[Music]
all right well good afternoon everyone
welcome to the work session of the Los
crus city council today is Monday
December 11 2023 it's approximately 1:
p.m. if you'd please join me in the
Pledge of Allegiance please
okay like we always start off
our meeting with pets of the week and
Amy def Felix are you there on
Zoom hello yes I'm here
okay let me go ahead and share my screen
but oh hello everyone of course I'm Amy
De Felix I'm one of the rescue
coordinators um I'm here to present the
pets of the week let me put this on
presentation
mode
this and here
oh there it
is awesome and then I'll remove my video
so hopefully it's a little easier to see
the text um well as always we start off
with our cat of the week our cat of the
week this week her name is Cola her
number is 6956 3 um and she says I'm a
sweet girl who just wants to feel safe
and loved I'm a little skish with loud
noises and fast movements but as long as
you reassure me with some pets I will be
okay I'm looking for a quiet calm home
that will give me endless amounts of
Love um and then we also have our doog
of the week which is this handsome boy
named Sky his number is
looking for a loving and cat-free
household to live in I absolutely love
hanging out with people and with other
dogs I'm energetic and love to keep
active so I'm a great buddy for someone
who likes to go on walks or wouldn't
mind spending a lot of time playing with
me and then as for our events going on
of course this month of December we're
doing our home for the holidays adoption
special um the adoptions that have been
sponsored by doniana County human
society have all already been used up
but that is okay um the rest of the
adoptions are only $75 which is still a
great a great deal a great discount and
hopefully it encourag people to come and
adopt um we do have an off-site adoption
event at the farmers market this
Saturday the 16th we'll be there from
10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. and our booth is
usually uh situated by organ Mountain
Outfitters so you'll find us around that
end and then today I'm going to do a
real brief uh presentation mostly just
to talk about cold weather pet safety I
know it's getting it's getting colder
it's dipping into the the freezing
levels especially at night um and it's
not even winter yet um so I guess we
should probably prepare for a cold
winter um here's some
tips and suggestions that like the ASPCA
is where I grabbed most of this from um
offer to people um so if you take your
dog to the groomers if they're a little
bit of a long-haired dog um opt for it
trim instead of just a complete shave
down at the groomer of course extra fur
will help keep them a little warm um of
course keep them warm and dry in general
if you let them out and it's been a
little icy a little dewy in the morning
um Pat them dry make sure there's a nice
like warm towel something to keep them
like kind of sop up that moisture right
away and they can get as dry as possible
um dress them in outerwear this
particularly goes for the smaller breed
dogs and the dogs with shorter legs so
dogs in general that are a little bit
closer to the ground just kind of they
are nearer to the cold surface um so it
doesn't hurt to help give them a little
bit of extra you know warmth especially
if they're short haired as well so coats
or like turtle or high collar sweaters
of course like the the fleece or the the
sweaters that do provide warmth and like
not not something that's like a like a
nylon like shirt something that is
pretty um thick and warm that will
actually help give them a little bit of
cold weather protection um weatherproof
boots this isn't a complete necessity
for most dogs um especially those you
know cold weather breed dogs they don't
they love they love cold weather um
nothing it's not a big deal to them but
those other dogs and you can test this
for yourself if your own personal dog if
you see that they're a little bit more
reluctant to go out walking um if they
you let them out to go potty or go take
them out on walks regularly and if it
seems that their feet are uncomfortable
because it's a little too cold you might
try boots um there's also uh you can
coat them in like Vaseline beforehand is
that not only protects um them from
getting like dry and cracked from the
cold it can also kind of help insulate a
little bit as well and it also just
keeps them moisturized um but this is
definitely um at your own discretion if
you think your pet might need might
benefit from boots it's definitely a
good idea to help maybe train them and
get them used to them before they really
need it of course after a walk if
they're not wearing boots and cleanse
their feet and also their stomach
especially if they're the little low
rider dogs um especially when it gets
icy because sometimes it does get icy
here um the salt or the kind of
substance that they use to De ice um can
sometimes get on their paws or if
they're low riders kind of drags on
their stomach so make sure that that
gets all cleaned up so it doesn't
irritate their skin um of course clean
up any antifreeze spills um antifreeze
is toxic I believe maybe neurotoxic it
is not good um for our dogs to ingest
and of course they get it on their paws
if they're walking on it and they lick
their paws later that can cause a
problem so if there's any sort like if
you need like refill anre in your car
and it's spilled just make sure to clean
it up make sure your dog or I guess even
pet cat in general um no animal can get
too it because then that'll be really
dangerous for them of course I feel like
it's really important to bring them in
overnight um especially because that's
when the temperatures dip the lowest um
but there are some people that um do end
up leaving their dogs outside more often
than not so if they are going to be
outside for 10ed periods of time
definitely make sure that you have
shelter um and a reliable heat Source um
you just don't want your pets to freeze
overnight that does happen it's super
unfortunate I know it mostly happens in
like extremer Colder Weather areas but
there are some um we do have those
couple days during our Seasons where it
dips in and it gets kind of dangerously
low um definitely don't want to risk
that at all for your pets um here's a
cute little um example of like the
little fleece lined sweater that this
little Doxon is wearing it's thick it'll
keep him warm and it protects his little
belly from anything outside like the the
coals or um any sort of substance like
the icing substance potentially and then
here are some boots and also a sweater
he's already geared up for the winter um
Colder Weather um but definitely keep
your pets safe and warm this is also
like if you do have like a Colder
Weather breed uh it's definitely use at
your own discretion but there are some
dogs some breeds that are more
predisposed to needing needing some
colder weather temperatures especially
here where they might not be used to it
but yeah thank
you okay thank you very much Amy and uh
next we're going to see if Sarah Ry
Rainey is here with the New Mexico
workforce connections yeah okay hi Sarah
yes sir hello how is everybody let me
just share my screen real quick
okay okay for the jobs of the week for
the city city has lost Cruis we have a
career development coordinator that
position pays from 51,000 to 73,000
depending on experience um the posting
closes on January 1st of
2024 we also have for the city of Los
cruus a real estate service specialist
um that position pays 2379 an hour and
the posting closes on the 18th of this
month for White Sand Missile Range we
have an assistant project manager for
the Burgos group they um depending on
experience for pay and then that posting
closes on December
15th we also have director of oper
operations
programs move this for Stellar Solutions
um the pay depends on experience and
that position is opened until
filled we have for the Mexico Department
of Agriculture a regulatory clerk um
paying from $15 an hour to $21 an hour
the posting closes on January 5th of
2024 and then a farm equipment operator
for chile River Incorporated they
actually have 14 positions available so
there's many opportunities for that um
the position pays 1562 an hour and the
posting closes on January
5th as always feel free to reach out to
us at our Alam um location at 226 Alam
Boulevard you can also reach us on
employ nm.com all of our we've updated
our social medias there to include
Facebook Instagram LinkedIn YouTube and
um Tik Tok we also have of our our app
that you can download at any time
there's multiple ways for you to reach
out and get us and we can help you with
all your employment needs thank you all
for having us great thank you very much
Sarah okay so that ends the um concludes
the pets and jobs of the week so now
we're going to go into the agenda
there's three items on the agenda with
the first one being the visit Los crues
update and relle Miller Hernandez from
visit Los cruus will be making that
presentation and you should proba have
on in front of your seats some
information that she passed
out cool looking
stuff good afternoon mayor city council
for the record I'm Michelle Miller
Hernandez the executive director for
visit Los crues are pleased to be here
today to give you an update on all the
great things we've been doing this past
year
um so let's get
started so first I wanted to remind uh
Council or or refresh you on our team we
are comprised of 11 full-time um team
members when we're fully staffed and we
usually have one to three interns and
we'll be sharing with you our intern uh
the work that our interns do because
it's pretty amazing
our Advisory Board is made up of five
members uh two have to be with the hotel
industry two have to be with uh a
tourism related business in our city and
uh one General uh member at large
currently um our board consists of
bellia Alvarez with Heritage hotels
Russell Hernandez owner of Salud de msia
and uh soon to be mayor of msia and he's
here with us
today um because of his appointment
though he will be leaving our board at
the end of this month um and then we
have Heather Reed with the New Mexico
Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum Nicholas
pierce with Town Place sweets and Alice
kth who is uh currently a podcast
producer but she was very involved or is
very involved with the Los crues space
festival and was with Spaceport America
at one time
I wanted to uh also um bring to light a
quick recap of the visit L cruus funding
source with the exception of the
occasional Grant we are solely uh funded
by The Lodgers tax which is collected
when people are when individuals stay at
our hotels it is a 5% tax um and it does
have very restrictive uses it must be
used for the marketing promotion and
advertising of Los crues to uh for
tourism to bring visitors to our
city
um the New Mexico tourism Department
recently did an economic impact report
um they don't break it down by city but
for the county there was
um visitors spent in fy22 $511
million uh in our County and it made up
um excuse me almost 9% of the jobs are
sustained by tourism in our County and
then I have other stats I can share with
you as well if you're interested um I
can send it to you or we can discuss it
after this I'm going to pass this on to
Albert Herrera our um sales um sales
director to give you some updates on our
sales
goals thanks
Michelle
good afternoon mayor and City Council
Members I'm Albert ER director of sales
for visit Los cruus I'll be speaking you
do directly on behalf of the sales team
the primary goal of the sales team is to
promote Los cruus as a
desired destination and to generate
overnight stays and visitor spending
this is broken down into a team effort
convention and meetings is currently
handled by my through through me sports
event sporting events is currently
handled by Mr Ed carnethon and the voice
