‘Build it now.’ Sierra County leaders look toward growth

ELEPHANT BUTTE — An old maxim says, “If you build it, they will come.”

At a Friday breakfast meeting with New Mexico’s Acting Tourism Secretary Lancing Adams and local officials, Patrick Pharris presented a variation tailored for Sierra County: “They will come. Build it now.”

Local mayors, council members and staff from Elephant Butte, Truth or Consequences and Sierra County capped a two-day visit by Adams at the Turtleback Mountain golf course clubhouse.

Pharris, head of communications for PreReal Investments, updated the group on efforts to organize a formal entity focused on building a “year-round economy” through tourism, local economic development and infrastructure improvement.

The Sierra Gateway Alliance is a fledgling tax-exempt 501(c)(6) corporation, similar to nonprofit corporations serving as business leagues or chambers of commerce. Pharris is expected to propose a joint powers agreement to the cities of Elephant Butte, Truth or Consequences and the village of Williamsburg as well as Sierra County at public sessions during February.

The aim, Pharris said, is to assemble a board with representatives of the municipalities as well as private sector leadership to pave the way, literally and figuratively, for enhancing the region’s profile as a place to live, work and play.

Pharris announced that Jason Lazich, Virgin Galactic’s director of New Mexico government affairs, and former state Tourism Secretary Jen Paul Schroer had agreed to serve on the entity’s board. Lazich attended Friday’s meeting. 

Schroer served as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s tourism secretary for four years before heading the Aging and Long-Term Services Department in 2023, leaving the government in 2024 to work as a strategic consultant. 

Lazich is the director of New Mexico government affairs for Virgin Galactic, the spaceline company and anchor tenant of Spaceport America, located outside Truth or Consequences.

Adams pressed the leaders on the need for good roads, accommodations, a variety of attractions and quality amenities: “We can’t be driving travel, and then folks come here and things are closed, or things aren’t looking the way they need to look,” he said. 

Every summer, Elephant Butte Lake State Park draws campers and boaters to the reservoir holding waters released by the federal Bureau of Reclamation for irrigation. Dwindling water levels in recent years, due to reduced snowpack upstream, have presented challenges to that industry and a local group has campaigned for increased water storage and a permanent water pool.

An anticipated boom in hospitality demand from Virgin Galactic’s commercial flight operations has also been a promise long delayed, although the company reports it is on track to begin regular commercial flight service with a new fleet of spacecraft by the end of 2026.

Local leaders are also anticipating a surge of working families in the region as operations at the the Copper Flat Mine in Hillsboro are expected to resume in 2028, with a construction phase beginning this year. 

Developments in neighboring Doña Ana County, with industrial developments in Santa Teresa, could bring cars, feet and dollars to Sierra County as well, Pharris said. And in January, the U.S. Geological Survey announced the discovery of more oil and gas in the Permian Basin: 28.3 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil.

ProReal Investments, headed by investor James Prendamano, has invested over $55 million since 2022 to develop residential and commercial property and undeveloped land in the county, spanning thousands of acres and over 1,500 parcels. It acquired the former Sierra del Rio golf course, now Turtleback, which is hosting the New Mexico Open through 2027.

Pharris said announcements were imminent about the management of the golf course as well as a prospective resort hotel at the property.

The elected leaders in the room expressed agreement that local governments needed to join forces to plan together, marshal resources and build. 

“As an alliance, we have more strength and we have one voice,” Truth or Consequences Mayor Rolf Hechler said. “If we get on the same trajectory and we all have one voice, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.”

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