MVEDA’s Business on the Border Luncheon on March 2nd featured a commercial real estate update. The discussion shined a positive light on the economic environment surrounding the real estate market and where we can be looking for opportunities ahead.
The panel consisted of: John L. Hummer, Owner/Broker with Steinborn TCN Commercial Real Estate; Gil Jones, Associate Broker with NAI 1st Valley Commercial Real Estate; Donnie Brainard, President/Qualifying Broker with Alameda Property Group; and Rick Stoes, Managing Director for Grubb & Ellis.
Economic highlights from the discussion included:
- National and regional retailers are beginning to show activity,
- Improvement in new store openings and slowing of store closures compared to last year,
- Strip retailers are more aggressive on store openings,
- Stabilization of lease rates,
- Growth at Ft. Bliss expected to boost regional economy by $4 billion annually,
- Significant increase in venture capital money looking to be placed. Majority of which is coming out of Mexico, and
- Conventional financing will continue to be difficult to obtain.
The panelists graciously agreed to let us post their presentations and they can be down-loaded by following these links:
- John Hummer’s presentation (PDF – 570 KB)
- Gil Jones’ presentation (PDF – 935 KB)
- Donnie Brainard’s presentation (PDF – 1.5 MB)
- Rick Stoes’ presentation (PDF – 1.3MB)
As for the first two months of 2010, MVEDA’s lead generation activity has been quite high. Entering the month of March, our lead generation is 176% higher than this same time last year, and our prospect activity is at 111% of our YTD goals. In the month of February alone, we had over 14 new leads and 5 site visits by companies interested in the region. Renewable energy continues to lead the way representing 1/3rd of all our new lead generation, followed by manufacturing and logistics firms. Over the past couple of months we have also seen some increased interest in the aviation and aerospace sectors.
MVEDA’s marketing efforts remain aggressive. Since mid-January, MVEDA participated in two prospecting missions with the New Mexico Partnership to Southern California and Dallas regions. We also attended the Medical Design and Manufacturing Trade Show in Anaheim and participated in the National Security Technology Conference that took place in Las Cruces last week.
Although lead generation and prospecting activity is quite high, the difficulty in closing deals and in job creation surrounds financing. This became a topic at our Business on the Border luncheon and has been a growing challenge over the past year. As economic developers, we are being asked more and more to identify financing solutions for our clients which as a result is forcing us to identify alternative financing routes, such as through State and Federal programs, or through equity programs and grants. Suffice it to say that this will be a continuing discussion, but enables us to retool, as well as, rethink strategies that will create new opportunities and future growth in Dona Ana County.