of the Aggies outdoor Recreation along
with Leisure and Group Travel is handled
by Miss Hillary
ducher we are our industry's local Las
on that promotes the city um through the
S through the power storytelling
essentially we're the face of Los cruus
when we
travel we as a sales team work hard to
PR to perfect our Craft on informing
potential clients of what Los cruus has
to offer we're consistently networking
with organizations event directors
Meeting Planners tour operators and key
potential
influencers to inform them on the real
New Mexico Los
Cruses ways of reaching potential
clients that have been proven to be
productive for us is through attending
trade shows cording newsletters mailing
campaigns along with famili
familiarization tours and i' like to
highlight real quickly the trade shows
that we attend that probably is one of
that probably is the number one thing um
that's definitely a key for the success
of their for the the success of the
sales department we when we travel out
to these trade shows and meetings we
have roughly about 10 to 15 we have
preset meetings that we that we have
roughly have between 10 to 15 minutes to
interact engage build a relationship get
to know them um as well as promote lost
crues now realistically 10 to 15 minutes
doesn't sound like a lot um and it's not
however the entire conference is
designed based on networking so it's not
just about the time that we have to be
able to sit in front of them it's also
the time that we get to sit on the bus
with them we all the time we have to
engage during our educational
um components of the conference as well
as the offsite events that we attend
that is definitely key because you can
only do so much via email and Via
telephone right but when you're actually
sitting in front of somebody you're able
to engage their engage with them read
their body line see what what highlights
you're able to touch Bas on get to know
them personally that is definitely a key
key to our success and 20 and right
quickly I want to highlight one more
thing on regards to that um is the those
relationships that we do build those go
a long way sometimes those relationships
are built overnight and sometimes they
take years um one of the examples I want
to just quickly give you guys is the
satw which is society American Travel
Riders I've mentioned this in the past
Council meetings however I want to
highlight it again that was a
relationship that I had met with them
two or three years um and just L chras
wasn't a right fit for them at the time
come 2017 18 they provide us an RFP
which was a rightful proposal they said
hey we think it would be a great fit for
Los cruus I took a look at it and said
unfortunately L cruus is just too small
however El Paso was a fit so I called up
El Paso we have a wonderful relationship
with them they able they were able to
bid and get the conference now how is
that a highlight to us um the Highlight
to us comes from this one key component
of that was their board meeting Las
cruus hosted their their board which is
roughly consisted of about 25 board
members now when they were here they
were here for three days had a wonderful
time got to highlight Downtown Los cruus
got to highlight the chili pepper
Institute
all our wonderful Oregon mountains was
they absolutely loved it the feedback
was phenomenal but here's the key
component to that we continue to build
those relationships with them and
because we did that coming in 2025 one
of their board members now represents
another organization which happens to be
the outdoor travel writers association
will'll be hosting their board meeting
here in in in next year in 2024 I'm
sorry I said 25 but in 2024 so that's
definitely again definitely a positive
going through that building those
relationships in 201 23 we were able to
host some some conferences such as the
North American college teachers of
Agriculture the New Mexico Governor's
conference on tourism on the sports side
the regional dock diving event NCS
International World Ser series Youth
Tournament New Mexico bike packing
Summit now some of the numbers I kind of
go back to that are on a national
average for meetings 200 $234 is spent
per person per day on the sports side
it's roughly about $150 for an adult and
$120 per person so you times that times
the amount of time amount of days that
they'll actually be here so it's
definitely we're 2023 is definitely
exciting year for us moving forward into
the
future back in 2021 the meeting planner
International um released an a meeting
plan an Outlook and and in that Outlook
they mentioned in 2023 roughly would be
the year that we kind of come back to
those prepandemic
numbers we I'm happy to EXC I'm excited
to say that as of now we have met or
exceeded those those
numbers some groups looking looking
forward for 2024 again these come
through the relationship buildings and
some some some of the organizations that
we that we've worked with over the years
the New Mexico outdoor economic
conference Rocky Mountain APPA which was
a collaboration and partnership with New
Mexico State University um the meeting
the meetings of American National cattle
woman Association agricultural history
Association and the outdoor mentioned
this a moment ago the outdoor travel
writers
association as far as for the convention
center Mr the GM Mr M um onas is
currently here he was able to provide me
a quick update on on the convention
center there has been a new HD digital
sign along with new furniture installed
in Center in 2024 new carpet we new
Caron replacement is coming they
continue to heavily be involved with the
Greater Los Cru Chamber of Commerce the
center also was a finalist for Mia
Valley Community Choice Award and are
are on the top 10 wedding venues for Los
Cruses the sener is also having its
highest revenue year and currently
pacing ahead of previous years for 2023
they roughly had about 22 conferences
and
conventions in 2024 they're currently on
Pace to to to exceed that they're
currently at 30 I like to know that not
all meetings held at the con Convention
Center are considered a conference and
or convention um some key factors that
go into that are the the amount of
attendees along with the amount of room
nights per night for loss
Cruses
mayor and City Council Members thank you
for your time I'd like to yield it back
over to relle Miller her on
this okay thank you
Albert good
information so as Albert mentioned again
it's relle Miller Hernandez For the
record um outdoor recreation is a big
part of of Tourism and we do have a
staff member dedicated to um that
industry Hillary ducher but
unfortunately she could not be here
today so I'm going to give you the
overview um we're proud to announce uh
we are going to be the host City for the
2024 outdoor economics conference it
will be uh September 23rd through 25th
of
2024 it if you remember if you were here
when it first started its first meeting
ever was in Las crues and we're very
happy to bring it back here next year
because it's also the 10th year
anniversary of the designation of the
Oregon Mountain Desert Peaks National
Monument perfect
timing um several of you went to um our
gravel Adventure Field Guide um and
video launch so we uh produced this um
gravel
guide uh Field Guide last year or
earlier this year it highlights the
National Monument uh talks about
wonderful things to do in our city when
they're visiting and just uh to take
note it's the only one in the state of
New Mexico of its kind and um gravel
guiding is the fastest growing biking
um
area in the country right now so we're
trying to stay on top of that uh Scenic
southern New Mexico is a social media
campaign that we do and it keeps growing
it first started as hiking and
Hospitality during the pandemic when we
were trying to encourage people to go
out um in open spaces and um enjoy
themselves but
also support our restaurants and
businesses safely uh that has that
evolved into Southern Scenic southern
New Mexico and now we partner with our
southern New Mexico cities so uh Carl's
bed um riodoso Silver City Deming TC and
we do this huge social media campaign
where people share their um their photos
when they're out hiking but also when
they're at our local businesses we all
tag each other and it's just another
reinforcement for the real New Mexico is
Southern New Mexico so we're just
showing off all the great outdoor
activities in our in our region of the
state we also have a new trails
Recreation map and it's um the first of
its kind
where it is a
comprehensive um guide that shows all
the different
um
apologies all the
different isn't it great when you can't
read your own handwriting all the
different Trails um in the Los crusis
area there's a word I'm missing and I
apologize
it's not recorded
but anyways it's pretty
cool um and I brought a sample for you
all to see so if you're uh into
recreational uh trails and those type of
things uh we're pretty proud of this map
uh it's been shown throughout the state
and everyone's really jealous that we
have it and the project took about a
year and a half um it shows on all the
trails what type of use um if it's
private land M land can you have a OTV
on it can you go horseback riding and
those type of things and then on a new
thing that you're going to be seeing is
our new sunseekers trails pass so for
restaurant week we had a pass uh it
looks like an app but it's not uh on
your phone and people will earn points
to go to the different Trail heads but
also the businesses because if you if
you know um a lot of if you know a
little about artto Recreation you do
know that when people go hiking and so
forth then they go out to eat or they go
shopping they rarely um immediately go
home so this will highlight and and
force PE or reinforce the message for
people to go out and do stuff after they
go hiking or go on a different Trail and
then lastly uh part of our efforts is um
I am currently a member of the friends
of Oregon Mountain Desert Peaks and
Hillary ducher is about to be um
appointed chair of the Rio Grand Trail
commission so we're really proud about
that and it'll give us a lot of
represent representation here in Los
cruus um and one really cool point I
just wanted to make before I pass this
on to Lorena on marketing is we track
all the data and I'm sure you've seen um
the great report and if you haven't I'll
be happy to send it to you about the
impact that the Oregon Mountain Desert
Peaks uh Monument designation has made
to our city but one thing that we
noticed when we track the data is
although
visitation definitely has increased the
demographic that has increased the most
um for our Trail usage is families with
incomes of $25,000 a year or less so I
think that um is a testament to all the
hard work that Council and the staff has
done to really get
um um the knowledge out there to anyone
of any income and background to come out
and visit our Recreation
opportunities so I will pass this now to
Lorena to give you our marketing and
media
update thanks
Michelle
okay mayor council I'm L Lozano the
marketing director for visit Los crusis
for the record my team consists of seio
alenas Norm de and our NMSU intern nuvia
aguo um the word Michelle was looking
for is established so they're the
established trails in the
area um so we launched this year our new
branding um it was a really great
successful collaboration with NM Co
creative Studios together we came up
with a tagline the real New Mexico uh
the reason we did this was we needed
something bold we needed something that
represented Los cruus but not only Los
crusis southern New Mexico so it is a
bold message and um we do promote
outside of the city outside of the state
so we wanted to be competitive
regionally as well as um
nationally so we uh with our new
branding we redid our visitors guide
completely we have a brand new website
and we redid our promotional materials
