By Harry Moskos
Of the Journal
New Mexico can look fondly on 2007— the year the state's per capita personal income grew as well as its contribution to the nation's gross domestic production. The state's population topped 2 million and Eclipse Aviation's jet plane officially took to the air in the hands of customers. There also were substantial job losses announced at Intel and PNM, and Eclipse Aviation struggled to overcome production delays.
Here's a summary of some of the state's business activity during 2007:
AVIATION
Eclipse Aviation received its Federal Aviation Administration production certification and delivered its first plane. The keys went to Jet-Alliance. Since then, the company has delivered an estimated 70 planes, with several in regular use by companies like Florida-based DayJet.
Eclipse also cut its work force of more than 1,500 by some 100 positions as production failed to reach expected volumes. Other delays have plagued the company, which by the end of the year was looking for additional funding, as internal and external delays have pushed profitability further into 2008.
A Houston-based upstart airline, ExpressJet, joined the Albuquerque market by offering nonstop passenger service to six cities in California, Texas and Oklahoma. Also, Great Lakes Aviation started service to Albuquerque from Clovis and Silver City, but Mesa Airlines discontinued its Albuquerque-Farmington route.
Putting the international back in the Sunport: Frontier Airlines began direct service to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, from the Sunport in December. These are the first international flights out of the Sunport in several years.
STATS AND LISTS
It's unofficial! New Mexico's unofficial population has topped 2 million, according to UNM's Bureau of Business and Economic Research. It estimates about 117 people a day are added to the population, considering the new people who move here and the fact that births outpace deaths 2 to 1.
Income on the increase: Another study by the same UNM bureau showed that the state now ranks 44th among the 50 in per capita personal income, up from 48th in 1999, 46th in 2004 and 45th in 2005. New Mexico's personal income growth in 2006 was the seventh-fastest in the United States.
Retail is robust: A study by Sperry Van Ness, a national commercial real estate firm, listed Albuquerque in the top 10 U.S. retail investment markets to watch. The study examined 60 American metro areas.
Just plain weird: National Geographic Adventure magazine named Albuquerque one of America's top "waterfront towns." No, that's not a typo. The September issue divided America's 50 "best adventure towns" into five categories— wilderness, small town, mountain, waterfront and city— with the Duke City getting a berth on the waterfront category. We don't know if it was the Rio Grande or Tingley Beach that swayed the magazine.
CALL CENTERS
Cincinnati-based Convergys moved into the old AOL building, at 6301 Jefferson NE, with 250 jobs. The company expects the payroll to eventually reach 500 employees and $13 million a year.
Verizon Wireless added 300 employees to its Albuquerque customer service center, bringing its work force to 1,400 there.
Allstate Insurance selected Las Cruces for a customer claims service center that will bring 250 jobs. The center is to open in January.
VMC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Volt Information Services, is planning to hire 300 people to staff a new Las Cruces center to assist Apple and Mac customers.
Another call center, Alamogordo Opinion Center, shut down, eliminating 63 jobs. The center had opened in 2000.
INVENTION
The U.S. Navy awarded Thermo Eberline LLC of Santa Fe a $28.4 million contract to produce 362 handheld high-tech "IdentiFINDER" devices, which identify isotopes when radiation is present or suspected.
Dawn Winters-Rizika, a Santa Fe mom of two young girls, invented and is distributing Kids Consoles, a way to keep young children's things— from sippy cups to toys— safely accessible to them without distracting the driver, aka the parent.
Albuquerque biometrics startup Lumidigm released a new, less expensive biometric fingerprint scanner that joined the military's arsenal of tools for security and investigation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
LANDMARKS
Goodbye to high-rise dining: The Petroleum Club closed after 51 years Downtown. It was a victim of declining membership, from 1,000 in its heyday to 400.
History in the remaking: The Albuquerque City Council approved issuance of industrial revenue bonds for renovation of Downtown's historic 107-room La Posada, built in 1939. It is one of the original hotels built by Conrad Hilton.
Hospital helper: The $244 million, six-story, 478,748-square-foot Barbara and Bill Richardson Pavilion was added to the UNM Hospital. Triple the size of the existing UNM Hospital, it includes UNM's Children Hospital, a maternity center and a larger emergency department.
UNM's Cancer Center broke ground for its 190,000-square-foot, $90 million treatment and research center near University and Lomas NE.
MOVIES
MovieMaker magazine, a major trade publication in the film industry, cited Albuquerque as a "hot spot" in the United States for movie production. Here's proof.
