The Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA) gave an annual report Monday night about its work the past year. Of the statistics and dollar figures discussed, the biggest one was the $246.3 million in capital investments made by companies MVEDA worked with during the year.
While MVEDA essentially met the goals for all seven of its benchmark categories, the figure for capital investments was more than five times the goal.
While it was a strong performance, especially for another pandemic year, the presentation led by MVEDA President & CEO Davin Lopez left me believing MVEDA is poised for even better things in the near future.
For one, they will be better funded, thanks to increased contributions from Doña Ana County, and the additional resource of the El Paso Electric NM Economic Development Fund, which assisted MVEDA to the tune of $300,000 last year.
Secondly, they can again benefit from the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s state closing funds, designed to complement other state and federal resources to help economic developers close deals to bring new business opportunities to New Mexico.
“Whether it’s public or private money, our duty is to be very responsible with those investments,” Lopez said.
Perhaps most important is MVEDA’s forward-looking approach.
You may begin to hear MVEDA less, and NM Borderplex more. The term NM Borderplex better reflects the more regional approach MVEDA is taking and needs to take.
Imagine recruiting a multi-million-dollar company to Las Cruces. One of the first things they’ll want to know is the strength of the available workforce to fill their jobs. They’ll be encouraged to know of the resources of New Mexico State University and Dona Ana Community College. But also consider the educational resources of University of Texas-El Paso, and El Paso’s community college system, as well as the colleges and universities of Ciudad Juarez. Add them all together and it’s nearly 160,000 students.
As much as we like to play up our rivalries with El Paso and Texas, they are our neighbors and, often, our colleagues. The Santa Teresa area offers the Union Pacific rail hub, the expanded Jetport and International Port of Entry. These synergies, combined with those of Mexico, make this a region of serious impact and import.
We love our small city of Las Cruces, and the charm of Mesilla, but we have to realize we’re part of something bigger.
I believe we can retain what makes Las Cruces great and still maintain a vital role in the bigger picture of our regional economy. I don’t believe we can retain what makes Las Cruces great, however, without brining new jobs, new growth and new opportunities to the region.
A friend of mine from Houston recently visited Las Cruces, with an eye toward possibly moving here in retirement. We had one conversation about airports.
“How far are you from the airport?” I asked.
“It takes us more than an hour to get to either Bush or Hobby,” he said.
“The El Paso airport is about 45 minutes from my house in Las Cruces,” I said.
We are a region, alright, but less sprawling than many major metro areas.
In addition to growing funding, MVEDA is also fully staffed for the first time. They’ve added a full-time marketing director (Carlos Parra), and a person dedicated solely to business development (JessicaLyn Robles) to work on retention and expansion of existing businesses.
Companies that established or expanded in Dona Ana County through MVEDA’s efforts in 2021-22 were Artico Cold Management, Tecma, Saputo Cheese USA, Electronic Caregiver, Wind Turbine and Energy Cable Corp, Ma & Sons Chile, Hecate Energy and Yellowbird Solar. That translates to 777 jobs created, with an average wage of $17.94 an hour.
My favorite part of the MVEDA name has always been the A for Alliance, signifying the many different entities that come together to support economic development in the Mesilla Valley and beyond. During his presentation, Lopez mentioned collaborations with the City of Las Cruces, Doña Ana County, the Borderplex Alliance, the Border Industrial Association, the New Mexico Economic Development Department and many others. And they’re only looking to grow those efforts.
“This is our year of partnerships,” Lopez said.
The pandemic has shown us the relative fragility of our economy. MVEDA’s efforts can help diversify our economy, maximize our area’s strengths. Those strengths include these key assets: aerospace, logistics and manufacturing, value-added agriculture, and digital media and game development.
Over the years, I’ve heard people questioning the value of MVEDA. Everything is worth examining, of course, but MVEDA’s always been transparent about its efforts, whether they’re doing great or struggling.
I suppose we could just sit around, cross our fingers, and hope companies will come to Las Cruces.
Or, we could help this team of seasoned professionals, MVEDA, put in relentless, international effort to make our story heard to businesses and organizations that can take advantage of our unique region and, in turn, create more and better opportunities here for us and for our children.
