Council - workshop

Thank you.

Okay, well, welcome back. We're going to start our work session now, and we'll start with item number one, the annual updates for economic development partners, Film Las Cruces and Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance. Elizabeth Teeter.

Okay, good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. My name is Elizabeth Teeters, and I'm the Economic Development Director for the city. Every year, we ask our economic development partners to come present at a work session to show what has been completed in that previous fiscal year and goals and objectives for the upcoming one. This year, we're going to split it up between two different work sessions. So today, we're going to hear film Las Cruces and Movida. And then next work session, we're going to hear downtown Las Cruces partnership and the farmer's market. So before I turn it over to Film Las Cruces, I do just want to say you are all invited to the Film Tour launch party tonight at 5.30 at the Rio Grande Theater. This has been a really fun project with Visit Las Cruces, Film Las Cruces in the City. So come have fun, hear about film tourism. And with that, I will turn it over to Andrew.

Hello, Mr. Mayor, chair, counselors. My name is Andrew Jara. I'm the film liaison here at Film Las Cruces.

And here is our presentation.

So we've added a couple more detailed slides just because we do know there's new members, so we wanted to make sure you guys are up to date. So this is just kind of informative. Film Las Cruces, we are the film office for Las Cruces, Dona Ana County, Mesilla, and the city of Anthony. We offer streamlined liaison services for film television productions for those areas. And our film liaisons are part of the Association of Film Commissioners International, which is ASCI, which is just kind of the governing board of a lot of different film commissioners. And it is, again, international. What do we do? We offer, as a lot of film offices offer, we offer permits for Dona Ana County, Mesilla, no, Dona Ana County, Sunland Park, and City of Las Cruces. We do location packages and location scouts. Some of this stuff I will talk in more detail as we get to them, but just kind of giving you an overview. Location packages and location scouts are what we use to get productions interested in coming to Las Cruces. Once they get here, they'll try to use our crew, talent, vendor, and location database. And then, of course, once they get here, we assist them when they get here until they leave. And then we are also marketing to lure decision makers and productions. We have three member staff. It is myself, which is a film liaison, Elijah Villalpando, who is our associate film liaison, and Amara Barden, who is our operations coordinator. We are a nonprofit, and we're run by a board of directors, including State Senator Jeff Steinborn, who is our president, Pepper Gallegos, who's our vice president, Christopher Stanley, who's our treasurer, Denise LaFrance Unjaga, who is our secretary, Matt Burns, Steven Osborne, Linwood Spinks, Natalie Schrander, Marilyn Brindis, Ross Marks, Loris Allen, and Jerry Ponzeca. And they make up different parts of the film, whether it's teaching at DACC and NMSU, or just part of being in the industry. Okay, now to get into some of the numbers. For inquiries, so again, of a location package is when a production is from out of town or even from here and they have a script and they wanna see if they can make it here. So one of the first things we do is call the location package where we take that script, we break it up by locations, And then we make them a package, and it essentially says, you know, if there's a school in their script, we show them the schools that fit the script, because sometimes they're older, sometimes they're newer. So we want to make sure that we have those schools on there, gas stations, something like that. So this way, even before they've come to Las Cruces, they know kind of what they're looking at and what they're looking for. um and so last year we sent about 40 of those and then for crew and vendor information that's usually once the production is in town they start asking for the crew and the vendors a lot of times the productions almost every time the productions they don't really want to hire from albuquerque or for santa fe because it's cheaper for them to hire here they don't have to pay for hotels they don't have to pay for per diem so we want to make sure that they know what the crew is, the crew size, the crew contacts and everything like that. And the same thing with vendors. We wanna make sure they know who the local vendors are so that when they start reaching out, asking for stuff, they know the point of contacts and everything like that. We'll talk a little bit more about that, but we also wanna make sure the vendors know what it's like to work in film, because it is a little bit different. After we send them the location package, if they are interested, we'll do what's called an in-person location scout, and that's where we take them to the different locations all over. Again, it's just kind of giving them a sampling so that they know that they can make their film here. We'll introduce them to the owners, we'll take them around. A lot of times they use city property, so we'll show them that area, just so they can start familiarizing themselves with the locations, and they can even start making those deals about when they wanna rent them. Last year, we did 13 productions altogether. That is, since about last July, we've had a production in town every single month in one way or another, whether it was filming, pre-production, or post-production, and that's kind of what that number reflects. So now we're doing the economic impacts. So for worker days, the baseline is 1,000. Last year we had 13,722. For production days, we've broken this up. Production days are the days of actual production. We used to count post and pre. The reason we've kind of broken it up is because a lot of times when they're here for post-production or where they're here for pre-production or before they leave in post-production, It's not as many people. Usually it's one or two, maybe the producer, maybe a location manager. But for the most part, it's just those people. And then for the actual production days, that's when they bring the crew and everything. So we just want to give you as accurate a number. And so we wanted to separate them because they're not clearly spending as much money if they're just one or two directors here. It's mainly hotel nights and food. And so again, our baseline is 140. Last year, we did 288 of actual production days, and then pre and post was 150. So total days was 438. And then our local spend, our baseline was $1 million. And last year, we did 12,230,102. So that was our local spend. And so just to put that in perspective, last year, Las Cruces and Dona Ana County, we did 13% of all films spending in the state was done here. The local spend of local film productions in last year was 41.5 million. which had a direct local spend of 12.2 and a total 19.5 million economic impact in the county. Again, that 14.1 is what the state reports. Theirs is a little different because they count the above the line actors, like the main stars, because they pay tax. We don't include them because they don't keep their money here. So that's why our numbers are a little bit different than theirs. But I give you that number because it's going to count in a little bit. So last year we did 21% of the total productions made in the state, which was 13 out of 63. And then rural spending hit an all-time high. There was an article set out by the state where they talked about how rural spending hit an all-time high last year of 58 million recorded by the state. And that's why that 41 million is important, because that's what the state recorded us as having, which means that 70% of that record spending of rural production was spent in Las Cruces and Dona Ana County, which is a huge boost for us. And it's one of the, we were the main factor in helping the state hit that record high fiscal spending in rural areas. So one of the reasons that we're gonna talk about hotel nights is because film is not just one industry. It's a lot of industries kind of coming together. One of the big ones is hotel nights because obviously when they bring crew in here, when they bring actors, they're having to hire for hotels. They have to keep them up somewhere. And so we just wanted to say last year we did 9,803 room nights, and that equals $1.5 million just in hotel room nights, just to kind of show you the other impacts that we have. And then this is, we got this from Visit Las Cruces. They use their estimated economic impact calculations, so that's how we got that number. And this is just to kind of tell you, it's not the most accurate, it's just what they use to kind of calculate their numbers when they report. Some of the movies that we shot last, or that came out last year was Protector, which came out in January. That was shot downtown. I don't know if any of you remembered it, but it had Mila Jovovich. Then we had Joe's College Road Trip by Tyler Perry. That was a Netflix film that came out in February. And then I'll Be Gone in June, it hasn't come out officially, but it did premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, which is one of the biggest film festivals in the world. So just putting it in there, we know that a lot of the actors have already been signed, so being part of that is a huge deal. And we got to have one of our films there. So now we're going to talk about the social media aspect. We are very big on social media. Again, we saw a huge boost. We had, usually we'll have about 200,000 people this last year. We did 313,000 people were checking our social medias and our website. We had 179 posts. And for our web, we had 86,000 page views. This is one of the, an example of one of the posts that we have on our social media. Here's more examples. A lot of times what we're using is for casting calls. When productions come and they're looking for actors, a lot of times they'll reach out to us to put out these casting calls so that we can get the community involved. The second one is we will have events. And we had a screening of The Devil's Mistress, which was the first movie shot in New Mexico. It was actually shot here. And so they showed it. They're making a documentary about it. And so we had a special screening about that. And then, of course, we'll give notice about training or workshops. This was a DACC training workshop that we just helped getting the word out. So these are examples of how we use our social media to reach out and also to reach the community. So again, for film permits, last year, our baseline is 15. Last year, we had 79, a very busy year. And a lot of times, they're using them mainly for roads. A lot of times, they're also using them. We have a sound ordinance here that's a big one that they usually use. For the local film workforce, we do Educational Institute Outreach, which is our interns. We do it through federal CMT, which is DACC, the community college, CMI, which is NMSU, and of course, the public schools. In our database for crew, we have a target of 280. This year, we hit 919. So there is a lot of interest, especially after a film. We get a lot of people who want to join our database. And one of the things that we do for all this outreach is we are reaching out to make sure they know about our database, make sure they're reaching out. Because productions will come to us, but after a while, they might even start checking the database. So we want to make sure that they have as many options to get their name out there and for productions to know them as they possibly can. And then we do workshops and training. Couple of ideas is the film tour that we're having today. We also have The Wrap, which is our monthly filmmakers hangout. One of the things that we try to do is have networking events that don't feel like networking events, and The Wrap is a great one. What it is is we show local filmmakers, short films, music videos, commercials, anything they're really making to help remind the whole community that the film office doesn't exist without the local filmmakers. So we want to show off their work and show people what they're doing. And this also helps them kind of connect because they can go and say, hey, I like your film. You want to work together? Or I like that acting. How do you know that actor? So it's a good way for them to network and meet. It's once a month at the Rio Grande Theater. center and even today after the film tour we're going to have the wrap and it's a school wrap so it's all the high schools and middle schools kind of putting they all have film programs and so they're putting their films into that so that we can show them off again it's a great way to make sure that the filmmakers are getting their name out and also getting um being able to network We also have a screenwriting workshop every other week, which is, again, it's very similar. It's just a group that meet together. They read each other's scripts. They work together. Another way to network. And we actually got a film from there where one of the producers knew about the workshop, and that was about it. And so they went there, and they started recruiting crew members. So it does also work as a networking. Here are just some of the local film people at work. The first at the Rio Grande, as you can see, that was for Love on Tap, which just came out recently. The third one is at the mall. It was just a cool shot, and then at a private location. But just to show you the filmmakers working. These are our interns, again, which we have every year. We get them, again, from federal. We're part of a skill bridge where they get veterans from. And the last six months of their tour of duty, instead of staying on base, what they can do is sign up to join an internship. And so their last six months, they're not hanging around on base. They're actually working in the field. And so we'll do that one. And then, of course, college and high schools. High school ones is always a little difficult, but we have enough for them to do just because if you're under 18, it's harder to get on set. But one of the things that we're able to do is because we're able to go on set and we visit, they're able to see that side that they might not be able to see until they turn 18. And then, of course, these are some of our events. One of the things that we do is at the film, during the film festival, we will have a mixer where, because you're getting a lot of filmmakers that are coming in from out of town, last year we had someone from Africa, so we want to let them know, again, meet the local film crew, see some of our facilities. This was at the DACC new studio. So, again, so they can network without realizing what they're doing and just kind of get to know each other. Of course, we'll also go to Produced By Conference, that's Eli, at the Produced By Conference last year. Produced By Conference is a conference run by the Producers Guild of America, which is obviously the producers. One of the things about the film office is that it can be hard to market, because your marketing loss cruises, but you're really trying to hit a very small number of people, because you're trying to hit the decision makers. So going to a Produce by Conference, which is all producers, which is one of those decision makers, is a great way to kind of talk to them because it puts us in front of them and it lets us know, or it lets us talk to them one-on-one, especially answer any questions that they might have, which is like the biggest one is always they think it's a desert, they don't think we have infrastructure, so being able to talk to them about that kind of stuff is very helpful for us. And then, of course, the last one, we had an asylum film called Shark... shiver, and we had a premiere here. These members are the crew members who actually worked on it, and so not only were we able to give a free screening of that film, but we were able to have the crew members kind of talk about it. So for support services, this is our film vendors. Our target is 121, and we have hit 219. So again, one of the things that we want to do when we meet vendors is we'll talk to them about what it takes to be in film. The best example of that is catering. When you do a catering business, you usually have one event, like a wedding that you have to do. But for film, it's two meals every day for what could be a month. And a lot of times, film crews, they do not leave the set once they get there. So all those requirements have to go in there if you have an allergy or if you have anything. So when we meet caterers, we try to explain to them, this is what's going to be required of you. Just know that you can't have the same thing every single day because the crew members will revolt. And so things like that, just kind of explaining, of course, film is also a 24-7 business. So again, going back to the caterer, you could start at, your breakfast could be at 6 p.m., and then your lunch is at midnight, and then you start all over again the next day. So we just want to let them know that those kind of requirements come in handy when they're starting this. Some successes is that the Gold Room, which is our local prop house, they actually expanded this year because they've been so busy that they just needed more room. They had too many props. Southwest Costume Rentals, they are a big costume rental up in Albuquerque, and because they had been renting so many different costumes and everything down here, they opened a branch in Las Cruces. And then, of course, we had Gyro Studios in Tribbion, who was the one who came to the screenwriting class. They made their first full-length feature films. So all these things are kind of... Because we've been so busy, these businesses have been able to expand and grow. And even we have a guest, John Harrison, who he was a... He did gun safety traffic businesses, and once we started talking to him, you know, being a veteran and everything, he knows how to walk like a soldier, which isn't how we walk, you know, they're trained. And so we started talking to him and explaining that you can get on film, because a lot of times they're looking for those kind of experts, and they're looking for someone who can show the actors how to walk. And because of that, he's now been able to work on two feature films as a kind of consultant to help teach the actors how to do it. So that's the other thing that we like to do is that there is very few businesses that can't benefit from film. So when we need a business, whether it's lumber, whether it's tactical training, anything, we try to figure out how they can be in film because when the production comes, we want to know who to reach out to so that they can hire local and keep the business and the money here. For our location database, we have a target of 650, and our location database right now is at 1,078. Again, locations is one of the biggest things because every film's gonna need them, so we're constantly talking to new businesses, to new properties to talk. We wanna get that grocery store one that's made on our database just so that we can have more people, because every production will have new requests. This is an example of our database. As you can see, the left side is what you see when you log in. And that's just going to show you all the different categories so that if you want to start looking for it, you can on your own. The other side is what the page looks like when you click on it. And again, like I said, if someone has a hotel in their script. We want to make sure that we find the hotels that match their script. And it could be, you know, a lot of times it is a roadside hotel. Sometimes they want a real nice one. But we want to make sure that we have those on our database so when they see it, they know what they're looking for. And a lot of times they'll say, oh, I really like the Big Chile Inn. Can we make sure we go to that one? Here is just some examples of some press that we've had. Again, this was the film, Spending in Rural New Mexico, which hit the all-time high. This was the state's reporting, and again, we have the numbers there. The I'll Be Gone in June, that was in Cannes. The woman in the red hair is an actress called Bianca Dumais. She is local, and right now, she's on the red carpet in France, being able to present a movie that she was acting in. And then the last one is the Sharknado movies. One of the things about those particular movies is that it's a great example of our marketing. When I first started, we reached out to Asylum and we made a pitch deck that was basically catered to them. That's what that second picture is. Essentially what I did was I took all the pictures of Las Cruces and I added their monsters to them and said, look at how perfect your movies can be. And it took them a couple of years, but this year they finally reached back out, and they did mention that lookbook when they talked to us. And so they shot three films here in a row, and they want to keep expanding. So it is kind of that way where it shows you that we're constantly trying to market to production companies, trying to market to them, and it's not always right away. Sometimes it is a long game, but the more they know about us, the more it helps us. When we... When I was starting, we had to show people these kind of pitch decks when last year when we were at AFCI week, we asked Blumhouse, oh, I want to talk to you about Las Cruces. And they're like, oh, we know about it. We're just trying to find the right project. So it does show that our marketing is getting out there. This is all the numbers just put into one graph, and like we've said, we've hit our metrics this year, which is very good. The only one that is out of our hands is always production days, because like I said, we had a film this year that was an action film. They were here for about three months, and they spent a lot of money, but then the silent movies, they were here for about six days each. So production days can change just depending on the budget. It's not something that we can really fight against, but even having said that, we did hit that metric as well. And then before I leave, I just wanted to thank the members of the city that we work with, economic development, the police, Mr. Chief Story, the fire department. Those people help us figure out how we can get all this stuff done. They're willing to have meetings, especially like with Barracuda. We're having to have safety meetings and make sure everything was on board when they're doing these big stunts. And we couldn't do that without their help. So I just wanted to give them a thank you as we finish this conversation. Any questions?

