[Music]
adoptions are $25 you will need to go to
a s CMV org slash adoptions to view the
pets that are available there Animal
Control is only bringing emergency cases
back to the shelter and the shelter's
only accepting sick or injured owner
surrendered animals and they're only
taking emergency health appointments
from adopted or foster animals now today
the temperatures could get warm again
it's a little breezy out there as well
up to 95 degrees and I saw as hot as 97
on Thursday a reminder to never leave
pets outside for long periods of time to
provide water and shade to keep them
from rusting on concrete room them
regularly except exercise when it's
cooler and provide frozen treats if you
can in the Communications Office would
also like to take the opportunity to let
you know what's going on with Koba 19 as
far as the parks because of code 19 city
parks have closed and Parks and Rec has
a strategy for reopening and today phase
1 some specialty parks are reopening
lions park tennis courts and Apodaca
pickleball courts were open Tuesdays
Wednesdays and Thursdays and now
Saturdays are added all four of those
days will be open from 8 a.m. to noon
and again from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. and
today we add Metro Verde tennis courts
that schedules the remote control track
and remote control airport locations
will operate as normal hours starting
today phase 2 begins next Monday June 15
and that begins with at least one park
opening in each district I want to
direct you to lost - Bruce - stop Oregon
to visit the Parks and Rec Department
page where you'll find more of what's
going on in phase one and Phase two and
we hope you get outside and start
getting back to what I think we can
consider starting to be normal as we
start to reopen up the parks for the
city Thank You mayor yeah Thank You
Jennifer okay so we have one item on the
agenda 1.1 which is called the cinematic
infrastructure update and so I believe
doctor Griselda Martinez from our
director of our economic development is
going to lead us off on this dr.
Martinez Thank You mayor good afternoon
mayor and city council members cassano
Martinez economic development director
for city of Las Cruces before you I have
a an important
that we have been working on for a
number of years and as I share my screen
here y'all I also like to let you know
that we have representatives from film
Las Cruces
as well as New Mexico State University
System
Lenny Martinez and Monica territories
and as I work through the technical
elements of this I believe I had done
this before at the end
would you please guide me on sharing my
screen so yeah just a green share button
at the very bottom and then you should
be able to select your PowerPoint or
your desktop and I found it all right so
first of all this was a presentation
that was scheduled to be done mid-march
and it was when all this current
situation started to evolve and we
canceled this work session so after we
have settled down a little bit we saw
the opportunity to bring this item for
discussion before you so I'm gonna be
presenting the history starting with the
funding how we are the first funds were
allocated to this purpose they were
completed by city of Las Cruces staff
throughout time and also the
expenditures that we have encouraged
through through the work that we have
completed I'm gonna also brief you on
the request for proposals that we
publish in 2018 and 2019 and then
options for next steps as staff has
evaluated to them obviously you have the
opportunity to provide further guidance
and we welcome that
so the initial item that triggered the
city of Las Cruces being focused on film
was to see the resolution
that was adopted in at the end of 2014
also in 2015 a Memorandum of
Understanding was created with filmless
Cruces in which we started our yearly
commitment to pay for economic
development services for film for a
total of ninety five thousand dollars a
year in twenty and 2015 we also received
state appropriations two different
pockets of money from the stage one for
four hundred four hundred and two
thousand dollars and the other one for
five hundred and fifty five thousand
dollars and the scope of the work
allowed with these two state
appropriations were related to plan
design equipped film infrastructure
which stills still is the the scope of
work under this in 2015
the city also allocated from home
homeless GRT funds a total of three
million and so that total was what we
started as the funding in which we
started using funds for the work that
I'll present the following in 2000 in
2016 originally the work that was
defined to be done was as a part of the
expansion of Las Cruces Convention
Center so at the end of 2016 it was
defined that this was not necessarily
the best course of action given the two
different functions of the facilities
and there was a resolution to separate
these two items and have the Convention
Center expansion on its own and they
look for for a different alternative for
the film studio which let's see in also
at the end of 2016 the 2020 100 South
Valley Building which are a lot of
people know it as the coca-cola building
became as an option for acquisition
in December there was a commitment from
the city of Las Cruces that was put as
earnest funds towards the acquisition of
this building and the total was the
$5,000 at that point also in from City
Council in January of 2019
there was the support of autozone tax
credit that was passed the state and so
that approved additional credits for
rural areas and in September of 2019
there was the transition from the
memorandum of understanding with film
Las Cruces to a performance contract
with famous Cruces and we continue our
commitment of the original amount per
year so this is just a summary of the
work that we have done and a lot of the
this work was done initially to evaluate
the options of in your building which
was the work done in March of 2016 at
that point locations were assessed for a
film studio and this assessment included
the option for the West Mesa industrial
park then the work that was done
following that focused on the options
for an existing building which was 2100
South Valley and so the items that you
see listed I'm not gonna go into a lot
of details because they're their lengthy
studies however I want to highlight that
during the 2017 studies when we receive
the building condition assessment the
environmental assessment as well as the
evaluation of sound and vibration it was
the decision was made to not move
forward into the acquisition of twenty
one South Valley building and with that
staff started looking for additional
options in which at that point we saw as
an opportunity to engage private
industry
and we defined that opportunity and with
the knowledge of the key elements for
success for a film studio facility
assuming that it was a new building we
put out an RFP that called for
investment management and operations for
a film facility and so we published it
the first time I made mid mid year in
2018 and then we were published in
August and in both instances we receive
one response and it was the same
response in both instances so we
continue with our selection process as
defined in our procurement code and we
initiated negotiations with the
respondent in November of 2018 we came
back to City Council in December of 2018
and we continued negotiations until
January unfortunately during this year
we we staff weren't able to reach a
contract with the respondent due to the
one of the requirements being management
and operations as as an a key component
to success and with the experience to be
linked to the film industry and so the
respondent was not able to provide that
that that last component they were able
to provide the funding for the
investment and the expertise in
development but we closed that I said
not yielding a contract so at that point
we we started we we started looking for
alternative options and in the last six
months we have done a number of things
we reached out to New Mexico economic
development cabinet secretary Alicia
Keys and we have discussed with her the
option to for the economic development
department and the New Mexico film
office to help us attract a producer and
that would serve as a banker
and then that we could explore leader
funding as an opportunity to attract
those industry partners and somewhat
mirroring what has happened in non
Albuquerque at some point during the
conversation with secretary Keyes
we were asked to provide some materials
that we could utilize for recruitment
and we have provided a flyer with the
opportunity from the city that captures
the information that I'm presenting to
you also during the process that we were
following in the city
mimics New Mexico Dona Ana Community
College they went through a bond process
and they committed 3.9 million for a new
building for their creative media
technology and dr. Monica Torres can
speak in further detail about that and
also we participated in a meeting with
stakeholders that was hosted by animus
use creative media Institute as well as
from Las Cruces and representative
social tourism um as part of the
conversations to look for opportunities
for us to expand partnerships with
Mexico State University there was the
concept of a creative campus explored
and a charade took place and we had over
I would say 50 participants with a
number of different people from the
community including filmless Cruces New
Mexico State Dona Ana Community College
staff from from the city as well as
people in industry such as ganymede and
others who may have been interested in
expanding on this concept but also
providing their input on what this could
be digital media at that point she was
the finance digital film production
visual effects gaming production and
other elements in addition to to film
production
so right now given the expenses that we
incurred that I presented before you
we the funding available is three point
eight four four and I want to note that
between march and now that state
appropriation funds have been we have we
have been asked to freeze any
expenditures that have not been
encumbered
on the state appropriations until after
the resolution during the special
session coming up in June
so the options that we're bringing to
you are this this presentation was
capturing the work that we did up to
maybe during the same type of the
Charette and I believe that both
filmless Cruces and animus your system
have additional thoughts on what they
think would be a good idea for us to
utilize these funds and continue to
expand this cluster so option one is for
us to acquire in retrofit 21 sub valley
currently this building is leased by the
Jana Community College and managed by
film Las Cruces this could lead to a
long term production commitment from a
private entity in which case leader
funds would be able to be exam evaluated
as an opportunity to incentivize but and
the same for I'm sorry I'll give you the
details in in that in a moment the
option to it was based on the idea of a
film production I will be co-located
with the creative media and the creative
media technology new buildings that New
Mexico State University what he's
considering and this would be this will
require an outside entity to invest
manage and operate so this will require
basically what we attempted to do
through their RFP and also expand
through the
working relationship with the New Mexico
film office
this would also potentially be an
eligible project for leader if we were
to have this long-term production
commitment with the two options we have
the funding attached to options one and
two so if we if we are to go with option
one and two and considering the the
current funding and the the retrofits
required for twenty one hundred South
Valley we calculated from the studies
that gave us estimates in 2017 we
calculated an estimated cost of two
point one eight seven and that in
addition to the acquisition cost which
at the end in 2017 was one point eight
five currently the price of twenty one
hundred South Valley has dropped to one
point two five and so that would those
would be the two major expenses for
