A few months ago we had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Kristen Gamboa – the Senior Economic Developer with the Village of Los Lunas – and learn about the work they are moving toward. Read more below.
Kristen recently took on the role in December of 2020, which was around the same time she joined our recent partner, the Middle Rio Grande Economic Development Association. As with most places, the Village has been focused on retaining and expanding existing businesses by actively marketing and selling available properties and lands to potential companies looking to relocate to New Mexico. Los Lunas is the second fastest growing community in the state, and has a great deal of potential for bringing new projects, including renewable projects, to their area.
Over this past year, they experienced a shift from what type of industries are growing. Now that things are beginning to open up they hope to begin expanding the manufacturing and transportation/logistics industries, both of which have the potential to be very successful due to Los Lunas’s proximity to the freeways and the airport. Through future planned developments, they hope to see the same level of prioritization toward investing and building local businesses that reflect the community values – meaning balancing agriculture, local, community and large technology industries together.
On that note of developing responsibly, they also believe it sensible to “not reinvent the wheel” so to speak. In this case, developing better communication between different entities, sharing logistical information between multiple communities, and allowing regional expertise to serve as a resource for decision makers is paramount to bypassing learning curves. This will be a crucial step as they look toward expanding the renewable energy industry!
The Village has a positive and bright outlook on upcoming projects and they are ready for developers across the country to bring their businesses to their community. They hope to balance agriculture with high tech and are gearing up to provide the local support to enable workforce training for when these projects start coming in.
We here at ReNew Mexico look forward to elevating their efforts and working together to bring forth meaningful development that’s fitting for their community.