The Journal has a story about Intel in Rio Rancho and the innovations made there which have contributed to it remaining viable and expanding over the last three years. The story says that Intel reported to the state that another 82 jobs were created last year at the site to make for about 760 jobs added since 2018 and over 1,800 people employed there currently. In addition, it says the company also made $290 million in capital investments at the site last year.
https://www.abqjournal.com/2379400/i...nnovation.html
Fidelity Investments announced last week that it will add 225 jobs in Albuquerque. This goes along with the 250 new jobs announced last October and the 60 that were announced about a year ago last April. That makes for a total of 535 new jobs Fidelity has added in Albuquerque over the last year. In the April 2020 announcement it was reported that Fidelity had 800 employees in Albuquerque at the time. That would mean that with this new round of hiring it will have over 1,300 employees in Albuquerque.
https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquer...buquerque.html
https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquer...50-in-abq.html
https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquer...eople-for.html
Affordable Solar has announced that it will be moving to a new, larger headquarters building and add 70 jobs in Albuquerque with the help of state and local incentives. The company has been operating in Albuquerque since 1998 and the new jobs will all pay at least $65,000 a year. Below is a pic of the Britton Solar Energy Center in Torrance County which Affordable Solar constructed in 2019 and is the largest solar power facility for PNM, the local electric utility.
https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquer...-irb-leda.html
The governor has signed the expansion of the LEDA program that was passed by the legislature during its recent special session. The expansion in funds will apply to economic development projects in the state with price tags larger than $350 million. It is meant to entice more large companies to locate and make major investments in the state. During the session it was revealed that there are at least 3 such projects currently working with the state to receive the incentives for their projects here. It was not revealed which companies these projects may involve.
https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquer...sion-bill.html
New Mexico has its first billionaire. Ron Corio, the founder of Array Technologies in Albuquerque, is estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.1 billion and is the 2,524th richest person in the world, one of 724 billionaires in the United States. Array Technologies went public last year and raised more than $1.2 billion in its IPO. That no doubt contributed to his wealth. The Albuquerque Journal story describes him as low-key and humble. However, I hope he may take on a more public role and become visibly and actively involved in philanthropic efforts in Albuquerque. That would be another game-changing thing for our city, to have a person with that amount of wealth willing to invest in improving the city.
https://www.abqjournal.com/2377993/s...llionaire.html
Downtown Albuquerque News last Tuesday reported that the Albuquerque Development Commission would vote on the Springer Square Sky Link project at its meeting last Thursday. Apparently, previous reporting was wrong and they had not actually approved the final agreement in March. At the last meeting a study was requested by the commissioners to determine the impact on Convention Center events of leasing the 184 parking spaces in its parking structure for the project. The study concluded that there would be no adverse impacts due to the existing overflow parking at the garage under Civic Plaza and the new parking that was created at the One Central parking structure. They also said that over 400 leased spaces became available due to Molina downsizing its workforce downtown when they lost their state Medicaid contract. It has not yet been reported the outcome of the meeting and if the final development agreement was approved for the project.
https://downtownalbuquerquenews.com/
https://www.cabq.gov/mra/documents/c...nformation.pdf
The new documents posted for this month's meeting also reveal that the anticipated new development on the existing surface parking lots may amount to up to $50 million in new construction. This has always been the most exciting aspect of the project to me, the future development that it will facilitate! The development agreement also spells out that the developer will partner with the city, Innovate ABQ and other area property owners to study the affects of vacating streets in the area to assemble the parcels in better configurations to maximize the development potential of the area. The streets to be looked at for vacation are Commercial Street, Tijeras Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue between the railroad tracks and Broadway. Below are a couple of pics of the area to show the lay of the land. You can see how the streets criss-cross the area and break up the plots of land into odd configurations.
Here are pics of the footings being poured at the Luminaria Senior Community apartments on east Central Avenue. Chavez Concrete posted them on their Instagram account.
Construction pics of the new building at Lavaland Elementary School on the West Mesa from architect Mark Baker on Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNVO23ilEML/
http://www.bakerad.com/projects/deta...mentary-school