acquisition and retrofitting one item
that we would need to consider here is
the cost for management and operation
for the film studio collocating I'd NMSU
the instument from the estimated cost of
that is about fourteen million dollar
and so with the current funding that we
have the financial gap would be about
eight million dollars with that I'd like
to introduce Don Gray the director for
film Las Cruces and he can expand on the
options that they see as beneficial for
our community related to the work that
feminist Cruces is - okay thank thank
you dr. Martinez I will stop sharing my
screen
okay and you all see and hear me yes sir
okay we just need you to identify
yourself when you happy my name is dawn
gray and I'm the new director of film
las cruces and I'm going to try to share
my presentation on the screen which I
have never tried before okay let's see
if we can do it okay you can see can you
see it yes okay okay hi everybody
well I'm new here so just start by
saying that I've been with film las
cruces for a couple of months now my
background is that I have been I've
worked in the New Mexico film industry
for almost twenty years now I started in
the industry as a location manager and I
spent 14 years at the New Mexico State
Film Office so I have a lot of folks
that I know in the industry I've done a
lot of business in the industry a lot of
connections that I could have
conversations with and as we sort of
work through the ideas of what you guys
have as as an approach to to the
projects you have going on I thought it
would be really useful for you to hear
from me the conversations that I hear
that are happening in the industry the
film and just want to start by saying I
think that the film and media industries
are probably going to come back soon and
probably stronger than other sectors
economic development sectors and I base
that on a couple of things first of all
you know the industry is incredibly
scalable at all levels of production
they can move and and adapt in ways that
bigger industries industries that are
actually just as large can't necessarily
do because there are big productions
little productions each
productions and studios are actually
used to working on productions of all
scales they have tremendous resources to
produce the film and television industry
is an industry that has cash reserves
and are able to bring those reserves
forwarded to produce productions and the
other thing that's amazing about where
we stand right now in the industry is
that demand is very high for content I'm
sure everybody has watched all the
episodes of stranger things that they
wanted to watch they've listened watched
all of the projects that they wanted to
watch and the television shows and
movies and now we all want to see more
it's really what it comes down to you
know the film and television industry is
barely recession and depression proof
even during the great possession
depression in the 30s movie theaters did
quite well as people wanted to escape
the realities of the day so I I think
that that's some of the things that
we're going to see happening is that
they will start producing because the
demand is very high the trend the
pandemic itself certainly has created
some really interesting market forces
that didn't exist pre-pandemic and those
forces are interesting in that I think
the result of those market forces puts
Las Cruces particularly in a very
interesting position that I don't think
it has been in Prior and and to our
advantage in in some ways and I'll
explain what I mean by that the first
thing I want to say that is that Studios
schedule out their productions and
production cannot company's schedule out
their productions years in advance and
so a couple of things are going to
happen once production comes back online
once the agreements about how to create
productions happen a couple of things
are going to happen one is they're going
to have to restart the productions that
were already underway when the shutdown
occurred
you know sir some of those productions
may be canceled but most of them
actually will probably happen because
they're gonna have to proceed in order
that they can recoup would have already
been invested in productions that were
underway when the shutdown occurred but
just so you know that's an interesting
thing that happens is well you might
think on the surface of that that that
means that studios and production
companies will simply slide forward
their production schedules but it
doesn't really work that way because if
you've contracted Tom Hanks to be in
your movie and it's going to start in
the fall you can't shove Tom Hanks into
the winter because he won't be available
because he's already scheduled to do
something else and you certainly don't
want to lose Tom Hanks if you have him
because he's a big money maker in a big
trough so instead what's going to happen
is they're going to try to meet the
demand for productions that we're
already underway that they're going to
bring back online productions that were
in the schedule at the same time again
this creates for this is going to create
a huge amount of opportunity in the in
the industry another very interesting
thing that I see happening is a lot of
discussions going on in the industry
right now about how they can restart and
the industries is certainly an
interesting incubator no pun intended
but you know productions typically are
large with a lot of people that spend a
lot of clothes time together in order to
produce a production so that a lot of a
lot of discussions going on about how to
do that and of course one of the
sticking points is that they have to be
able to demonstrate that they can
mitigate risk particularly for the
insurance and bond companies and so one
of the things one of the conversations
at least what will come on back online
sooner rather than later and what we
will probably see emphasized in the next
12 to 24 months are smaller productions
or productions that can they're looking
to create contained environments in
which to shoot so one example that was
given to me by a producer is that
everybody
right now is looking for a small great
script of a horror picture that all
takes place in one spooky house
somewhere because that's a contained
environment for a production rather than
having to clean and prep ten to twenty
locations you can just do one and you
can clean that on a daily basis it's a
controlled environment and they're even
talking about controlling the crew where
the crews can go after the day's work is
done so they're talking about actually
renting out entire floors of hotels or
maybe an entire property of a hotel so
that they can control that environment
and demonstrate that the risk can be
mitigated for insurance companies and
for bond companies as well there's a
desire also in the industry to eliminate
to eliminate travel you know most of for
talent talent is the other part of this
equation that is the most scary for two
insurance companies if a lead actor gets
sick and they have to shut down an
entire production that costs a lot of
money so particularly with talent they
want to most of the talent lives in Los
Angeles and certainly a lot of the
directors and producers come from there
as well and they want to limit travel
particularly international travel and
the exposure that international travel
brings with it so there's actually a lot
of desire to find places that don't
require a lot of travel but also there's
other this there's this other thing
happening which is that a lot of folks
are trying to envision ways to move
production out of densely populated
places so certainly two of the most
active zones for production have been
over the years Los Angeles and New York
and those are two places that were hit
very hard by the by the coronavirus and
that will remain susceptible and our
areas that a lot of communication can
take place so they're looking for other
alternatives of places that they could
go that weren't that can still service
but are not necessarily as densely
populated so I returned to that desire
for contain productions and this is
where I think we can identify some
opportunity for Las Cruces and I want to
emphasize that I I see that 2,100 South
Valley is something that can need a meet
and meet a need at this moment of where
we stand in production it is an existing
standing usable asset that is in and of
itself as a production container so
actually in addition to maybe that one
location horror movie
Hollywood is currently focusing a lot of
attention on film and television
productions that can be produced within
the container within the confines of a
stage space of some kind and so there
has been a lot of inquiry about that
space because it's it's a production
container that exists that stands today
that somebody could move into tomorrow
also our lower population density is his
attractive to Hollywood as well as our
travel proximity it doesn't take very
long to get here you don't have to take
a very long flight say from Los Angeles
all the way across the country to
Georgia so you can eliminate your travel
time on an airplane the other thing that
the other market pressure is that this
new coronavirus world of production is
actually probably going to increase the
overall cost of production for studios
and production companies because they
are going to have to suddenly have
medical advisers they're going to have
to have cleaning crews they're going to
have to buy out entire properties to
house crews so correction costs are
going to go up because production costs
are going to go up the shopping for tax
incentives which has always been a part
of the industry for
for twenty years that I've been involved
in it is going to be more intense than
ever before which also makes Las Cruces
very very advantageous because in Las
Cruces the maximum 35 percent of the
state film its incentive is achievable
as achievable you take the base twenty
five percent of tax incentive amount you
add on that five percent for quality for
using a qualified production facility
which by the way 2,100 South Valley
already is a qualified production
facility so anybody shooting their days
in the in the in 2100 South Valley would
get the additional five percent taxes
tax credit and they would also be
getting the five percent rural tax
credit on top of that so the thirty five
percent is ultimately achievable here in
Las Cruces which makes us very
attractive as well now so I've been
feeling these conversations and these
these enquiries but I I would be remiss
if I didn't tell you that I do have one
recurring question one one what I would
call as your sales person I would call a
sales objection in the interaction and
that is the number one question about
film las cruces studios that is 2,100
South Valley is about sound treatment of
facility and there's not a lot of sound
treatment in that facility and as you
are well aware it has a very close
proximity to item and so it needs
additional sound treatments and I know
this has been discussed in the past and
there's a variety of opportunities
possible I do believe that for a fairly
modest investment that we could add
sound treatments to to 2100 South Valley
and bring it to the point where we can
over overcome that objection in this in
the sales conversation and make it much
more marketable than it has been before
I'd also like to point out that I know
that there's has to be consideration and
discussion of the
anteye the donation clause and that
because 2,100 is not owned by the city
it's owned by a private individual that
we can't do things to the facility which
are current become a permanent part of
the facility but it is possible to add
soundproofing to 2100 South Valley
without doing that and without I believe
without violating the anti donation
clause so there's a couple of things
that we could potentially do at 2100
South Valerii one is that we could
install insult quilts which is sort of
the industry standard for soundproofing
it's a soundproofing material like a
blanket which absorbs sound and so quilt
is is one of the options available and
they're also our possibilities of an
exterior sound barrier I read through
the Zia engineering sound assessment
