Real estate mogul joins Spaceport America board of directors

The newest member of the board governing Spaceport America is a real estate mogul from New York who has made major investments in Sierra County.

James Prendamano, founder of PreReal Investments, was appointed to the New Mexico Spaceport Authority’s nine-member board of directors effective Feb. 2 for a four-year term ending in 2030.

From 2022 through 2025, PreReal Investments poured more than $55 million into development of commercial and residential properties across thousands of acres of land in the county where Spaceport America’s launch facilities are based. 

PreReal also acquired the former Sierra del Rio golf course in Elephant Butte in 2023, now branded as Turtleback Golf and Resort and current host of the New Mexico Open, with plans to develop a resort hotel and recreational facilities at the site. Recently, the golf course announced a management deal with global golf firm Troon. 

And now Prendamano sits on the governing board of the spaceport constructed with public funds largely on the vision of Virgin Galactic’s enterprise in providing regular commercial flights to space for researchers, astronauts in training and well-heeled sightseers – an enterprise that, if realized, would stimulate economic growth and fill houses and hotel rooms.

“I’m a Star Wars kid,” Prendamano said in an interview. “I grew up in that, and for me there’s always just been kind of a calling to the sky.”

He argued that the spaceport’s economic performance is borne out in the data, and that its prospects for lifting up the region are bright – and part of the potential that led him to invest here.

The spaceport’s board of directors represents a mix of expertise in aerospace, engineering and economic development. It is chaired by state Economic Development Secretary Rob Black, with Lt. Gov. Howie Morales as an ex officio member and directors appointed by the governor.

Current board members with technical expertise include aerospace consultant Eric Schindwolf; Patricia Sullivan, associate dean of New Mexico State University’s College of Engineering; and Stephanie Luongo, chief of mission operations at airship company Sceye.

Board member Wayne Savage, a graduate of the NMSU Industrial Engineering program, is the executive director of the university’s Arrowhead Research Park, fostering development of local enterprises in aerospace, energy, media and other sectors.

Additionally, former Las Cruces City Councilor and longtime spaceport advocate Dolores Lucero has served on the board since 2023.

“James brings a unique skill set and perspective to the Board of Directors,” Black said in a statement for the Journal. “Having worked at the forefront of regional economic development in New Mexico and across the country, he’s shown he’s someone who understands land use, site development and utility infrastructure, all of which will be important for Spaceport America moving forward.”

 An economic analysis produced by NMSU and sponsored by the spaceport last year reports that the facility generated $24.4 million in federal and state tax revenues in 2024 and over $73 million in wages, with its economic output amounting to nearly $240 million that year. The figures represent major increases across the board since 2019.

The report was not enough to satisfy skeptics of the spaceport, including some lawmakers who, in recent years, and during the most recent legislative session, have mused about selling off the facility. The spaceport sits on state trust land outside Truth or Consequences with business offices in Las Cruces. 

Those doubts arise most prominently because the spaceport’s anchor tenant, Virgin Galactic, has been beset with delays in beginning regular flight service. It is currently developing a new line of spacecraft aimed at resuming launches later in 2026 and a research mission planned for next year. The spaceport also recently lost a prominent annual event when the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, known as the Spaceport America Cup from 2017 to 2024, relocated to Midland, Texas. 

Prendamano, nonetheless, was bullish about the spaceport’s prospects, arguing its infrastructure improvements in recent years have boosted its value to prospective tenants and customers in aerospace and other technological fields. As the clincher for him, he pointed to escalating growth in the commercial space, projected by McKinsey & Co. to become a $1.8 trillion industry by 2035. 

With the spaceport’s vertical and horizontal launch facilities and location adjacent to the protected airspace over White Sands Missile Range, Prendamano takes the view that New Mexico is poised to benefit richly from the commercial space boom.

“Spaceport, to me, is one of those standout public works projects that’s really coming into its time,” Prendamano said. “These things take time, these public work projects. New Mexico was way ahead of the curve in getting this thing done.”

As to areas for improvement, Prendamano said the spaceport needed to expand on its communications and find ways to tell stories about the technologies being developed there, despite the aerospace industry’s high premium on secrecy, so that the public sees the return on investment.

Additionally, he said he was already working on a detailed assessment of capital investments needed to expand the spaceport’s business enterprise.

“It’s a real estate play in many regards,” Prendamano said. “The deal structure, capital expenditure investment, infrastructure – those are all foundational real estate principles I thoroughly understand.”

Algernon D’Ammassa is the Journal’s southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.