So currently what we're working on is
our visitors guide is being translated
into Spanish and um the image you're
seeing is is the example of that we are
at the very tail end of that review
process and we hope to get that
published very
soon um with our brand new website
completely redesigned our engagement um
sorry our page views have increased
since launch doubled and even some cases
tripled um on our Pages all across the
board our engagement and that refers to
time spent on our website so people
actually engaging with our content that
has um increased significantly as
well and uh we did our visitors guide
completely inhouse previously um it was
in collaboration and was also a
community guide but we are a tourism
directed uh program and so we really
wanted something that was directing
people and tourists and uh showing them
what there is to do in Las cruus and um
so we did that all inous and got guide
requests have increased significantly
since
launch and social media is a really
great asset um that we use across the
board has grown Facebook Tik Tok
Instagram YouTube um and we do that also
uh sen media helps us with that we are
no longer on Twitter or X as of November
22nd um current initiatives we mentioned
our visitors guide getting translated we
really want to EXP expand our multi
multilingual approach to other
promotional materials so that's
something that we are hoping to move
forward with um brand reinforcement
that's a really really big thing because
we want people to recognize when they
say the real New Mexico that's Los cruus
that's southern New Mexico so um brand
reinforcement is really really important
right now uh we are currently in New
Mexico Al Paso and the Tucson Phoenix
area and this is um in relation to the
broadcast and over-the-top campaigns
that we do over the top refers to
streaming services so these are our
commercials uh for a short time earlier
this year we were in Midland in Odessa
but we found that we had a really great
response in uh Tucson and Phoenix those
are really big Drive markets for us we
get a lot of people from that
area um online and social media ads have
expanded markets so because there's a
little more affordability and
flexibility there we can go into um
showing our ads in places like Dallas
Denver San Antonio know um other large
cities so we do make an impact there as
well and we also have high interaction
reflected in our click-through rates so
people actually clicking on our ads and
our broadcast ads that we put on social
media but also we have a 90 plus
completion rate for our uh broadcast and
over-the-top advertising so what that
means is we're holding their attention
they're viewing our broadcast campaign
and our um commercials 90 plus% of the
way through they're not skipping through
our
advertisements um this is just a
overview of the promotional tools that
we use to promote Los Cruis and I'll
just highlight um three that we can't
really show you visuals for but one is
our broadcast visit uh podcast visit L
Cruis live Ed carthan and Norm de left
uh produce the content for that we
currently have 35 podcasts it's
available like on Spotify Google um
Heart Radio uh across like mainstream
access for people it's posted every two
weeks so twice a
month and um our current one that will
be posted this week is on holiday food
traditions and that's with NMSU
professor and Amazon best selling author
Calli
coffee um SEO that refers to search
engine optimization this one really
drives traffic to our website so um an
example of this is if you Google things
to do in New Mexico we want L Cris to be
one of the first things first results
that people see um majority of people
don't scroll past that second that first
page to look at search results so we
want to be at the top and we're doing
that also um we're working with nmco
we've seen really really great results
and I think that's reflected in our um
website numbers as well and then travel
writers bloggers and influencers um a
really great example of this was the
influencers that we brought in for meal
Los cruus earlier in April uh we had
about 14 micro influencers they're not
local they're um they were from like
Texas California Colorado uh so we
brought them into Los cruus for the
event but they spent the entire weekend
here so they ate locally they hiked um
they went to the farm and ranch Museum
they attended the event and then we get
promotion through their audiences
they're built-in audiences so we had a
34 Instagram posts with about 141,000
reach and when I refer to reach that
means people that are actually viewing
their content um 241 Instagram stories
and reals that resulted in about 86,000
reach and 31 Tik toks which was about
165,000
plays so I mentioned our broadcast
commercial um if you haven't seen we
have I think currently created four five
that we've been running consistently
since launch this was the first one we
did so if you haven't seen it we just
wanted to
show it to you guys this is how we
introduced our brand to um people all
across the
state some things are just meant to be
real something a little
Uncharted with the feeling of desert
under your
boots the smell of rust and
dirt with a little polishing to make
something real
special how about someone holding the
door for you
or a meal like it's made from home go
visit Los cruus the real New
Mexico okay so I just wanted to show you
some examples the first one is an
example of a billboard that we're
currently running um in between Los
crusis and El Paso we wanted to show off
a lot of different Assets in Los Cruis
colorful bright catching people's
attention the second thing you're seeing
is just kind of scrolling through our
new website we have a video that plays
at the top we're showing people
highlighting content on our website our
events page is one of our biggest um
pages and resources that people have to
see what there's to do in Los cruus and
it is free so events can actually submit
their events for free on our website to
be
featured um our podcast as well is
featured
on uh second or third I'm sorry is um um
just an example of one of the social
media influencers a very short clip of
one of the reels that they posted
showing off the things that they did
when they were here for
MAA and the last one is um a Tik Tok you
can go view it on our our page but it
has 169,000 plus views and this was
chili roasting season we posted this
last year we reposted it this year um
169,000 plus views it it really
translated well and we got a huge
response when we reposted it across all
our social media
again and then I just wanted lastly to
highlight our internship program um so
nuvia came she's back there she's our Uh
current intern from NMSU she graduated
this weekend and she'll be sticking
around with us for a little while um
nuvia primarily helps us work on blogs
we do monthly blogs um press releases
helps with website content social media
posts and that also includes um
primarily Tik Tok content um I mentioned
photo captions this is something that
some of our other interns work on as
well um they've assisted with photos
creating captions for that and I forgot
to video as well um another example was
we had a recent intern her name was
Daniela she did um a lot of Animation so
we kind of took advantage of that and
she did a really really great ad for us
for Las crus Restaurant Week that got a
huge response we got a lot of
compliments on our ad which um was
really really nice we got a really good
response it so very
talented and then the second one is one
that she and nuvia Daniela and nuvia did
together took advantage of the West
Anderson Trend that was happening at the
time and visited Calhoun Farms to do
lavender picking and they put together a
really great Tik Tok showing off
what there was
to and the last image is um just showing
off some of the blogs that we've done um
that really showcase Los Cruis and these
are also used as press releases that go
out to um media across the state and
across the
region and nuvia um has been doing ours
our post monthly for our
blog and that's
it great thanks
Lana
I like those videos are
good again Melle Miller Hernandez I'm
going to wrap this up with um just some
notable accomplishments that we've uh
done this past year uh as Lorena
explained we had our very successful New
Brand launch um so we're really proud
about that MAA L crues for a uh
inaugural event exceeded any goals all
goals was greater than we could ever
imagine and we hope you'll be excited
for this year because we're going to add
some great new
elements um Lorena also gave you some
stats on that but I wanted to mention we
had um over12 million in PR value for
that event so that was great for our
city um the conamore mural as all of you
have seen um that what is an amazing
tourism asset we have people there every
day taking photos in front of it and it
really engaged the
community um the Los crues Marathon last
year or I guess it was this year last
January was the when it became a Boston
Marathon qualifier and it tripled its
attendance um the next one will be
January 6th uh it's my understanding we
were already at last last the last one's
numbers so we're definitely on track to
exceed that and then finally we're
really super proud um so New Mexico
Hospitality Association is the
the um the Des the hospitality and
tourism Association of New Mexico um
visit Los Cruis was made um was the
finalist in nine
categories um the judging is done by um
an organization in Arizona it's not done
here in the state of New Mexico so um we
don't have the influence of friends KN
people knowing people uh and we still
still or we still and we won um best
broadcast campaign for our real New
Mexico
commercials uh best new experience for
ma Los Cruses um our partners Russell
Hernandez was voted Hospitality
professional of the year he won that
which is amazing um welld deserved and I
have to say he
was there were some real amazing people
he was uh in line with so
congratulations Russell that's amazing
and then um Spaceport America cup was
voted the best overall experience and
and that event is great for our
city uh and lastly I just like to
recognize there's two staff members that
weren't mentioned today um but are very
vital to us um Leslie gadan she's our
executive assistant and Magic maker we
call her she gets everything she makes
it all happen and Sonna benos who most
of you have met our visitor Information
Specialist who's also just recognized
for k
kinho uh for the city for her fabulous
uh service she gives above and beyond
for our visitors and with that we're
open for any questions you may
have thanks Melle councelor
Flores thank you Mr Mayor and thank you
relle um so I I was looking quickly
through this um because it does say um
the lay of the land and did you know
[Music]
um the Treaty of uh Guadalupe Dalgo is
mentioned and um what isn't
mentioned is how this part of New Mexico
was the last hold out before became part
of the United States New Mexico didn't
become a state until 1912 along with
Arizona and um nonetheless we are
Arizona is recognized as being part of
the us but we aren't I mean you know you
travel when you go places oh you're from
you're from New Mexico I want to get a
passport I really want to go there yeah
well just get a ticket um so it'd be
nice if something like that it you know
just somewhere and um and thank you so
much for uh for having the real New
Mexico and I hope you've sent a uh
t-shirt of ours to our governor and to
um the uh New Mexico
troop send them a t-shirt they are very
aware of our branding counselor thank
you oh oh they are oh wonderful I'm so
happy to hear I called them before we
launched and and actually we've been
told it it's pretty pretty great so well
I'm happy to hear that and also um Jeff
steinborn was here at our last meeting
and did uh bring us up to speed on how
wonderful that outdoor thing has been so
but thank you so very much all of you