that they did a while back and one of
their main suggestions was to create
some kind of a sound barrier between the
studio itself and and the high ten as
well and and I just want to point out
that insel quilt is a product which yes
typically is installed in a permanent
way if you see on the slide the upper
left-hand corner there you see that
that's the typical installation of inso
quilt and products like in so quilt in
the student in studios but it doesn't
have to be installed that way actually
in sukkot does a good portion of their
business with a product that's meant to
be set up and taken down at a later date
they actually do a lot of soundproofing
and sound amelioration four-issue
million for construction sites which are
temporary so it can be installed in the
temporary basis you could actually this
we could actually purchase this as a
movable assets something that could be
moved to a purpose-built facility when
when that time comes and and this is
something that we could do and move in
the future in terms of a sound barrier
we looked into a little bit about the
possibility of using
if something even as simple as a as
storage containers shipping containers
stacked up between the facility itself
and high ten shipping containers are
actually frequently used for sound
containment it's fairly quick and easy
and fairly affordable approach shipping
containers can either be purchased they
can conversion which is new or used and
or even least on a month-by-month basis
as well and that would address that
possibility as well so I just I wanted
to bring this up because I do feel like
the industry is going through a moment
right now the industry is changing and
adapting and certainly for the next 12
to 24 months they're going to be looking
for these opportunities for these
contained spaces and anybody who has one
of these contain spaces is going to be
in the conversation in the industry as
I'm sure you're aware the curtain when
Netflix purchased Albuquerque studios in
Albuquerque it created already a bit of
shortage of sound stage inventory in the
New Mexico market even before the
pandemic and now I think that pressure
will be even higher because there will
be more people looking for those kinds
of production containers so film Las
Cruces his recommendation is that the
city should clarify sound treatment
options and the conformity with anti
donation clause and if if we can
identify that it is not a conflict with
anti donation plus we actually
encouraged an investment in some some
sound treatment for some portions of
2100 South Valley because that will put
us in the conversation in the market
situation for available space in the
industry which is Inhofe is coming in
high demand in my belief thank you so
much Thank You Don
mr. mayor next we have dr. Monica Torres
to speak about the opportunities with
NMSU and the ACCC
okay thank you that sort of uh your
muted you want on New York yeah thank
you thank you or mayor thank you members
of the City Council I'm going to share
my screen with you as well and doc
tortoise I just need you to state your
name when you started speak yes my name
is Marty Costas and I'm the president of
Dona Ana Community College and I'd like
to think thank you for for the moment to
present what a second option might might
look like you know the enemy si system
has been talking for a long time about a
creative campus probably at least at
least five years in it and it's felt
like a pipe dream but in the last year
or so there are some pieces that have
started to fall into place that make it
look like we might be able to move this
forward
let me there we go I wanted to go
through kind of basically five general
directions I want to provide a little
bit of NMSU context in terms of what
what the system is thinking about in
terms of strategic directions I want to
talk a little bit about digital media
and then all talks more specifically
about what an opportunity and the vision
of something called a creative campus
what it might actually look like I'd
like to talk a little bit about national
and local trends and then and then what
are the resources the community the
community college and university bring
as a system and and what white might we
be asking from the city of Las Cruces so
if you haven't looked at the system's
strategic plan you'll see that there are
a number of elements then there there's
there's four major goals and these are
some of the elements within those goals
but I think are critical that would form
something of the foundation for a
project like this one is the system's
very interested in enhancing the social
mobility of our students and I'll talk
I'll talk a little bit why but we
probably don't need me to talk about why
we probably understand the context of
the county the second thing is is animus
who's also interested in thinking how do
we apply research and creative activity
to address local and global challenges a
third part is is how do we prepare the
workforce for today and to
a fourth element of the strategic plan
is how do we support economic and
Community Development a fifth is that
we're very interested in how do we
enhance the PK 20 pipeline pathways to
careers so that students aren't just
studying but they're actually studying
and route to somewhere meaningful and
then finally we're interested in how do
we strengthen our public and private
engagement if you take a look and this
is not going to be a surprise to anybody
who works in meaningful ways in this
county but if you take a look at the
median household income you can see that
we go from the United States down to the
goes all the way to the southern part of
the county and you can see that while
the median household income in the
country is fifty-seven thousand fifty
seventy six in New Mexico it drops to 46
seven and then when you look at Dona Ana
County and Las Cruces you're looking
between thirty-nine thousand and forty
thousand and then of course it drops
precipitously from when you when you
look at other parts of the county
but that's a pretty significant
difference between the US and you Mexico
and and Las Cruces if you look at the
poverty rates they match up exactly the
same way twelve point three percent in
the United States all of this I should
say was pre coded I'm sure that these
pictures have changed I'm not sure if
they've changed directions but they've
changed I'm sure since since then but if
you look at a 12% poverty rate in the US
and about a 20% in New Mexico when you
look at las cruces Dona Ana County Los
Cruces we're talking about a 24 to 26
percent poverty rate so that part of the
context for any work we do in the system
is how do we address this issue how do
how do we address the issue of income
and prosperity in our county and in our
community if you take a look at what is
it social mobility one of the one of the
great promises I think of higher
education is that it means something in
terms of social mobility and if you look
at the these are average earnings in
Dona Ana County and if you ran them for
the state or the nation you would find
kind of a similar trajectory but if you
take a look is that is it the more
college credential somebody has the more
income capacity they have in in terms of
their earning earning power and in some
cases if you look at a high school
diploma to a bachelor's degree for
example that's that's a pretty
substantial
difference not just in a year but when
you look over the course of a lifetime
in terms of economic impact and I can
talk about dACC did an economic impact
study a couple of years ago so this is
specifically about dACC but you can see
that that advantages economic advantages
don't simply accrue to the individual
although they do so for example for
every dollar invested by a student five
dollars and 20 cents come back to the
student in lifetime earnings but but
there are also broader positive economic
impact and that is for the taxpayer four
dollars and seventy cents in added state
revenue and social savings in society
fifteen dollars and seventy cents and
added taxes and public sector statements
so that when we think about a
fundamental issue that we're all
concerned with is increasing economic
prosperity in our community education is
certainly certainly one of the tools
that we have to be able to do this so so
I'm going to switch directions in terms
of context and talk a little bit about
digital media and and I want to point to
the two columns on the right and and
that is digital media is a it's fair to
say that our world is populated by
digital media products and I think
that's become I think Co but is gonna
make that more true rather than less
true certainly that's what we're seeing
in education but if you take a look at
that middle column products you can see
that the kinds of technologies and
skills and professions that will be
needed to produce these these documents
these games these texts this films movie
shows all sorts of things but I also
want to point as an educator to the very
bottom of that list and that's textbooks
we're seeing a tional materials becoming
increasingly digital and using the
skills of some of the professions and
digital media's and then in the column
in the right points to the variety of
industries I mean certainly
entertainment is one of the big
industries where we see digital media
but we're starting to see digital media
those skills and those technologies
needed in in many many industries
when we think of the creative campus as
an opportunity
I guess they offered this is how we see
it the opportunity is to support high
demand good paying jobs with
state-of-the-art digital and emerging
media skill development one of the
things that I think is is important is
to understand that as I as I said is
that digital media is becoming these
technologies are becoming more important
rather than less important because we're
seeing those sorts of needs and more
emergent industries from healthcare to
tourism to agriculture to education that
we're seeing we're seeing it basically
everywhere and then we also know that
the state has a number of priorities
including in film tourism agriculture
healthcare and education and and that
the these would be this sort of skills
and technologies would be leveraged by
the state's interest in this if we talk
about what this actually looks like as a
lot of times we we talk about that and I
got a couple of slides where I talked
about it's more specifically is that
what we're thinking of as a creative
campus vision would be a collaboration
that would be industry government and
the Academy working together to create a
focus center or digital medium it would
it would develop capacity to meet the
needs of today and tomorrow
it would create education pathways from
K to 12 to higher education to the
workforce so that we could kind of
benefit from all of us working together
and and creating these pathways for for
children to adults and professional
lives and then to create linkages to
local industries as I said healthcare
education but agriculture tourism
aerospace entertainment industries and
then finally one of the things I think
that is interested in is one of the
partners obviously is airhead Park is
that we also want this to be a structure
that drives innovation
in the production of content but I would
say it also drives innovation in terms
of education so that what it would
actually look like and this is where I
think we've started to take the tension
we've talked a lot about it conceptually
but we're starting starting to move in
the direction of defining this and that
is that it would actually look like a
group of facilities at Arrowhead
Research Park functioning
collaboratively to support digital media
capacity in our community but that if I
if I had to boil it down to a definition
that would be that my definition and
that the capacity would again include
training and production to support our
digital needs today and tomorrow in a
wide range of industries the the broader
kind of a broader picture here and I
want to talk about kind of the need in a
couple of different ways is that in a
study by water price waters Waterhouse
Coopers several years ago the u.s.