Thank you, Andrew. Any questions? Councilman Harris?

Sure. Thanks. It was a very interesting presentation. I like that people like filming here in Las Cruces. It's kind of a nice non-extractive industry that helps employ a lot of locals and brings experience and stuff here and kind of gets us on the map. That said, to be a slight downer, I read an article last week about Albuquerque seeing a significant contraction in film jobs. So is that like an Albuquerque thing? Is that a nationwide trend?

So Mr. Mayor, Counselor, it is a nationwide trend, but it also is not, it doesn't seem to be affecting Las Cruces as much as other parts. And that is because we've kind of lucked out in that we have a lot of, because of our film schools, we have a lot of new film members who haven't joined the union. One of the big problems with Albuquerque is that they have almost all union members, and so the budgets that they have to go after are a little bit higher. Because we have a good mix of both, we're able to hit a lot of different budgets, and that's why we've been able to stay active even as Albuquerque and Santa Fe slow down.

Okay, that's good to hear. Yeah, overall, just very positive. Thanks.

Mayor Brouton.

Thank you, Mayor, Councilors. Andrew, thank you very much for putting this presentation together and working with our economic development team and other teams from the city. I appreciate the numbers, the measures, and the work that you're doing. Great job to you and your team and your other colleagues and stakeholders. I always appreciate the, I don't know if that's what you're calling your database or your information email. I just want to make sure people know how to get on that. I know that sometimes movie makers are looking for props for like specialty cars or locations for background actors. I know the mayor frequently gets confused with Eric Estrada. Councilor Matisse, a weekend at Bernie's. But I think that has, okay, today I have jokes. You mentioned major economic development numbers. But there's also micro, right? So that makes a difference to whoever's, you know, if you lease a car for six months, it's in the movie. And this is unique, you know, the situation with Candle Karma, that was really neat. So how does someone get onto it and say, you know what, I have a really cool 1960s car, or I have a really nice scenic background. How do they get onto that website?

So yes, and it is just going to our website, filmlostcruises.com. There's going to be links to, even on here, you can see list your property, where they can put that. And one of the things we have done is because of those requirements, like I'll Be Gone in June took place before, 9-11 is a big part of it. So it takes place in 2001. And so we're trying to find 2001 cars. And so we've added a couple of sections. One of them is picture cars, especially for unique pictures. And even like sometimes it's just, If your car's 10 years old, put it on there because they might need it. And another one that we've done is that kind of separates us from a lot of other databases. We've also done picture art because when you're shooting a movie, if you have a painting in the background, if you don't have the copyright for that painting, the artist might get mad and take it down. So what we've done is we've created a special section called Picture Art so that local artists can put their art on there, and so that filmmakers can look at it and say, oh, I like this art, now I have the contact, I know who to reach out to. There was a movie called In Our Blood that came out, and they started by having a lot of the murals that are a mesquite as part of their opening credits. And then they called us like a year later and they're like, we don't know any of these owners. So we were able to get with Visit Las Cruces and with the Dona Ana Arts Council and find the owners for them so they could keep it in the movie. And that's kind of what spurred that idea. So it is as simple as just going to our website and clicking on the links as part of it. And then we'll always reach out to you and say it's in or that's been approved.

Thank you, Andrew. Thank you, Mayor.

Councillor Riccobo.

Thank you so much for the presentation. Yeah, I totally agree on all of the numbers and measures that you have provided here. That's exactly, I think, what this presentation is for, so really, thank you for that. I am curious, though, I wanted to ask you about your budget, your total budget, and then if you know the percentage of your budget that comes from the City of Las Cruces.

For total budget? I know that we get 95 from the city and the county, and then we get 10,000 from Mesia, and then we get 10,000 from Anthony. So it is all that added up.

Okay.

