Archives for October 2016

New Mexico’s largest wind farm resumes construction.

(Photo: Ingram Publishing, Getty Images/Ingram Publishing)
ALBUQUERQUE – After years of planning and delays, work has resumed on what officials are billing as one of New Mexico’s largest wind farms as companies look to take advantage of extended federal tax incentives in hopes of boosting the role of wind in the nation’s energy portfolio.

Politicians and executives with Avangrid Renewables gathered Monday in Torrance County to celebrate the restart of construction on the El Cabo Wind Farm, a complex that will span nearly 90 square miles of private property and state trust land in east-central New Mexico.

Foundations for the towering wind turbines are being poured. Company officials expect installation to be complete by the end of 2017, with the electricity generated heading to Southern California Edison customers soon afterward.

“We really excited. It’s taken a number of years to get to this point where we’re turning dirt and pouring foundations,” said Jesse Gronner, vice president of business development for Avangrid.

The El Cabo project represents a $500 million capital investment for the company, and Gronner said the potential exists for additional phases of development in the future, which would require enough capacity on transmission lines and the grid to export the power beyond rural New Mexico.

The state already is home to a dozen utility-scale wind farms that supply customers from New Mexico and West Texas to Arizona.

State energy officials and industry experts say New Mexico has the potential to produce much more electricity via wind than what the population could consume, putting it in a good position to export the power.

Avangrid and other companies point to the extension of key federal tax incentives in 2015 as encouragement for the industry. Since 2008, industry officials say the federal protection tax credit has helped to more than quadruple wind power in the U.S. to roughly 70,000 megawatts, or enough to supply an estimated 18 million homes.

Avangrid also is developing other wind projects in California, Colorado, Vermont and North Carolina.

The El Cabo project will consist of more than 140 turbines and is expected to provide at least $2 million in lease revenues and payments in lieu of taxes each year over its 30-year life.

Last year, Avangrid acknowledged that construction had slowed while transmission-related constraints were addressed. Construction first started in 2013 as companies raced to get projects underway to take advantage of federal incentives that were on track at the time to expire.

By: Susan Montoya Bryan (Las Cruces Sun-News)

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New Retail Development in Las Cruces

Jeff Loe – LC Sun-News
LAS CRUCES – The Las Cruces City Council’s approval Monday of a conveyance of a 16.57-acre former golf driving range, at 2834 N. Telshor Blvd., means a significant downtown redevelopment project, including retail, can proceed.
The council’s 7-0 vote during Monday’s council meeting allows GMB Investments Inc., of El Paso, to proceed with construction of The Amador, a retail facility that will include a restaurant, bar, coffee shop, entertainment venue, and new headquarters for the Las Cruces Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Amador will be built on the northwest corner of Main Street and Amador Avenue, where My Brother’s Place restaurant was located for decades.
Before The Amador could be built, the city had to transfer ownership of the former Tee Time driving range to GMB Investments, which has plans to develop that property into a retail center. The driving range is at the northern end of the Las Cruces Dam, a flood control project built in 1975 by the Army Corps of Engineers.
In early May, the council gave former city manager, Robert Garza, authority to negotiate a contract after GMB Investments presented an unsolicited proposal to the city to redevelop the former My Brother’s Place property, just east of the historic Amador Hotel. One of the major conditions of the agreement was the city’s transfer of the parcel on north Telshor to GMB Investments.
The contract stipulated GMB Investments would purchase the former Tee Time property for $2,201,457. All of proceeds will go to the city’s Flood Control Fund, which can only be used to pay for new, or future, flood control projects.
“If we had sold this a few years back it would be worth a lot more (than it is) now,” Mayor Ken Miyagishima said Monday. “But that’s the way things happen.”
The transfer of the property’s ownership will happen in the next 45 to 90 days.
Max Bower, GMB Investments vice president, said the land transfer needed to happen before his company could begin full-scale construction of The Amador. Construction is anticipated to begin early next year, but the start could hinge on the city’s plans, and time line, to convert Water and Church streets to two-way traffic.
The former My Brother’s Place property has been cleared, and a former drive-up banking facility at the north end of the Amador Hotel has been razed in preparation of the start of construction of The Amador.
Monday, the council also approved a new schedule of fees and charges for various classes, workshops, camps and other programs offered by the city’s museum system. “The proposed fee schedule will only increase revenues slightly,” said a portion of city document.
Also Monday the council adopted a resolution in support of continued federal ownership and management of public lands in Doña Ana County. The resolution also states the city of Las Cruces “does not favor” the transfer of federal lands to the state of New Mexico because of the likely financial burden that would be placed on state residents. The resolution is similar to one recent approved by the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners.
The council also approved beer and wine licenses for A Bite of Belgium, 741 N. Alameda Blvd., and Sakura Japanese Hibachi Grill & Sushi Bar, 3961 E. Lohman Ave.
The council also requested two proposed ordinances be presented to them for formal consideration, and possible approval, at the Nov. 7 meeting. The ordinances could enable X2nSat Corp. to expand its satellite communications business at the West Mesa Industrial Park.
One ordinance proposes the sale of 12.6 acres at the industrial park for $315,057. Another ordinance proposes support of a $150,000 investment to X2nSat. The company has agreed to create 45 jobs within the next three years.
By: Steve Ramirez (Las Cruces Sun-News)
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Courtesy of Albuquerque Plaza/ US Eagle FCU After more than two decades of branding with a bank name, New Mexico’s tallest building, the 22-story Albuquerque Plaza in Downtown, will bear the name of US Eagle Federal Credit Union.
Play to your strengths.