median entertainment industry is the
largest in the world and it's expected
to get larger it's basically the the
nutshell of this that we just see this
need increasing tremendously but I
wanted to talk a little bit about the
local picture as well and again I'm
gonna I'm going to make reference to
some work that dACC has done to show a
little bit about the kind of data that
we're looking at and some of this some
of this includes to your information
before your information as well so we
contract with the company called gray
associates to help us look at the
strength of our programs within the
context of the market and they have a
they have a very complex they have a
very complex scoring system so I won't
explain the corner scoring system but
what they're doing is they're looking at
four areas that helped us understand
where we are positioned in the market
student demand employment kind of what
we call fit right do we have the right
degrees for the job postings that are
out there and then what's our
competition
what's the intensity of the competition
around us and so I'm going to show you
some of their some of their reports that
that are complicated given that the way
they do the scoring but let me tell you
kind of basically what to look for the
more blue light green and green you see
on a page the better we're positioned in
in the market so in this particular
we're looking at we're looking at
created media design I believe is what
game and interactive media design I'm
sorry so this is the chart for game and
media active design and I just want to
call your attention again to blue light
green and green right that that's going
to tell you the strength of the scoring
in each of those areas and so part of
what they look on the lap left a student
demand on the bottom is degree fit do we
have the right degrees in the middle is
competitive intensity who what is our
competition like in our region and what
does the employment look like and again
you can just see that the overall score
in the top right is is kind of a light
green which is a strong score for for
the overall score when they when they
combine those four areas if we take a
look at the next one which is graphic
design you'll see again a very strong
overall score and you'll see you'll see
a lot of light green blue and then dark
green and then this is the third one is
cinematography and film video production
again strong strong scores but but the
reason I wanted to show you these is
that we don't want to we're quite
interested in one not starting programs
where there's not a need in the
community or two starting programs where
students when they graduate aren't going
to make aren't going to make salaries
that make sense given their investment
in the education so let me talk a little
bit about the assets that the NMSU
system brings to to this this project
one is one one of the most important
assets a space at animus use Arrowhead
Research Park and the second thing is is
Arrowhead Park has recently been engaged
in urban planning study to figure out
what what would this look like right
what might what my a community there
look like
as Griselda mentioned DCC in a local
bond has three point nine million tour
dollars toward a 15,000 square foot
facility for for the kind of education
that we provide we're in it we would
also need to look for 1.5 million in
addition to this to to complete the
funding for a 15,000 square foot
building and we're we're looking at
right now we will present to the state
capital outlay group will also look at
it reserves for the rest of that funding
we do have funding for a design study
for a creative media Institute facility
and as you know we have two academic
programs that offer certificates
associate degrees and bachelor's degrees
in the system we have faculty who are
experienced professionals in this
industry and one of the other things
that I think is kind of an interesting
addition is that we also have a unit
that could support customized non-credit
training for short term specialized
needs and so that would they would add a
little bit of a dimension to kind of the
credit programs and then recently as dr.
Martinez mentioned we we've got the
feedback from an MSU sponsored Charette
that was held on March 11th and this is
just more information about about the
academic programs the two-year dACC has
three associate degrees and nine
workforce certificates and the
university has two bachelor's degrees
that are offered out of the creative
media institute when i think about the
benefits of a creative campus i think of
it as something of a hub so there are
individual spokes with specific
functions but but the design is to
intersect at the center so that there's
a broad impact and so the impact would
be that there would be training
available for students who are looking
to start or in advance in a career
credentials that assure a qualified
workforce for existing industry skills
that promise to solve 21st century
challenges and a workforce in a
community that potentially drives
additional investment in the local
economy and and so for me that it's this
collection or this collective that that
really offers potential for broad impact
for our community
of course the collaboration offers some
very specific benefits as well that are
that are more precise so if we design
and plan together we have the option to
develop in ways that maximize space to
eliminate duplications we have the
opportunity to build in such a way that
enhances opportunities to interact and
collaborate and this this helps us build
public/private partnerships that will
support additional community development
and other opportunities so the next
steps for for the creative campus would
be that we coordinate education city and
industry partners to develop and
implement a plan
the NMSU system has asked me to take
lead on this coordination and so this is
certainly kind of a definitive step in
in moving in that direction the second
would to be builded facility funded by
DAC C's to support two goals one is
instruction that prepare students for
the digital media workforce which is our
primary goal right as a community
college as a teaching institution but
we're also interested in developing
space that helps us work with public and
private partners to expand digital media
capacity in the community so it's not
just about students although clearly
that's our primary mission but it's also
about partnerships that allow us to
provide more opportunities for our
students and more capacity in our
community and finally a next step i see
would be to secure funding for a second
facility that provides additional
instructional opportunities by in ways
that decrease repetition or duplication
but also increases digital media
capacity in the region so for example if
i were to think of the the creative
campus and the kind of instruction we
would provide something like a
post-production facility or a soundstage
would complement that and allow us to
start building a real community that
expands capacity so they ask from from
the system would be that we craft a
broad MoU between the city of Las Cruces
the NMSU system to underscore
partnership content and commitment to
utilize existing city of Las Cruces
funding to build a second facility on
the campus that supports workforce
training and public-private partnerships
to expand capacity in digital media and
which is clearly an industry position to
facilitate post kovat economic recovery
all indications are pointing in that
direction and then to collaborate with
the NMSU system to asking the city to
collaborate with the Animus u system on
a grant proposal to supplement funding
for for a second position thank you
so tortoise thank you for that
presentation I believe senator Jeff
steinborn would like he had a question
has his hand up so senator you have a
comment or question I probably need a
new chair unmute yourself there you go
I'm standard Jeff steinborn I'm the
president of belmonts Cruces and
appreciate a good conversation today
about the future of film and
specifically our efforts to build a
studio or have a functioning studio
facility in Las Cruces I want to say
first of all thank you to dr. torta NMSU
and then dACC really been an incredibly
dur and helping the put us in the
situation we're in now starting with dr.
