CMT building first step of Creative Campus

Ground was broken on Doña Ana Community Co-lege’s new Creative Media Technology (CMT) building March 28 at 4006 Film St. in New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Park, south of Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham donned a hard hat and yellow reflective vest to join state Sen. Jeff Steinborn of Las Cruces, DACC president Monica Torres and others as they put ceremonial shovels in the ground.

The 14,000 square-foot CMT building will house classrooms and a commons area, complete with a 4,000 square-foot soundstage. The cost of the building is $11.2 million with a tentative completion date of May 2024.

“The new DACC Creative Media Technology studio will be another critical tool in our regional film industry to train students in modern film and digital media technology,” Steinborn said. “It will be a real-world training environment to work hand in hand with industry to create great jobs in our community.” Steinborn is also president of the nonprofit Film Las Cruces.

“This new state-of-the-art facility will help us provide expanded mixed-use space for film, animation, game design and virtual production,” says DACC Arts Department Chair Matthew Byrnes. “Co-locating with the New Mexico Media Academy and Arrowhead Center places our students in the center of the film fast-track and entrepreneurship activities.”

The CMT building is the first phase of the Las Cruces Creative Campus. The campus is a digital media complex which will also include a planned satellite facility of the New Mexico Media Academy, NMSU Creative Media Institute building, and facilities for KRWG-TV and KRWG-FM.

The campus is a partnership between DACC, NMSU, Arrowhead Center, KRWG Public Media, the nonprofit Film Las Cruces, Las Cruces Public Schools and the New Mexico Economic Development Department.