Las Cruces, New Mexico

LAS CRUCES , NEW MEX I CO management of the West Mesa Industrial Park, located south of the Airport and home to both a Foreign Trade Zone and federal Opportunity Zone. “The Industrial Park was created in the 1990s,” Martinez notes. “The reason was to create opportunities leveraging upon the assets of the Airport and the activity from there related to aviation and aerospace for industrial growth. We have been working on a business retention/ expansion program, which will launch within the next few weeks. Our focus will be to assess the needs of the businesses there, including supply chain opportunities and how we can help them be more successful.” Other industries that Martinez says the city wants to grow to the Industrial Park, going forward, include “digital media, healthcare, value-added agriculture, green industries, manufacturing, and, of course aerospace and aviation, including UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems).” Over the last few years, the Airport, itself, has undergone many infrastructure updates. “We are about to finish the placement of its interior perimeter fence, which is about six miles in length covering 1,300 acres of land of the overall 4,900 acres for the entire Airport” Martinez reports. “We’re almost done with that. That will be a major difference in the safety and security that we can offer to potential businesses relocating or expanding within the fence or outside the fence with access to runways. We also are working on a full reconstruction of our general aviation apron. That’s one of our capital projects funded through the FAA for close to $3 million. We are expecting to complete that within the next month, or so. We’re very excited about that, because that will allow us to really market a brand new apron.” “We’re also interested in finding investors who are willing and able to provide development opportunities,” she continues. “We currently have a shortage of hangar space – not only the smaller T-hangars, but also commercial hangars.