Ebon Solar plans to construct an estimated 834,000-square-foot solar cell manufacturing facility in Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol industrial development area, creating over 900 new jobs.

The significant greenfield investment for Ebon Solar’s New Mexico production complex is aimed at developing beginning-to-end advanced manufacturing of solar cells.

2024 Ebon Solar Announcement

Greater Albuquerque just scored some new Lobo fans and some tremendous career opportunities for existing ones, with the announcement of Spring Oaks Capital LLC’s decision to create 200 new jobs in the region with starting salaries at $20 per hour. This new operation will deliver a total economic impact to the region of $33.6 million in its first three years alone.

After a series of visits to competing markets for Spring Oaks Capital’s first expansion location outside of its headquarters in Virginia, and a detailed exploration of facilities and getting to know the greater Albuquerque community and workforce resources, it was decision time. The AREA team found out that Spring Oaks Capital selected the community with a surprise Zoom call and seeing Spring Oaks Capital’s leadership wearing a Lobo hat to announce their decision. It was the type of moment that economic developers live for.

In addition to the comprehensive site visit to the region facilitated by the AREA team which included a number of partners such as the state of New Mexico Economic Development Department and the New Mexico Partnership, Mayor Tim Keller and the City of Albuquerque Economic Development Department quickly expressed their support of new business investment and ensured a smooth planning and permitting process to get them up and running quickly.

Spring Oaks Capital, LLC, headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, is a national debt buyer founded in 2019 by industry veterans determined to disrupt the industry and approach the charge-off purchasing market with a technology-focused, innovative, and refreshing vision. Particularly, senior leadership includes tenured industry executives with a meaningful history running investments, collections, compliance, and operations for some of the largest debt buyers, collection firms, and financial institutions in the United States. The Company maintains an unmatched compliance focus, ethically collecting portfolios with a team-based approach. Spring Oaks is well funded, poised for aggressive growth, and is currently looking to expand with the best-in-class collections team to support growth.

2024 Spring Oaks Capital Announcement

NEW EMPLOYER

Netflix purchased Albuquerque Studios in 2018 and, since 2019, has directly invested nearly $575 million in the state. Between 2021 and 2023, Netflix hired over 4,000 cast and crew members in New Mexico. 
 

• Since then, Netflix announced a proposed expansion in the Albuquerque metro, which will add 300 acres to the company’s existing studios, located in Albuquerque’s Mesa Del Sol area.
   
• It will make ABQ Studios one of the largest high-tech and sustainable film production facilities in North America. The new investment will create an estimated 1,000 production jobs in New Mexico over the next ten years, along with 1,467 construction jobs to complete the expansion.
  
  
• The ABQ Studios will bring $150 million in capital expenditures as up to 10 stages will be added as well as post-production services, production offices, mills, backlots, and training facilities, wardrobe suites, a commissary to support meals and craft services, and other flex buildings to support productions.
  
  
  

Netflix's 2020 Expansion Announcement

Netflix 2024 Announcement Update

Array Technologies has finalized plans for a major expansion that will solidify the company’s New Mexico future with a new $50 million manufacturing campus in Bernalillo County that will keep hundreds of jobs secure for New Mexicans.

Array, one of New Mexico’s few publicly traded companies, got its start manufacturing solar tracker technology over 30 years ago in Albuquerque. Today, Array is a global leader in utility-scale solar tracking solutions that maximize the efficiency of solar panels by moving them to optimize the sun’s angle. In 2020, the company went public under the symbol ARRY.

The company chose a location on Albuquerque’s west side for a new 216,000-square-foot campus and Array and its partners plan to invest $50 million in the development. Construction is expected to begin in early 2024. The 22-acre expansion will allow Array to hire nearly 100 new employees over the next several years.

The State has awarded Array $2.5 million in economic assistance from the Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) job-creation fund to assist the company with land, building, and infrastructure costs for the property at 701 Atrisco Vista Blvd. SW. The funds will be awarded as Array meets specific economic development benchmarks.

The City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County are assisting with $250,000 each of additional LEDA funds, in addition to partial property-tax abatement through an Industrial Revenue Bond with Bernalillo County.

