GRANT FOR TRAINING CENTER

Nonprofit will use $1M from Commerce Department in South Valley

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration announced Tuesday it is giving an Albuquerque nonprofit a $1 million grant toward the construction of a new training and manufacturing facility.

The Partnership for Community Action is building the 15,370-square-foot “social enterprise center” in partnership with Southwest Creations Collaborative and several other organizations. The center will be in the South Valley, on Isleta Boulevard south of Bridge.

The partnership estimates the project will create 43 jobs.

Adrián Pedroza, the group’s social enterprise director, said the facility will build on the work of Southwest Creations Collaborative. The collaborative is an Albuquerque nonprofit that employs 36 women in an industrial cut-and-sew factory and uses some of the proceeds from those operations to fund several social services. He said the project represents a total investment of about $3 million from several organizations, a sum that includes the grant from the Economic Development Administration.

“It really is a public-private partnership,” said Pedroza. “We are very excited.”

According to a press release, the facility will be used to “support professional development, direct manufacturing and assembly of textiles, entrepreneurship training as well as workforce education.”

Pedroza said the facility will also include a childcare center and conference space for the local community.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement that the project will “lend the tools businesses need to compete and thrive in the global economy.”

The Mid-Region Council of Governments helped with the investment, the release said.