Did someone say snakes? It was announced that the fourth "Indiana Jones" film, tentatively called "Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods," is to be filmed in the Deming area. Like the other movies in the series, it features Harrison Ford. Since 2003, the film industry has generated $1.4 billion in economic activity in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Film Office.
Seeing stars: Albuquerque Studios opened its $74 million motion picture and TV production studio at the city's Mesa del Sol development. Set on 28 acres, it includes eight sound stages. Several films, including "The Spirit," starring Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson, and several TV shows, such as "Breaking Bad" and "In Plain Sight," have used the studio.
And Sony announced it would bring part of its Sony Pictures Imageworks from California to Mesa del Sol in 2008. This means an initial 150 to 250 new jobs for the Duke City, likely with a few hundred more later.
Hollywood moves in at Budaghers: ÁTraditions!, the former outlet mall and marketplace on Interstate 25 between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, plans to become a movie studio. It will accommodate feature films, music videos and TV sitcoms and commercials.
ADDITIONS & SUBTRACTIONS
Sandia National Laboratories opened its $516 million Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA) facility that will design and manufacture the electronic circuits for nuclear weapons. About 650 people will work in the three-building complex.
A $390 million mixed-use development consisting of restaurants, some retail, office space, a hotel and an assisted-living center has been announced for a 92-acre tract owned by Kirtland Air Force Base along Gibson SE. The project will take about six years to complete. It is viewed as a much-needed economic boost for Albuquerque's southeast quadrant.
California-based Tesla Motors announced plans to build a factory for an all-electric sedan in Albuquerque. However, ground still has not been broken for the automobile plant, and delays with the flagship vehicle Tesla Roadster have made plans here uncertain.
Giving new meaning to fat burning: Clovis was selected as the site of plant to turn animal fat into gasoline. American Renewable Fuels, a subsidiary of Australian Renewable Fuels, said the plant will begin production of about 75 million gallons of fuel a year in 2008.
Construction is planned in early 2008 on the state's first commercial-size biomass power plant. Public Service Company of New Mexico has said it will buy electricity from the $80 million plant to be built near Estancia by Western Water and Power, which received its air quality permit from the state in September. The company is still trying to obtain tax credits.
Metro area can sleep well: Tempur-Pedic's $92 million, 18-acre plant went into production on Albuquerque's West Side. The plant, which eventually will have 300 employees, can produce 60,000 mattresses per month.
Using a new $14.5 million investment round, Albuquerque-based Miox plans to expand its water disinfection product line to meet industrial water purification needs in the cooling, food processing and surface disinfection fields.
Capturing the sun: Production started this year at Mesa del Sol's first industrial development— Advent Solar. The company will produce thousands of solar cells a month at its 87,000-square-foot plant.
Intel's Sandoval County computer chip factory was selected for a $1 billion to $1.5 billion upgrade, making it one of four Intel units worldwide that will manufacture the industry's next generation of chips. However, increasing automation and the discontinuation of a product line manufactured here led to the layoffs of 1,500 employees in the fall.
Is this for real? Actor Mel Gibson is among financial backers of a $30 million state-of-the-art tire recycling business that will have its headquarters in Albuquerque and its plant in Gallup. Also involved in Green Rubber Global with Gibson are Malaysia-based Petra Group founder Vinod Sekhar and Rick Homans, former state Economic Development secretary, who is president of Green Rubber Global. The plant had intended to open this year, but, at last check, groundbreaking had been delayed until July.
Albuquerque optics company CVI Laser acquired California-based Melles Griot and, as a result, became one of the city's largest privately held companies. The acquisition will expand CVI's presence in Asia and Europe, increase its employment from 500 to more than 1,000 and triple annual revenues from about $50 million to more than $150 million.
Groceries gone wild— or just gone: Albertson's purchased the 10 Raley's supermarkets in the Albuquerque area. About 600 of the 840 Raley's employees were hired by Albertson's, which closed three of the stores that were near existing Albertson's stores.
Lala, a Mexican dairy products producer, announced it would reopen a Lovington cheese factory that the Dairy Farmers of America closed earlier in the year. Lala plans to hire 75 people— about a dozen more than previously employed at the plant.
PNM Resources reported a worse than expected financial performance for the year and immediately cut 150 jobs. The utility said it would reduce its work force by a total of 500 by the end of 2008.
Although Harry Moskos has moved to Knoxville, Tenn., he has strong ties to Albuquerque and continues to contribute to the Journal.
AED 
...go to bookmarks
E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
