RR infrastructure needs improvement

Rio Rancho will be left behind if it doesn’t find a way to get infrastructure in place for companies quickly, a well-respected site selector warned recently.

Senior Principal site selector Mark Sweeney with McCallum Sweeney, a global location consulting firm in South Carolina, revealed his real-world point of view on what Rio Rancho needs to become more attractive for new business at the Sandoval Economic Alliance earlier this month.

He said Rio Rancho faces the challenge of making infrastructure available in a timely matter for industry.

“While there is a lot of open ground and dirt, there’s not a lot of sites in terms of property that can be effectively served,” Sweeney said.

A recent example, he said, of the city’s timeline to produce infrastructure for an interested company was 18 to 24 months. “There are no projects to speak of that can wait 18 to 24 months for infrastructure,” Sweeney said.

This fundamental challenge will impact almost every opportunity for major outside industrial prospects, he said.

Sweeney offered a solution, saying that having infrastructure in place in the areas targeted for industrial development could be a way of avoiding the timeline issue.

“I’m not saying, ‘Invest in infrastructure and site selectors will choose you.’ After all, this is a gamble. All I am saying is having a few select sites ready to go within a 12- to six-month time frame will make Rio Rancho that much more competitive,” he said.