Courtesy of the Las Cruces Sun-News, by Brook Stockberger
LAS CRUCES — Will Las Cruces be selected as the site for the Center for Innovation, Technology and Testing — a $1 billion privately funded mock city to be used for scientific research? That announcement will come before the end of the year, Pegasus Global Holdings managing director Robert Brumley said. “It (the announcement) should be pretty soon,” he said.
Brumley was in Las Cruces to speak Thursday at the ReEnergize the Americas Conference at the Las Cruces Convention Center and he said he did not have any new information to give on the site’s whereabouts, except to say that when the announcement is made, the deal will be signed, sealed and delivered.
That is notable because the project was slated to plant roots near Hobbs, in southeastern New Mexico, but Pegasus announced in July it was scrapping that location. Before naming Hobbs as its choice, Pegasus was also considering Las Cruces. “When we announce, we will have closed (the deal),” Brumley said.
James Stalker, owner of Regional Earth System Predictability Research, works in the field of atmospheric sciences at New Mexico State University. He said the Pegasus project could be very useful. “We could use them for testing some of our technology,” Stalker said. “A lot of our tests we do in-house, but if it makes sense economically, we could use them.”
Why New Mexico?
Brumley said that New Mexico offers good infrastructure, good universities and is the location — with labs, test facilities and military bases — of many of the company’s projected customers. “This state is unique in a positive way,” he said. “Your gubernatorial and legislative leadership recognized early on for them to keep Sandia and Los Alamos (labs) and Alamogordo (Holloman Air Force Base) and White Sands (Missile Range), they need to have infrastructure that those organizations require.
“That means good roads, good schools,” Brumley said. “The infrastructure from the ’50s and ’60s and to a certain degree even to today, has been driven by needs of these labs and lab personnel, and because of that you have a best-in-class highway. You have an abundance of fiber optic cable.”
Why private?
Brumley said there are advantages to a private site instead of using federal money and facilities. “Anybody can test there,” he said. “That is unique. There is not another facility in the world that is cross-disciplinary and open to everybody and (is) not government owned.”
Brook Stockberger may be reached at 575-541-5457; follow him no Twitter @Bstockberger