it's been wonderful working with you
thank you thank
you any other comments
councelor bom thank you I don't have any
questions I just wanted to say
congratulations to you and your team I
think too often we're having
conversations uped about the challenges
last crues is facing and not enough
about celebrating all the incredible
beautiful powerful things happening in
the city and a lot of that is um because
of your team so I just wanted to say
thank you and congratulations thank you
very
much yeah I just want to also Echo that
I know that you won't be be here next
week but nonetheless I want to thank uh
you all for all the great work that you
all have done you know you've really
stepped up and really made it a lot more
visible than how it was before the the
old convention and visitors bureau so
good job and um continue great success
can I thank you sure and
Michelle um I think I've mentioned this
to you before but um some airports I
think it's LaGuardia or I don't know
which one no um well I don't know but
anyway there are airports throughout the
country that show different places in
the United States to travel to and
there's just like a short little you
know video that just shows is that
something maybe we can do one day uh for
maid Los cruus and the filmfest we did
have advertising in the Tucson airport
and then currently are they running
Ren yeah they're running now okay we
currently have uh when you go down the
escalators we have an ad in El Paso um
and then we also have a static ad where
you pick up your luggage um because not
everyone going through El Paso lives in
El Paso they're visiting El Paso and we
want them to come so I believe the
message is less than an hour away or
something like that is the real New
Mexico or something similar to that good
so um advertising for airports are very
expensive um but we do try to um New
Mexico true does highlight our area and
some of their ads and I've seen those in
Dallas and Denver and they're now moving
into the San Francisco Bay Area all
right thank you so much Michelle thank
you mayor and thank you mayor uh we'll
greatly miss you uh good luck on your
future endeavors I know we'll we'll be
seeing you around sounds good thank you
very much thank you okay so next item is
going to be 3.2 the go Bond projects
overall update and uh that's David CIO
but looks like Tony trino to
me okay Tony trino deputy director of
Public Works will be disc
discussing thank you
mayor
all right good afternoon mayor city
council Tony deral assistant director of
public works for the record uh you'll
see something different here on the
title go Bond update
2022 the 2018 is officially off the
books and complete we just had our last
ribbon cutting last week for the Animal
Service Center so we can probably say
that staff did an excellent J job
getting the 2018 bonds uh done with the
uh exciting time from 2018 through 2023
the I guess the pre-co and through covid
and everything so it was it was fun and
I can only give credit all sta to all
all the credit to staff so the title is
just for the current geobot update which
has four questions the new Fire Station
Number Nine the East Mesa Public
Recreation Complex
continuation affordable housing and Park
improvements we'll start with the new
Fire Station Number Nine the right you
can see a schematic which we shared with
the last update there is currently uh
$9.8 million uh for funding for the
project $723,000 are being used for
architectural and Engineering
Services to this point the design
development um is 75% complete which
once it's 100% we'll get into the start
of the construction documents which will
be fast-paced and hopefully our plan is
not hopefully we will be out to bid on
April 2024 that will give us
approximately 20 months of construction
time to get this built and uh
so Chief is kind of pushing us to get
this done and says we can't slack off so
we're moving and the total estimated
cost we did ask for
some additional funding from we are
going to ask for some additional funding
from State State Legislative which will
bring it up to 13.2 million which will
include retire
project there's a aerial a front view of
the uh new fire
station and then we'll jump into the
park improvements which is Lona park on
the corner of the real grand in Picacho
um this area is kind of has been in need
of some improvement for quite some time
so we did get $11.98 million for the
park and ere priorities Lona park has
the majority of them which is our first
priority which would be a restroom
upgrade um amenities tral repair some of
the Furnitures the trash cans the
receptacles and benches throughout that
area right now we're at 60% complete and
the next steps are to start construction
documents we are currently in working
with the ibwc international boundary and
Water Commission to get a revised permit
for this area for our improvements that
are going to happen and we also have a
estimated bid date of July
2024 if there is additional funding left
over uh the second priority is T Brook
Park which you can see over here is uh
on the southeast part of town
highlighted in yellow so any additional
funding that's left over will be for
parks and W to purchase any exercise
equipment amenities to replace in that
area I can see some some
squinting here's a t Brook in Los ulas
area right there south of the golf golf
course and I will make that picture more
visible in the next
meeting here's just some photos of up on
top some of the existing that's the
existing bathroom at Lono Park um some
of the sidewalk you can see here
sidewalks cracked so we'd have some some
Ada improvements the benches out are
there I think that's water fountain's
been used quite a bit so down in the
bottom you can see both side the north
and south side of Picacho the park will
be uh upgraded with this project and
here is um the thing that's uh we're
having to kind of retrofit into an
existing envelope is we can't ex exceed
the footprint of that existing bathroom
for ibwc so we're H going to make it a
two- stall bathroom however it's going
to be a lot more uh up updated secure
and uh maintenance
friendly you can see here so um in the
Southside we'll do some pavment
improvements we'll have a electric and
EV charger put in this place uh
sidewalks and Ada improvements
throughout and here is the East Mesa
Public red complex continuation we've
seen this slide before so the Geo Bond
on this with this goore around we got
4.9 million and part of our ssgt we had
additional 2 million which brought us up
to
6.9 the uh a lot of this some of the
items from phase one were uh had to be
removed due to cost so that's about 2.25
million which we're in the current
process of getting that constructed as
we speak and that is 60% complete the
buso lighting is about 1.9 million
construction is 50% complete so as of
last week we have 23 light Poes have
been put up and that is around the
baseball field the soccer fields or
multi-use fields and the pickleball
court so there's 23 lights so that's 50%
uh complete as we speak and the exciting
part is we have all the 8ot tall or
above trees planted as as of now those
are 100% And I believe there's 700
plantings going on in this area so but
all the eight foot tall trees have been
put in and sod The Sod has been put in
on the baseball and softball fields and
the two multi-use fields we did postpone
the 10 acre Park just due to weather and
that will be installed in April just so
we can ensure the uh the life of it to
catch and
grow um and for the new part the e Mesa
the continuation 2.75 million that is
underd designed and 30%
complete and you can see here uh the top
right
corner this area is the two uh
basketball courts with uh bleachers and
some shades you can see the landscaping
around it up on the left side top left
is the sand volleyball courts with some
Landscaping kind of benches bedrooms to
kind of sit and watch it and down here
in the bottom is a new concession stand
and the amenities around the restroom
and concession stand area so that is
what's uh going to be included with the
next phase and a bunch of Street fit
Furniture um throughout benches trash
receptacles and shade
structures and here I'm going to pass on
to miss
Natalie good afternoon Mr Mayor members
of council Natalie Green for the record
the third question is the Goan question
for affordable housing um as an update
to the housing investment strategy it is
currently out for public comment and
that public comment period will run
through U mid January and it's available
both as a Hot Topic on the city website
and then uh the housing and Neighborhood
Services uh web page um as soon as we
get those public comments in we'll be
meeting with our affordable housing
advisory committee who will vote on that
formal recommendation to council with
the tenative adoption um for February
5th
2023 um an update to the bond sales
schedule we anticipate that first
reading um give or take should be in
January and then the second reading
would be in February with the closing
and proceeds dispersed uh shortly
thereafter in March uh
29th as an update to our current
projects um even though we don't have
gobom funds we're obviously working on
many many projects uh three sisters had
their permit issued uh sometime last
week I believe and so they are finally
in the under construction status so
we're very excited about that um I don't
know if Council remembers we also
received about a million dollars from
the governor's office in the form of a
grant to help fund uh this project so uh
that uh grant funding is also
pending um pedrina senior housing they
are in their permit review and they have
a tenative closing on December 21st so
they should be starting construction uh
shortly uh peach tree Canyon Apartments
they're also under permit review and
they're planning to close on their
funding in the first quarter of the
calendar year um we started a land
acquisition in anticipation of the go
bonds and so we're just pending those
appraisals in that purchase agreement um
so we'll be ready as soon as those funds
are dispersed to to purchase that
property and then our revolving Loan
Fund pilot program the first three homes
are under construction or or shortly
about to start construction and then
we've also started some predevelopment
on Amador Crossing and so um the
architect has started some uh
preliminary programming and design in
anticipation of um getting uh grant
funding or pursuing grant funding for
the new fiscal year um with that Tony
and I will stand for any discussion or
questions thanks Natalie questions
Council be foral thank you I just have
one question Tony um on the East Mesa um
Recreational facility yes um do you
foresee a phase three to be needed or do
you think this will wrap up the
completion of that Park mayor councelor
bomo 23 for the record no this is just a
portion of it there's uh we have a shv
has put together a kind of a cost
estimate to do the full buildout I think
that's still about $20 million out at
our current cost yes ma'am okay all
right thank you
anyone
else Council Flores thank you Mr Mayor
and thank you Mr thino so um $20 million
so when will the when do you project the
East Mesa recreational complex to
be uh
finished mayor C fot is finished is a
hard question but what once we get uh
this next this current phases done we
can open it to public with our existing
fa fac facilities the two uh baseball
and softball fields the soccer and the
pickle ball so as soon as they get this
construction away right now we can
safely have public uh go there and enjoy
the facilities and then the entire is
just that whole design that whole dream
will uh will still be pursuing that we
are going to P pursue that heavily to we
get that entire complex complete yes
ma'am probably be another five years I
hope not but yeah thank you thank you
thank you Mr Mayor
okay anybody
else okay well thanks again Tony and
