YEAR IN REVIEW: Bustling again – Pro’s Ranch Market reinvigorates El Paseo plaza in 2011 [Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.]

Dec. 31--LAS CRUCES -- What once was bustling is bustling again. The plaza at the 1100 block of El Paseo Road used to house super markets and various shops. That changed during the past decade, though, and much commercial space started to fall vacant. After buying the entire plaza in 2008, California-based Pro's Ranch Market finally opened a Las Cruces store -- actually located at 320 Wyatt Drive, adjacent to El Paseo -- in late 2011.

The turnout was Beatles-esque and is the reason the store opening made the list of one of the top business stories in Las Cruces for 2011. Here is that news and others that made headlines in the past year"

NEW STORE

In September, more than 1,000 people applied for one of the 300 jobs at the Pro's Ranch store. Then, swarms of customers turned out on Nov. 9 for the grand opening of the new store. A line snaked completely out of the shopping center, continued around the corner near Utah Avenue and reached nearly to Espina Street. The company estimated several thousand people showed up on the store's first day.

Shopper Brigido Martinez said he arrived at 7 a.m. to get into line for the 10 a.m. opening. He made his way to the long lines at the cash registers that morning with multiple bags of produce and several boxes of Ramen noodles in his cart.

"This is a good store," he said.

Other stores have filled up the once nearly empty plaza. Melrose Family Fashions opened. Also, Illinois-based dental company Familia Dental has opened

a location in the plaza. Nearby, eye health location Optica Crystal has opened its doors.

In the same area, but over closer to Wyatt Drive, Rapid Jewelry Repair is scheduled to open. Those businesses join Pho Saigon restaurant and some others were already open before Pro's Ranch opened and Empire Grill is renovating the old free-standing McDonald's building to open a second eatery there.

MANUFACTURING JOBS

L&M Radiator and Alaska Structures both moved into town and created manufacturing jobs. That was welcome news that came on the heels of a stretch last decade in which Las Cruces lost Parkview Metals, Rea Wire Magnet Wire and manufacturing jobs with Taylor Precision Products.

Alaska Structures completed its purchase of the 184,000-square foot building that used to house Rea Magnet Wire on the West Mesa Industrial Park. The Anchorage-based Alaska Structures, which makes shelters for the military as well as commercial customers, originally moved into the location at 301 Rea Blvd., when it also started to lease 100,000 square feet at the previously empty building at 8500 Mountain Vista Parkway where Parkview Metal Products used to reside.

The reality of an operating Spaceport America north of town and the start of construction on a $400 millionUnion Pacific Railroad facility south of town -- which broke ground in 2011 -- has spurred increased interest in Las Cruces among manufacturing and logistics companies.

CONVENTION CENTER

The Las Cruces Convention Center officially opened in December 2010, had its first full-year of business in 2011. The $26-million, 55,000-square-foot facility (30,000 of that in event space) saw a flurry of activity played host to about 200 events.

Earlier in the year, though, some Las Cruces area business spoke out about their belief that the convention center was hurting and not helping because it was targeting too many local events.

Marci Dickerson, owner of Dickerson's Catering and Dickerson's Event Center, was one of the business owners to register a complaint. Now she reports that the situation has improved.

"The city was very responsive to the concerns," Dickerson said. "I think we have seen an improvement in way the convention center relates to those events that compete and collaborate with them. They've been very, very helpful."

FIRST COMMUNITY BANK

Taos-based First Community Bank, which has two branches in Las Cruces, was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and then acquired by Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, U.S. Bank 's parent company.

At the time of the closure, the FDIC reported that First Community Bank had approximately $2.31 billion in total assets and $1.94 billion in total deposits. The FDIC estimated that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund for the takeover was about $260 million.

The signs have been changed and the bank is now part of U.S. Bank , the 10th-largest bank company in the nation.

HOME SALES/LCAR

On the real estate front, a buyers' market continued in Las Cruces as the several-years' long housing slump continued both here and nationally.

Statistics provided by the Las Cruces Association of Realtors show that the median price of a home sold in Las Cruces slipped from October to November and is also down in year-over-year comparison to the same time period last year. In November, the median price of a resale home was $161,655, down nearly $8,000 from October's $169,500. For a new home, the drop was very slight, from $159,900 in October to $159,235 last month.

In addition, LCAR had four different people serve as either president or president-elect in 2011. Evan Self stated the year as president, but stepped aside in March as president-elect Dolores DeMers stepped up. Then, last month, president-elect Carol Babington resigned, clearing the way for Teri Camacho to briefly become president-elect before stepping into the president's role with the new year.

TRACTOR SUPPLY/CVS

Work started on the first CVS pharmacy in Las Cruces, right across the street from the Walgreens located at 3100 N Main St. Work started on the project when the former gas station building at the corner of North Main Street and Elks Drive was demolished to make room for the CVS. That land along with what held the old Sonic Drive-In next door will house the CVS. The first ever Tractor Supply store in Las Cruces located at 1440 W. Picacho Ave., at the corner with Valley Drive, opened on Sept. 17. The 19,000 square-foot store sells daily farm and ranch maintenance supplies.

SPACEPORT TOURS

Albuquerque-based Follow The Sun tour company started offering bus tours to the spaceport site in May 13. The tour includes a briefing on the emerging commercial space industry, as well as historical background of the area that surrounds Spaceport America. The onsite portion of the tour includes both the vertical and horizontal launch areas.

Brook Stockberger can be reached at (575) 541-5457

___

(c)2011 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)

Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services