2023 Array Technologies Announcement

EMPLOYER EXPANSION

In September 2024, Kairos Power, an advanced energy technology and engineering company, announced an expansion of their existing facility in Mesa del Sol:

• 100 new jobs created over the next five years
• An estimated economic impact of $478 Million over the next 10 years in New Mexico
• Kairos Power purchased an existing building and 32 acres of land
• Incentives included $500K and $3 Million in Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) from the City of Albuquerque and State of New Mexico, respectively as well as $1.8 Million in Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) funding

Kairos Power Expansion Announcement

BlueHalo, an integrated national security and technology company, has announced plans to expand its existing New Mexico campus through significant improvements and capital investments in an existing facility located in Albuquerque’s Sandia Science & Technology Park to accommodate the needs of the rapidly growing company’s customer base and high-tech staff.  

This 83,000-square foot facility at the corner of Eubank and Gibson SE, will provide BlueHalo with additional manufacturing, research and development, and office space needed for the company’s 300 New Mexico employees and enable the creation of over 70 jobs with an average salary of $90,000 in the near-term.  The move brings BlueHalo’s New Mexico footprint to approximately 163,000 square feet.

BlueHalo’s Albuquerque Expansion Continues with City Incentive Approval and New Lease in Sandia Science and Technology Park

BlueHalo’s State-of-the-Art Technology Complex Moves to Sandia Science & Technology Park

InnovateABQ is a public-private partnership created to develop a 7-acre innovation district in downtown Albuquerque to foster economic development and job creation in New Mexico. The site is intended to help put the region on a path to higher growth by improving the productivity of people and firms in ways that lead to better incomes and living standards for all. This vision includes more than 600,000 square feet of physically compact, technically-wired, walkable space devoted to bringing together New Mexico’s innovators to foster the creation of long-term, job-creating ventures and increase access to opportunity for the entire community.

Under Development

Winrock Town Center is a distinctive and dynamic retail, hospitality, office and residential development at the gateway to Albuquerque’s vital Uptown district.
 
This 83-acre site is going to feature 1.125 million square feet of retail, 825 multi-family residential units, a 160-room boutique hotel, 130,000 square feet of office space and a two-acre public park. The specialty retail section at the heart of the property surrounds a charming two-acre park with ice skating in the winter, concerts in the summer, and a beautiful waterfall and river running through its center

Planned Development

• The Rail Trail is part of the larger urban redevelopment of Albuquerque’s Downtown District. It is a one-mile linear promenade, running alongside the rail tracks and connecting the East Downtown area to Downtown, further bringing those formerly divided districts closer together.
  
  
• The estimated construction cost is $5 million.

Mesa Del Sol's master plan calls for 18,000,000 square feet of industrial, commercial and office development, and 37,500 residences to house a population of 100,000 in a safe, smart and sustainable city. A combination of state and local government efforts have already attracted employers, like Netflix Studios, to the community. Once completed, it will be one of the largest master-planned cities in the country. The master planned community in Albuquerque’s southeast corner is an area with active commercial and residential growth, active construction of new, modern homes, and incredible development progress.

Under Development

• The 21,000-square-foot retail expansion project will comprise three buildings and contain space leased to businesses, restaurants, retailers and smart classrooms owned and operated by the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.
  
  
• The retail expansion is part of a larger development project, totaling $70 million, it also includes the construction of a 130,000-square-foot office building.
  
  
• The property is owned by the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico and located across the street from the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.

The company is set to add up to 274 employees in Albuquerque with an average salary over $50,000. The State of New Mexico is contributing up to $5 million to support the expansion through assistance from the Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) job-creation fund. The company is also eligible for state assistance for employee job training from JTIP, New Mexico’s highly touted Job Training Incentive Program.

The 65,000-square-foot expansion includes the addition of a new advanced isolated high-speed, fill-finish vial line – which includes biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) containment, two lyophilizers, automated visual inspection technology, automated packaging capacity, ultra-cold storage capability, and enhanced security features – at its Alexander Boulevard facility. Curia is also adding an isolated flexible filling line for vials, syringes, and cartridges at its Balloon Park Road facility.