Thank you. I would just, maybe for future presentations, I think that would be a good note to have presented to us, just for the reference of the budget portion. Perfect. Thank you so much, though, for your great work.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Andrew. I don't know if Senator wanted to say anything or add. But I just want to clarify that it's by name only. Eric Estrada, Eric Enriquez. You know, I don't know, Mayor.

I see a resemblance.

But I'm excited because now maybe there's hope for my 1995 Cadillac.

There is. Thank you, Councillor Mayer. And thank you, Andrew. Great job today and to our crew. I just want to say kind of to answer Councillor Bancomo's question because it's an important one. film las cruces gets the same amount from the city that we did when we first started i don't think it's ever been increased it's been 95 000 i think since the beginning um i think once or twice you did a supplement because we tried to do some national advertising thank you for that support now we just worked with the state economist what the city got in return just last year it's been making money for the city as terms of tax money coming back i believe was I want to say over $200,000 in tax revenue that came back directly through GRT alone. In addition to that, there were another $40,000 to $50,000 in lodger's taxes. So just to keep it in perspective. And since that time when we started, we had one employee. Now, as you can see, we have two employees and a part-time operations coordinator. We just punch way above our weight. We're very frugal with the money, as Cruz will attest to. He's been every single board member since the beginning. And that way, we can be strategic and make investments when we have to, and we have opportunities. So I think we have an awesome team. Anyway, I just want to give you that economic snapshot back, though. It's been very positive for everybody. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, council.

Can I just give a quick shout out to Senator Steinborn? I know that that rural, I just wanna re-elevate that it was your advocacy that brought that rural thing to us. So thank you for helping us be the leaders that we'd like to be in this.

It changed the law twice, and it's not called a rule. Someone nicknamed it that one. It's really for underserved film communities to help compete with the established centers who built up all the union crew, and that's because the state created preferential tax treatment early on to benefit filming in studios, which is all done by insiders. And once we kind of figured out the economics, we said, hey, we've got to level the playing field. And that's the origin story of that. But ultimately, we needed to change the law twice to really work, and now it is working. And that's part of why, Counselor Harris's question, why we're doing so well, it's because of the independent films that really benefit by coming to underserved areas, whereas the big union films, it's kind of different math. But that's what we're working towards, and hopefully when we...

uh construct our film studio will take us into that next level thank you so much thank you thank you andrea we'll see you in a couple of hours all right so go ahead elizabeth next is the mcvalley economic development alliance yeah mayor uh and now once i get this open i will turn it over to davin and his team

thank you elizabeth and mayor and counselors thank you for having us today uh... we always wish we could have more these conversations because there's a lot going on economic development and as you get into the new strategic planning uh... we'd like to participate with you in terms of how we can uh... benefit and enhance economic development going forward for uh... for the city and the region uh... i wanted to uh... say this is going to be a little bit of a different presentation today than i've given in the past uh... in the past lot of times we show the numbers in the outcome but we don't really talk about the process and one of the reasons why this came up uh... in terms of our conversations uh... internally is because you know we look at the contract and and this is basically what we're asked to accomplish ninety percent of that as you can see is based in business attraction and marketing And there's a lot that goes into that just to get to the outcome. And I don't think we talked to you enough about that. So part of what we want to do as a presentation today is a little bit of a tag team with staff. I'm going to ask Carlos Parra, our marketing director, to come up and talk about our marketing initiatives and how we get to some of these outcomes. Then I'm going to ask Brian Garcia, our VP of Business Development, to talk about the actual job creation projects this past fiscal year. And then I'm going to be asking Jessica and Robles to talk about all the other capacity building features that we do on a regular basis. And if you would indulge us, if we could have some maybe collaborative partner testimonials built into this, that would be very much appreciative. And we'll try to make it quick. How we're measured, we're measured based on that marketing outcome in terms of what it means in terms of jobs, payroll, capital investment, qualified prospects, site visits, and completed projects. And I might want to turn this around a little bit because all of this is kind of measurements in terms of the trajectory of where a marketing effort starts. and then how we move the projects forward to the final outcome. So really, if you look at it, we would start out, we use our marketing, and the hope is to identify what we call a qualified prospect. a qualified prospect is is a company uh... that has defined a project within the next twelve to eighteen months uh... they have parameters set against the site and they have basically said that we want to consider they want to consider las cruces for potential opportunity for that so what happens at that point is that's when we get past marketing and we get really into project management and that project management entails not only the site identification but everything that goes into that site so for example It could be the infrastructure. If it's a vacant land, it could be making sure we're hunting down any phase one environmentals if they exist. It gets into even sometimes the land soil type and everything else. And that's where we work with your team on a regular basis, especially at the Las Cruces Industrial Park, to pull that information so we can be readily available to give that to a client. Other things are labor analysis. A lot of times it's workforce and skill set analysis. Lots of times it's pulling information from our partners at Dona Ana Community College and New Mexico State University to prove out we have the workforce and the skill sets available for it. All the way down to we run incentive analysis and much more. So it's a lot of work that gets to that point. And then at that stage, what we're hoping to do is now convince the company to put feet on the ground They come out here, conduct a site visit, and that's really when we like to bring in, it's our first time to really touch the client directly and really get to understand their project one-on-one in terms of that relationship building for that specific project. A lot of times we'll bring in the mayor, we'll ask the mayor or the city manager, the economic development team to join us in that. And at that time of the site visit, we're bringing in all our partners, whether it's workforce related, site related, infrastructure related, trying to get everyone around the room at the table so that we can basically not only answer their questions, but put our best foot forward that we are the location of choice that they would make a decision upon. A lot of times that's entailing bringing down the state to talk about specific incentives they bring out, bring to the table, as well as some incentives that we bring in as well locally. And the whole idea is then to get to completed projects, which in turn creates the jobs, job creation that we're trying to aspire to, the payroll that comes with those jobs on an annual basis, and then the capital investment associated with the investment they're making in Las Cruces, which is all part of the tax base. It's all part of not just growing GRT, but growing the overall economy. What we don't measure and we don't talk about is everything that goes into what we call kind of setting the table, setting the stage so that we are attractive in the first place. So, for example, we don't talk much about, in terms of this contract, the retention and expansion program. That's where we go out and meet with local businesses, trying to make sure that we can hopefully retain their business, understand the challenges they're coming across, but preferably even try to convert them into some form of a job expansion as we go about it. Along the years, over the years we've been doing this, we've had to develop programs so that we could bring to the table when we meet with local companies to talk about what would help you grow. As a result of that, our Automate Up program was established. That's to meet the skill sets that are needed for upcoming needs and skills. It started with advanced manufacturing certificates. But since then it's grown to a variety of different types of careers, whether it's coding, robotics, telehealth. And this past year we started really tackling the trades as well. And we built an incentive toolbox on a local level. I've talked about this in the past. We found private sector funding to create a localized incentive. We call it the NM Borderplex Closing Fund. We do this in collaboration with the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico. As you know, we've been working with your economic development team over the last several years to create a pre-spec development program. That basically means trying to invite and be enticing to development capital coming to the area, getting past their construction risk so that they would want to put speculative development in the ground. We lose most of our projects because we don't have available facilities, and we win projects when we have available facilities. We have not found the winner quite yet. We are now at least being associated with three national development companies that we do talk to on a regular basis, and we are going through the process with one company right now going through an NMFA program loan to hopefully encourage that spec development to take place at the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park. Along that lines, I want to say the bottom three, MFA, Enterprise Opportunity Funding, that exact program that they're looking to utilize to build here as well as, well, let me stop there. That is a program that we were at the drawing board with five, six years ago. wearing the other hats we wear in terms of board membership of advocacy agencies like new mexico idea where we were at the table talking to the cabinet secretary and their staff as well as legislators about the need for not only spec development here but making sure we were getting the word from other places around the state that said yeah we need the same thing so that we could bring a program to fruition the same thing with site readiness funding and new mexico trade port funding These are both programs that we were at the table with at the ground level, kind of formatting what this would look like. Site readiness is preparing future commercial and industrial sites for growth. We've been able to tap into now state dollars that have been awarded for that. That is now helping one site on the east side of town, kind of distributing commercial and light industrial. And then the New Mexico trade port funding is actually $70 million now coming to the state overall. We worked with Representative Lundstrom on pushing that program forward and those dollars forward, which now the city is applying to become a New Mexico trade port district, which then opens up to projects for economic development related to the goals of that. I say this because these are multi-year strategies. They take time to build. They're programs. We spend, and I kid you not, over the past few years, thousands of hours in developing these, and we spend time on them every day. I can tell you retention and expansion and our automated program alone, that's Jessica Lynn's full-time job, so she's probably put in 2,000 hours of that alone this past year. But again, it's trying to... set the table, per se, so that we can be inviting to these companies to get their capital investment here and their job creation here in the region. When we matchmake this against the existing strategic plan, we try to match up where we help support your vision. And you can see in these four areas, they align themselves very well. In fact, we tried to do a procedure where we went kind of more diverse into the 1.1, 1.2.2, 3.3 type of categories and subsections. I stopped here. I think you get the idea. I think between not only what we're measured upon and what we're not measured upon, we are a collective partnership with you in your strategic plan. And as you go forward, I just want to make sure that we are available to you as partners in that endeavor. We are here to serve Las Cruces and Dona Ana County and our private sector membership. That's what they want to see accomplished as well. So we are aligned, and I'm going to now pass this over to Carlos to talk about what really goes into marketing.

