Diversifying the city's business base will offer more stability - economic and industrial developments in Carlsbad, New Mexico - Industry Overview

New Mexico Business Journal, Feb, 1993 by Jeff Flinn

This small southeastern New Mexico town is world-renowned for the fabulous Carlsbad Caverns, one of the world's great wonders.

But Carlsbad today is gaining a head of steam to become internationally known in a different arena.

Townspeople have a dream that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, to store transuranic wastes from the nation's defense industry, will provide a blessing in disguise.

Carlsbad wants to establish itself as a world center for environmental management technology and build a business infrastructure around it, leading to spinoff companies, business-industry expansions, and a revitalized city.

Tourists and retirees, too, find Carlsbad to their liking; housing demand is up. The potash industry, long an economic mainstay in Carlsbad, is projected to stabilize.

The Big Changes, however, won't happen tomorrow, say the experts, but all of the ingredients are on the table and the blender is ready to mix an economic pie that could forever alter the future of Carlsbad and Eddy County.

Carlsbad has had better days, but, say onlookers, the best is yet to come.

Stability -- with an eye on growth -- is what it's all about. And Carlsbad business leaders emphasize they aren't just holding on any more. They're looking ahead to what could become some incredible times.

Carlsbad boosters say the city's stable economy today is creating wide-ranging opportunity for growth.

Cliff Stroud, president of the Carlsbad Department of Development, says inroads to diversify the city's business and industrial base will offer more stability -- and more opportunities.

"You have to be stable before you can grow," says state Sen. Don Kidd, president of Carlsbad's Western Commerce Bank. "You can't grow if your profits aren't stable.

"I think Carlsbad is in as stable a condition as I've seen since I first came here in 1972."

The many segments of Carlsbad's infrastructure, when considered as a whole, paint a balanced picture of a secure economy leaning ever-so-gently toward an "outbreak of growth," says Johnny Johnson, executive director of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce.

Among the central issues is the future of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) intended to store transuranic waste from the nation's defense industry in subterranean salt beds 26 miles southeast of Carlsbad.

Congress ratified and President Bush signed the Land Withdrawal Act, bringing the plant within a year, possibly 18 months of receiving waste, initiating a lengthy test phase.

WITH THE SIGNING of the bill came a guarantee of nearly 900 jobs involved at WIPP, mainly through Westinghouse, the U.S. Department of Energy's prime contractor for the job.

Also included are other waste management and research organizations such as Sandia National Labs, local subcontractors and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) itself.

Potential WIPP spinoffs excite Chuck Bernhard, the executive director of the Carlsbad Department of Development, who contends Carlsbad is on the brink of becoming a world leader in waste management technology.

Continued progress toward a WIPP opening and the expansion of Gregory Environmental Systems, a firm cornering the market in specialized container fabrication, are positive signs.

Johnson, who constantly monitors the factors keeping the city's tourism pulse ticking as the chamber's executive director, says tourism is up.

Johnson reported an increase in city lodger's tax receipts of more than 16 percent in the past year, projecting a 12 percent climb in the number of tourists visiting and staying overnight and spending money in Carlsbad.

CARLSBAD CAVERNS attendance figures bear our Johnson's claim. Despite a break-even attendance in November and a 1,400-visitor deficit for December, Caverns visits exceeded 530,000 in 1992, a 10,000-plus increase over 1991.

Jack White Jr., owner of the former Carlsbad Inn, has landed local rights to the Holiday Inn chain, as the $1.58 million renovation project nears its April completion date.

A $1.2 million project is underway to refurbish the First United Methodist Church, gutted earlier by fire. Another $1 million project ensued when the Bureau of Reclamation moved into its new home branch.

Carlsbad voters approved $13.4 million worth of construction for Carlsbad's school district in the form of five bond issues and a 2-mill levy. Remodeling work and other construction begins this fall on nearly a dozen schools.

Guadalupe Medical Center boasts a new $1 million rehabilitation services center, diversifying its offerings as the health field's reliance on inpatient surgery lessens.

The Eddy County Commission earlier this year bid out work for the $3.5 million Eddy County Jail.

Housing

BEHIND EVERY CLOUD is a silver lining, says Stroud, the president of the Carlsbad Department of Development.

Stroud, broker for Stroud and Associates Realtors, says Carlsbad is experiencing a "housing shortage" of sorts.

"Properties are selling faster than they are coming on the market," he says.

Stroud compared 1992 home market availability with 1991 home sales. In the $20,000-$40,000 home range, 121 units sold in 1991; 89 were on the market in 1992.