Success breeds success; once known for carrots, this area is yielding a variety of new jobs

New Mexico Business Journal, March, 1999 by Sue Vorenberg

Cibola County's economy may have slumped in the past, but indications are it will soon be growing. New county, tribal and city efforts to increase tourism and bring in new business are likely to turn this former "Carrot Capitol of the World" into a vibrant area of economic stability.

In the 1930s and 40s the economy of the region was largely agricultural. The City of Grants and Cibola County were especially well known as the home of a booming carrot industry. During that time, the region shipped out 400,000 vegetable crates a year, mostly harvested by Navajo laborers. After the carrot market took a downturn, the region fell on hard times, but the economy was rejuvenated in the 1950s by the uranium mining industry. The uranium boom lasted until the early 1980s, when again the economy fell into a slump.

Since then the region, located about an hour west of Albuquerque on Interstate 40, has struggled, but new efforts to diversify and expand the community's economic base look like they may end the boom and bust cycles of the past. The Grants/Cibola County Chamber of Commerce (GCCCC), The Cibola Communities Economic Development Foundation (CCEDF), the City of Grants and the Cibola County Commission are targeting four new areas of growth and have already drawn a number of new businesses and jobs to the region.

"Right now our targets are telecommunications-oriented businesses, businesses within the food processing industry, general manufacturing companies and we're also working on tourism-oriented business," said Vanessa Gray, the executive director of CCEDF. "We've had quite a bit of success."

Among the new businesses coming into the Grants area include a Wal-Mart superstore, Colorado Greenhouse, Auto Zone, a hotel, a new hospital and possibly a telecommunications company. Later this year the city and county expect to be hooked up to new state-of-the-art fiber optic phone cable, which will help the area court more telecommunications businesses. Other areas of the county are also in the process of updating and expanding their facilities, such as the Grants' post office, two private prisons, and Acoma Pueblo's casino and visitor center. These efforts alone have brought a number of new jobs to the region.

"To be honest, in the next year it's going to be hard to absorb the stuff we have going on now, and hopefully within the year 2000 we'll have new companies coming in," said Cliford Lear, Grants' city manager. "That would give us this year to digest, because we estimate that in the next 12 months there will be an additional 400 to 600 new jobs."

Unemployment, which was at 11.5 percent for the 24,501-resident county last January, has dropped to 8.1 percent as of November, 1998, and the numbers look like they will continue to drop, thanks to the expansion efforts.

"Eight percent is still very high for us," Gray said, "but I think it will continue to drop because several of the new businesses haven't even opened yet, and we're going to continue recruiting and trying to help businesses expand."

But the area's most significant economic growth may come through tourism, said Carmen Morin, executive director of GCCCC. The region is already home to a number of well known attractions, such as Acoma Sky City, El Malpais National Monument, El Morro National Monument, the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano, and three new attractions are underway. The Northwest New Mexico Visitor Center, already under construction, will highlight information about the area's national parks and museums. Lodestar: The Astronomy Education and Research Project of New Mexico, is a museum scheduled to open in 2000; and Dinamation's Dinosaur Discovery Museum, is scheduled to open this spring or early summer. These new attractions are expected to bring as many as 800,000 tourists a year to the area.

The Cibola County Commission, the City of Grants and the CCEDF are also planning a convention center and a 440-acre recreation area across from the Coyote del Malpais golf course. The recreation area will be used for hiking, rodeos and skeet shooting. The convention center could be used by a variety of clients, especially by several amateur astronomical associations that will be drown to Lodestar. The project is in the early stages, however, and the agencies are still trying to acquire the land from the Bureau of Land Management, which currently owns it.

"This is a big picture - long range goals," said David Ulibarri, the acting county commissioner with the Cibola County Commission. "First we have to acquire the property, then we can go from there. Hopefully we can start using the property soon, at least to set up trails."

Acoma Pueblo is also planning several expansion projects. The Acoma Business Board, which owns five businesses that employ approximately 400 people, is adding 30,000 square feet to Acoma's casino to accommodate a 24-hour buffet, a fine dining restaurant, a larger bingo parlor, office space and a conference room. The $5 million project is being funded by revenues generated by the board's businesses. The board is also adding 7,000 square feet to the Sky City Visitor Center in order to expand the dining area and add more office space. The project is expected to cost $500,000.