Business and Buildings
Progress at Arrowhead

Building construction is taking place near the junction of I-10 and I-25, and planners are hopeful that it is just the beginning.

Any construction in this economy is welcome, of course, and a snowball effect would be great. Arrowhead Business and Research Park is 250 acres of economic and educational potential that, after sitting dormant for 20 years, is beginning to blossom. The fertilizer required to promote its growth has been the ground breaking of its Master Development Project in 2007, that included partnering with a private developer, and the recent completion of critical infrastructure in the form of a road/utilities lane. The new two-lane road through the middle of the business and research park will expand to four lanes this fall (2010).

The newest building construction visible from I-10 on the southeast corner of the New Mexico State University campus is a new office/warehouse structure that includes five side-by-side, 1700 square-foot units that can be combined into larger spaces, if desired, and are available for lease. Typical users would be small or expanding businesses that don’t yet require much floor space. Park management is also considering executive office space that would provide a shared receptionist and business equipment, a real benefit to small businesses.

The New Mexico Legislature authorized universities to develop business and research parks in the late 1980s and NMSU immediately set aside the acreage for that purpose. A building was completed for General Dynamics in 2000, and since then the designation of the Master Development Project gave the park the necessary momentum to emerge as a serious contender for research and business development. There are designated sites that will accommodate almost two million square feet of floor space for business and research companies, that when fully developed, would employ up to 5000 employees.

A private developer for the park actually acquires the funding to construct buildings in the park and is responsible for leasing them to tenants. The structures, therefore, belong to the developer, who makes lease payments to the university for the use of their land. Mickey Clute is managing partner of the private group, Arrowhead Development Company, LLC. “This public-private partnership,” states Mickey, “allows the university to leverage sector funds and develop the park more rapidly than it could on its own.”

“That is especially true when state funding is so scarce,” adds Pam Wood, the Director of Arrowhead Business and Research Park.

Companies choosing to locate in Arrowhead have the opportunity to collaborate with faculty and staff in pursuit of grants and contracts and to enter into cooperative education agreements for student internships. This arrangement allows students to gain experience in their field of study, while offsetting a portion of their education cost.

General Dynamics recently began leasing a second building at the Arrowhead location, bringing their total floor space at the park to 26,000 square feet. The company is closely integrated with the Physical Science Laboratory at NMSU and has facilities at White Sands Missile Range. Some of their engineers also serve as adjunct professors at NMSU.

Another entity slated to be located in Arrowhead Business and Research Park is the Early College High School, with classes transferring to the new site in August 2011. The new school building will accommodate 500 students. The Early College High School is the first such school in New Mexico, but similar programs have been very successful in Texas and several eastern states. Students graduate with a high school diploma and a two-year associate’s degree. The curriculum is designed primarily for “at risk” students. They must, however, apply for admission and be accepted. There will be collaboration between the high school and various departments at NMSU.

The additional lanes for the new road that connects Sam Steele Way to University Avenue by way of Payne Street should be completed by early fall. Eventually, there may be an Interstate 10 exchange that will tie into the new road.

Arrowhead Business & Research Park is one of the five strategic business units of Arrowhead Center, Inc. The other four include a Policy Analysis unit consisting of two economics professors who conduct economic impact studies for various state and private groups, an Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer group commercializing licensed university inventions and technology, a Business Incubation unit that improves a business’s chances for success to 70 percent from a typical 20-30 percent chance of success and the Entrepreneurship Institute that conducts projects for hopeful entrepreneurs such as market and competition analyses. The latter involves graduate students with oversight by qualified instructors, is involved with STEM in New Mexico (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and is supported by the National Science Foundation.