Natalie for the presentation we
appreciate all that you do and getting
it done um throughout all the challenges
from whether it was through covid or
through uh the increases in prices and
labor and supply chain it's a lot so
thank
you all right so next the last one is an
update from 8 to8 Productions which um I
believe that the young man with the
camera is from because I'm just going to
take that
for so he's got uh Chris favor in his
SES great be on two
cameras uh afternoon mayor city council
Chris favor economic development for the
record um I first wanted to say that
I've been very much looking forward to
the opportunity for 828 to make this
presentation to council I'm not sure how
many of you have had an opportunity to
see the entirety of what they have
planned
for their campus but we will be coming
back to you next week with the proposed
update to their Lita that was approved
in March and so in advance of that I
wanted to give them an opportunity to
come up here speak with you um explain
what they've done currently what their
future plans are show you some of the
things that some of the renderings that
they have and just kind of show you um
what the potential impact of their
facility will be on Los cruus so this
week I'm going to turn it over to Todd
lundbom who's the CEO of a28 Studios
next week I'll be coming back with the
presentation for the amendment to their
uh current L which was approved this
past march by Council that included um
about $900,000 in city capital outlay
fund that was the dedicated cinematic
infrastructure funds and it also
included um money from the state as well
so I'm going to turn it over to Todd and
I'll be uh available for questions uh
afterwards
okay mayor city council uh pleasure to
be here my name is Todd lundbom and I'm
the CEO of 828 Productions um we are
your local studio uh 828 is a film
partner with the state of New Mexico
alongside Netflix NBC and uh we're based
here here in Los crusis we make movies
all over the world but we are New Mexico
company and uh we're based here
um on this first slide you're you you
see up there in the top right part of a
a rendering throughout this presentation
you're going to see uh references to two
different renderings um just wanted to
make a note why there there is a
difference we are we are still
finalizing the overall uh look of excuse
me for can you get a little bit closer
to the mic oh sure sorry yeah um we are
we are still finalizing um exactly how
the the 35 Acres that we have right
there west of the train tracks will be
allocated
umf um so I thought it might be kind of
fun as I go through here you're you're
going to see some uh reference images to
some films that we've
produced um might be might be fun just
to talk about them a little bit so the
image here from the last Sun this was a
a film we produced a couple of years ago
Western uh that starred Sam Worthington
from The Avatar franchise uh Thomas Jane
Heather Graham and Machine Gun Kelly any
MGK fans on the council no okay well
he's transitioning to acting and and
he's doing a great job um we shot this
in outside of Boseman um um in the
middle of winter single digits uh and
there was there was a particular day
where where Sam and and MGK I don't want
to give away the movie if you haven't
seen it but uh they're they're fighting
for their lives and it was it was with
the windshield below below zero I mean I
was I'm I'm from Idaho I'm used to the
cold I was bundled head to toe and and I
was just doing everything I could not to
show the pain in my face and and these
two guys are out there I mean they're in
um traditional Western guard but
essentially like less than what I'm
wearing now and they're rolling around
in the snow and in between takes these
guys are in front of like a space heater
trying to peel their hands off the off
the pistols the prop Pistols that that
they're holding so you know these actors
get people give them a hard time for
being Pradas but some of them really
show up to work but what what I think is
more interesting about last sun is last
sun was originally set to shoot here in
New Mexico I did not I was not aware of
that I I boarded the project um after
they had determined that they were going
to shoot in Montana um and then as as I
became part of the film scene here
somebody brought to my attention that
that this film was supposed to shoot
here but they could not find um a movie
Ranch that that that uh could could
house the production and and so I I I
think that's important to bring up
because um I don't I don't I don't want
that kind of stuff to be happening I
don't want us to miss out on on movies I
mean westerns should should shoot here
lots of movies should shoot here but we
should definitely be Gra having all the
westerns um and and so when we get into
some of the renderings later I'm going
to highlight uh an area that we call the
back lot and the back lot that we have
is large enough to build standing sets
and and to leave those sets and and
that's that's a very important thing in
the in the movie industry I was I was
recently in in Malta um the small island
of Malta where they're getting ready to
shoot the the sequel to Gladiator and I
was watching them build the Coliseum for
the second time the their Backlot is so
small that they cannot leave anything
standing so you imagine we've got the
real Coliseum and now here in Malta
they've had to build it again twice in
order to shoot on so we we don't want
people going to other states we want to
keep we want to keep those Productions
that that initially look to be initiated
here we want to build those sets I'm
going to mention a few more throughout
the presentation but but uh those those
things could can be built and then used
to draw in more Productions in in the
future
um okay so this here on the right this
rendering um just to orient you all this
this is our 35 Acres this is this is the
um to the right of the screen is is the
Santa Fe mining property uh the building
in the corner the the interesting
building is the Cotton Jin um and then
the the property to the west of that is
the the old calot uh property and as
part of that image um in the in the
lower part there is an existing 30,000
square foot Warehouse building that we
will be retrofitting into a Sound Stage
um starting first thing next year uh
some of the other buildings there and I
apologize that I don't have like a
pointer laser pointer to to highlight
this for you but but you'll see um
you'll see sound stages on on both
properties
oh thanks hey look at that picking with
gas now all right so these buildings
here in here these are purpose-built
sound stages um there is there is a
trend in the industry um I I don't know
if it originated in Europe or uh our our
partners in the North in Albuquerque but
but uh they're they're building these
massive uh concrete tilt up sound stages
uh that that
um up until recently we're really only
required to maybe shoot a Marvel movie
but it just seems to be what what is
taken off in the industry is as the
standard and and so we are we are
working through the feasibility on some
different designs there um but but we
will look to Pepper the the property
with Sound Stage purpose built sound
stages uh offices Mill and then this
area here is that back lot that I was
talking about where we can build sets
and and leave them
standing
um I think it's important to note that
that when you when you think of
828 we we're we're not just here like
making a movie or building a Sound Stage
we're really here to uh build develop
and establish an industry here in Los
cruus um we we've seen the kind of
dollars that that film brings into the
state and and it's it's our job here to
to make sure that that southern New
Mexico and Rural New Mexico is is
getting its share of those Productions
so that is that is first and foremost in
in our mind and and really baked into
the the DNA of what we're
doing so more about us um maybe the best
way to talk about us is just to talk
about some of our films um here in the
lower left is a is a still from a film
called The Fallout um some of you may be
familiar with it um in that photo is our
star Jenna Ortega who had done some work
for Disney before this but after this
film she kind of blew up um was part of
the new uh scream franchise reboot and
she's also Wednesday Adams on the
Netflix show Wednesday and then that's
our director Megan Park you know this
this film sat me Megan's writer director
this film sat in a drawer at ICM for
several years cuz all the studios were
afraid to make a school shooting movie
um it got handed to me and 10 pages in I
thought you know this isn't necessarily
for me um because of my age or
demographic but this this was a very
important film that we thought we needed
to make and uh we're we're glad that
Warner Brothers and and South by
Southwest which we swept the awards
there uh and the rest of the world a
agreed um because it's it's been
received favorably not just in the US
but but it's a it's a hit
internationally which was another
surprise sort of thing because we don't
typically think in the industry that the
rest of the world cares about us
teenagers and kind of what what uh what
they're going through um the image to
the top right Raven Hollow uh this is a
really interesting film that we did it's
uh it's about Edgar Allen Poe but it but
it it was like a reimagining of his life
and and it focused on him in his early
life and usually when you see po in a
movie you're seeing the the old guy um
but I but I mention it because we built
that entire town in Eastern Europe and
that's another example of a project that
that town should have been built here
and then the set would still be standing
on our on our property and we'd be free
to use it for other Productions or or
add or subtract uh as we as we may see
fit
um
so this is our executive
team there's over 80 years of experience
in these four individuals here and I
think more importantly um I'd like to
note that two of them live here in Los
cruus uh so while we have and maintain
our presence in California we are a lost
cursus Company New Mexico company um and
if I may I'd like to hand it over to
Robert Dean our head of production
thank you mayor city
council um my name is Robert Dean and
I'm head of operations a2a
Productions and just to I think
highlight or or segue into what Todd was
talking about um with this executive
team you know I personally I've been in
New
Mexico pretty much my whole life born
raised here um have been in Los Cruses
for 10 plus years
I went to New Mexico State
University I left uh New Mexico for a
short period after that time to Chase my
film career but New Mexico is home um
for me and that's what's most important
um and has always been most important to
me so I want to just highlight the fact
that I think what separates a28 from
some of the other film Partners or maybe
some of the other Studio that you might
see is there's a real thoughtful
intention behind the team and the hiring
process I think the easy path would have
been to just go hire a bunch of
Executives and team members out of
California but they looked locally and
the moment that I met Todd um we kind of
hid it off and started discussing boss
Cruis what were the you know what were
the strengths what were the weaknesses
of the film industry here and you know I
just I appreciate his willingness to
look here and I think there's kind of
two points to that
and one is is my belief personally that
we've got so much talent here in New
Mexico we always have unfortunately
we've exported a lot of that talent and
I think Todd and this executive team
recognized that we need to Foster that
talent and we need to retain it we need
to support it and we need to create a
pathway for people to stay right here in
Los cruus and so that's special to me
and then I think secondary to that when
you look
local you're looking at a
