Greater ABQ-area entities collaborate to increase economic growth
It takes teamwork to make the dream work when it comes to economic development. In New Mexico, department staff from the city, county, state and other organizations work together for the common goal of economic growth throughout the state.
Marcos A. Gonzales, economic development director for Bernalillo County, said the county works with economic departments in Albuquerque and Los Lunas, Rio Rancho, Sandoval and Valencia counties.
“We’re all with Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance that represents the area,” he said. “We’ll have quarterly meetings where all the economic developers get together. We’re constantly working, talking to the city about what they’re doing.”
Gonzales said Array Technologies, an Albuquerque-based, global provider of renewable energy solutions, and Maxeon Solar Technologies selecting Albuquerque as a site for their facilities are prime examples of how different entities work together to promote economic growth .
Another example is Bernalillo County’s investment in the Central New Mexico Rail Park in Los Lunas.
“We paid for the rail spur knowing that there’s not enough land in Bernalillo County to have a rail park of that size,” Gonzales said. “Knowing that rail park being closer to the Transcon line would lead to further development in Bernalillo County and future Bernalillo County employees working in that area.”
Bernalillo County has also contributed to the state’s space sector.
“(Space Valley) just had their regulatory bootcamp that the county helped sponsor and we work with them on all of their activities as well,” Gonzales said. “The Q Station, it’s really one of the only places in the country where they can work with foreign space companies that are looking to set up a U.S. company. They work with a lot of (companies) on the international stage as well, and we worked with them. They’re also a great partner in pushing the space industry, which was born here in New Mexico, and we need to get more aggressive about making sure that other states don’t take what was originally born here.”
AREA regularly works with the four counties that make up the greater Albuquerque area. Its main initiative is to attract companies to the metro area .
“We do a lot of proactive work,” said Danielle Casey, president and CEO of AREA. “We identify and research specific companies. (For example) that company just got a lot of venture capital in Southern California. They’re connected to aerospace and defense or they met with somebody at Sen. (Martin) Heinrich’s office because of connections with our industries and we think that they could be a good fit for New Mexico. So we will go after them and reach out to them and try to give them a pitch.”
AREA also holds two tours a year with site selectors to solidify relationships. It recently held a tour in March with site selectors from around the country.
“I firmly believe that the five attendees we (had) are definitely more apt to send a client to us now that they learn more about our market,” Casey said. “And it’s going to be a better match.”
Max Gruner, economic development director with the city of Albuquerque, said he is seeing an influx of large companies considering coming to New Mexico and Albuquerque.
“That’s where a lot of the workforce is,” he said. “Some of these companies, it’s sort of gravitational pull, where other companies that work adjacent to them, whether it’s suppliers, or service providers, will then co-locate. The other dynamic we see is that because of that influx, and because of that new money coming into our economy, our local businesses, whether it’s a local laundromat or a pub, whether it’s a restaurant or a cobbler repairing shoes, that influx of workers or people who have disposable income that organically grows our local economy and allows businesses to open up additional sister locations.”
Gruner said the two pillars of economic development are bringing new money into the state and into the city.
“Whether that’s Texas dollars or German Euros, maybe it’s Japanese Yen, but it’s about bringing new money into the economy,” Gruner said. “That’s one pillar. And then the other pillar is making sure that we have enough going on in our local economy, that money actually stays in the community, exchanges hands before it gets siphoned off by some global entity. ... We need to figure out how to keep our money here. And that’s that really vibrant ecosystem, our coffee shops and our microbreweries, our retail stores, service providers, local landscapers, all of this benefits from this influx we have seen in terms of economic growth.”