Mayor, chair, city council, thank you for this opportunity. So we first start off, and we've shown this before in the past where we take a regional approach, how we look at the assets, and really we look at this part as really our foundation, promoting our geographical advantages, consistent messaging, but really the connected marketing where everything that we produce leads to our foundation, which is really the website. And we want to be able to make sure that it's everything from every print advertising to social media campaign, press releases, emails, nurture campaigns, trade shows, QR codes. They all work in unison to tell one complete story. And everything points back to the foundation. And one of the bigger points, too, is that we're not looking for one singular target. We want to be able to meet the decision makers where they're at. And so part of this is our multi-year campaigns. And kind of like the film Las Cruces spoke about, it took years to get Sharknado here. It's the same with economic development. We're not that instant gratification where you place your order and now you can track it. This is over years of of looking at our branding, look at the region, and how can we better secure and inform our messaging. So we started off with your site is ready, and then the following year we started with our bullseye campaign, which is looking at the assets. They hit the epicenter of North American trade. And going forward, we've actually combined the two into Your Site is Ready, but showcasing again all of the strategic placement for our industrial parks, but really delivering that message. And again, you'll notice that every one of these have a QR code. They all go back to the website promoting the Inland Borderplex. So, and Devin kind of alluded to this, where Our Site is Ready, It actually developed, when we started producing this ad, it attracted three developers to the area. And so with that, they were able to, we got their attention, and they met with the city, they met with us, and out of this, though, Movida and the city created a partnership where we were able to create the pre-spec site readiness blueprint. And that was actually recognized by the state of New Mexico. And so this actually created a form when developers do come and they continue to look at the area that we're able to act quickly, we're able to present quickly, and be able to gather their attention. So next we have the bullseye campaign. And so really what that came about was we were opening up new markets. So when we started advertising this particular campaign, we went into 10% of Canada. And with that, we actually are able to track two companies that came in, and one was Endurance Technologies, and the other one is Patriot Pouches. So again, these are all coordinated efforts that help position New Mexico Borderplex as a regional location for foreign direct investors. And our biggest pool here is where I want to kind of talk about this is the relationships that get built here. So a lot of these times when we're doing the marketing, the marketing opens the door, but it's really the relationships is why these companies are staying here. So during the city of Las Cruces announcement, and you'll notice that your logos in the background, Heather, this was televised, where the president of Endurance Technologies, and these are his quotes, it was, Mavita was instrumental into getting us that right comfort feeling. We had several meetings with them, and it became clear that they get it. For them to be successful, we needed to be successful. And that was the relationship we were looking for. And so for us, we go beyond marketing. It is building that relationship. And through those communications, when we talked to the president, we talked to their head of manufacturing, one of the words was, they got us that right comfort feeling. We're on the same frequency. We really had the right feeling. It was like feeling like home. And so with that, we're going to start expanding our foreign direct investment into Canada. This is the largest publication in Canada. So one is plant and the other one is Canadian manufacturing. Now, I want to kind of point out on the right-hand side where it says New Mexico borderplex or business feels like home. But this red here is Canadian red. Now, Canada has a marketing that they've grown and they've used for generations. It's similar to Made in America. But there's this look for the leaf. And so here we're able to integrate that actual leaf that will go into all of the marketing that goes into Canada. So, again, we're looking at the psychology that they've grown up with, that they're living with, is looking for the leaf. So now they can find that leaf actually in New Mexico. And so with that relationship marketing, that brings us to our trade shows. So we focus on aerospace and FDI and food processing, really the industries that we're looking for within our region here. And so here we actually hit 27 trade shows and conferences. And this is up from 24 last year. And really for an organization our size, it's a pretty big lift to carry, but we're there and we carry it. We're able to market. We're able to whether we're walking these and whether we're actually showcasing. But again, this is more building those relationships because at these specific trade shows and conferences, we're still talking to site selectors, we're still talking to decision makers, and really starting to build those relationships. Now, you'll notice here that this is our traditional marketing here. And again, we're able to expand. And so here, we were... Through these relationships, we are able to negotiate advertorials. We're able to negotiate better ad placement. Here, we've actually increased our publications. Last year, we were able to reach 301,000 readers and decision makers. This year, we were able to reach 850,000 C-suite executives and decision makers. And again, this is consistent branding across the board. So when they're recognized as the borderplex, this is being showcased from them in print, in digital, and so on. This also brings us to our paid media and our digital marketing. And so we looked at, and again, these are specific. We use a lot more LinkedIn than we would other social medias because you're able to pinpoint specific decision makers. You're able to target specific companies. But the messaging will remain the same, whether it's the bullseye campaign, whether it is talking about your site is ready. You'll notice here that we had where the Las Cruces Innovation Industrial Park, they received the platinum award for ready sites. And with that, we were able to take what would normally be a post and specifically target site selectors themselves. And so with that, we actually grew from 561,000 impressions last year to 645 this year. And again, every campaign is strategically focused and marketed. Organic marketing. The difference between organic and paid is that organically means on social media, you're posting comments, content, you're posting campaigns that gain visibility, traffic, you want engagement without paid advertising. So through social media, again, we're able to be consistent. We market upcoming events, the trade shows we're going to. I tag a lot of these companies. And some of you actually might know when I'm posting our press releases, I tag you as well. So that way you're getting notifications saying, hey, something's going on with Mavita, we're hosting something. And we also post a lot of the partner posts as well. So like you'll see something with RT Electric where they're promoting the workforce. And so last year we had an organic reach of 54,000, and this year we had an outreach of 397,000 organic impressions. And as I stated, everything comes back to the website. So when we specifically target in Canada, when we specifically target in Taiwan, everything within the webpage, we all have landing pages. So we're able to efficiently track these landing pages, we give them the relevant information, but we're also able to capture these form fills and that now enters our database. But with that, and the one thing I kinda wanna pull out here is that These are new visits. These are not returning site selectors. These are brand new visits. So we had 53,800 new visits. But what I want to point out here is that the visits stay. So we had an additional 33,700 page views. So that means once these new visitors are visiting the website, they're staying, they're engaging, they're looking for the research, they're looking for the content, they're downloading our flyers. And the next that really brings us to their nurture campaign. So a nurture campaigns is continuing the communication and building those relationships. So we have a database for site selectors. A lot of these nurture campaigns is after Jessica Lynn and Brian, they've actually met with them at these trade shows. All of these emails come back to us and we continue to tell the story about the borderplex. We continue to tell the story about Las Cruces. Here in specific, I have examples showcasing how we reached out to these site selectors, the announcements that we're doing. And so, again, these are personal connections, and we sent out over 1,484 emails. Again, building those relationships and making sure that we're New Mexico borderplex is really the top of mind. So earned media, this one's been interesting. So over the years, we've developed a relationship with several industry magazines. And so earned media is difficult to track. It is being shared content. So every time we do a press release, we send it to everybody. We send it to local newspapers. We send it to our local, well, local to us in El Paso, the news organizations, and whether or not they run our information. Usually locally, they don't. But the industry magazines, they understand search engine optimization. They understand when somebody's going to search for the borderplex, they want to show up in front page. And so a lot of the times when I send them press releases, we're front and center on their web page until we get knocked down, usually 12 stories deep. And so with that, though, they've been able to share with us It's never been done in their industry when I've asked for these is saying, how many times were these articles read? Now they call them impressions here, but this is actually clicked and read articles. They just happen to call theirs impressions. So this is how many times it was actually looked at. And this is here for the keywords, New Mexico borderplex. We have 715,000 impressions. So and again, these are over relationships that we built with a lot of these publications. So there are many times that they receive the same press release from the state of New Mexico. We add more information. We talk about the little more in depth about the jobs that are created. We talk a little bit more about the region itself. And so they're actually promoting our press releases over the states. So it's and again, these were all built through those actual relationships. And that brings us to our foreign direct investment. So a lot of the efforts go beyond the traditional marketing. And so we participated, and this is something I just want to highlight, in invite-only meetings. And those were two this year. One was with the Canadian consulates, where we were one of two regional economic development organizations invited. Brian was at that one, and then Davin was at the U.S. Mexico Trade and Tourism Office. So these were invite only that we were able to have with our foreign direct investors. Now the unique thing specifically about Brian's is that two weeks later, there was, I believe it's called Select USA, and Jessica Lynn was able to attend that. And so when the conversation started in Canada with the Canadian consulates, that conversation continued two weeks later with the New Mexico partnership at our booth at Select USA. So again, these relationships are continuing to build. There's longevity with them. But now when we host these foreign direct investment Tours and when they're when they're coming to the movita offices Everybody's invited right so we we send out invitations to the mayor of Las Cruces Elizabeth Management team and as well as with the county so this year we had nine prospecting missions in fam tours But there were 91 companies involved and so we had Canadian companies got companies from Ghana India Mexico and Taiwan that we were able to host and show them all of the and show them the Las Cruces Innovation Industrial Park Oops. And so with that, we did create, it looks like we're missing a slide, but we did create a new, I guess a new marketing platform. So we actually had a conference this year where we were able to attract and establish New Mexico as a, southern New Mexico as a region to come to. We had regional speakers, we had We had engaged leaders and it really positioned us as a center to really look at to come. And rather than just going to the events, we actually created one. So that was something we wanted to look at. So from the first pain point, because that's what a lot of our marketing is, what are the pain points that these site selectors are looking at? Do they need land? Do they need power? Do they need the workforce? And we're able to look at those pinpoint marketings, adjust the branding, adjust the message, so we're able to pinpoint those. And then we develop A-B campaigns, look for the stronger campaigns. We've developed strategies. We're gathering data. We're building the BorderPlex regional brand. So really, I know the mayor at one point asked me, like, why? This is wild. How do you do it? It's like we're an entire production company. I look at it as an advertising company as well, more like an agency where we're able to develop these campaigns. We're able to look at marketing that's going on across the world, especially with FDI, and how do we adjust our marketing to match theirs. But really, we're really building those relationships. And how do we have these companies that it's taking two to three years from the point of marketing, and how do we build those relationships to have them choose us?

I think it's up for Ryan.