team um which I'll skip to the next
slide this incredible team um these are
10 out of 12 of these individuals are
all local to Los cruus these are all Los
cruus um folks that have been here in
the community for years and I think by
looking locally what you find is you
find stewards of of Los cruus that
genuinely care about this town the
community the people that are here and
so as head of operations I've got the
fortunate position
of getting to go assemble this amazing
team of individuals that I've worked
with personally throughout my
career and we've brought in I think so
many incredible Talent that's that's
been here in the community working for
years
to drive and and really prove the
concept that Los crues is a very viable
filmhub and so I get to brag about these
guys which is what I love and so just to
mention a couple couple John sep over
here who you know former film Leon at at
film Lost crues now works with a28
Productions John has been an advocate he
has been a steward again of bringing in
projects working with the local
community working with the educational
institutes and so that is the culture
that we want to create and continue to
Foster here we also have rajie who is a
professor still at NMSU longtime friend
of mine but you know he's he's a steward
of the creative uh right over here at
the University and so what a better you
know how could you not find a better
team member to bring into the
organization to help us uh strategically
develop a plan to be working with those
institutions and the community be
training them with the skills that they
will need to translate into coming to to
the workforce and so I mean I could
spend hours bragging about all of these
incredible individuals um we've got some
of them here um some of them are out uh
because they're under the weather but
what's you're going to come to see I
think over time is we're going to need
more seating in here because we're going
to keep filling it up with more and more
828 members so I'm uh I'm just
genuinely uh excited for for this team
the goals that we've set out to
accomplish the incredible diverse skill
set that each one of these individuals
have and just to mention uh two of these
individuals um the only two that don't
currently live here in Los Cruses one of
them lives in New Mexico uh up north
we're trying to gravitate him down guatt
Turner who's here from Louisiana was
born in New Mexico and we're just
working on getting and back down here
too but we've also got uh two recent
graduates from NMSU um Hannah and Jen
who I believe are yep here in the
audience with us that are now working
inside of our company in a very
different skill sets but just goes to
show you that it is very diverse the
type of jobs that we can
offer
um so just to segue into two of our um
key divisions that have really taken off
recently um we've put a lot of time into
the development of of these divisions uh
828 um accounting and payroll is really
the backbone of so much of this industry
is is the accounting and the financing
and what that allows us to do is uh give
transparency into how the dollars are
flowing through these projects from the
very Inception until the final delivery
of the project and accounting is one of
these sectors within the film business
that's quite often overlooked and
there's also a huge demand with it but
what we recognized within this Cindy
Turner here who who leads this division
is one of the top film accountants in
the nation and um we worked with her on
previous projects brought her in to run
this Division and we've hired one local
within this uh
team but I think what's you know
important to to recognize or what we
recognized within this is this is again
another transferable skill um there are
accounting students right now at NMSU
that have the skills that can then
translate over into film accounting and
to be able to work firsthand or behind
the scenes on these film Productions and
so this is an area that we're really
excited about because it can continue to
grow and we can continue to work with
the um with the educational institutions
here to build that local depth and we
believe that this is an area where we
can really staff up a very deep local
bench of more and more 8 to8 local team
members and retain them right here in
Los crues secondary to that is post
production post- production has been a
very hot topic throughout New Mexico for
quite some time now I think it's
important to note it's
it's such a Hot Topic because Film
Production in the grand scheme or the
life cycle of a film is is really just a
small segment but but post- production
just like the accounting is one of these
areas that these are full-time jobs
full-time well-paying jobs and because
of what we have right here at uh NMSU
and DAC they're actively training these
students up in all of these post
production skills and this is a much
needed area uh of focus within the
industry at large and because of how
we've been poised and positioned with um
the film incentives and because of the
local economy this this is an area that
we're very excited to ramp up we're
actively working through who is going to
be um the head of that division we're
bringing in a professional head of post
production just like we did with Cy and
and that's really valuable because you
you have these students who then get to
come work
underneath um an industry professional
that is working at the highest degree
and what better way to be trained and to
learn and
to continue your path um throughout this
industry and so post is is something
that we're very very excited about um
and with that I will kick it back
over
thanks
Robert mayor city council for the record
Todd lumbal
again so to give
everyone um an introduction or a
refresher to our overall infrastructure
plan
um in addition to the 300 plus million
that we'll be SP spending on uh Film
Production over the next 10 years uh we
we intend to spend a minimum of 75
million in uh in infrastructure
um on the slide here you'll you'll see
another photograph um kind of
referencing you can kind of get your
bearing sorry you can get your bearing
here with the mountains behind and the
got the electronic caregiver building
there um these are the the building that
says A1 with a28 that's that's uh that's
one style of Sound Stage that's being
con contemplated and then you've got
support buildings here um
the the the the master plan is is
constantly evolving uh we've got our
fingers on the pulse of of what the
market is looking for in a real-time
daily way because we're getting calls
from people from uh New Mexico film
office and from producers all around the
world saying Hey do you do you have this
do you do you have a stage how big is it
what is it available do you have back
lot space do you have office space do
you have post production and so we we
you know with any large scale um
development like this that that is
taking that that real-time feedback um
there there absolutely is is some
organic shifts uh as as the prevailing
winds change but but that's I mean we're
as as as the smaller of the three film
Partners we are we are perfectly
positioned that's that's what a small
company can do is is we can pivot and we
can make a decision on a Thursday and
implement it on a Friday it doesn't take
weeks and weeks of of process
um I I think it may be important to Just
note to people that that aren't
um keeping a close eye on the industry
we did just come out of uh six months of
inactivity because of a writer strike
that turned into uh an actor or sag
strike uh that that has now been
resolved and and we are poised to to
move forward in a big way um but I do
think it's important to note that that
that that happened that was real we were
days away from from starting a
production when when that happened and
we had to shut down we're very fortunate
as a company that we have so many irons
in the fire a lot of my peers that are
just
filmmakers um they didn't they didn't
have a job to do really for the last six
months so uh very fortunate in that
um on this slide you'll you'll see in
the top right um more more from the
rendering that shows the the 35 combined
acres to the west of the train tracks
Studio Lot one Santa Fe mining you know
this is an existing office um and and
right here would be the the cotton Jin
and then this this again is is the
existing Warehouse we are retrofitting
that warehouse um because it's the it's
the quickest path to getting a a Sound
Stage up and running in Los cruus so
that we can start capturing um more more
of these
Productions excuse
me the image here in the lower left this
is this is from our property here just a
few blocks over next to the plaza um on
Maine and Griggs
and um this this this is a unique space
and that it'll be used for Film
Production but because it is downtown we
we're we're contemplating like how how
do we make that space more Dynamic so
that it can be used for for other things
uh as as as needs may arise we're
working closely with um Sandra and and
Tony from Enchanted sunrey they are
amazing people and very creative and and
Sandra brings so much to the table were
very lucky to to have her and and I'm
excited to share with you all and and
the rest of the Town kind of the the
plans that that she has for for this
property and with that I'm gonna hand it
off to John
SE thank you Todd mayor city council my
name is John sep I am the the man
manager of operations and public affairs
for 828 Productions uh it is my great
pleasure to be here before you all uh
once again um the film industry in Los
cruus um and southern New Mexico and the
opportunities that come with it would
not be possible without uh you all
sitting behind this desk City staff as
well uh so it's incredibly exciting to
to be up here and and working with a28
Productions in that
capacity um I'm excited to share some
cinematic infrastructure updates for a2a
Productions as it relates to these four
properties that you see up here uh these
are areas of focus that we will be
bringing online in 2024 and we're
strategically focusing on this first
round of construction uh to service our
initial slate of Productions uh for
2024 1053 Haner Avenue is our Studio Lot
2 and it will be home to 828 Productions
first Sound Stage specific construction
uh as we roll out our master plan uh for
a complete overhaul of the site uh we
will fill the construction timeline Gap
with a unique approach to a soundstage
environment that will allow us to
service Productions in the immediate
future 828 Productions has contracted
quite a few experts to guide our studio
infrastructure plans one of those
experts is Rick Clemente uh he is or he
was the uh the studio operator and
Pioneer of I25 studios in albuqu turkey
uh it was previously a microchip
manufacturing plant and now is cin
Studios the cult the Consultants
overseeing our master plan are Heavy
Hitters in the soundstage uh
construction world one of those
Consultants is Britt Penrod he has
worked with companies like Amazon
Studios NBC Universal Paramount Pictures
and over the course of his Studio Design
development and oversight efforts has
brought more than 70 sound stages online
across across six different countries
another industry consultant that we are
working with is Gary Bastion Gary
Bastion and his company Bastion and
Associates helped Pioneer the use of
tilt tilt up conc concrete technology in
sound
stages as 828 production plans to focus
the first phase of purpose-built sound
stages office space uh support
infrastructure uh Warehouse retrofit on
lot two the property at 300 South
compress with the old Cotton Gin will
initially focus on the ancillary
services and needs to support that
facility on lot two uh this will include
office space vehicle and trailer storage
vehicle and trailer parking uh vendor
support and various other needs the film
production facilities uh will
require 106 South Miranda is our campus