Renee Scott who was the past president
helping to partner with film Las Cruces
to get to convert 2,100 South Valley
into a studio and what we did
simultaneously with that was we moved
the film crew training program to that
studio and that program just shot up and
enrollment has been very high since then
we've been producing a lot of crew and
also posting almost every film
production that's come to Las Cruces
since then have used that facility in
one way or another including the mule
Clint Eastwood's the mule use the
facility and walking with her filmed in
there as well and and all all major
productions of any size need facility
like that for one reason or another so
thank you to the Community College and
now as you've heard they funded through
their bond issue a next-level facility
for digital media which is very much a
critical part of film Las Cruces is
mission and I want to say that hearing
that talk about the creative campus is
exciting for us it's something that a
conversation that we started years ago
in fact we had a former board member CMI
professor who's now a department head in
Arizona named Derek Fisher who we did a
lot of research of garsun studios in
Santa Fe it has a very successful model
of co-locating an academic space with
the commercial space and we very much
have been advocating for this
partnership so the creative campus idea
is very much kind of the holy grail that
we would love to see happen but clearly
there's a there's a need for a lot of
additional funding in order to make that
happen with the city funds so I want to
just address the question at hand today
for you council which is you were
presented with two options by your
economic development department one do
something with 2100 to try to do
something at the creative campus what
I'd like to suggest to you as a third
option which is kind of a hybrid and
number one is Don laid out we when we
talked about creative campus understand
as far as recruiting film jobs and
creating film jobs here that's a very
much a future tense discussion and
whereas if we're serious about film
economic development we need to be
looking at what are we doing today what
are we doing a year from now and that
opportunity arrests exclusively with
twenty as far as you know the
traditional film industry and the five
hundred million dollar film industry in
the state in Mexico that opportunity to
rest in twenty one hundred South Valley
and so I think our suggestion of looking
at investing in sound treating is really
the way to go it can be for twenty or
thirty thousand dollars mas o menos we
can invest in sound treating material
that will greatly help us we were
contacted by a series that's trying to
get picked up my Netflix looking at Las
Cruces right now because of the coated
situation and Don didn't mention that
but the sound treating of the facilities
of a very serious knee
for us to improve it and that's funding
that we could then pivot to an existing
new purpose-built studio if that happens
sound treating is very common in
purpose-built studios and it's part of
the deal and so we can just pivot that
asset so that makes all the sense in the
world so with the new option 3 I would
say let's get to the bottom of the anti
donation issue and then if possible
let's look at some of those investments
with the funding that we have which is
very nominal but I think whether or not
the city decides to purchase 2,100 South
Valley which by the way can be purchased
for less than two million dollars or and
then retrofit for probably Nascimento
another two million I mean you could
spend more certainly you could spend a
lot less to get that done that's funny
that exists right now or if you choose
to do a purpose built that's you have a
gap funding me there but about seven
eight million both of those scenarios we
don't you all as council and we as the
city and us us it's almost justice we
don't have all the the full facts to
make a decision it's really depended
upon can we find a partner to invest the
funds and do we have a solid management
partner which is important to all of us
to ensure success a film production
partner and or a Content producer like
Netflix or NBC Universal that wants to
invest in Las Cruces and be here for a
long time that would be fantastic
I want to say that and so I would
suggest you option three basically
leaves both options open depending upon
what type of partnership we're able to
arrange we would agree the Holy Grail
the best case option for us is if we can
find a partner and do the creative
campus that's the ideal mousetrap
for this community but we shouldn't be
so myopically focused on that that if we
cannot find a partner that can raise we
can find that 78 million dollars that we
should for clothes the stepped-up
approach of finding a partner to help us
manage a 20-hour extra fitted 2100 and
so by the way I think
look to even including that some partner
expanded partnerships with dACC
i just want to add mayor council that
the state of New Mexico you need to be
aware has invested I might not twenty
seven million dollars approximately of
lead of funds into building three
studios in the state already the state
of New Mexico is invested twenty seven
million they invested ten million
dollars into Netflix seven million
dollars is I believe the number in
acquiring basically a studio like a
building like twenty one hundred to work
with nbc/universal this was just in the
last year a previously under Bill
Richardson they invested ten million
dollars of lido to build Santa Fe
Studios so what I've been pushing for
and I have certainly been encouraging
your economic bellman Department and now
I'm going to encourage you today is it
politically speaking we only be leaning
on the state of New Mexico very hard to
to to create the same opportunity for
Las Cruces we've got three point eight
million dollars state of New Mexico have
a lot of lead of funds and it's time
that they find a Content producer like
NBC like Amazon like Netflix to locate
in Las Cruces utilizing our funds
partnering with state funds and that
politically you know we ought to be
doing this as a part of our strategy and
embrace it at all political levels you
mayor the council and staff so with that
that's that's my my two cents I
appreciate you letting me speak to in
there well I hate to see what a dollar
was thank you for that senator dr.
Martinez has a comment she'd like to
make and then I'll open up to counsel
yes mayor and city council clarify I
presented we're up to the Charette which
was talking about a film studio dr.
Torres is talking about a she mentioning
hers I think it was her last slide it
was to utilize the funding to build a
second facility on the campus that would
support workforce training and
public-private partnership to expand the
capacity in digital media so this would
be a war
for straining for the digital media and
so I would call it a two point B option
to point a was the film studio that had
been the discussion up to this
additional alternative which is a middle
ground in between the film studio and
this would be expanded to the digital
media also I believe that the the
presentation that mr. brain included the
incentives those incentives would apply
for employers in the digital media as a
whole sector and cities in the film
industry okay well thank you dr.
Martinez so we have counselor sword
Mosca san debate the stevie so come to
earth you've got the floor okay Thank
You mr. mayor if dr. Martinez could put
up that slide that has the options again
so we can all be looking at that as we
discuss this now she does that I would
like to tell the guy I look at the long
term here the long range plans for the
city of Las Cruces
to me it's all about jobs jobs for our
people in Las Cruces especially even low
income jobs and in some in middle income
jobs to increase their wealth
I do not know many of the jobs in the
film industry start out at $20 an hour
some don't but many of them do and so
this is a way to increase their income
and increase their wealth and increase
social justice in Las Cruces it's this
this also diversifying our economy and
and if you recall the report we got from
de labs and Albuquerque here a week or
two ago that was one of the items that
they said it would be helpful for us to
get back
to the economy we had before the color
covered 19 and of course that's what
they were talking about when they were
talking about economic base jobs these
are economic base jobs these bring in
money from outside our community and
provide our service jobs more service
jobs with economic-based jobs um I have
some questions but I also wanted to
mention a couple other things first all
along at least in the last few years
anyway I'll say I wondered why we didn't
work with the state's economic
development department it this is
something that the Senators steinborn as
well as the Don Gray mentioned that we
should be getting some partnerships with
the Economic Development Department in
the state I understand the previous
governmental government in
administration maybe not most
cooperative with this kind of a thing
but now with the administration we have
in Santa Fe now I think have a much
better opportunity to do that I
mentioned on the sound fixing the sound
in the sound stage on 2100 Valley often
wondered why how if those people that
have ever seen it the sound stage that
called I 25 studios in Albuquerque
they're right next to interstate 25 and
yet they handle their sound too so some
cooperation there that was done early on
when the 2400 2100 a Valley Drive was
looked at and to reduce visit that
little bit might be helpful as I'm on
that topic of sound stages I strongly
recommend our newer members of the City
Council
take a look at Dona Ana Community
College's CMI or CMT rather program they
have at the East Campus there it's very
educational and you get a good idea of
what they do and it's something that's
very interesting too as well as CMI at
NMSU if you haven't seen that yet I
asked for a tour I've been able to tour
both places even more than once now the
questions I have are for Don Grey those
that you talk to that may be interested
in Las Cruces as a place to do their
films and then they're asked if you if
we have a facility such as a soundstage
that would be part of their production
and they asked one is that one that is
that something that maybe a shot they've
shied away las cruces because we don't
have a purpose-built one yesterday I
definitely think that prior to what's
interesting is that prior to the
pandemic probably some enquiries started
to come in because some people were
aware that there well there was some
kind of an existing facility here but
what I was at the point I was trying to
make was that because of this shift in
how productions are gonna have to be
contained and and made for the next 12
to 24 months that's actually changed the
conversation to the point where almost
everybody I'm talking to that it's
inquiring about Las Cruces is asking the
question about whether we have a writ
existing facility or they're asked or
they are aware of the existing facility
and they are asking questions about that
facility specific course of questions
that's what led me to my observation
that the number one question I was
getting was what is the existing sound
treatment and so I see nice
well thank you it seems from all I've
read in the packet and all that we've
talked about it seems like the biggest
stumbling block for the new
purpose-built soundstage was trying to
find a manager for that soundstage mr.