That was the advice from keynote speaker Darin Mellott at a NAIOP-New Mexico luncheon Monday. NAIOP is the commercial real estate development association.

Mellott, the director of research and analysis for commercial real estate firm CBRE’s Southwest Region, said despite its limited economic diversity, underemployment and intergenerational poverty, the Duke City can grow its economy and backfill empty office, retail and industrial space by capitalizing on its assets.

“You can’t just say you are going to reinvent yourself as a tech ‘capital,’” said Mellott. The city doesn’t have the labor base, and the amenities don’t warrant it, he added.

While there was anemic growth in the industrial and retail sectors year to date, Albuquerque was the worst-performing commercial real estate market, both in terms of vacancies and lease rates, in CBRE’s Southwest region. It was outdistanced by Tucson, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. The office vacancy rate for Albuquerque was nearly 30 percent;  downtown Salt Lake City’s is in the single digits.

“The city isn’t performing as well as some of you would like,” said Mellott.

He urged the audience, which included city councilors and community leaders, to remain realistic about Albuquerque’s economic prospects, but to aggressively build on the economic strengths that include tourism, second-home buyers, healthcare and, increasingly, data centers.

At best, the region might attract some more small businesses, especially if the owner wants to live in Central New Mexico for the lower cost of living, cultural diversity and history, growing food and microbrewery sector, proximity to recreation and the nearby Santa Fe art scene.

Mellott, who is based in Salt Lake City, said Albuquerque’s economic and civic leaders might follow the example of Ogden, a Utah city that has seen a solid turnaround in the past decade, especially the transformation of a downtown area that was blighted and crime-ridden.

He said places like Ogden, a center of outdoor recreation, have benefited from small initiatives to stoke its economy and the growth of regional transit lines along the Wasatch Front, where developers have been building housing and retail centers.

Despite its controversy, the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project appears “like a good place to catalyze future growth,” said Mellott.  In the long term, “ART seems like a sound idea.”

Ogden, once known for decades of economic stagnation, now boasts one of the strongest economies in the state. Outdoor recreation is one of the tickets helping drive information technology jobs to Utah, said Mellott.

“What’s the lesson for Albuquerque?” asked Mellott. “Do something. It takes doing just one fundamental goal (the right way) to turn things around. Inaction carries a cost.”

Success begets an attitude of success, he added.

By: Steve Sinovic (Albuquerque Journal)

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