that will be the Hub of Film Production
in Los Cruses inter internally and
externally this facility will provide
the necessary space for administrative
office and production support activity
as well as a filming destination and
Workforce Development
Arena uh this will be a space where
ideas are born scripts are written
budgets are created and schedules are
managed and you'll notice I've I've
since I made this slide where uh
internally we are voting on different
names to to call these uh different
properties and my personal choice is the
hot brick church and I made this slide
so I put hot Brick Church in there and
I'm hoping that it'll help sway the vote
with my team uh to get that solidified
uh in our
branding 100 South Church is located in
the heart of downtown Los crues and will
become a beehive of activity for office
Spas tailored to production activity
vendor administrative services and
co-working space uh there is also a
studio apartment uh located on the
second floor of that building and we're
really excited to tailor that towards
Hospitality for producers directors
above the line Talent uh providing them
with the best access to downtown uh and
the activities that lost cruises can uh
provide uh thank you for uh letting me
give you a brief overview of what these
properties uh will look like in 2024 uh
I'm excited to hand the the back to Todd
to talk a little bit about our
production
slate thank
you thanks
John Mayor city council uh for the
record Todd lung bomb
again so production pipeline um
important to call out the the photo top
left there this is a film uh that we
produced here locally I don't know if
you can make this out this is coro's
rank Ranch the ranch out by the airport
there um Amil H Steven dorf um this this
is the project that that kind of brought
this team together this is the first
film that I uh financed here in New
Mexico I I was already in talks um with
the state at this time and and I came
down uh I agreed to finance the movie
and then found out I was shooting in Las
crusis and I was like hey that's that's
the place they told me to check out so I
I came down and and immediately fell in
love um for anyone that attended the the
speech that the U or the presentation
that the Govern Governor put on a little
over a year ago I won't go through the
entire story again but this is this is
where Robert and I got connected and and
uh it was it was really um it was really
during this production that that I don't
know the idea of moving a28 to New
Mexico and Los crusis was cemented but
but also it was during that film that
that Robert and I really kind of hashed
out what what was working and and what
wasn't working and what you know why did
why did we think we could come here and
do it different and do it better um and
and so there's a little inside joke at
828 uh because the film is called the
price we pay and it was the price we had
to pay uh to figure out what we're doing
here so enough about that um coming up
in 24 you'll see uh you'll see four
different projects mentioned here um
there's a there's a fifth Studio project
that actually has come online in in the
past few days ever even since we we
created this slide it's a it's the third
film in a in a horror franchise um that
was set to shoot in h Georgia and we're
stealing it and bringing it here which
is which is exactly how I want everybody
to think about us as we are out there
looking to steal your movies and bring
them to New Mexico um moist uh is moist
I well the the other two are redacted
because we just we just have not we
don't have the clearance to to release
the title yet uh so I apologize for that
but but you can see their their large
large scale Productions um but moist
moist
is is like a dream come true for me uh
the the the character the gentleman in
the uh top left of the slide is is Barry
sonnenfeld Barry um started his career
as a cinematographer for the Cohen
brother and then went on to helm
franchises like men in black um Get
Shorty and The Adams Family Barry has
never done an indie movie Barry has
worked for the studio system his entire
career um 50 years in the studio system
um moist was originally written to be a
studio movie it's been around for a few
years they just couldn't figure out how
to make it uh at $65 million because the
studio doesn't know how to get out of
bed for less than that kind of money and
and so Barry was was looking for an
independent Studio that could support
his vision and uh a mutual friend that
we have connected Barry and I and Barry
came out uh to Los cruus you see us um
scouting uh we're right there at the
corner by uh by grounded by Sandra and
Tony's Place I'm I'm laughing because
the the guy didn't stop for like 18
hours I mean he's in his mid 70s and I
think he could have just gone all night
and on all the next day and I was
struggling to just try to keep up with
him um
but to to people that aren't in the
industry this this may not carry as much
weight but for a for a successful Studio
filmmaker to agree to make an
independent film for his team to agree
you know you got to remember all those
people that work for him that get a that
get part of his fee um
they're terrified that he's ever going
to take a chance ever doing anything
part part of the reason everybody says
why is there so many crappy movies on
it's because everybody's afraid to go in
the meeting like uh this I don't I don't
know if we should make another one of
these movies maybe we should try
something else there's there's a huge
fear in the industry to take a chance on
something so the fact that that this
artist is is willing to take a chance on
on us as a studio partner is is is an
honor for me and and to be able to bring
him here to Los cruus to make this movie
is it's huge on its own but the
underlying thing that that I'm hoping
comes out of this is is we know it'll be
a success and from there we want the
word to get out that this is the place
for Studio filmmakers to come to make
their Indie movie that's that's that's a
huge opportunity for us because there's
a there's a lot of filmmakers that that
don't step this side of aund million
doesn't mean they don't have smaller
projects that that they are invested in
they just don't know how to do that and
and I think this is another Niche um
that that I'd like us to focus
on another project of
note is dwell and this is another
project that I stole from somewhere else
um this this screenplay was originally
written for Australia I read it I loved
it I optioned it and then I told the
writer we're changing it to New Mexico
and when they got over the initial just
sort of
um I don't know shell shock of being
like hold on I've spent years crafting
the story to take place in one area and
now you're asking me to move it and I
said give give it a try and and once mad
sort of opened up to the idea uh he
committed to a full-on rewrite and and
this story now uh lives and breathes in
in Los cruus and and the the writer when
it was all done said thank you this is
this is a better story and and and
so maybe the subtext again of of the
story is is how is how 828 is is
perfectly positioned to be bringing
projects from elsewhere and showing them
why they should happen here and why they
can happen here and how we can help
facilitate that that happening um th
this is this is kind of a sample of of
some of the leads we're out to we also
are uh about to go out to a New Mexico
favorite Brian Cranston from Breaking
Bad so let's get let's get Brian back to
New
Mexico all right I'm gonna hand it off
thank
you thanks
Todd so Robert are are you guys alluding
to that Liam Nelson niss will actually
be here in Los
crues okay so I don't normally he's one
of my favorites so you need to I know
I'll be out of office but you need to
reach out to me okay I'll keep that in
mind uh thanks again uh Mr Mayor city
council for the record uh Robert Dean
again
um I'll wrap this up fairly quickly but
you know I think you'll hear me say a
lot of of uh two or three terms very
consistently the team probably gets
tired of it but ecosystem reverse
engineering that's kind of at the heart
of our philosophy when when you think of
Workforce Development um really the I'd
say the heart or the
backbone of what we've tried to instill
and put in place is hiring these
industry professionals getting them
relocated down here or to be working
with us actively to train the existing
team to create a mentorship type program
working with the universities um working
locally with the community and so this
is a very important
aspect of of this for me and um for us
as as a whole at the company and
so you know we've built our business
plan our our structure in what I like to
think is a very thoughtful way it's when
you think of Film Production I think
very often all we think about is the
physical making of the movie and what we
watch on screen but the truth is that
that life cycle from end to end is
sometimes years and years of process and
that process is only as good as your
team your company is only as strong as
the team behind it and the leaders that
you have and so we've really tried to
build out these various divisions that
cover start to finish end of this EOS
system and and created in a closed loop
type system
so just to highlight a few I mentioned
post production earlier and that's an
exciting area that we're excited about
for the for the workforce the pipeline
the sustainable job creation that exists
within it Production Services is you
know the nuts and bolts of making the
production and so we get in on these
Productions very early on we are
crafting these very early on to be very
strategic in the approach of how that
movie will conduct itself in this
community and what the cast will look
like and what their experience looks
like and likewise what the experience
for the town and the crew members and
everybody working on that will look like
828 originals and 828 Origins the the
projects that Todd mentioned earlier
those are our 828 Originals so you can
think of those as our in-house projects
that we are developing and we've at any
given time probably have 15 to 20 of
those on our roster and it takes a lot
of brain power
to reverse engineer and put these
projects together to get them to the
viable point where they actually are
filming and Origins is this really
unique development arm of our of our
company and this is really the Inception
point of where all films start and so
you can think of this as screenplay um
you can think of this is that original
idea and so we launched uh this
division um really with the impotence of
again there's so much creativity here
within the industry and the film
industry at large is difficult to
navigate um at times even for people who
have been in it for many years um it is
it is difficult to navigate the nuances
of it and so what we've done is
assembled a team of Industry
professionals who have spent years
within this business and created really
like a mentorship type um development
arm to where if you have a screenplay or
you have an idea you can find us at a28
origins.com and we help really um use
our expertise our knowledge what we've
seen that works that doesn't work and we
help assemble those key building blocks
so that then we can put that that
initial um puzzle pieces and package
together to move it into an original
where then we are developing these
projects for Los cruus and so what's
really exciting about Origins and what
we've seen so far is it really acts for
a funnel where we get first look into
projects not only here in New Mexico but
Nationwide and we get to get in early
and help them reorientate those projects
for New Mexico and for Los cruus and so
it's really this incredible development
arm and it requires a lot of teamwork uh
to put these projects together um
accounting and payroll I mentioned uh
that earlier again just such an
incredible uh business uh within 828 and
