports are available on MVEDA website.  The report for the third quarter of 2009 is attached and will be posted on the website in the near future.

Detailed New Mexico gross receipts tax files are available on UNM’s Bureau of Business & Economic Research website. Current and historical labor force data for Dona Ana County (Las Cruces NM MSA) are available on the Bureau of Labor Statics’ website.

The December meeting of the MVEDA Business on the Border Forum will be held on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 from 11:30 AM until 1:00 PM at the Day’s Inn Columbus Conference Center, 901 Avenida de Mesilla.  The meeting will begin with a hot entree buffet, followed by an update by MVEDA staff.

Jeff Abrams, Project Manager for the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (New Mexico MEP) will be the featured speaker.  The New Mexico MEP is part of a national network which provides technical and business resources to manufacturers who are prepared to expand their capabilities and increase profitability. New Mexico MEP is affiliated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

New Mexico MEP is uniquely positioned to provide a wide variety of services to manufacturers and small businesses throughout the State of New Mexico. Services offered include:

• Lean Systems
• Quality Systems
• Business Services
• Organizational Development
• Information Technology

Luncheon cost is $15.00 per person, payable by cash, check or major credit card. The meeting is open to the public and reservations are not required.

Article Courtesy of New Mexico Partnership

As New Mexico rapidly becomes a global leader in pure energy innovation, we continue to draw international attention to the Land of Enchantment.  The New Mexico Partnership has taken actions and adopted substantive policy measures to stimulate development of solar power projects throughout the state. Those initiatives as well as an aggressive business recruiting strategy have effectively positioned the state as a focal point for this rapidly emerging industry.

One such strategy was attendance at the Solar Power International 2009 Conference in Anaheim, CA during the week of October 26-30. The NM Partnership staff along with representatives from the Otero County Development Council (OCEDC), Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA), Albuquerque Economic Development (AED), Rio Rancho Economic Development (RREDC) and Eastern New Mexico Economic Development Alliance (ENMEDA) walked the show in order to develop new relationships and revisit previous relationships formed during PV America, Intercooler North America and last year’s Solar Power International conference.

On the evening of October 28th, the NM Partnership hosted “An Evening With New Mexico” at the House of Blues.  This solar executive outreach event was generously sponsored by OCEDC, MVEDA, AED, RREDC, ENMEDA, SCHOTT Solar, Emcore Corporation and Sky Fuel, Inc., Taos Ski Valley, the Taos Country Club and Verde Corporate Realty Services.  Governor Bill Richardson kicked off the event with a keynote address discussing New Mexico’s continued momentum in forming a renewable energy cluster in New Mexico.  Mark Finocchario, President & CEO of Schott Solar and Christopher Larocca, COO of Emcore Corporation spoke on their companies’ experiences and successes in doing business in New Mexico.

More than 200 industry executives and guests showed up to learn more about New Mexico and the event was touted the “Best Social Networking Event” of the conference.   Often times the return on investment for these events can be difficult to track.  However, the New Mexico Partnership has already had a site visit from a company who attended the event and has seen two projects come out of the trip.   We would like to thank everyone who helped make this event a huge success for New Mexico.

During the month of October, MVEDA invested considerable time on its target marketing and prospecting efforts.   Early in the month MVEDA conducted a prospect visit to Washington, D.C. where we met with several site consultants and companies involved with federal contracting efforts.   During the month, MVEDA also attended two trade shows: the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) in Las Cruces which focused on the commercial aerospace industry; and Solar Power International in Anaheim where over 2,000 companies exhibited.  At both shows, MVEDA sponsored invitation only events where we had the opportunity to engage and develop relationships with companies within each respective industry.  At ISPCS, MVEDA sponsored the conference’s opening reception which received significant attention, and at Solar Power International, MVEDA and Verde Corporate Realty Services co-sponsored an event hosted by the New Mexico Partnership where over 250 company representatives attended.  New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson also attended this event and spoke to the audience about the continued opportunities for solar energy development and manufacturing in New Mexico.

To date during the current fiscal year, MVEDA has created 36 new leads, representing over 3,190 jobs thereby indicating a very healthy pipeline of future projects.   Renewable energy and manufacturing & logistics projects represent the overwhelming greater percentage of our leads.

November marks a critical time period for MVEDA in our prospecting activities.  Economic development recruiting efforts normally have a minimum sales cycle of six months.  Given that we have only eight months left in our fiscal year, this means that we have only two months left to develop new leads that may have a chance of closing prior to July 2010 when our new fiscal year begins.  Therefore, MVEDA will be concentrating significant efforts on getting current leads and prospects to the finish line.

The open projects that MVEDA believes have the greatest likelihood of closing this fiscal year include;

• Project Windtower, an alternative energy manufacturer,
• Project Alimentos, a food processing company, and
• Project Roadrunner and Project X, both alternative energy developers.

If realized, these four projects represent over 200 jobs to Dona Ana County and over $300MM in capital investments.