New Mexico officials say site-readiness program is off to a strong start

New Mexico’s new site-readiness program is going “extremely well,” Economic Development Secretary Rob Black says, an initiative state leaders hope will spur investment.

Legislation passed and signed by the governor earlier this year appropriated $24 million from the state’s general fund to find and prepare sites for business development with the hopes of making it easier for companies to come to New Mexico.

Black, appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to the Cabinet-level position last year, said his department has so far evaluated 47 sites across the state as a result of the program’s funding. 

The effort targets a long-standing hurdle to economic development in New Mexico: the years it can take to prepare land for construction. State officials say the delays have often cost New Mexico potential investment as companies choose sites elsewhere, typically in faster-moving states like Texas and Arizona.

“Historically, it would take three to five years for a company to say, ‘I want to be in New Mexico,’” Black said. “But because we don’t have sites that are ready, it takes too long to get a building vertical and for a business to start, so they go somewhere else.”

Officials consider factors including a site’s electricity, environmental, traffic, zoning and ownership when evaluating a location, Black said. A property can be under county, city, tribal or private ownership to be considered.

After an initial evaluation of a potential site, state officials will determine what investments are needed to make it viable, he added.

“It’s a very early stage in the program,” Black said. “The fact that we’ve been able to characterize as many sites as we have, I think, is pretty amazing.”

The initiative has attracted one business — Amazon — to a location in Roswell chosen for development.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new Roswell site.

“It’s been a really good response from around the state,” Black said.

When a company looks to select a location for development, it typically considers a variety of spots in multiple states, said Chad Matheson, president of the Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance.

Roughly three dozen states have some form of a site-readiness program in place, AREA has said. 

Since the program’s launch in New Mexico, more than a dozen sites have been evaluated in the greater Albuquerque area alone — a move that could pay off in the near future. 

“We want to make sure that the region and the state have the ability to move quickly when it comes to really securing an investment,” Matheson said.

After an evaluation, landowners can see what work needs to be done on their property, then can apply for funding “that could help close some of those gaps on the site,” Matheson said.

Black said he anticipates “a lot of demand” for support to get sites ready for development as the program progresses. Sites have already shown a high need for improvements thus far, he said.

“In just two or three sites, you’ll see $500,000 of electrical upgrades; it needs a million dollars for a road; it needs broadband access or, you know, whatever it might be,” Black said.

The initial round of funding is for three years, but Matheson said he hopes to see legislators add more money to the program down the line.

“I would love to see that grow in magnitude over the next several years,” he said.

Black hopes that with enough attractive jobs in-state, the 60% of New Mexico’s college students who leave the state after graduation may be encouraged to stay.

“Our No. 1 export is our kids,” Black said. “What we want to do is be able to create a situation where…our kids have places where they can go work and have cool jobs, whether that’s in technology, advanced energy, manufacturing, computers.”

Natalie Robbins covers the economy and health care for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.