within the film industry and so we're
excited to continue to see how this
builds out and to continue to build the
local depth uh within this so if any of
you guys have friends or family members
that have worked in the accounting
business or are in school for accounting
please send them our way because we
would love to get them into uh Film
Production accounting and show them a
little bit of a a different variance to
how uh exciting I guess film or sorry
that accounting can actually be
um and then lastly the rule initiative
is is something that um very new but
something that we've all been very
excited about and we're just now
launching this um the rule initiative
was
really the Inception of it was built
around my experience as a film producer
as a production manager and what I often
saw with the projects that I was
bringing here or anywhere else is there
is always expectations to be managed for
the land owners for the business owners
for the community for the filmmakers
themselves and it is very delicate
because all the hard work that goes into
protecting this ecosystem that we're
trying to build it only takes one bad
project or one bad producer to unravel
all of the effort that we've put into it
so the rule initiative is 828 initiative
to create protection for the business
owners for the land owners for the
filmmakers to make sure that everybody
has the best experience possible so part
of that is US vetting these locations
agreements to make sure that these
individuals these business owners are
actually getting paid as they're
supposed to and so it it it's also site
representation to make sure that again
as stewards when these films come in
that they are upholding that uh degree
of protection that we hold sacred to
make sure that the they're not
essentially coming in using and abusing
and then leaving town we want the
businesses to have a great experience we
want the filmmakers to have a great
experience and this is just kind of that
behind the scenes work that's going to
go into laying a strong foundation so
that over time everybody here looks at
Los crues and says that was that was the
best place I ever made a movie um
because of the cruise because of the
people and that's what makes New Mexico
but Las Cru is so amazing in my uh
opinion is the people that exist here
and so we want to uphold that we want to
protect that and so that's really what
the the rule initiative is is us just
really really doing the community work
um working again with um individuals
business owners to let them know the
inside um scoop on what we're hearing as
well if as far as what the needs are
from production and and how we can help
facilitate that on our end as well as on
their end so thank you guys very much um
for having us uh it's an honor and with
that I believe we open it up for
questions great we appreciate Robert
questions so um let me just ask you
something as far as and I'm glad to see
Larry here so as far as the renovations
that you all are doing have you all had
a chance to work with our community
community development office because it
I'm going to guess that your area Falls
within the um infill area which gives
you a lot more benefits you know they
wave certain fees certain building
permits stuff like like that have you
had a chance to work with them yet on
yeah yeah uh thank you mayor and and and
city council um and for the record again
Todd Todd Lam uh we we have um I may
hand hand this question over to to
John mayor council John Sepp uh yes we
have been working very closely with
Larry and his office uh more uh more so
recently with the property at 106 South
Miranda and going through the infield
development process to get um the uses
the land uses
for our needs and that area going and
they've been wonderful to work with uh
and that process went really well and
we're really excited to be embraced by
the neighborhood in addition to that and
so having Larry's guidance and his
team's guidance helping us walk through
uh that process as well as giving us
those those tidbits of advice of you
know make sure to work with the
community that you're in keep them
educated uh and I'm finding that uh you
know I get texts constantly from people
you know helping us uh uh uh secure the
area you know letting us know and we've
got break-ins you know we've got some
really good security around there uh
with our security cameras but the
neighborhood is an additional layer to
that and we're excited to to work with
Larry and the city staff going further
with the rest of the properties we have
in Los
cruises Council Mom thank you mayor um
thank you for bringing that up I don't
really have a question I don't I also
just wanted to thank you for your
intention around working with um like
homegrown folks Sandra is speed to help
me buy my first house and now she's
helping you buy these incredible
properties so that's that's she's a
wonderful person and they run a
wonderful business and um but I do want
to thank you the work you've done with
the
Alam neighborhood and like really
integrating yourself into their meetings
and um just being a really good neighbor
I think that means a lot to to them um
for you know a neighborhood that they
really care about and so um I really did
just want to thank you all for the
intention behind those relationships
that you're building
locally were you going to say something
thank you councilor were you going to
say something florus yes thank you Mr
Mayor I just want to say thank you John
for um you started out with this several
years ago and uh there were some bumps
in the road and uh I'm just really happy
you stayed and I think changing your
last name made a difference no I'm just
kidding but thank you so much and thank
you gentlemen I'm so happy that you're
here and um you're in an area where I I
look at that and I thought oh we can
make we can have public H we can have
housing there but this is even better
because it's really well not I mean we
still need housing but um in so far as
generating all this work and all this
aspiration and and I think that's what
New Mexico needs or at least um yeah so
we need so thank you thank you gentlemen
and thank you
John thank you counselor okay so just a
couple more things John
so how many studios are there in New
Mexico just approximately I know there's
one in Albuquerque right and and one in
Santa maybe mayor city council there are
about seven different facilities with
varying amounts of actual sound stages
in New Mexico Albuquerque Studios um I25
fulcrum uh NBC Universal the uh
Albuquerque Journal has a stage in
Albuquerque Santa Fe Studios um there's
a couple more those are the ones do you
know how many have actually
and I too appreciate you all your
investment in in purchasing the students
or working to build do you know of those
seven that you mentioned how many
actually I mean are some of them just
renting it or are they actually buying
it as you all have done mayor city
council good question um so the majority
of the the studios that I just mentioned
are are primarily purchased um one thing
to note Netflix studios are for Netflix
only Productions uh and same thing with
NBC Universal so one of the things that
you're seeing with Albuquerque Studios
being taken offline by Netflix is an
increasing need for soundstage space um
that is also one of the reasons why we
are focusing our immediate attention on
the 30,000 SQ foot retrofit because
we're seeing the interest on a daily uh
for soundstage space there's no
soundstage space available in New Mexico
at the moment uh same thing with Backlot
space okay and and the reason why I
bring this up you and you may be aware
of this uh recently the uh chair of the
Senate finance committee
is um just and looks like it's gotten
some traction here it wants to look at
some of the incentives that are going to
the film industry and um you know they
want to know if the ROI is is good and
all I was going to suggest is
to um make sure they know that when you
all do what you're doing you know the
cities also benefit from the tax roles
that you put on there as well as and and
I think councelor bomo mentioned about I
don't know someone who helped you do the
financing you know that money that
you're paying to the financial
institution also I don't know if I don't
know if it's New Mexico but hopefully
stays here and that also you know helps
build jobs as well so that's all I'm
going to say uh I'll I'll be reaching
out to the chairman um and let him know
that you I'm supportive of this I I I
think I think if there is going to be
a um you know be able to help those that
are investing I mean you all stuck your
neck out you did a lot and and I think
it's important that the state still has
your back basically and and that's one
of the things that I'll convey to the
chairman but I was just curious if you
all knew that they're looking at uh
doing an audit because they're they're
saying that right now I think it's about
100 million that the state gives and
it's looking to go up double in the next
few years so you know they want to make
sure that the return on investment is
good and and I just thought you know be
sure to put about the taxes talk about
all the other stuff that even though
you're you bringing in money you're
you're also buying
businesses as well and that's a huge
return for us
yeah mayor uh C Council on that note I
would like to mention something uh that
my co-worker Chris Shepard and I have
recently started working on we've been
following with those committee meetings
over the last six months uh pretty uh
intensely and we are actually taking the
notes that those committee members are
asking on the type of Roi that they
would like to see and the way that they
would like that laid out and so
internally we're actually preparing our
uh economic impact data to reflect what
um those committees are looking for and
what um Ed
will look to put together in the next
year so our our internal reporting will
be directly in line uh with what the
state is looking to see very good and
one last thing and I'm glad to see what
you all are doing trust me but are you
all familiar with the Sawmill District
in
Albuquerque so uh if you look at one of
my state of the city addresses I
mentioned three things I mentioned the
the land across from the from the uh
from Mountain View I also mentioned the
the AL P Corridor and I and I kind of
danced around around that area where
you're at because I wanted to do that as
something similar to Sawmill if you how
you have that um uh the cotton genen and
uh so it was going to be the the cotton
District but hey when when the governor
announced that you all were bringing
this studio here I thought well there
goes that but hey good good for you this
is going to be great this is really a
great investment for the city I'm really
proud of all that you have have done to
make it move and uh you know this is be
really cool don't forget about uh Liam
niss when he coulds here okay so stop
looking at branon I mean that that guy's
an incredible actor I mean I like the
others too don't get me wrong you know
but Liam Liam is pretty cool
so okay nothing
further anyone from the public I mean
we've got a little bit of time here if
you're W want to say say
anything
no okay well thanks again we appreciate
it and best of luck to you and uh
everything looks very exciting thank you
man May thank you city council
appreciate your time okay all right if
there's nothing further entertain a
motion to adjourn move to adjourned
second by Flores motion made by
councelor Graham councel Beno and second
by councelor Flores Christine this is on
the motion to adjourn the work session
councelor AA is absent councelor
Graham yes thank you councelor bomo yes
councel cran yes councel flutes yes
councel Ganda is absent and mayor yes
okay we're adjourned it's 2:52 p.m.
thank
you
look
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