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President Obama announced that he will sign a proclamation designating the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in southern New Mexico as another national monument in New Mexico on Wednesday.

Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), both of whom had pushed for the measure, said the designation should provide a boost to the area’s economy.

“The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument will put the unique and spectacular desert landscapes of Southern New Mexico on recreation maps around the world, attracting tourists to the region, creating jobs and bringing in millions of dollars in tourism revenue,” Udall said in a statement.

“This is a very special moment for New Mexico and a major accomplishment for the community who has worked tirelessly for a decade to make the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument a reality,” Heinrich said. “An Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument will preserve important cultural links to our past and strengthen southern New Mexico’s economy by boosting tourism and recreational opportunities, like hunting, hiking, camping, and horseback riding.”

Tim Gaudette, Western Outreach Manager of Small Business Majority, also said the move is a good one.

“This is great news for New Mexico entrepreneurs,” said Gaudette in a statement. “Small business owners in New Mexico strongly believe the preservation of the state’s natural assets is essential to their financial success and that of local economies. The new site will open up new opportunities for small businesses, tourists and the local economy.”

By: Gary Gerew (Albuquerque Business First)

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The commercial real estate market continues to rebound, showing steady gains in pricing and transaction activity in all major property types throughout the country, according to the latest CoStar Commercial Repeat Sales Indices report.
First-quarter sales volume rose 33 percent over year-ago levels, according to the report. Vacancies have dropped to within 100 basis points of pre-recession levels in the office and retail sectors, and they are lower than pre-recession levels for industrial properties.
What’s more, the percentage of deals selling at distressed pricing has also continued to fall, down by more than two-thirds from its peak levels in 2011, according to the report.
Pricing gains were posted in all major property types, with the retail and industrial sectors posting the strongest growth in the past year. Pricing has already overtaken previous peak levels in some primary markets, such as New York and San Francisco.
“While demand growth has so far been modest compared with the previous cycle, the slower pace of absorption has kept new development in check,” according to CoStar’s report. “That has allowed vacancy rates to continue to shrink in all but the apartment sector, where new supply has now exceeded absorption gains.”
The West is posting some of the largest gains among the four major U.S. regions. Multifamily property has risen to within 4 percent of its previous peak in the West. The office, retail, and industrial markets have all posted double-digit gains, and industrial properties in the West, particularly driven by demand by warehouses, has posted some of the largest gains in that sector in the country.
By: National Association of REALTORS® (REALTORMag)
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The city of Albuquerque is poised to give $1.9 million to the new ABQid business accelerator program, Mayor Richard Berry said during a keynote speech at a NAIOP luncheon Monday.
The money will come from the city’s Economic Development Action Account, which is the fund the city set up with money from clawbacks from Schott Solar’s shutdown. It will help the new accelerator, which is based on the Techstars model, with programmatic needs.
“Now we’re taking what was a bet on one company, and we’ll turn it into a bet on 30 to 40 companies,” said Bill Bice in response to the announcement. Bice is a Verge Fund partner who is on the board of directors of ABQid.
ABQid is a new venture designed to help entrepreneurs in Albuquerque cope with the initial needs of a startup.
Entrepreneurs receive a $20,000 stipend, for example, so they can quit their day jobs and focus on their companies. They attend an intensive 90-day training that focuses on developing and testing their products. In exchange for the stipend and the training, companies give ABQid a six percent equity position.
“Take an idea, and run it through the business model canvas. What it’s really about is the assumptions you’re making about your business,” Bice said.
Bice said that entrepreneurs often find their assumptions are wrong in the process.
The program intends to enroll 10 companies in its first class, which is scheduled to begin in August. ABQid is hoping to recruit area high-growth startups that need a push — likely high-tech, software or hardware firms. “It can be any kind of company. It could be micro, it could be Main Street, whatever. But the focus is not on sector, it’s high-growth, and that has nothing to do with the type of company,” Bice said. “In no way is it exclusive to high-tech.”
The model has been proven in most major cities. The largest Techstars-type accelerator is Y Combinator, which is responsible for dozens of company launches every year.
The entire effort launched four years ago by Paul Short, who is the CEO of Pajarito Powder, and Bill Hartman, who is the CEO of Ion Linac Systems. At the time, though, Bice said the city was deep in the throes of the recession when the two started exploring the idea. They put it on hold.
But at a lunch one day with Gary Oppedahl, who is the director of the city’s Economic Development department, the two started talking about the idea and Oppedahl took it to the Economic Development Action Account council, Bice said.
The committee was set up in 2013 after the city received $5 million in clawbacks from Schott Solar, which closed its plant at Mesa de Sol.
“We’re creating startups that feed the larger ecosystem,” Bice said.
By: Dan Mayfield and Damon Scott (Albuquerque Business First)
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