Thank you, Mayor, counselors. Carlos talked a lot about our marketing efforts and the relationships that it takes to build to get somebody to even just take a look at us. I want to go into a few of the projects that we had who actually chose Las Cruces as their new home. Endurance Technologies is a Canadian company that has chosen the Las Cruces Innovation Industrial Park for their new manufacturing facility. This will be their first US-based manufacturing facility. Movida was there from the beginning with them. They were initially working with their site selector to look at over 70 different US metros across the US. we were able to become a finalist with one community over in texas and ultimately win this project here in las cruces because as carla said we were able to build that sense of home here that ability was allowed us to create 41 jobs out at the industrial park The community, Movida, the city of Las Cruces, we were able to put up an attractive package for them to where they felt like Las Cruces should be their home over the Texas community that, frankly, has a lot more resources than we do. It's closer to their supply chain and their end customer. but we had that sense of home our organization was able to help bring some additional closing fund dollars a hundred thousand dollars out of the new mexico closing fund and then the city of las cruces was able to pass an industrial revenue bond thank you to all of you for passing that for them We also got a second Canadian company to locate into Las Cruces, Patriot Pouches. What they do is they create the oral pouches that go into your mouth for caffeine, vitamins, nutraceutical blends. They're locating in a facility off of Biltek here, 15,000 square foot facility that they're having to retrofit. That's going to bring 67 new jobs to the area. But this project was another one where we were able to go in there, show them what Las Cruces has to offer, be able to provide not only the right site, the right incentive package, but also additional support on workforce, US banking and financial support. As they are a Canadian company, they needed some assistance in how to connect and do business down here in the US. And then we were able to bring an additional $30,000 from our own local closing fund to help get that project across the finish line. The Gold Room Prop House is our local film prop house that we have here. They were looking to expand here in Las Cruces. They have a 20,000 square foot facility that they're building out with tenant improvements and creating a couple additional jobs out there. They needed some help in paying for those tenant improvements and paying for some specialized prop building equipment that they needed to purchase. Through our local BR&E program, we were able to get them introduced to the New Mexico Closing Initiative through the Community Foundation, where they were able to secure $30,000 to help them grow their facility here in Las Cruces and grow the film industry that we have here. And then this is our newest announcement. Equipment share, as Carlos mentioned, economic development is a long-term process. It's not an instant gratification. Equipment share's a project that I have been working with for over two years to try and get to Las Cruces. uh... we recently had them announce uh... a facility off of amador there where they are going to be uh... going into and creating twenty six well-paying jobs we were able to bring seventy five thousand dollars from our own closing initiative or closing incentive program to help offset that purchase down there And we have an actual announcement, a formal announcement with the company on August 27th that I want to invite all of you out to, to where we will be talking about not only this project, but some additional future plans that they have for the region here in Las Cruces. EquipmentShare, what they do is they are an equipment rental company that works with all of the major construction projects around the region. This will be their core solution site, which will house the construction equipment out of it and rentals, supporting projects like the data centers that are going up around here, as well as just the local developments that are happening out at our industrial park. And then I'm going to turn it over to Jessica Lynn to talk a little bit about our capacity building and our BR&E programs that we're doing here locally.

Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Chair, City Councilors. How are you all doing? So our business and retention program, it's actually, it's a really incremental program in fostering growth by supporting already existing businesses. Our impact stems from direct support to local businesses, where we identify the opportunity to expand or retain their business and through the consultations that we hold with them. Movida's program, it really stands out in this factor of it not just being a business and retention expansion program, but even within the community. Movida makes a concerted, targeted effort at approaching and supporting the existing businesses in our region. While there's multiple business support efforts throughout the county, MoVita actively connects with economic-based companies and helps identify the opportunities to support them. Of the 62 visits or consultations that we conducted this year, 33 of those were within the city of Las Cruces, and almost half of those are new companies. So what that means is they're companies within the city of Las Cruces that we haven't worked with in the past, and that may not have had support directly approach them before. So almost half of those were people that had never had that support or had been sourced to see what kind of resources can be provided to them. The BRE program converted and sustained engagement into measurable businesses, measurable business outcomes this fiscal year. Of the 33 city consultations, we actually identified four that became projects. And what I mean by projects for me is that identifying the opportunity for expansion or the opportunity to assist them in sustaining growth or in growth or strengthening. Six of those have progressed into actual expansion projects, meaning they are expanding in jobs or their footprint or in the investment. So nearly one in three engagements actively translates relationship building into investment opportunity here in the city of Las Cruces. The continuous relationships that we foster with our existing businesses is key, as it builds rapport and provides them with known resource. So when they enter that phase where they're ready to explore expansion, they have a contact and someone they can call. In this slide, I'm just depicting PSL. PSL has been around for over 50 years in our community. They recently received an award providing them $5 million for Anacope. equipment, it's a testing equipment. And we were the first people they reached out to because they don't just, now that they have the equipment, they need a place to house the equipment. And as they're exploring access to capital and opportunities for funding for them to do that, Mavita was the first person that they reached out to for help. The most rewarding part of my job is Movida being able to support and provide direct resources to companies. One of the greatest challenges for both incoming new businesses and expanding local existing businesses is capital restraints that hinder growth. By connecting them with the proper resources and funding opportunities, a majority of the time that means access to capital. and outside of state incentives, which are often not an option for a lot of the small existing businesses here because of either the size of their expansion or the lack of investment into infrastructure, Movida does still provide them with a resource. We've talked a few times about the New Mexico Borderplex Closing Fund. These are some of the companies that we've helped support over the years with the New Mexico borderplex closing fund. And this is one of our BRE visits. You've actually seen the gold room three times today. The film Las Cruces mentioned their expansion. and how incremental it was. With our working with them and visiting them at their site, we were able to help connect them to a grant, which also gave them the funding for them to incorporate expansion and now made them a manufacturer in our region. So we're not just expanding the one certain industry, we're helping these businesses become more economic-based and pursue additional revenues for sustaining their business. Another very valuable resource and has become, has been Mabita's ability to directly impact them with programs like Automate Up. So Automate Up is a program, if you're not familiar with it, created by Movida and funded through the state leads, City ARPA, and El Paso Electric Charitable Foundation. It's provided us with a key resource, providing employers and companies with funding to help certify their employees, to help certify individuals and students, to train, and to fill workforce gaps. this program has a huge impact employers educators and individuals and with constant exposure we can utilize the program to really identify and address training opportunities for in our region and have some examples of what those are this has With the funding that we received through ARPA, we were able to be very generous and I think the impact you'll see here with the city ARPA funding and then even the program funding that we have here, the impact is very wide. So the Southern New Mexico IEC, we actually supported two different training courses for them, directly impacting 24 residents. And we're providing these 24 residents with the opportunities to now go out and place bids on contracts, get better jobs, and increase their household income and spend more money. But most importantly, of those 24 residents, those students are now looking at opening their own businesses and creating their own businesses, which is really impactful. AI for small business, through the outreach that we have and with coming trends and in our role for capacity building, it really was trying to answer a question and a need. Businesses wanted to know how do they leverage and utilize AI to optimize their business and business production. We answered that call by actually addressing the need for it by helping create a certification. So working with NMSU Global and working with local professionals and experts here within our region, we actually helped develop and funded the development of an AI for small business certification course, which we are now offering to small businesses. So far we've had 10 small businesses impacted by this grant and by the program that we've created. STEM education. So STEM Mavericks was another program. With ARPA, we were allowed to be really creative in making sure that all audiences are receiving the funding from this. So with this, 22 residents were impacted, 20 students and individuals, and then two educators. We actually were able to help with professional development for two educators who now are taking the skill sets that 20 students. Actually, Chief Story, your son was one of the students that received the stipends that we were able to provide for them. So 20 students ended up with a certificate in STEM education, which provided them everything from AI to cybersecurity to building equipment. And then two educators are now taking those skill sets back into their classrooms within our region. One of the most resounding effects of the programs like Automata program has been the collaboration Movida has influenced and helped shape. Project equipment, this slide is resembling project equipment, which is a huge success story and a really perfect example of how Movida and the Automata program contribute to capacity building. And I would say this is probably my hero song for my last year's work. I'm really proud of this project and the way that it worked. And so it's a little bit of a story. Within the program, I'm not just reaching companies and giving them resources that we already have. I'm constantly having to network and find these opportunities. And so that means putting myself where the people and the opportunities are. So in attending Las Cruces Public Schools Build My Future event, had the opportunity to converse with city utilities, utility programs, trades programs, and then the students. And it was really easy to identify that there's the interest in students pursuing trade skills and construction skill sets right out of school, them not necessarily wanting to go the traditional education route of going to Dona Ana Community College, NMSU, or additional schools, but they miss that opportunity for them to enter the industry, because even the industry utilities, they're looking for that existing experience. And that isn't always met by the CTE programs through the public schools. Fortunately, a few weeks later, after having identified the gap, attending another networking opportunity, actually, it was a mayor meetup with Mayor Enriquez and the mayor of Mesilla, actually ran into an individual who was working on workforce development and pre-apprenticeship program, which we had identified as the possibility of that. And after meeting with them, we identified another gap, that there are people skilled to create the opportunity needed training for pre-apprenticeship program, but the gap was funding it. You know, students want to learn, but really the reason why they don't want to school is because they want to be paid to learn. And that being a huge gap, we actually had that answer within MeVita. With the funding that we were provided with ARPA for our Automate Up program, we were actually able to fund individuals for the pre-apprenticeship hours. That was the first gap, as it turned out. It ended up being a very complex program. And MoVita was able to bring additional partners to the table and work with them, the Bridge of Southern New Mexico being a big contributor to that program. I can say now that the program is underway, and the program is certifying over 10 people in pre-apprenticeship Certification for equipment and construction trades. And at the end of this, it'll actually result in direct employment to an employer, FAMCO Construction. So really, I think it's really profound on what the efforts of capacity building and our collaboration, how it has a direct impact in our economy. I can show you pictures and I can tell you stories all the time, but I think one of the most impactful ways to understand how MoVita reaches our community, impacts our communities, to hear from some of them. And I did have businesses who have offered and asked to come and speak on our behalf. I have lost a few because they are small business owners and so they've had to get back to work. But if you don't mind, I'd like to have Rachel Ryan with Backyard Farms come up and say something.

