Lavu to move to new digs, ramp up workforce
$270K state LEDA grant to offset relocation costs
One of Albuquerque’s star startups, Lavu Inc., is moving to new digs Downtown and preparing to ramp up its workforce with a little help from the state.
Lavu, which sells point-of-sale software systems for restaurants to manage operations on mobile devices, will receive a $270,000 Local Economic Development Act grant to offset the costs of moving into the Plaza building, a high-rise just south of Civic Plaza. The company currently occupies the upper floors of the Theater Block building at 1st Street and Central Avenue above Tucanos Brazilian Grill.
But it needs more space to grow, according to Bernalillo County commissioners, who voted on Tuesday to act as Lavu’s fiscal agent to administer the LEDA funding and monitor company compliance with grant stipulations. That includes Lavu’s plans to expand its workforce from 75 now to about 120, plus a $1.5 million investment to remodel its new offices, said Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins, who co-sponsored the ordinance authorizing the county’s role as fiscal agent.
The new jobs will range in salary from $32,000 to $120,000 a year, Hart Stebbins said.
“Lavu is the kind of employer we want to retain and grow in Albuquerque,” she said. “It’s a successful, high-tech business with good-paying jobs and benefits. Those are the kinds of jobs we need to keep our young people here rather than moving to other places to seek employment.”
The company, which launched in 2010, had considered leaving New Mexico, Hart Stebbins told the Journal.
“They had considered moving elsewhere, and the state responded by offering a $270,000 grant for them to stay here,” Hart Stebbins said. “The commissioners unanimously agreed to be the fiscal agent, although Tuesday’s vote just represents a notice of intent. A final vote must be taken within 30 days.”
The company had complained to city authorities last year that rampant crime Downtown might force it to move to another part of the city.
Lavu considered leasing the ground floor of the Daskalos Building on Central Avenue in Nob Hill, which Staples previously occupied, according to a report by KRQE Channel 13 based on county documents and interviews with commissioners. But the deal for that space didn’t work out.
Lavu President Ohad Johassi told the Journal last June that the company employed 117 people, about 86 of them in Albuquerque and the rest at other company locations, including an office in India with software developers.
Lavu executives could not be reached to clarify the difference in the company’s employee estimates last year and the current numbers reported to the County Commission.