Gregg do you have some insight on the
possibilities of having a manager to
manage a purpose-built soundstage or any
soundstage here you mean an outside
party that would contract to run the
facility yeah any manager that's capable
of doing it really mm-hmm
i I don't have any insight necessarily
on that specifically but it's certainly
something to pursue I do think you know
you know counselor the the thing that I
guess the thing that I'm trying to say
is that this moment in production maybe
the point at which we can jump into the
pool in a way that we haven't been in
before to where the answers to questions
like the one that you're asking for
example do you is there is there a
management company out there that might
be interested in contracting and doing
business in Las Cruces um the answer to
that is probably that their first
question would be is there any
production in Las Cruces and that's
that's why I think that we shouldn't
pass up this moment of availability of a
facility the need for a container
facility and that we might you know sort
of like everybody standing around the
pool and who's gonna be the first one to
jump in and tell us what the temperature
is we just want to entice somebody to
jump into the pool and then there'll be
a lot more of those questions that will
be easier to answer or that people will
be having more interesting because
they'll see that there is energy yeah
okay good
reminds me of the cart and the horse but
yeah I've noticed that in the past
that's what we have here is a little bit
of a problem there but a yacht okay I
understand
I think I had sip for me now mr. mayor
oh one last comment I'll make as you
were talking about Don about the travel
and travel from LA to Las Cruces and how
advantageous that can be I'm reminded at
one if not the first film festival we
had here in las cruces that was put on
the feature film that was locally made
by mark met off I forget the name of it
right now but Linda Hamilton starred in
it and she tells the story about how
well she liked mark and what would be
yeah we who always want to do something
that he asked her to do and what she did
and then those that don't know when the
Hamilton is a terminator Terminator Fame
she jumped in her car with the other
co-star from LA and just drove here came
here did the film and drove home you
know it was that easy that that road was
she enjoyed the tripping and she had a
good time here okay mr. mayor that's all
Thank You counsel counsel Vasquez and
councillor blade - Stevie Thank You
mayor and thank you to dr. Thoris so
much for her wonderful presentation and
mr. Grace presentation as well yeah so I
think we've had some difficulties right
and being able to lock down the
soundstage contract for the last several
years and figuring out what the fate is
of this capital outlay expenditures that
have been brought to the city that I
know we've asked for and that we've been
negotiating with in terms of having the
maximum impact in our community and
trying to get a piece of the pie of the
film industry in Las Cruces and I think
we've we've all heard different
discussions at different times certainly
were in a time today in which the the
film industry certainly has changed
quite a bit
as the rest of the state's economy in
the nation's economy and so I think
we're at least myself I'm I'm having a
different conversation in my head about
what the most important thing is at this
time in terms of investing this capital
outlay funding and the partnerships that
we can create in the city for some more
long-term economic opportunity and to me
that seems like from the wonderful
presentation that dr. Torres gave us and
thank you so much again dr. Flores
because you really laid it out in a way
that makes a very compelling case for
this community partnership that dACC
creating essentially its own facility
and then the city chipping in for a
additional workforce training facility
that has the benefits of job creation
and upward mobility for local students
seems to me like a more prudent
investment and like the wiser option in
terms of where how long our dollars will
go and what kind of impact they will
have on the people in our community I am
curious to know about maybe this
question is for mr. gray the existing
film studio if you could just kind of
recap what kind of economic activity has
been generated from the film studio in
the last several months or I guess maybe
since we last discussed this which has
to have been at least six months or so
I'm curious to see what what type of
activity the film studio is doing I know
there's a lot of student projects and
academic endeavors happening there which
is great but in terms of commercial use
of the studio and then bringing in
revenue mr. gray if you have any
information that you could share on that
that we appreciate
sorry since uh since I'm new to the area
into the job I don't have all of the
history of what has occurred there
recently I do know that the last
commercial production to use the
facility was a production called death
in Texas which was an independent film
and I'll actually defer to Senator
steinborn for any more historical
background on that because I'm just not
as intimate with that information yet so
thank you mr. great ensure that mr.
Steinberg senators name one would like
to provide any context or input okay so
I don't have an exact number of economic
activity I can tell you that you know
that the the city of Las Cruces
councilor you should know has not spent
outside of buying some SATs for twenty
thousand dollars has not spent a dime I
think on the studio it has been
completely underwritten by the Community
College and it has primarily been used
for training which has been great
because we've been producing film crew
and and again the facility has been
under it and by the community college
for that so the economic activity that
we would love to achieve in this town
hasn't gotten to the point where we
would love and that is why frankly as
film Las Cruces we had not advocated
spending any of that money
we've appropriated because like you we
don't believe in we don't want to spend
any of that money until we have a
partnership that we know will get us
that return on investment and so what
it's basically what the facility is
mainly been used for is training and
then has also been there as an asset for
when films come to town being able to
have that because without the studio
there it's very much a chicken in the
egg kind of a situation if you don't
have a studio you will never get a TV
show lots of feature films that use it
wouldn't come death in Texas wouldn't
have come and so in the show that we're
talking to right now
consider las cruces so it's kind of like
it's an investment it's an asset that we
have to have if we want to attract that
level but the good news for the city
taxpayers is that we haven't spent any
of that money on it it's being
underwritten for a training facility
Thank You senator I appreciate that that
honest answer so this question is maybe
for dr. Pretorius in terms of the DAC
sees plans for its campus creative
campus I don't know if you also can
maybe go back to the slide dr. Thoris
where you talk about the the joint
facility opportunity and the question is
is your facility going to be available
for commercial filming and is that it
will it serve essentially a similar if a
very or almost the same purpose as the
existing studio that dACC is leasing at
the coca-cola building now thank you for
the question councilor you know this is
not this is not an area that DCC we've
historically engaged in in terms of
private public-private partnerships but
it's an area that we're definitely
interested in pursuing so so our goal
actually is to to engage with private
entities and to try and figure out how
we can make things available in in
partnership that serve and I can give
you another example I was talking to the
department chair of our creative media
program yesterday and we were talking
about here's the kind of partnerships
we're trying to think about it this we
have equipment that's pretty high-end
equipment and he and our computer tech
department share we're talking about the
possibility what if we had our equipment
available for training between 8 a.m.
and 10 p.m. at night right which would
allow for classes to continue and it
would allow for students to study after
class but what are there things we could
do such
allow that equipment to be rented
overnight for rendering for example
right or for things that require some
high-end high-end equipment use so so we
are we have not done this historically
counselor Mascis but we are interested
in pursuing these these sorts of
partnerships and are kind of poised to
start exploiting those in an active way
thank you dr. Thoreau say I appreciate
that and I think yeah all the benefits
we can offer to a potential film
especially you know maybe some of the
indie films or some of the you know not
super Hollywood blockbuster type of
films in terms of resources in addition
to the incentives at the state and now
our local municipality offers would be I
think of added benefit and so so I you
know I think again investing in the
workforce in our local workforce and
those long-term job training
opportunities especially I think in
those higher paging higher paying jobs
when it comes to the digital media
production right not necessarily
exclusive to film but gaming the gaming
industry and you know the cellphone
games and all that kind of stuff that's
just really the industry is just kind of
booming I know in terms of the enemy
across different digital platforms is an
important is very important to me
because that gives our young people an
opportunity to get engaged in that
industry perhaps even to start a
business here or you know those those
those types of office operations that
don't require you to be in Hollywood but
you can do remotely with a good internet
connection and good and good equipment
like Ganymede games I think is a great
example of that okay
well I think those are all my questions
I think I'm you know leaning towards
option to be I think because of the
uncertainty of the film industry
because of the uncertainty of the film
industry today and the the just some of
the you know just some of the the issues
we've had especially with our private
industry partners just kind of falling
out over the last couple of years being
able to finally allocate this funding
towards something concrete would be
would be beneficial at this point in
terms of using this money Thank You
mayor and thank you again to all of our
presenters thank you Thank You counselor
counselor abate this to be thank you man
I thank you dr. Martinez dr. Torres and
mr. gray for your presentations I do
appreciate it for a little bit for my
own history I have a couple questions
for dr. Martinez first and the first one
is what performance based measures were
added to the contract I believe with the
film asked cruces Mayer considered a
maintance to be the this is part of that
we need for all contracts with the cilia
tied to peak performance and so filmless
cruces performance contract was one of
the first ones that we worked on for
this transition so examples of I don't