Major Bioscience Company Expands with the Help of State Funds

Max Q @ Kirtland is a ground-up 77-acre development on Air Force Base land that will serve one of the largest employment centers in New Mexico. This mixed-use project will be broken into four phases. The first phase consists of approximately 19 acres east of Carlisle Blvd and broke ground in July of 2022. The first phase is proposed to be a high-density mixed-use “town center” style development with ground floor retail, drive-thru, hotels, restaurants, offices, and R&D space. The development is available for ground lease, build-to-suit or to lease inline and end-cap drive-thru spaces in spec buildings. The site plan is subject to change based on the needs of tenants as the project evolves.

Mixed-Use Development Breaks Ground at MAXQ@ Kirtland Air Force Base

Q Station is designed to allow aerospace, directed energy and related tech companies to work more seamlessly with government entities and private industry to encourage better, faster innovation that the country needs. Q station will serve as a landing pad for in and out-of-state tech companies by providing a work space while they develop opportunities in New Mexico and connect to our world-class high-tech ecosystem. Q station will also house ongoing programs and services to benefit these companies and the entire New Mexico tech industry.

Air Force Research Laboratory is the Air Force’s only organization wholly dedicated to leading the discovery, development and integration of warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace. AFRL is comprised of nine directorates located across the country. AFRL New Mexico is the proud home of two of those directorates: Directed Energy and Space Vehicles.

In addition to work in the laboratory, we are dedicated to advanced technology through partnerships with the private sector, academia and entrepreneurs through our various economic development initiatives.

AFRL is also committed to building the next generation of scientists and engineers through our outstanding STEM programs and out STEM outreach activities.

COSMIAC is an innovative research center at The University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque, NM. COSMIAC serves as a Tier-2 Research Center at the School of Engineering. 

 COSMIAC currently consists of approximately 30 full-time faculty, staff and consultants and 30 undergraduate and graduate students. All are US citizens. Personnel are cleared to the TS/SCI level. Customers include (but are not limited to) the US Air Force, Space Force, NASA, Leidos, and Northrop Grumman.

COSMIAC has approximately 15,000 square feet on three floors of the 2350 Alamo Avenue location and 15,000 square feet of high-bay space located at 2420 Alamo Avenue. This space includes cleanroom, laboratories and other development areas.

Sandia’s history reflects the changing national security needs of postwar America. Although Sandia National Laboratories originated as a single-mission engineering organization for non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons. Today it is a multiprogram laboratory employing more than 14,000 people and engaging in research supporting a broad spectrum of national security issues.

Committed to science with the mission in mind, Sandia creates innovative, science-based, systems-engineering solutions to our nation’s most challenging national security problems.

History

Sandia began in 1945 as Z Division, the ordnance design, testing, and assembly arm of Los Alamos National Laboratory. It became Sandia Laboratory in 1948 and, in 1949, Sandia Corporation was established as a Western Electric company to manage the laboratory. A second site was opened in California’s Livermore Valley in 1956. More than two decades later, in 1979, Congress made Sandia a Department of Energy national laboratory. Sandia Corporation became a wholly owned subsidiary of Martin Marietta (later Lockheed Martin Corporation) in 1993. On May 1, 2017, National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., assumed management of Sandia.

Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB), one of New Mexico’s four major military installations is located in the high desert of north-central New Mexico and occupies a majority of southeast Albuquerque. Directly adjacent to Sandia National Laboratories and the Air Force Research Laboratories. KAFB is home to more than 33,000 employees. Approximately 1,200 active-duty servicemen and servicewomen retire from these bases each year, 800 of which are from Kirtland AFB alone.

Kirtland AFB is the largest installation in Air Force Global Strike Command and sixth largest in the United States Air Force.

Kirtland is the home of the Air Force Materiel Command's Nuclear Weapons Center (NWC). The NWC's responsibilities include acquisition, modernization and sustainment of nuclear system programs for both the Department of Defense and Department of Energy. The NWC is composed of two wings–the 377th Air Base Wing and 498th Nuclear Systems Wing–along with ten groups and seven squadrons.

Kirtland is home to the 58th Special Operations Wing (58 SOW), an Air Education and Training Command (AETC) unit that provides formal aircraft type/model/series training. The 58 SOW operates the HC-130J, MC-130J, UH-1N Huey, HH-60G Pave Hawk and CV-22 Osprey aircraft. Headquarters, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center is also located at Kirtland AFB. The 150th Special Operations Wing of the New Mexico Air National Guard, an Air Combat Command (ACC)-gained unit, is also home-based at Kirtland.

