May 27—How does New Mexico take the lead in attracting businesses to the state? Business leaders say by getting ahead of the curve on site readiness barriers it faces.
On Thursday, business people, elected officials and others interested in local and state economic development gathered for an Economic Forum of Albuquerque presentation on site readiness challenges.
Site readiness is having a physical space ready for a company to use, such as completed site surveys or utility infrastructure.
Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance leaders talked about issues and solutions to bringing New Mexico’s economic development environment to the forefront of the nation.
AREA President and CEO Danielle Casey said New Mexico can have the best incentives, tools and educational programs, but it doesn’t matter if companies can’t get set up in a good timeframe and competitive rate.
“Nothing else is doable or meaningful if we have nowhere to put companies,” she said.
AREA has a strategic plan that aims to generate 8,000 direct jobs. Casey said so far, halfway through the plan, 1,900 jobs have been created, which isn’t as many as she’d hope.
“What I worry about is if we don’t get site readiness going, no matter what we do, we’re not going to hit that job goal,” she said.
Casey said companies looking to come to New Mexico are analyzing market dynamics, competition, accessibility and other data points.
She referenced research from the Site Selectors Guild that found 76% of companies said workforce labor and availability is a top factor in selecting site location, 74% said utilities and infrastructure is a major consideration and 60% said availability of ready development sites really matters.
“Quite often, we get eliminated from the list before we even know we’re being looked at or we have the opportunity to educate them on some of our data points,” Casey said.
Chad Matheson is AREA’s senior vice president of business development and research. He said New Mexico starts developing when an end user, or company, has been identified. That’s year zero, he said.
But, he added, New Mexico really needs to start developing both soft and hard infrastructure two years in advance, so companies aren’t waiting years to get up and running.
Casey said lead times to getting materials like transformers ranges from 24 months to 30 months in every market nationwide. If New Mexico could capitalize on getting ahead of that wait time, she said, “we can leapfrog in a significant way against others.”
Casey said 36 states have active site readiness programs, but New Mexico doesn’t.
Matheson said a fund developers could pull money from to put down infrastructure, like gas lines, for sites would be helpful. He said some states have programs not just through local or state entities but companies like utilities.
“We have to be more competitive for economic investment,” he said.
Casey added that it’s also a case of sharing risk for a great reward. She said private sectors, government entities, utilities and workforce partners all need to work together.
“We have to row in the same direction on the need for really critical and significant movement in strategies,” she said.
The first step is getting state-level funding of $5 million or more for site readiness, she said, and then down the line, having around $1 billion.
“We are never going to be leading the pack and leading the competition if we’re not designing our own change and driving that intentionally,” Casey said.
Rob Black, president and CEO of the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, asked after the presentation about the state’s anti-donation clause, something that often presents barriers for private entities to secure public funding.
Casey said a company needs to show that it’s providing public infrastructure, owned and operated by a public entity, even if it serves a development.
“The last deal I did there was about a $25 million public infrastructure reimbursement and … that wasn’t even at the state level. It was at the local government level with a private developer that made the project possible,” she said.
A few audience members complained about a lack of movement from state officials on site readiness progress. Mathewson said action starts with a shared narrative.
“We have to build consensus that investment into economic development is the right thing for the state,” he said.
Casey invited business leaders to join AREA’s town hall in June for another discussion on regional economic development. Registration information can be found online at www.abq.org/event/2024-june-luncheon-town-hall/.
“New Mexico should be winning,” Casey said, “and we’re going to do everything we can to get it there.”
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
