Roswell City Councilors advanced three proposals linked to the Roswell Air Center for further consideration during their meeting on Thursday evening.
The first is to advertise a public hearing for the proposed sale of 45 acres of land at the Roswell Air Center to a manufacturer of modular homes. The councilors unanimously approved the item to be advertised for a public hearing, perhaps as early as March.
ARK Prefab Inc. is interested in setting up a factory at 42 West Earl Cummings Loop. They intend to provide 330 jobs over the next five years and make $3 million worth of improvements to the property alone, according to material given to councilors last week in a meeting agenda addendum packet that’s about 110 pages long.
ARK Prefab would pay $658,000 for the land. The building owner, Millennium Transit Services LLC, also has plans to sell the 420,000-square-foot structure to ARK Prefab for $8.8 million. The Roswell-Chaves County Economic Development Corporation says ARK PreFab, which also does business as Turnkey Ventures, wants to renovate and occupy the building left vacant when factory operations ceased in 2008.
“Their investment and new job creation will help strengthen our local economy and provide new opportunities for our community,” said Mike Espiritu, the president and CEO of the local economic development corporation. “We fully support their efforts and look forward to a long business relationship.”
Originally listed for sale sometime in late 2020 for an asking price of $13.86 million, the building, which was constructed in the 1980s, recently received what’s described as an “unofficially offered” amount of $9.4 million, according to Ed McClelland & Co., the real estate appraiser who analyzed the value of the land. This evaluation was completed in November.
“The pending purchase is not contingent on a purchase of the land but the new buyers are pursuing the possibility of a purchase of the land.” the appraiser’s report explained.
City Attorney Hess Yntema said sales of both the land — which is owned by the city — and the factory building owned by Millennium will occur at the same time. The sales could be completed in April.
“It’s a very good-looking offer,” Yntema said.
Millennium Transit Services LLC currently pays annual rent to the city of $15,000 for the 45 acres their factory building sits on. The ARK PreFab offer to buy the land is 45 times that amount, according to city staff.
The New Mexico Economic Development Department has pledged grant assistance of up to $400,000 from the Local Economic Development Act to Turnkey Ventures, the real estate acquisition and development business located in Austin, Texas, behind this project. Their long-term investment in this operation is expected to total $11.8 million, the state economic agency also reported this week.
ARK PreFab is described as Turnkey’s parent company in an article published Friday about the development plan by the Austin Business Journal.
Next, the councilors also approved a request from the airport to allocate capital outlay funds as well as approve a task order and purchase order for engineering services with Armstrong Consultants for nearly $482,000. The Federal Aviation Administration will be responsible for $468,750 while the airport will pay the remainder of the total — about $13,250.
The work will modernize the electrical vaults that service runways 3/21 and 17/35. Both were constructed by the Air Force in the late 1950s and are considered to be in poor condition with outdated equipment, according to the staff report.
Updating the systems will require a new electrical enclosed building, installation of conduits in the floor and lighting, vault equipment, new electrical regulators for each runway and replacement of the radio controller equipment.
This request was approved by a council by a vote of 9 to 1.
Councilor Edward Heldenbrand said the contractor having access to the bid might be over-inflating the cost and voted against the item.
And finally, a search for an air service development and consulting services to help the airport define and analyze its air service trade area also received approval from the councilors.
This would include conducting “a thorough demographic review of the area, including the ability to obtain employment, level of interest and travel information from the local business community,” according to the scope of work document contained in the staff report.
Also described in the document is the need for a skilled analysis of route performance and the ability to determine, then recommend, airlines and routes that would be financially viable, as well as to identify and analyze “targeted routes for Small Community Air Development Program grants” for which the airport can apply. The airport also would like an annual passenger demand analysis and monthly monitoring of airfares at competing airports.
The vote was 9 to 1 in favor, with Councilor Matthew Chappell abstaining.
Hobson Road Flood Prevention: A funding package from the Water Trust Board of $9.6 million to pay for the Hobson Road Flood Prevention Project was approved. This package consists of a grant from the state of $8.35 million and a loan of nearly $1.25 million.
Visitor Center: The proposal to advertise for scope of work to provide Visitor Center management services for the city from its location at 426 N. Main St. was approved. Some councilors had questions about sales inventory and whether the city could ensure that the center was run the way the city wanted it.
Former proposed Blackdom memorial location: Sale of city’s Wool Bowl-adjacent property was approved. The Overland Group will pay about $135,000 for the 1.55-acre location. City staff will work with a new group of people looking to fulfill the goal of building a memorial that would commemorate the community of Blackdom after a past group of city councilors promised this site for that purpose.
Commercial property annexation: Carreon Spooling Service’s request to be annexed into the city’s municipal boundary was approved. The owner of a 10-acre commercial site in the 400 block of East Brasher Road requested so their business could connect to city water and sewer infrastructure located nearby.
Council meeting time will remain at 6 p.m.: After the voting for or against suggested regular council meeting times of 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., members decided not to change the time of day in which they hold their monthly meetings.
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