mayor chair and city council thank you my name is rachel ryan on backyard farms we started off as a regenerative agriculture farm and have gotten into freeze-dried food manufacturing and in our journey we began during covid during one of the worst times to start manufacturing part of a business but movida has been there to help us out along the way we have been a recipient of the borderplex grant as well that helped us gear up and get more staff and with that we also were recipient of of the automate up grant which helped us train some of our staff for part of our freeze dry food manufacturing to in order to get usda harmonized gap plus certified which is a mouthful it's a form of food safety certification that is national food safety and many of our purchasers require that and so to train our staff for that the automate up program allowed us to cover the cost for that sort of training and through some programs with that it covered a significant amount of that in fact the total cost for that training for our staff That not only affords us that certification for our company, we are the only freeze-dried food manufacturing in the state of New Mexico to have that certification. But that allows us and our food products to have that, but also for our co-packing. So we get food from all over New Mexico from farmers who can't sell food because it is wonky. It's ugly, it has some kind of misshapen, misformation, it's still perfectly nutritious and delicious, but it just doesn't look pretty, and everybody wants pretty fruits and vegetables at farmers markets. So all of this food ends up going to food waste, and so we have a tremendous amount of food that winds up in compost piles, landfills, or feeding pigs in the state of New Mexico, while at the same time we have some really great food insecurity needs. which is why we stepped up and started doing this freeze-drying in the first place to reclaim this food, to reduce food waste, and to return this delicious, nutritious food back to our food system and remove the obstacles of perishability, transportation issues, refrigeration, and all of these things so this food can get across the state to more people who need it. without these food losses and to help these small farmers who can't necessarily obtain more land, get more water and grow more food, reduce their waste so they can reduce their losses and maintain more profitability across the state of New Mexico. Many other states have seconds, a whole processing grade fruits and vegetables that if something's damaged with it, tomatoes, it can get turned into tomato soup or tomato sauce. We don't have a processing grade industry in the state of New Mexico for any of our fruits and vegetables. So when farmers get these losses, they take a total loss on this. And this is a huge problem in our food system. So freeze drying is one of the ways that we can overcome these challenges. So we started freeze drying in order to do that and then to return this food to our food system and to get it out to the people who need it the most. So we're using this food to go to senior centers, daycare centers, schools where kids are on the lunch programs and things like that to the populations that need it the most through this new mexico grown program that the state offers and so we're getting out to tribal centers and things like that here in the city of las cruces we provide a tremendous amount of freeze dry to the munson center to the east side center to adelante senior center in mesilla to meals on wheels we serve all of these centers several meals several times a month receive our freeze dry we've gotten some wonderful feedback from the seniors who've called us and said that they absolutely love the freeze-dry and they want it in every single lunch to be provided. It's a wonderful way for some of them who may be food insecure to be able to take food home and stockpile it and save it for later. It keeps, freeze-dry can keep up to 25 years, so it offers that wonderful, and freeze-dry maintains 98% of the nutritional value of fresh because all we've done is remove water. There's no salts, sugars, or anything added to it. And it often concentrates the flavors of these fruits and vegetables so they taste even sweeter and more delicious. And when things like melons get over ripened on the vine, this is when farmers can't sell them. Grocery stores won't purchase it. They want underripe melons. But this is when it tastes the best. So we can freeze dry them at their peak. And then we can provide it to these programs over winter when a lot of the fresh fruits and vegetables are not available on the market. we can provide these, so daycare centers and things like that. We had a daycare center in Clovis that was able to make a fruit salad with New Mexico-grown watermelons, apples, peaches, and pears in the middle of winter. And so, for instance, we got 12,000 pounds of peaches that came from the Mesilla Valley just two weeks ago. We had apples that came in just this morning from shalom colony a farmer here locally We're going to be getting some more this afternoon from the members Valley from two different farmers apples and pears I think there may even be more things just show up we had a farmer with melons who said he was going to send us one truckload and we ended up getting 44 pallets of watermelon showing up so i was calling all kinds of of places with refrigeration all over the city of las cruces so we reach out to places like mevita and so forth when we struggle in these sorts of situations where can we find refrigeration space because these fruits and vegetables give off ethylene gas We can't put them in most of the refrigeration facilities that house things like pecans and so forth because it'll over ripen and set them off and cause them to rot. So places like Movida have helped us out so much every time we run into a jam. We contact them and they are, when we're in a corner, They've helped us out with advice, resources, hooking us up with other businesses, things like that that you can't find anywhere else. That sort of information, the knowledge, the wealth of resources of businesses in this area. And the economics, helping us out with those grants to help us grow our little business, put us in the position where we could then get a grant from the NMDA for all the work we've been doing for these farmers and how we've helped them out so much to get the RFSI grant and we got $668,000 now to expand our facility because we've helped farmers so much they want us to help even more farmers across New Mexico with this issue of of these seconds and how to help these farmers, that every time there's a hail storm, some type of weather event, things like that, and something goes wrong with their crops, we're the ones who can help them out with recovering these sorts of things. And other small businesses that want to do value added, so we can do co-packing for them, freeze dry their fruits and vegetables, package it under their label, and get it back to them. And it's become such a valuable resource for the state of New Mexico that they want to help us grow. But we had to grow to a certain point to be able to show our value and show what we were doing, how much we could do to demonstrate that to be able to get even more economic development so we could grow even more. And that was all because of MeVita and partners like that. Thank you.

Thank you, Rachel.

We have each other on speed dial now. But I even leverage Rachel in a lot of dealing with companies that are smaller than hers, and that peer-to-peer resource is a very valuable resource that Movida also offers. I'd like to also ask Frankie Torres with Famco Construction to come out and speak.

Hi, Mayor, Council.

My name is Frankie Torres. I'm the owner and founder of FAMCO Inc. Proud to say we have the first ever heavy equipment apprenticeship program in the state of New Mexico, trying to remove the barrier to bring people into the heavy equipment world. Really, really thankful for the bridge and Embita to help support our program. Pay people while they learn is a really big thing. A lot of our apprentices and pre-apprentices have had the opportunity to work on some really neat projects. Leesburg State Park, a repayment project down with the New Mexico Border Authority. Projects kind of all over the region, but it's because of the fact that We've partnered with Invita and with the bridge to help bring this success to the students. I also heard some thoughts about doing some pre-construction utility surveys for the city in the parking lot. So that may be something we can link up on. Thank you.

Just one more community partner, if you will indulge me, please. I'd like to ask Beth Williams with the Bridge of Southern New Mexico to come up and speak.

Hello Mayor, Council, thank you so much. Thank you Jessica Lynn and Davin and the whole MoVita team for having us here today. Many of you may know what the bridge was all about prior to me coming on and being very instrumental with the early college high school and dual credit and whatnot and I've been here going on three years and realized we needed to be more than just a research five oh one c three and i am very proud that Jessica Lynn actually serves on my board for the bridge and i also serve on the Mavida board so we do have an advantage to collaborate often uh... we're always looking for ways that we can also assist one another but this particular project was Kind of a no-brainer for me. My board was like, well, that's kind of out of our wheelhouse. But for us, we were like, no, not really. It's exactly what we're doing. We're trying to bring more jobs for really young people to our community. Like, let's get them some training, maybe training, maybe education, but let's get more opportunities for our young people so they have more opportunities to stay and work here in our community. That's really all that we're doing here with the bridge, but very thankful for the collaboration that we have with Movida on a regular basis.

Thank you chair and counselors for that. I do want to say that our capacity building also reaches beyond just the independent businesses and helping those businesses here but also towards the project in supporting promotional regional initiatives within our region. Here's a few that we have supported along throughout the year either by providing information or providing connections, resources or even support. These are all initiatives that Individuals throughout the county are trying to bring to our region and Mavita has supported it has supported them Thank you for your time

Thank you Jessica Lynn and Brian and Carlos for all of that. I appreciate the time you've given us. I know we've taken some time, but we only get this once a year to have this chat. But on the spirit of collaboration, I want to say that we have NEI First Valley in the room. This is a unique partnership we work on in terms of in terms of expanding our ability to market the region to different types of sources. We work with them on a regular basis. In the spirit of the marketing collaboration, we're working with the Mexico-Chile Association as they leverage our marketing into Canada to promote our Chile industry as well. So we're always thinking about collaboration. We're always thinking about how we leverage each other in terms of what we have limited resources amongst us all. Finally, I'm going to get the results. So in terms of our qualified prospects, we did very well this year in bringing companies to the region, getting a look, and providing them with the information on real projects they were looking at. You know, like everything else in sales, you start with a quantity and it kind of trickles down to the numbers. That led to 26 site visits, four completed projects. We fell short on jobs and payroll, 136 jobs and $7.9 million in total payroll because of this year's efforts, but we exceeded in capital investment 26.45 million versus 17.5 million. The four completed projects just came in smaller than what we were expecting given some industry factors that we're seeing out there. As always, we do run a fiscal impact analysis. We do this because it's contracted to, so it is provided to the economic development team every year. And as a result, we look 10 years down, at potentially $2.1 million in new local tax base. So when we talk about GRT creation and property tax creation, $2.1 million in local tax creation over the next 10 years, 264,000 going to DCC, and 1.2 million to the schools. And as we evaluate ourselves, we look at what does that mean to you, to the taxpayer dollars. We look at your investment in us over the 10 years discounted back is about a 576% return on investment. As I leave you here, I'll let you read that. I won't read it, but as you get into strategic planning, we want to be there for you. We want to be there to support the vision any way we can. And so, again, thank you for letting us do the longer presentation today, and I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Devin. Any questions? Councillor Harris?

Thanks Mayor, thanks Davin, Jessica Lynn, everyone else who presented. I have a few comments, or a few questions and a comment. I guess first, I'm very glad to hear about AutomateUp and the retention and expansion efforts that we're doing in order to support the existing local businesses and not just be trying to attract outside investment while local businesses close, and then therefore we get no real net gains. As an aspiring heavy equipment operator, maybe I'll come hit you up at some point, I guess These are kind of random in random order. But I saw rail served on a lot of your advertising campaigns. Las Cruces has also rail served. And so I wonder how that has factored into anybody we've talked to in Las Cruces. We don't have a huge rail yard, but every once in a while, I see people receiving shipments down here. And obviously, I would, as I say all the time, I would love to see more rail service here in Las Cruces. So I guess that's a small question. Does that impact any of Las Cruces advertising or mainly Santa Teresa?

