Generation Elevate New Mexico seeks members, development

They are commercial real estate professionals and athletes, and they want to see New Mexico thrive.

Sal Perdomo, a director at Titan Development, and Micah Gray, a commercial real estate advisor at NAI SunVista, were the guests on this week's episode of the Business Outlook podcast, which focused on real estate.

Gray and Perdomo are the founding members of Generation Elevate New Mexico, a coalition of young professionals aiming to positively shape the future of New Mexico with smart, sustainable development. The organization does so by advocating for specific policies

In addition to being professionals, starting an advocacy organization and other professional interests, Perdomo and Gray are also athletes. Gray is a former University of New Mexico football player and Perdomo is a talented distance runner who is also preparing for a fundraising boxing back for NAIOP, a commercial real estate advocacy organization. He's been training and sparring for the event.

Here's a sample of the conversation, which has been edited for clarity.

Business Outlooks podcasts are released Monday afternoons and are available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud.

Guys, thanks for being on the podcast, can you start by telling us a little bit about you and Generation Elevate New Mexico?

Sal Perdomo: I grew up in the Dallas-Forth Worth area and went to school in San Antonio and moved to New Mexico 11 years ago. The reason I moved to New Mexico was because of the climate here, actually. I moved out here to train for cross country and track. I used to compete in distance running and this was a very good place to train.

One of the things I noticed when I moved here is, just working in the business environment is how different it was from the business environment in Texas. As I've spent more time working in the commercial real estate space, I saw a lot about how NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) really impacts growth in our communities.

Micah Gray: I grew up in Clovis, New Mexico and moved to Albuquerque in 2017 to play football. As a student athlete, I played four years and was a graduate assistant on the team. I became a commercial real estate broker at SunVista and I'll be with the company three years in November.

Sal reached out and said he wanted to talk. He was creating this group, Generation Elevate New Mexico, GENM. It's a group who wants to support development, policies and growth in Albuquerque and New Mexico. Being young and energized, I do a lot of traveling, and you see what other cities look like and how cool they are. And then you come back to Albuquerque and see what Albuquerque could be.

What are the goals of the organization?

SP: We wanted to bring together a group of like-minded people who could help promote and advance smart growth in New Mexico. Not just growth of population, not just growth of jobs — it's growth of everything. I don't think anybody in our organization wants Albuquerque to become Austin or Phoenix or Denver. Albuquerque has its own identity and Albuquerque is a great place. But the only way Albuquerque can survive as a city is to have sustainable growth. What I mean by sustainable growth is 1% to 2% population growth per year. It's not 5% to 6% a year that puts a strain on infrastructure.

And one of the thing that stands in the way of growth in Albuquerque is NIMYism. It refers to individuals who are out with signs standing in front of a tractor to stop construction; they show up at public hearing to fight growth. And it really makes development hard.

What are some of the projects that you've been involved in?

MG: The two biggest headliners have been the United Stadium and the Palindrome project on Osuna and Fourth Street.

SP: And we don't just support projects. We support policies that might promote growth in our community.

If you could change one policy in New Mexico, what would it be?

SP: So I wear different hats. In this conversation I'm not wearing my Titan hat; I'm wearing my GENM hat. The policy that kills me the most is in Nob Hill. There is an overlay, which means there's an underlying zoning code and then there is an overlay on top of it that prevents structures from going over two to four stories depending on the location along Central in Nob Hill.

So you're looking at the second-most dense corridor in the entire state other than Downtown. That's an area that we need to be promoting to visitors and residents. We need to promote growth in an area where young people like to go out and grab dinner and have drinks and go see shows. And we're limiting density and investment in that area. That's NIMBYism in it's truest form.

Micah is from New Mexico and Sal and I moved here in our early 20s and stayed. What do you think are New Mexico's assets?

MG: The beauty of it, right? The Sandia Mountains, walking out and seeing orange and pink skies at sundown, having wonderful weather. You don't have extremeness here. Albuquerque is a slower and more relaxed city, which can be good and bad. But you don't have the chaos (of) a downtown Scottsdale (Arizona) or in Austin, right? They are just absolutely bonkers. You have some of that New Mexican vibes going on. The food, the culture is all unique to Albuquerque and New Mexico. There's nowhere like this in the city.

You guys are both athletes and Sal, you're training for an event, do you want to tell us about that?

SP: So Titan does a lot of work in Austin and I do a lot of work there. There's an annual event through the Texas Real Estate Commission and it's a fight night. It's a black-tie event, 1,500 people, happy hour dinner and the feature events are boxing matches between industry professionals.

I went to the event and came back to Albuquerque and was sitting down with Micah and (another person) and I was telling them about it and they were like, 'We got to bring this to Albuquerque.' And I said, 'I want to fight.'

I was a competitive runner for 18 years, and my motivation and energy and body have peaked in that sport. I wanted to tackle something different, and I've always wanted to learn how to fight, so this provided a great opportunity to do it. So NAIOP's (Fight Night) is Oct. 25. There are five cards of commercial real estate professionals that are fighting the people who will listen to this podcast. There's still some tickets available and it's going to be a fun night.

Those peak athletic years come at you fast. Micah, what do you do to stay an active athlete?

MG: You name it and I'm doing it at this point. Similar to Sal, I like new challenges and new tasks. I play pickup soccer. I actually went recently and played squash with one of my coworkers. I'm in a men's basketball league. I enjoy running. I've done a couple half-marathons but I couldn't convince myself to do a full. But I actually went because I had an itch to fight, so I've sparred with a couple other guys who are fighting on Fight Night.

In 60 second or less, how are you going to measure the success of GENM?

SP: We are excited to have continued membership growth. So for those who are listening, membership is free. It takes 30 seconds to become a member. Our website is letselevatenm.org. We just want to continue supporting impactful projects and policies that might be coming our way.