sa国际传媒官网网页入口

Real estate expert Mark Urbanowicz鈥檚 first impressions of sa国际传媒官网网页入口? Good infrastructure, a beautiful environment offering balanced quality of life and a unique place to do business.

He and three other commercial real estate officials from outside of New Mexico joined a Thursday luncheon hosted by the economic development organization sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Regional Economic Alliance, or AREA, at sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Academy to learn more about the metro area鈥檚 investment potential from local executives.

This week, AREA drove the out-of-state visitors around town to tout the city鈥檚 business competitiveness. AREA CEO and President Danielle Casey at the luncheon described the tour as letting the visitors 鈥済et to know what鈥檚 going on and kind of look under all the rocks and learn about the market and understand what we鈥檙e doing to really advance our economic development ecosystem.鈥�

AREA also took the real estate officials to local events like an Isotopes game and golfing, which Urbanowicz said is an important factor business leaders consider when setting up shop somewhere.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 going to be more important in attracting business and attracting talent in the future will be quality of life,鈥� said Urbanowicz, an executive managing director with Vestian.

Chad Matheson, senior vice president for AREA, broke down some state and metro-area economic and jobs statistics for the visitors at the luncheon, particularly highlighting the growing market for research and development. In terms of job count in the Southwest, New Mexico has the fourth-largest R&D market and it grew 23% from 2018-2023, he said.

鈥淔rom a research and development perspective, really honing our core competencies and material sciences is one that I feel we have a tremendous potential in,鈥� Matheson said.

In addition to science and technology-related fields, the state has a demand for professionals in health care, manufacturing and construction, finance and insurance, and education, Matheson added.

Officials with Central New Mexico Community College, Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Sandia National Laboratories attended the Thursday event as well to explain some of their program offerings to the visitors, from quantum computing partnerships to health care simulation labs.

鈥淭here鈥檚 likely some way that we can work with just about anybody,鈥� said David Kistin, manager of technology and economic development at Sandia Labs.

This was site selector Jeffrey Garza Walker鈥檚 fourth tour of sa国际传媒官网网页入口, initially coming to the state six years ago to consider its business opportunities. He鈥檚 the executive vice president and managing principal of SRS Real Estate Partners and lives in Phoenix.

It鈥檚 exciting to see New Mexico 鈥渟tarting to move forward with your initiative鈥� to become a hub of economic development, Garza Walker said. He said it鈥檚 important for an area to be ready for big companies to move in to, pointing to site readiness and a strong labor force as being key.

鈥淥ne company can change the whole dynamic. And I believe you鈥檝e got the right people in the room that are trying to get you ready for that,鈥� Garza Walker said of AREA.