Well, so I think when we talk about regional advertising or regional marketing, it's a big umbrella to capture a lot of different things, right? And where that gives us the opportunity is then to really drill down and understand what does a company really need. of maybe 10 companies that say they need rail, probably one of them can actually utilize it, rail served sites. So what we look at is then how can rail served offloading capacity take place that might serve them. So when we talk about the industrial park here, We're always talking about what can be done on the tracks here at Amador in terms of getting the shipments here and then just putting it on the truck and then taking it up the hill. And usually that satisfies most of the conversations in terms of rail because when you really need a rail service site, you're talking about you know, hundreds of carloads per day. Otherwise, BNSF or Union Pacific don't even talk to you. So we have these conversations. It allows us to capture a big bucket of leads and then drill down into what sites actually make sense for them. And because of that, I think we've been able to see a lot more interest in Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park for a variety of reasons, not just what we could serve them in rail, but other factors that make it competitive.

Okay. Second question is we're expanding a lot of marketing into Canada. I think that's great to get that foreign direct investment. Have you seen... big problems trying to attract that with tariffs and people finding out that it's actually really expensive to move equipment down here?

Mayor, Councillor, it's a double-edged sword. I'm just going to be honest with you. I think most of the tariff discussions we have are with existing customers and supply chain, and especially we hear that cross-border because of where we're located. the common denominator i keep hearing is it's not the amount of the tariff it's just creates certainty behind it you know just tell us what the rules of the game are and then we can live with it and work around that uh... and it's going to be challenging the next few years of these conversations because now that they're talking about no deal negotiations happening every single year being open you know I don't know how long that uncertainty is going to impact us because of it. Now, on the other hand, in companies like Endurance, there is something to be said about tariffs where companies already have existing business in the United States, and they've been thinking about getting closer to that existing business to service their customers. So these tariff conversations have opened up calls to us. A lot of it was from the Taiwanese companies a couple years ago where they're saying, we've been thinking about this move for a while now, and now this might be what pushes us to get closer to our North American client. Now, the other final side of that is we are then competing quite heavily against Juarez as well for those businesses. And you've seen over the years that the Taiwanese have made a ton of investment into the Juarez marketplace, not necessarily the US marketplace, it fits their needs of serving their customer base in North America. So we're trying to understand all these trends, but what was interesting about the Canadian discussion is it was something that we had not been focused on. And because of that, I think it does allow us to, for lack of a better word, fish in a new pond that we didn't recognize that really might have some great attributes, and let them know we're here, right?

Cool. I guess to dovetail on that, you mentioned certainty and that the rules of the game being certain and known and navigable and predictable are more important than perhaps what they absolutely are. And so I guess my comment for the city and our economic development and our staff would be like, you know, let's try and make things as predictable and streamlined as possible. And I think I've heard good things in that direction. My final comment is related to that. There was a relatively small business that moved into Las Cruces recently. And I went and stopped by their place. It's an automotive shop. And, you know, they're not super big, but they hired a handful of people. And They are kind of a service business. People come from the area to come in. So it's a nice little business. And they had amazing things to say about Las Cruces and their experience. opening their business. They're pretty satisfied with the process going through. And one of the things that struck me is the way I found out that this business was opening is on YouTube. They have a very popular YouTube channel. At the time I watched it, the video announcing that they were moving to Las Cruces and it's 20 minutes long of here's all the great things about Las Cruces and here's our plans. Amazing sales pitch for the town. One of the best sales pitches for the town I've heard. Had 6,000 views in the first hour or so after I watched it. I just checked today, it has 800,000. Wow. So 800,000 people have spent 20 minutes watching an advertisement for our town. Another 600,000 have watched a follow-up video and many more. And granted, these are not necessarily 800,000 executives of companies that are watching this stuff. But it's an example of the kind of reach I think we can have if we partner with businesses who are telling their story and can maybe have more reach and impact than stuff that we're trying to manufacture ourselves. So anyway, food for thought. Overall, very interesting. So thanks for the presentation. That's all I got there.

Thank you, Mayor Kessler. And I'll comment. I mean, you're right. If we could replicate that 10, 20, 30 times over, the reach is incredible. Absolutely.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor. Counselors, Davin, Jessica Lynn, team, thank you very much for putting this together. And Elizabeth, Selena, and your team, thanks for coordinating. Really enjoyed the testimonials today from the businesses or partners that you're working with. I mean, when you think about what the contract is and what the process is, really it's the end result. And I could definitely tell that there is a strong partnership and you all are making a big difference in our community. When you look at the growth, I think we've grown GDP maybe year over year, and Elizabeth, your economist, can check my numbers, but I think we've grown about 1.6% in GDP year over year. Jobs have probably increased of 2.8 or 2.6%, 2.6%. And that's good progress. And obviously, I would like to see more. One of the things that we do here is that the jobs that have been created or the jobs that we have are low wage or low salary. So we've got to figure that out. Even with that, you hear current employees saying we don't have enough of a labor market, but at the same time, job seekers say there's not enough jobs in Las Cruces. So there's a disconnect somewhere that we have to figure out. In addition, even though I hear it less, we still hear we're not as user-friendly or as business-friendly, and so we're addressing that progress. I hear that less, and so there's been... you know, tremendous improvement, and I just want to continue down that path. So maybe this is a question both for you, Davin, and for you, Elizabeth. What else can we do, or what can we do to work together to address some of those gaps and continue the growth? Again, the GDP growth, it's pretty good. How can we get that 1.6% to a 2% or 2.2%?

Well, Mayor, I mean, and Councillor, I mean, Mayor Pro Tem, you're asking the right question, and I'm not sure I have the exact answer for you, and I think that's where the strategic planning comes into place. Economic development is just not one avenue. We try to do something well in our area of economic-based job creation and industry attraction. You've heard from Phil Moskrosis. That's another area that helps create the economic base and bring in new revenues. And so I think we have to, in your planning process, look at the different types of theaters and assets we have that create employment and really talk about focusing on leveraging that. How do we leverage that for more? And as Councillor Harris said, certainty and predictability do go a long way. And so I think we need to know how we're going to build that in to whether we are trying to attract industry here or whether we're trying to, whether the film oscruces is trying to grow the film industry here. That certainty and predictability goes a long way, in many ways more so than a direct incentive. Now those matter, I'm not gonna lie to you, they matter because it helps pencil in where we can be competitive at compared to, it was mentioned earlier, Texas. We compete with these Texas towns that just, they have enormous amounts of dollars to invest in economic development. But I think that's part of the planning process and it should be discussed. I agree with you. I do hear more and more companies talking positively about the process here. But as we both know, we will share circles where memories last a long time. They go back a long time and I think it gets more to those testimonials that we need to be talking about so that much like Councilor Harris said, where they need those testimonials of positive permitting, positive interactions with the city, they go a long way and we need more of those as well. But I will say like with Jessica Lynn's work in terms of retention and expansion, every company we touch, we try to be an extension of your voice. And so when we're talking about solutions we're trying to bring to them, we're trying to say we're not here just because we're Movida, we're here because the city of Las Cruces wants to see you grow. So I just think that the coordinated voice, coordinated effort helps us get there. But I think part of the planning process is kind of understanding where do we want to grow, what rate, what obstacles we have to overcome, what certainty we can put into the process, and how aggressive we want to be towards that. Thank you. Well, thank you all, and I thank you, Elizabeth, and thank you for your partnership.

Hold on, I think Councilor Coburn.

And I still had a question. Go ahead.

All right, anyway. Mayor Pro Tem, so I'll just build on that. I think we're in a very important time with the strategic plan update. I was fortunate enough to get to attend a few of the meetings, and one item, that keeps coming up is small business support and seeing the work that Jessica Lynn does specifically really helps with that. Something else that I just want to point out is that Movida is really, with the trade shows they go to, the marketing they do, they stay ahead of the trends. They were the one that came to me four or five years ago and said, everybody's looking for existing buildings. We need to start looking for developers. and not trying to, like, we need to shift our focus. We are on the fourth year of a four-year contract with Movida, and I can't believe I've been in this role that long, but last time we did this, we sat down for like six months prior and we talked about for the next four years, what should our priorities be with Movida? That's when we kind of took BRE's business retention and expansion out as like a specific metric, but made it more as like part of the whole picture. We also put more focus on marketing, So I can already tell you, Dab and I have already had conversations about how can MoVita help in MRAs? How can there are industrial areas in MRAs? How can they help us in that aspect? So between the strategic plan and the next year of starting to craft what their agreement's going to look like, I think we'll get a better picture of what this may look like.

Thank you, Elizabeth. And in looking at the contract and looking at your presentation and the work that you're doing, some of that is out of scope. And we're not necessarily funding that. That's appreciated. But I mean, again, in all fairness to you and your organization, we really got to look at that. I think it's an organic thing probably that has happened, and it's totally appreciated. So as we look at this strategic plan and the contract, city manager, I would like to make sure that we are funding this reasonably, and if we need to look at increases, just to show more results, I would like to see that. As I've said in the past, if we fund things anemically, like youth or housing or whatever, and it's an anemic approach, we will get anemic results. So I think we need to look at the funding, look at it appropriately, and see where we need to make some tweaks along with spelling out some of the items that we want to see within scope. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Davenport. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Thank you. Councillor McComb.

Thank you, thank you Devin and the folks that came to, you've sat here for a long time so I appreciate you coming and sharing with us. Just in the matter of this question on the budget, same question for you, what percentage of our funds make up your total budget at Movida?

Mayor, Councillor, I'm gonna say around 21, 22%. Okay. Our budget this past year was, I believe, is 1.25 total with all the different commitments where the dollars come from, which yours was a 250,000 contribution.

And so it's the city, the county, what other commitments?

So the city and the county make up about 40-some percent. Then we also, our biggest, largest partner after that is the New Mexico Economic Development Fund that is funded through the El Paso Electric Grant to the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico. That's our next biggest one. And then pretty much everything else is through the private sector. I'm gonna say probably about 40%, but give or take.

Okay, thank you.

Council Member Matisse.

Gavin, I just want to say thank you for the expansion of the Vita. I can remember, I don't know if we go back 20, 25 years, but you're doing quite a lot more than what you started out doing. And I really appreciate working with and supporting the businesses, not only the ones that have been here that could be struggling, but also new businesses. Economic development, I think, is really the key, it's the success whether a city survives or not. If you don't grow, you die. And so I think it's very important what you're doing with emphasizing growth, not only in the older businesses, but trying to attract new businesses. I have another question for you. What's the movement on the West Mesa corridor? Is that still alive? Is that still going to be developed, the road that comes up to our industrial park?