have the contract in front of me here
but examples would be number of crew
members here in Las Cruces and training
opportunities offered the facility you
cannot make impact of production done
here in Las Cruces those are a few
examples but I can share with you the
contract for the for the specific
details fantastic thank you I think a
lot of my first questions revolve around
those types of those types of questions
as well and I believe counselor Vasquez
asked a bit but if we've been able to
kind of track or see how much revenue
the productions have been able to
generate you know
city and this could be a question for
film Las Cruces if they have any
indicator of those impacts that it's had
[Music]
I'm trying to unmute myself so I've
gotten a text can you all hear me yes
Jan I need to be on mute of the video
but anyway I just gotten a text from my
staff you know one example counselor was
deaf in Texas it was filmed here had a
nine hundred and forty thousand dollar
impact on the city for example so just
the spend on local hotels
I think the mule when they were here
generated about ten thousand dollars in
taxes just by themselves the ten days
they were here keep in perspective film
the city pays a total of ninety five
thousand dollars a year so it's some
pretty significant you know when they
come they spend a lot of money in a
short amount of time and these were
productions just a few productions so
but death in Texas of course many of you
toward the set at film las cruces
studios and you saw it is a relatively
small independent film it generated
$940,000 direct economic impact in the
Las Cruces thank you um and thank you
for bringing you that up I did you know
get an opportunity to go look at this
set ileena brother who works in film and
I said before and when I was gone said I
asked you know what
what makes less Cruces and they did say
that having skilled workforce down here
was seem to be one of the greatest
challenges for getting these productions
to really commit to Las Cruces and so I
do think that kind of in my mind looks
that the fact that you know we need to
focus on that workforce development are
we still seeing those types of comments
coming from potential productions
oh and I think you're on with Senator
yes sir and it's very much a chicken and
the egg challenge that you have growing
a crew base that you need you need
production in order to to achieve we
have a non uniform crew in Los Cruces
where we have a deficit as in unionized
film crew and the film industry above
about a million dollar budget of a film
production everything above that is very
unionized and the film productions won
it that way because of all the safety
protocols but in order to be a union
crew member you have to work on a union
shown so so one of the challenges we
have here is how do you grow that crew
base if you don't have that type of
production here and so that's where film
las cruces studios is very very
important is that by facilitating the
dACC
film crew training program when people
graduate that program they get half
their days towards joining a union crew
and then as film productions come in
that we accommodate because we have that
space we've been able to get them chose
like death and Texas became a union show
and we ended up with Union crew members
out of the Carpenters others craft
services people who had never even
worked on a film so it's kind of the
chicken and the egg thing that we need
to work on simultaneously and it's part
of the mission of film las cruces and
yes we we do and will for a while
continue to have that need and that's
where less you have a facility like the
most Cruces studios you know it's going
to be very hard on you to be candid the
film industry as it exists now you know
needs probably about thirty forty
thousand square feet to accommodate even
a movie or or let alone a TV series
because the stage part is only one part
of it with a 15 to 20,000 foot stage
then you need another several thousand
square feet of offices and the
construction mill and others so the
facility is a great great opportunity
for us in that way and it's important to
understand if that's the type of jobs
we're trying to create
you need that type of a space and we you
know I totally agree with all the
comments about going after the digital
jobs big time I think that's very
exciting but anyway Oh counselor could I
add something as well to that discussion
this is dawn grace I also wanted to
mention that as a result of what I was
talking about before of that that need
for those sort of production containers
for the 12 or 24 months it's very
interesting conversation that I've
started with aloe with a company that a
production company equipment company
here in New Mexico called PRG and with
Matt burns over at Dona Ana community
know if anybody here watches the
mandalorian but if you watch the
mandalorian you might be amazed by the
production that high production values
and ok and that production the locations
that you see in the background in the
lot in the mandalorian are not real
they're 100% generated by the actual
Unreal Engine which is a game game
creation of background creation software
and they are actually projected on very
large LED screens that are behind the
actors this is all down done on the
stage facility and the reason that I
wanted to put PRG which actually
provides those LED screens together with
Dona Ana Community College as well one
was because they PRG needs trained
professionals that know how to set up
and operate those those screens but also
because this is another very very
interesting when you talk about jobs
available in the industry here's a
really interesting shift it used to be
that most of the people that that did
say green screen replacement or
explosive special effects digital
special effects would only be a part of
the production after a production was
shot so in the post-production phase and
most post-production is done and
probably will remain being done the
majority of it will be remain being done
in Los Angeles but because of now these
new technologies for shooting production
and and the demand for them so that you
can keep them into that kind of
container situation they're gonna
actually have to move a lot of those
folks that would do would have normally
done things in post-production into the
pre-production phase where the director
will work with the digital artists in
order to create the backgrounds in the
worlds that the actors will be acting
against and have them do it here during
the shoot as well because you know
there's going to be a director who says
hey you know that mountain in the
background well I've changed my mind
take the mountain now and they'll have
to be digital engineers we'll be able to
do that and the beautiful thing is dACC
is training those people already and so
I love the idea of of a container
existing here a production that has the
equipment to create the backdrops and
then our students our graduates actually
having jobs that not only are available
in the post-production phase but in Cree
and shoot phase of a production that's a
whole that's a whole new thing in
Hollywood that's brand new that I think
we have actually some unique assets to
take advantage of in Las Cruces Thank
You mr. gray before you jump counselor
obaid STD Kenna looks like Manny Gus
wanted to make a quick comment if I
could let her speak real quick Thank You
mayor and councillor a basis to be you
asked about the contract measurements
that we have dr. Martina Martinez was
correct when she mentioned some of the
items I just wanted to give you a quick
review of them it's the number of
production days shooting in the city the
spend amount by productions in the city
the number of production related film
permits growing the the crew database in
the city the number of worker days in
the city and then the over full list
membership as well as the number of
businesses that are in their film
business film friendly business
and then the number of databases in the
film locations database so in addition
to the so those are just the the metrics
that we that we have asked them to track
and they give us a quarter actually I
think a monthly report but quarterly
they they send us a report and as of
March film Las Cruces was on track to
meet all of the goals for this year I
think if they don't they don't meet them
they'll be closed because we know that
obviously kovat 19 has impacted some of
the ability to do the work but in
addition to them providing that
information to staff on a monthly and
quarterly basis we do ask someone's
Cruces to do an annual report to City
Council which I believe is tentatively
scheduled for next month so they'll go
over all of those metrics where they are
and and whatever may have impacted the
performance so some council will get a
full report from them
okay clastic thank you thank you thank
you um my next question would be for dr.
Torres and we talked a lot about the
partnership between students and getting
them from being students to be in the
skilled workforce and I was wondering if
we've trashed a number of students even
post graduation how many were able to
make that career fulfillment of becoming
active on sets and even if we are
tracking those that have made it
becoming union members Marin and the
councilmember about the student you know
I don't have that information with me
one of the one of the issues I think
that higher ed has right now and that we
continue to have is the people that we
track best into the workforce are the
people in health care and that's because
we have accreditation and that those
pros programs happened to be a little
bit smaller so I can tell you that's
where dACC is those are the people we
track best into the workforce I I do
know actually tracking them into the
Union will probably is probably a little
bit
here but I don't have that information
with me but I would be happy to pursue
that with the department chair and and
see if I can get you that information
that would be lovely thank you okay
absolutely and thank you I mean for me
this is a it's an exciting opportunity
but I know with current situations we
have to be very mindful as I said before
my brother works in film he does Hite
productions I mean with Marvel stuff
like that he's in lighting electrics and
so it's fascinating but he's on hold
until September and so and that's kind
of best case scenarios so we don't know
kind of what the future holds on that
and I'm always inclined to make sure
that we have that work force that
consistently was an item that kept being
brought up by those that were running
out the space at film last Christmas
when I visited was brought out more than
once that that training skilled
workforce was needed and so I I consider
that a long-term investment for our
community it to have it so I look
forward to to hearing the report next
month as well from film auspices and
then also to getting that information
from you dr. Torres
thank you absolutely Thank You counselor
it looks like we have um we just verify
it dr. Martinez did you have another
question or did you forget to put your
hand down
okay mayor pro-tem
Gandara and then councillor Vasquez
Thank You mayor thank you dr. Gomez dr.
