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Monday, June 15, 2009
Troop reversal will affect Las Cruces by Brook Stockberger
Las Cruces Sun-News
LAS CRUCES — Members of the Las Cruces business community were chagrined by the recent news that the U.S. Army backtracked on its plans to place a 4,200-solider Heavy Brigade Combat Team at White Sands Missile Range by 2013.
"It's a disappointment," said Jim Berry, president and CEO of the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce. "It would have added to our economy."
Still, if the plans were going to be changed, he said it was better that it happened now instead of several years down the road when businesses might have invested more in anticipation of the extra influx of military members and their families.
"That would have been disastrous to have built all the infrastructure and gotten everybody out on the limb," Berry said.
Quint Lears, a real estate agent who works with builders on the East Mesa, said, "Some builders and developers are going to have to anticipate a slower absorption of homes and land. But the East Mesa is the fastest growing area of Las Cruces."
Harlo Dynek's company, Summit Development, is constructing a 16-unit apartment complex on Reynolds Drive on the East Mesa that he said could be open by the end of July. He said impending relocation of the brigade was not the sole driving force for the construction. He plans to have tenants before the summer is out, and the brigade was not set to arrive for several years.
"Obviously, there's some disappointment," Dynek said. "But there's still a need for multifamily (living space) out there."
The Army still intends to station the 2nd Engineer Battalion at White Sands.
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