Internationally recognized, master-planned, and strategically located, Albuquerque’s Sandia Science & Technology Park (SS&TP) is home to companies, engineers, and researchers involved in advancing new technologies. Currently 40 companies and organizations and nearly 2,000 employees reside in SS&TP’s 340-acre high-tech campus.

Adjacent to the multibillion-dollar engineering and science facilities of Sandia National Laboratories and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the SS&TP’s mature companies and startups collaborate with these top laboratories on a broad assortment of technologies, products, and services.

CNM is the largest higher education institution in New Mexico in terms of undergraduate enrollment.

Representatives from local businesses and industries help CNM develop programs to ensure that students acquire skills needed for success in the workplace. The college has many transfer articulation agreements with four-year institutions around the state, including the University of New Mexico.

Authorized by the New Mexico Legislature in 1963, CNM was approved by district voters in 1964 to provide adults with the skills necessary to gain employment and succeed in the workforce. Accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 1978, degree-granting power was approved for CNM by the State Legislature in 1986, signaling the college’s transformation into a full-fledged community college.

Since its inception, CNM's career-technical programs in business, health, technologies, and trades have continually been redesigned to provide students with the most current and relevant skills needed by local employers.

Innovation Park is a 100 acre plot of mixed use Employment land represented by CBRE. The land is located in Mesa Del Sol, a 16,000-acre mixed-use master planned live-work-play community in Albuquerque, New Mexico which is home to Netflix’s ABQ Studios and the gleaming Aperture Center.

Innovation Park is a high-potential site with a variety of potential uses. The site benefits from ample power allowing for the development of a 130 MW data center campus, among other uses. Netflix has recently announced plans to add 300 acres to their existing studios, and as the Mesa Del Sol community develops and grows, there is potential for a masterplan town center development.

The Lobo Sports & Tech District encompasses more than 68 acres of developable land and is located within the 300 acres of University of New Mexico’s South Campus. UNM’s Football Stadium, the UNM Tennis Center, the UNM Basketball Arena ‘The Pit’ and the UNM Baseball Complex are all located with the Sports & Tech District. Additionally, the district is also home to student housing at Lobo Village and the UNM Science & Technology Park.

The Science & Technology Park is owned and managed by the University of New Mexico. The Park is comprised of 163 acres, 41 of which were developed during Phase I. Phase II has commenced with the development of an additional 42 acres. Future phases will encompass approximately 80 acres. The Park was established in 1965, revived in 1988, and today consists of approximately 662,662 square feet of existing research and development, laboratory, office and mixed-use space. The tenant focus is on technology-based companies. Leasing and development options include ground leases, build-to-suit and space leases.

The City of Albuquerque has prepared the Aviation Center of Excellence to be home to aviation and aerospace businesses, high-tech companies, manufacturing, and some retail. The property, once home to the airport’s north/south runway, consists of 75 shovel-ready acres and includes direct runway access. After Universal Hydrogen has picked ACE for its new manufacturing hub, 4 acres remain.

The airport’s property, funded through the airport capital program with no use of general fund money, is actively seeking developers and tenants for a variety of options, including simple ground leases and build-to-suit facilities. There are new market tax credits, no impact fees or property taxes, and developments can take advantage of the airport’s foreign trade zone.

The Biomedical Research Institute of New Mexico (BRINM) was incorporated in the state of New Mexico in 1989 to enable organizations external to the Veterans Administration to conduct research and support education on the VA campus in Albuquerque.  BRINM acts as the intermediary on research contracts, ensuring compliance, purchasing goods and services, hiring personnel, invoicing sponsors for research funds and maintaining accounting for all projects it oversees.  Furthermore, it reports on research and funding to the VA and other entities.

BRINM’s purview includes Basic Research funded by government or non-profit health organizations, Clinical Trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies and their intermediaries, and Clinical Trial Support Services through the CSP Pharmacy Coordinating Center that are sponsored by non-VA organizations.

