The following summary provides highlights of the activities and results of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA) through March 30, 2017 of the current Fiscal Year. The full report (8 pages in PDF format) includes more detail and additional subjects such as our project pipeline, economic impact, and our endeavors to improve the local workforce, promote business friendly policy changes, and creation of new business attraction tools. You can download the full report here.
COMPLETED PROJECTS
The business development environment in the first three quarters of Fiscal Year ’17 has seen challenges for several reasons. First among them has been the effects of a long, national election cycle. In addition, the Mesilla Valley and NM Borderplex region, which is heavily tied to border trade with Mexico, has been further impacted due to uncertainties in discussions at the national level with respect to NAFTA and the Border Adjustment Tax. These uncertainties continue to impact our region and therefore MVEDA has experienced a slight slowdown in project closings and job announcements, compared to where we were at this same point in the previous three fiscal years. Additionally, lack of existing facility space has led to a slowdown in project closings and will likely continue to be a factor as most companies and projects are seeking readily available facility space and not a build-to-suit option.
To date, MVEDA is credited with 6 project closings resulting in 258 newly announced economic-based jobs. This is a drop from our 2016 3Q results which tallied 8 project closings and 452 announced economic-based jobs. However, the results of these current 6 project closings have resulted in $35 million in new capital investment into the region, compared with $10 million at this same time last year.
MARKETING EFFORTS
MVEDA measures the success of our marketing efforts through what we define as Potential Recruitment Opportunities (PROs) and Site Visits. PROs are companies that have a project within a 12-month decision time window AND who have also expressed interest in receiving specific information on site identification or demographics of our region. Site Visits are defined as companies who directly, or through representation, visited the region to identify a potential fit for their projects.
To date, MVEDA has responded to 37 PROs and has conducted 35 site visits, the latter of which has far outpaced our internal goals for the year. In addition, we have exceeded last year’s “same time” numbers in both categories: 32 PROs and 21 site visits.
BUSINESS RETENTION & EXPANSION
A primary economic-based growth strategy for MVEDA has been rooted in supporting the growth of existing economic-based businesses in the region. Over the past two years, MVEDA expanded our efforts to work with companies whose products or services had the potential to become exportable and therefore economic-based. Due to these initiatives, MVEDA’s Business Retention & Expansion Program continues to grow and these efforts are converting to job creation.
To date, MVEDA has conducted 32 Business Retention & Expansion engagements and is on line to surpass our internal goals for the year. These 32 engagements have led to 3 project closings with an estimated 50 new economic-based jobs announced.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SUMMARY RESULTS
The chart below represents MVEDA’s progress as outlined by its Board of Directors. The top red line represents MVEDA’s year-end goals in each category, while the lower red line forecasts where our results should be as of March 31st. As illustrated, MVEDA is ahead of target in all categories except Completed Projects, Jobs Created and Payroll Generated.
SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATIONS
In summary, although we constantly face challenges and significant competition for business attraction, MVEDA feels optimistic about our future growth and economic development opportunities in the region, as measured by our increase in lead generation, PROs, and site visits. Although as a border region we are impacted by the uncertainty of future NAFTA changes, we feel confident that over time clarity will take shape and border related investments will open up again. However, lack of spec and facility space continues to be an issue in business attraction and growth and will continue to be one until private sector development once again becomes more aggressive. However, until that time, the City of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County can play a critical role in developing programs, incentives, or policy that helps spur development. This could come in the form of (1) fast track permitting programs, (2) pre-permitting conceptual buildings, (3) aggressive LEDA land incentives, and (4) site ready infrastructure to name just a few.
