Category Archives: Investment in New Mexico

Mfg Day Engages Next Generation Workers

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Technology Leadership High School students tour MediNatura in Albuquerque

Young people don’t have to leave New Mexico or assume significant college loan debt to find good-paying, skilled jobs in cutting-edge industries.

New Mexico’s manufacturers want students and those new to the workforce to consider fulfilling and challenging careers in their critical industry, which contributes $4.62 billion to the state’s economy and employs 26,000 people.

To that end, dozens of businesses are inviting students and young people to tour manufacturing facilities and attend presentations as part of Manufacturing Day (aka Mfg Day) — a nationwide celebration that begins Oct. 7 and stretches through October in New Mexico.

Mfg Day NM events organized by New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (New Mexico MEP) include facility tours that demonstrate how modern manufacturing jobs are nothing like the monotonous, dead-end factory jobs of the last century. On these tours, students and the public can see how products are made or repurposed using advanced technology, artificial intelligence, and 3-D imaging.

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Relationships are key to successful economic development projects

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Medlin Ramps of California wanted to establish a presence somewhere between its North Carolina and West Coast facilities. After visiting relatives in Alamogordo, the company CEO inquired about potential local properties and financial incentives.

Laurie Anderson, executive director of the Otero County Economic Development Council, acted quickly to demonstrate Alamogordo’s business readiness. Working with local connections, she and her project team helped the company transform an abandoned and derelict Walmart building into a 30,000 square foot facility that began manufacturing industrial ramps in February 2020.

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Manufacturers Open Their Doors Virtually for October Manufacturing Day Events

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When students from University High and Early College High schools toured Roswell manufacturer AerSale in October 2019, it was the first time many of them had seen an Airbus jetliner, let alone boarded an aircraft.

Students viewed the jet’s cockpit, talked with maintenance professionals and learned about careers in the aviation industry, including high-paying jobs then available at AerSale, which specializes in the sale, lease and exchange of used aircraft, engines and components and offers a broad range of engineering services to commercial aircraft companies.

The students’ visit was part of Manufacturing Day, a monthlong national effort to introduce teenagers and young adults to careers in manufacturing.

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Mfg Day Events Offer Business Connections and Workforce Development

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The Manufacturing Institute projects that U.S. manufacturers will need to fill 4.6 million jobs by 2028, but misperceptions about modern manufacturing could cause more than half of those positions to remain vacant. The nonprofit New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NM MEP) aims to address misperceptions among students while they are preparing themselves for college and careers by showing them opportunities in manufacturing.

That’s where Manufacturing Day comes in. Celebrated the entire month of October, the initiative highlights the changes that have occurred in the manufacturing industry and introduces students to careers in clean tech and modern manufacturing.

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New Mexico Communities Featured in Economic Development Course

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By Paul Hamrick, Executive Director, CELab

The economic development field is rapidly changing and increasing in complexity. The New Mexico Basic Economic Development Course is designed to help community leaders understand legacy economic development approaches and become current with new program initiatives and best practices.

Held on the campus of Western New Mexico University in Silver City from July 21 to 25, the course is one of several offered by the New Mexico-based International Academy for Economic Development that prepares participants for professional certification by the International Economic Development Council.

The five-day course covers the core components of economic development, including business retention and expansion, recruitment, workforce development, real estate, finance, marketing, and ethics. Continue reading →

NM Program Matches Federal SBIR Investment in Startups

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Los Alamos quantum dots tech company UbiQD received a NM SBIR matching grant in 2018

The New Mexico Economic Development Department (EDD) will sweeten the pot for up to five small companies that receive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the federal government to help in the research and development of technologies with high potential for commercialization.

The EDD is accepting applications until February 18 from federal grant recipients who want an additional infusion from New Mexico’s SBIR Matching Program. Despite the program’s name, it’s not a dollar-for-dollar match: Federal SBIR awards can range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to several million, while the New Mexico match is limited to $50,000. Continue reading →

Block Grants Spur Economic Development Partnerships

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Pool at Hotel Don Fernando in Taos

In October 2016, the Town of Taos received $500,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to work with a local developer to renovate the Hotel Don Fernando, whose former owners had lost the business through foreclosure. The mid-town hotel had become a hub of illegal activity and vandalism: too expensive for the developer to singlehandedly bring up to code but too visible a blight on the town’s main thoroughfare for town officials to ignore and a waste of potential gross receipts revenue for the tourism-dependent town.

The Town of Taos became fiscal agent for the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds, and the developer matched that money, reopening the 30-year-old, 126-room hotel two years later under the Hilton Tapestry banner. The federal funds helped the new owner address more than 100 code violations and purchase hotel furnishings. Continue reading →

Economic Development Remains LANL Focus Under Triad

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MidSchoolMath cofounders Scott Laidlaw and Jennifer Lightwood in 2011 after receiving a grant and other assistance from LANL’s economic development programs. Article by Jason Gibbs.

New leadership at Los Alamos National Laboratory hopes to increase business development and educational programs for small businesses, while relying even more on New Mexico companies to fulfill contracts.

On the heels of LANL’s 75th anniversary in the summer of 2018, Triad National Security LLC has taken the helm as the new managing contractor for the research facility in Northern New Mexico. In accordance with mandates given to previous managers, Triad plans to continue or expand many of the educational and business development programs already in place while increasing opportunities available to the New Mexico community. Continue reading →

One-Day Tax Holiday Aims to Draw Consumers to Hometown Businesses

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Article by Sandy Nelson

Once the frenzy of Black Friday fades, Small Business Saturday aims to attract shoppers to local merchants whose stores serve hometown retail needs — not just to keep those businesses healthy in today’s hypercompetitive retail environment but also to generate tax revenue that provides vital community services.

To stoke that fire, the 2018 New Mexico Legislature passed a law authorizing a one-day tax holiday that will remove state gross receipts taxes from a variety of retail products on the Saturday after Thanksgiving — one of the year’s busiest shopping days, when many people hunt for the best deals on holiday gifts — from 2018 through 2020. Continue reading →

Videos aim to reinforce MainStreet message

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Article by Damon Scott

New Mexico’s 30 MainStreet communities support small businesses across a large and diverse state, but organizers admit it can be tough to explain exactly what the MainStreet program does and how it impacts local economies.

Four new videos aim to clarify the MainStreet message that business opportunities can be leveraged by the program.

Rich Williams, co-director of New Mexico MainStreet, which falls under the New Mexico Economic Development Department, said the program is more than a dollar value of ROI. “While we like to measure public dollars in return on investment or job creation, this leaves out the qualitative impact of building economically healthy communities,” he said. Continue reading →