Lovelace Biomedical is a not-for-profit contract research organization with a rich history of helping its pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners achieve great things. Over nearly seven decades, we have built a reputation for leveraging a multidisciplinary toolset to push the limits of preclinical research all while offering a streamlined customer experience, with fast, direct and personal access to our industry-leading scientific experts.

As a non-profit, Lovelace Biomedical invests and partners with our basic science partners that help deepen our bench. This includes our Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute basic science division that focuses on respiratory and infectious disease along with aerosol science. Our Mind Research Network Division performs research on clinical and nonclinical neuroscience.

The BioScience Center is an incubator/accelerator in Albuquerque, New Mexico nurturing biotech and life science startups.

The Center occupies a 19,500 sq-ft building in a centralized location – Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Uptown Area – providing offices, ten wet (chemistry and microbiology) laboratories totaling over 3,000 sq. ft., and shared facilities that include reception, IT infrastructure, group purchasing, kitchen, shower and conference space. The BioScience Center is not only a business incubator, but also a centralized resource about biotechnology activity in New Mexico.

Customized training for business, industry and government entities, offered on campus or at your place of business to prepare your employees to better serve your company's needs. A variety of career-technical programs are also available for individuals to enhance their skills in order to enter the workforce or to embark on new careers.

The Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum is the world's premier balloon museum facility dedicated to the art, culture, science, history, sport and spectacle of ballooning. The balloon museum, which opened in 2005, features one of the world’s finest collections of ballooning equipment and memorabilia. It’s fitting that it is located in Albuquerque, the capital of ballooning.

Set on the southern edge of Balloon Fiesta Park, the balloon museum is a focal point in the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, but its scope is much broader. In 2015, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) awarded the rare title of FAI Recommended Museum to the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum.

The "Hub City" of Belen serves the New Mexico Rail Runner Express and BNSF rail systems. To this day, an average of 110 trains travel through Belen in a 24-hour period on the Southern Transcon.

Double Eagle II Airport (AEG) is an active general aviation facility on Albuquerque’s west side. There are approximately 240 based aircraft and 120,000 annual operations comprising training, military, air ambulance, charter, private and corporate flights. The airport sits at an elevation of 5,834 feet above sea level and is located approximately eight miles north of Interstate 40 at the top of Nine Mile Hill on Albuquerque’s West Mesa.

In August 2023 Maxeon Solar announced that it will invest more than $1 billion to build a 3 gigawatt (GW) solar cell and panel factory at Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

The new facility will produce TOPCon PV-silicon cell technology and Maxeon’s shingled-cell Performance Line solar modules. The new factory will supply both the utility-scale and rooftop solar markets. 

The Singapore-based company is planning to be up an running by 2025, creating a total of 1,800 jobs. Maxeon is also weighing a plan that would increase the size of the facility to 4.5 GW due to anticipated customer demand.

The facility on a 160-acre site in Albuquerque's Mesa del Sol neighborhood will be Maxeon's first in the United States. It currently produces panels in Mexico, Malaysia and the Philippines.

"Our new solar cell and panel facility in New Mexico is an ambitious and concrete response to the need to decarbonize the U.S. economy while creating permanent highly skilled local manufacturing and engineering jobs," Maxeon Chief Executive Bill Mulligan.

Texas-based Arcosa Inc. announced in March 2023 that, its subsidiary, Arcosa Wind Towers, will open a wind-tower production facility at the Rio Grande Industrial Park in Belen with production to begin as soon as next year. Arcosa has plans to invest $55- $60 million into the new expansion, which includes the purchase and modification of an existing facility in the Rio Grande Industrial Park and the procurement of needed equipment.

Once Arcosa expands into Belen, payroll is expected to hit $12.5 million annually while employing 250 people. The company's expansion will have an overall economic impact of $314 million over the next decade.

The company's expansion into New Mexico is also aided by $4 million in Local Economic Development Act money from the state, which will be disbursed as the company meets economic development benchmarks. The city of Belen is also planning on assisting the expansion through industrial revenue bonds.

 "We look forward to expanding our manufacturing capacity to New Mexico, where market demand for new wind projects is robust. Our new facility will strengthen our position in the wind-tower market and enable Arcosa to benefit from growing wind investment in the Southwest. We are pleased to create new jobs in the State of New Mexico, which has been a supportive partner and a strong proponent of wind-energy development", Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO of Arcosa Inc.