High Mesa Road. Yeah, Councillor, thank you for that question. We've been hearing about this for a long time. I want to say longer than I've been here, so that's 17 plus years. What I do appreciate is the conversation of its need has spread beyond just the MPOs or the COGs that were looking at it or talking about it way back when. I've heard positive conversations from the county wanting to take a vested interest in moving that forward. I've heard that here from the city, that they think it's a good idea connecting that, and I'm hearing it from legislators. Has that turned into actual, you know, the funding? I think there's a funding study taking place now. But so I guess what I'm saying, there's momentum. There seems to be momentum. But we've had that before. And so I can't guarantee, like, you know, it's going to happen tomorrow. But I'm cautiously optimistic, let me put it that way.

Councilor Harris.

Thanks. A couple more things that came up with all these great questions and comments. One, the High Mesa Road, if for anybody listening who's involved in that, if we obtain right of way for it, we should definitely make sure to obtain enough right of way to put rail in it as well as the road. Because if we can get the land now, even if we don't put it in for 20 years, we got it. The second thing is... Kind of piggybacking on what Councilor Munoz said, I'm very interested to know more information going forward and looking into the past about why companies did not choose. So we made X amount of contacts, did X amount of recruitment, Only four projects got completed. Fine, we got four. But in order to know how to move forward, I think talking to the other 122 that did not move forward and saying, what was it about Las Cruces that made you not choose us? Was it the incentives? long memory and remembering our approvals process from the past, was it something else? Knowing that I think will help us shape things and could help shape the strategic plan going forward also. And I think that's where the interaction with the community that you all have can be very valuable. The last thing, which I'm saving for last for a reason, is you mentioned being an extension of our voice and the voice of us and your other funding agencies. And I just want to make clear that this voice, at least, and you kind of danced around in the presentation, is extremely anti-hyperscale data centers. Do not want them here. We do not want to recruit them. So that said, I'll turn it over to the mayor. Thank you.

Thank you.

Actually, Mayor, I wanted to add something. Go ahead. Thank you for making that point, Councillor Harris. As you were talking about the strategic plan, I also wanted to highlight that I think that process, we actually talked a lot about economic development, but also economic mobility and ensuring that people in our community are experiencing breaking cycles of poverty and getting jobs that are investing in like really investing in them and their well-being in long term. I think those are the kinds of values that at least I hold when we talk about economic development and I do feel like there's a bit of a elephant in the room as we're talking about some of these things and I also wanted to highlight some of the values that at least I hope that we continue to highlight as we think about recruiting people to come to our community. And for me, those values are, again, paying folks with dignity and not extractive of our resources, like our water, our land, and our people. And so I do also want to just make that note that I think as we go out into the world and try to recruit folks to come here, that they're respectful of our values and our resources.

Thank you.

Okay. Well, thank you, Devin. We appreciate it. Good presentation. We could see the. what I would call the upscale in results. I know it's very difficult, it's very challenging, it takes time, effort, money. The things like, for example, we just had the TID presentation, and it starts with a small area, but the first thing they talk about is cleanliness. So there's so many layers, there's so many factors involved with economic development. We talked about the film industry, we talked about other trainings and opportunities, higher paying jobs, but you're doing a great job in advertising and marketing. You're doing a great job in the relationship building, creating partnerships, the engagement that's taking place. And you've just got to continue. As a city, we've got to do our part to help fund. We've got to help making it a cleaner city, a safer city, because we talk about a small area in downtown, and now we're saying, how about the rest of the city? And so kudos to you all and all your work and everything that you've done because it is paying dividends. It's going to take a while. I go back to the TID. It's like if you see the pictures of downtown and where it's gone up and down and up and down and changes and everything else. It's taken years. It's taken years and I think we're finally moving in the direction. But it goes back to your last slide is we need a strategic plan. We need to work together, come up with a strategy, ask those difficult questions, and move in a direction that's going to help us all thrive and you're able to do your job better. So I just say I support you and just want to keep on working with you also, entertaining, engaging, getting involved, and helping Las Cruces thrive. So thank you for all that you do.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Councillors. We definitely appreciate the partnership, and really, we want to figure out how we assist you in your vision going forward, so the more conversation is healthy for all of us, and thank you, Elizabeth, for you and your team.

Yeah, thank you. Thanks. So next is item 1.2, Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Property Reinvestment Program. Is that you, Elizabeth?

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

all right good afternoon again mayor and council um today i want to just go over the mra property reinvestment program previously called mrip that was not going very well so we re so now it is just the reinvestment program um i wanted to bring it forward in front of you before bringing like an official policy because just to go to the detail of what's gone into this program but also because City Council has the final say on any tax abatement we give so I feel like it's important that you all understand the whole process so you can make an informed decision when we do want to bring one forward So just an overview of the program. So it does encourage private investment within designated MRAs that have adopted plans. It supports projects that eliminate or prevent slum and blight. We're prioritizing housing, mixed-use development, adapted reuse, redevelopment of vacant or blighted properties, and catalytic projects. The abatement is property tax incremental abatement, and it's for 7 to 14 years. There was a state statute change this year. It was just 7, but now we have the expansion on to 14 years for specific projects. So since it's incremental, the property owners will continue to pay the pre-development property tax throughout the life of the program. So eligibility for this program, so it must be in an MRA with an adopted plan. It needs to further the goals and objectives of the applicable MRA plan. The applicant must have site control, so it's either owning it or with a 10 year lease, at least a 10 year lease. It has to meet the minimum requirements and the requirements for the community benefit matrix, which I'll go into more detail. And it also needs to comply with all of our design standards. So looking at these minimum project sizes for housing We're looking at a minimum of a million dollars in hard construction costs and at least adding eight additional residential units Nat properties can be included So it's and with an invested investment of at least twenty five thousand and it has to bring the property up to compliance and then commercial and mixed-use we're looking for at least four thousand square feet of space and so going into the community benefit matrix uh... i do want to say before i get into the detail that is this matrix i am very appreciative of all the staff in the different departments that have helped bring this forward uh... we didn't economic development did not do this alone it at least went to the mra internal committee multiple times the whole process did we talked to neighborhood services sustainability community development public works like the detail and the input we got us to where we are today with this matrix. So just breaking down a little bit of each section. So the economic impact, what we're looking for is just what the minimum qualifications for the program are, but then you get extra points if you build from there. If you're going to put more housing units, if you're going to do more commercial square footage, you're going to get more points. But there's also supplemental. So if you're activating a vacant or underutilized property, that will give you some extra points. If it's one of our catalytic projects, that will give you extra points. So there are a few extra supplemental categories, and you can get a total of 50 points. Supporting for local business is really simple. Is it already a local business in Las Cruces with a business license? And is your general contractor or design professional also local? Sustainability is, we're looking for energy efficiency and brownfields program, which my department has recently launched. Placemaking is a little bit more detailed. Are we preserving historic structures? Are they enhancing streetscape improvements? Are they putting any kind of public art or murals? CEPTED, which is the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, are they putting any design that has to do with that? which is 25 points, and then for the housing projects, there is an extra 20 points, and it's different based on the percentage of affordable or workforce housing. So to meet the minimum score for commercial or mixed use, it has to be at least 50 points, and for housing, it has to be 60. So breaking down the abatement terms, we didn't want to lock into specifics. So if you meet the minimum qualifications between the matrix and the project sizes, you get at least seven years. If you get 90 points or 110 points in the housing, you get 14 years. And so anything in that middle, the eight to 13 years, The internal MRA committee will discuss, do the matrix, the scoring, and bring a recommendation to council. But at the end of the day, city council is the final decision maker. But what we're looking for, which the matrix does a good job spelling out, is does it fit within the MRA? Does it fit within that specific area? Just looking at Picacho and El Paseo, they're two completely different MRAs, so you wouldn't necessarily look for the same project with those projects. so the process so like most of our programs you do an intake form it'll be electronic through our website after that we'll set up a pre-application meeting based on the needs of the program so it'll always be economic development and community development if there's a sustainability component if there's any kind of public safety concern we will bring in extra departments as necessary that we need to be able to paint a picture of what project should look like and how to get it to the finish line after that they'll submit their full application and supporting documents and my staff will review for completeness after all that is put together it'll go to the internal MRA committee for scoring and make a recommendation where it then comes to City Council for approval and the whole process should take about three to four months This is actually a property lease structure, so it's similar to an IRB where the city actually takes the title of the property during the duration of the abatement period. And then it is leased back to the owner. We can subordinate its title position to project lenders. And this lease, which is the only piece missing in the attachments you all received, because I'm still working with legal on it, but it can include performance requirements and clawback provisions similar to what we do for our LIDAs. No transfers or assignments can happen without city approval. And then at the end of the abatement period, the title goes back to the owner and then they will start paying property tax again. risk and responsibilities for the anybody that wants to apply is what we tell anybody with any incentive so it is based on council approval so it is not guaranteed they need to pay attention to pre-development and construction costs incurred before approval or at the applicants risk because if you do work before it's approved and the increment is set at a higher amount than you want. So you don't want to start any work until we can set that increment, and then that's more savings for the business. The applicant is responsible for coordinating the lender, the title, and subordination requirements. The applicant must deliver the project and community benefit represented in the application, and any kind of loan default, unpaid pilots, unpaid fees, or failure to meet project commitments may result in termination of the abatement. I know that's a really quick overview, but that's just this program in a nutshell and I'm here to take any questions.

Thank you, Elizabeth. Councillor Harris?

Of course, I have a question. Actually, not so much a question because you answered it, but this sounds pretty good. It also sounds like we incorporated a lot of lessons learned from previous LIDAs and other previous projects, so good to see that. Thanks.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Elizabeth. All right.

Thank you.

Okay, with that, I'll take a motion to adjourn.

Move to adjourn. Second.

This is on the motion to adjourn the work session. Councilor McClure? Yes. Councilor Matisse?

Yes.

Councilor Harris? Yes. Councilor Bencomo? Yes. Councilor Cran is absent. Councilor Munoz? Yes. Mayor?

Yes.