NMSU’s Arrowhead Research Park has big plans for future

New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Park really does offer the sun, the moon and the stars.
The business and research park, located on about 200 acres on the Las Cruces campus, is about to complete a huge solar project that will supply half the campus’ electricity. It’s home to the headquarters for New Mexico Spaceport Authority, more than a dozen other science and technology companies, 320 employees and about 1,000 high school and medical school students. And the park has major plans to add tenants and increase employment in the next few years.

“We have a lot of potential,” said Arrowhead Park Executive Director Wayne L. Savage, a 1980 graduate of NMSU’s engineering program who joined Arrowhead Park in 2013.

Savage said the park is working with Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA), the Borderplex Alliance and other partners to find new tenants and to connect entrepreneurs to researchers. The park wants to attract more startups and businesses looking to relocate or expand, especially in the commercial space industry, health care and film and digital media, Savage said.

 “We think those three sectors are going to grow in the research park,” he said.

Arrowhead Park’s anchor, Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine, broke ground in July on a new building to house the school library and student services so classrooms can be enlarged in the existing building next door, Savage said.

Burrell College has “been very successful,” he said.

The park also is home to Arrowhead Park Early College High School (APECHS) – the first early college high school in New Mexico – and Arrowhead Medical Academy. APECHS opened in 2011; the medical academy, which is also an early college high school, opened in 2014. Burrell College opened in 2016.

In partnership with NMSU’s Creative Media Institute, Doña Ana Community College’s Creative Media Technology program and others, the park is developing a “creative campus,” Savage said.

“At this point, ‘Creative Campus’ is a concept: a state-of-the-art digital media complex to be located at Arrowhead Park that would allow this region to increase our capacity to produce and deliver digital media content across a wide range of industries,” DACC President Monica Torres said. “Representatives from Arrowhead Park, the City of Las Cruces, DACC, Film Las Cruces, MVEDA and NMSU are actively working together on developing plans, networks and resources to take Creative Campus from concept to reality.

“DACC is currently in the design phase of a building project that will be the new home of its Creative Media Technology Program,” Torres said. “The building will be the first educational building located at Arrowhead Park in support of the Creative Campus concept. Design is likely to be completed this fall with construction projected to start in spring of 2022. DACC is working with RMKM Architecture. Robert Estrada, from NMSU’s Office of Project Development and Engineering, will serve as project manager.”

With health/bio science, the commercial space industry and fiber and digial media, Savage said he envisions a “mini-campus environment” at the park, with “the academic side blended with the industry side.”

The park’s three-megawatt solar array, nicknamed Aggie Power, should go online in September, and will supply about one-half of the electricity to the whole campus, Savage said.

“We’re excited about that potential,” he said.

The array is part of an agreement with El Paso Electric, Savage said, that will generate power and also create research and education opportunities for NMSU students.

The park’s new spec office building, which will be at least 18,000 square feet in size, will have Arrowhead Center staff and programs among its tenants, Savage said. Arrowhead Center is NMSU’s  “economic development and technology commercialization engine,” the university said in a news release.

Savage hopes to select the project developer this month, start signing tenant leases soon after that and complete design and construction by the end of 2022.

On the horizon for the park are plans for an interchange that directly connects Interstate 10 with Arrowhead Drive to “dramatically impact access and capacity to the park,” Savage said, helping to attract businesses with higher-wage jobs and increasing employment in the park by 1,200 to 1,500.

Mixed-use development plans for the park also include “future retail, residential and town center areas,” NMSU said.

Savage said NMSU plans for a research park date back as far as 1984, documented by a hand-drawn master plan illustration. J.B. Pruett and partners built the first building in the park for General Dynamics in 2000. Development really took off after then NMSU College of Business Dean (and future chancellor) Garrey Carruthers, former NMSU regent Jim Manatt and the late Kevin Boberg attended the Rice University Business Plan Competition in 2006 and came back to NMSU with ideas to spur growth of Arrowhead Center and the park. Savage said Boberg, who helped launch Arrowhead Center in 2007, “was also the boots on the ground” for park development, including leases for new buildings and U.S. Economic Development Administration grants for roadways and utilities. Current Arrowhead Center CEO and Director Kathryn Hansen and Pam Wood were also major players, he said.

“We’re in a very good position to see growth,” Savage said.

Visit Arrowheadcenter.nmsu.edu.

Former governor, NMSU chancellor played a major role at Arrowhead Park

By Garrey Carruthers
Special to the Bulletin

I was particularly instrumental in getting the Research Park started when, as governor, I supported and signed a bill, authored by a young state representative, Kip Nicely (R-Bernalillo, 1991-98) – The University Research Park Act – which authorized the formation of university-owned corporations that would be more entrepreneurial and could operate business without the restrictive rules and business restrictions common to the public sector.

When I became dean (of the New Mexico State University College of Business), I requested of the (New Mexico) Legislature modifications to the University Park Act to add more flexibility. That amended act is referred to as the University Research Park and Economic Development Act. Dr. Kevin Boberg and I then set about developing the Arrowhead Research Park while I was dean. During that time, we added a business building, currently housing a unit of Virgin Galactic and the USGS (U.S. Geological Service), the Arrowhead Park Early College High School and the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine. I now see a joint project of El Paso Electric and NMSU to have a solar electricity farm on the southern most tip of the park. Development of the park has been slow but has attracted the kind of projects we envisioned back in the day. It is a good idea that is getting better.

Garrey Carruthers, who turns 82 Aug. 29, was governor of New Mexico 1987-90; dean of the NMSU College of Business (and NMSU vice president for economic development), 2003-13; and president/chancellor of NMSU, 2013-18. Carruthers, a native of Alamosa, Colorado, has a Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University.