Martinez every bit I'm done I appreciate
that I agree this is really exciting but
as someone who has heard now for the
fifth year around film it certainly is
the chicken you know an egg situation
we're gonna have to take a risk and I'm
often have felt so two things I think
because the information is is old but
valid I know that there was a report
from
Consultants as it related to the Koch
building that I think would be helpful
to have I know early on in my when I
first got elected that was something
that was shared with us and I think I'm
having that information would certainly
be helpful moving forward so we have a
better understanding but you know what
what they're what we're trying to work
with the other thing is I would agree if
we are having current conversations as
the film Las Cruces is having with
people that want to come into the fold
but we need better sound and those kinds
of things working through the anti
donation and putting forth whatever I
don't know if that is thirty to forty
thousand dollars I think senator
Steinberg mentioned that Don do you have
a better estimate in terms of how much
that sound whatever that that
terminology is that we would need to
capture some of the smaller productions
like the series maybe commercials things
of that sort
yes councilors and mayor thank you so
much I think I think 30 to 40 is
probably a reasonable estimate at this
stage based on some of the preliminary
research that I've done perfectly I
don't that was
excuse me come here for ten that was Don
Gray speaking I'm just trying to keep
that on so that Christine can can do
that in the minutes okay I apologize no
worries thank you mayor um yeah I think
I think we're gonna have to spend some
money to be able to get you know people
to come to the table as we move forward
which then means helping build the union
piece of the workforce that needs to
have the experience right so that's not
a lot of money I think in the whole
scope of things as we move
and and it's gonna be you know it I
think it's it'll be well worth it
knowing that we have or than what the
needs are
I especially I doctor told us it was
thank you for that for the statistics I
think overall we've been asking for some
of that data and it's good to see that
piece as we move forward and so I'm
really excited there were many items in
the green and blue who I think you you
said and being able to partner with
being able to partner with the
University is exciting and I think we we
need to move very quickly into those mo
use whatever we need to do to do that
and is something that for sure I would I
would definitely approve of doing the
only other opportunity again is or
concerned that I have is I know that we
were putting a lot of money into what
might look at the coca-cola building as
the maybe of the possibility of the
sound stage so I'm sorry dr. Martinez I
know you had your hand up at one time
could we get that could we get that
report and will that report be good
because I think it's self you years old
at least
yes mayor Councillor Gandara mayor
pro-tem the reports yes we can make
those available in the report that I've
put together in lieu of last when we
canceled the work session I pretty much
summarized the findings through the
through the different reports some if
you would like I can just walk us
through the highlights of those reports
if you see that needed
or bill the first report done was the
building conditions assessment and he
was done for a two-part the first one
was just two for general purposes and it
would included bringing the bringing the
building up to code evaluating the
heating ventilating and air conditioning
the plumbing the fire sprinkler system
and electrical systems and then the
second part of the report included the
same items but specific for the film
studio utilization which would be a
little bit more specialized for instance
in the plumbing they talked about adding
if we mirror that if we were to mirror
that building to I 25 Studios in
Albuquerque adding in area for laundry
which is something that they have a I 25
so that is for the building conditions
assessment the second evaluation done
that was the most recent and the one
that led to for us not to move forward
with the purchase was the Sun and
vibration study and that's where it led
to the sound being a issue for film
production and in the recommendation and
in the report was to build a wall that
at that point I believe we evaluated in
I believe he was about $500,000 and so
at that point we hadn't the the
solutions of sound abatement that have
been discussed today at that point we
were not aware of those solutions we
were with that we went with the
recommendations provided in the report
another item that was part of that
evaluation was the different price that
that 2100 South Valley building had at
that point which was I believe was a 2.4
during its
we find it here the it was 2.4 million
and also the appraisals to appraisers
that were completed for that building
one was one point one point 775 and the
other one was one for one point nine to
five at that moment one of the reasons
to the price of the reduction as I spoke
to the real estate agent recently is
that people a part of the land in the
backside was sold to a different owner
so that that changed a little bit the
the size of the property as well in the
in this last few months
thank you dr. Martinez I appreciate you
going over the step by step I think
that's really important for for me
anyhow my second question is for dr.
Thoris you had made mention I'm looking
for a partner right to build am i
assuming a sound stage for work force
but it could be used for specifically um
being able to recruit documents is that
is that true or would it be simply for
work for Workforce Development I'm sorry
could you repeat the very last part of
your question the last part is more
about I know that looking for someone to
helps her to build this state this
soundstage but would we be able to use
that for commercial the commercial
benefit being able to recruit like big
productions and whatnot I think our our
goal would be to figure out how we do
that because we're interested we're
interested in doing that in fact the
value of working with the main campus
the city and other partners is to to
create those sort of opportunities
that would drive not just workforce
development the economic development so
so our intention would be to look for
that sort of partnership yes okay cool
and would you do you think that we would
have to continue or you would continue
to use the coca-cola building as an
opportunity because right now it's being
used for students correct that's correct
that's correct you know at this point to
be frank I don't know I don't know but
what I do know is that is that we've had
a really good relationship with some Las
Cruces and the reason I don't know is I
don't know how to configure how how
things will change in configuration as
we bring up a creative campus but so
there may be some I suspect that there
might be some opportunities at the
coca-cola plant at 2100 down the road
that I'm just not seeing because I don't
know what the complete configuration is
but we but to be frank we would we would
have to reassess as things start to
emerge we would want to reassess as
what's what's our investment but there
may be some things available at 2100
that we don't have available at creative
campus because when we configure
collectively we think why would we do
that here and there and so so my sense
is that is that we would have to
reassess I can't I'm not able to say a
definitive yes or no we would have to
reassess but that would be part of the
collaboration right that he would be
building with that in mind here sure
sure I I guess I don't want to get into
the situation where where because I can
see us doing a creative yeah a creative
space there at the university to edge
help with their students and build our
workforce and whatnot but I I think that
I don't want us to compete with you know
one or the other I want us to
to really build from that right and I'm
afraid that we might find ourselves as
it as as we move forward and working
with the University and I'm not trying
to suggest not to I think that's an
excellent idea is that you know first
and foremost your your I would think if
your goal is to educate your our ears
our students right and and although I'm
sure the film productions is a way to do
some of that it isn't an entirety right
and so I don't want to see and make sure
that we understand that you know what
that might might look like so I I just I
understand that we I I certainly don't
want to close the door on the coca-cola
building I think they offer some nice
opportunities especially with the space
and it for 30 40 thousand dollars to be
able to recruit a series commercial
maybe gaining which the students then
will benefit is something I think kind
of a win-win for everybody
so I don't want mayor Councillor you're
absolutely right and I think Senator
steinborn I think has made the case
several times about the chicken and the
egg right is that we have to have
something that we can that will appeal
to industry to come here and we need
these other things we need workforce
training opportunities to build that and
I think he's made I think he's made a
really compelling case and I would not
want us to be in a either/or competition
to the detriment I mean I feel like the
community has lots of resources and that
as we move forward planning right both
in the short term in the long term what
are those resources and how can we bring
those resources to bear to serve our
students and our community in our
economy I agree thank you thank you
I'm dr. Joe this and thank you man Thank
You counsel Vasquez Thank You mayor
yeah just one question for staff in
terms of the outcome of the work session
here
clarification and dr. Martinez on
reaching consensus from counsel on one
of these options or how how have you
felt so far in terms of the comments I
see we have still some comments I think
from councillor Stewart but but what are
we doing moving forward from this work
session given the comment so far and
staffs direction yes thank you mayor
councilman Vasquez I've heard support of
a an MoU with DAC CNN msu I've also
heard support on us exploring for the
purchase of some abatement for 2100
those are my my takeaways up to this
point one item that I think it's
important to to highlight from what dr.
Torres has mentioned is the creative
campus is for the digital media and so
that that's a I think a broader approach
and with film as one element to that but
those are my two takeaways if I need to
adjust please let me know okay no that
sounds about right to me I just wanted
to make sure in terms of recapping where
you're at but thank you dr. Martinez
thank you me you're trying to take my
job away
let's see counselor sorry yeah question
mr. mayor thank you
yeah I I don't know if it's an either/or
situation here I think it's something we
have to do it all
both of the and and the other parts we
have to be be happy doing it go ahead
and do the low-hanging fruit that is in
the list
err but we have to be ready with all of
this in case the time comes when we
really do need a studio and we have the
industry coming and wanting to use
facilities here so I don't think we need
to eliminate and
from the list I think we have to
concentrate on those things that we can
do right now the sound proofing of 2100
for sure but also keep in mind we need
to have a plan and a way to get a
purpose-built studio on the Barrelhead
campus there animus you together with
the creative media campus - so let's not
eliminate these things these are all
needed Thank You councillor sir come sir
abate thus to be yes thank you should
council decide to proceed with um doing
the sound I'm calling it a sound barrier
but for the 30 40 thousand is that
something should they we see it quickly
that could be up and running by the time
that we expect film to come back up
again so that we can capitalize on those
opportunities when those items are
needed right away
mayor council r8s to be we can work with
film Las Cruces as City Council has
provided important direction today the
only atom that we would need to work is
the requirement if the use of the
purchase items it's done by a third
entity that it's not a governmental
entity we will have to set a fair market
value for for film Las Cruces to utilize
that would be the only additional item
to be explore okay you know I am in
favor of the soundproofing item um but I
I do think it's important that if we do
that that we do have it kind of situated
right when the opportunity comes and is
needed um mr. gray uh do you have any
expanded knowledge on when
the tops are to start having productions
up and running in New Mexico again what
time a timeframe that they're talking
about right now I don't think at this
moment anybody has a firm answer to that
excuse me mr. gray can you state your
name again please sorry this is Don gray
from film Las Cruces I I don't think
there's a firm answer to that I think
actually you're your brother's comment
that that probably September is probably
what most people's target is at this
point I actually though I think that the
the the go start moment might actually
be a gradual sort of a thing which you
know will start to approve smaller
things like commercials with smaller
crews and maybe reality television with
smaller crews and cats and then things
will kind of ramp up but we are they are
still there's a lot of talking going on
in the industry right now I think
originally they were talking about maybe
mid summer but that might be overly
optimistic so we're probably at least
talking August September and and in in
to answer your other question about
whether with this you know the sound of
Bateman is something that we could do
rather quickly I think the answer to
that is yes it's a fairly modest program
modest proposal and I don't think that
there would be a problem bringing it
online to the point where somebody would
feel very confident in starting
production fairly quickly okay thank you
mr. gray and thank you Mary okay thank
you
so dr. Martinez can you bring up the
slide where I think we were talking
about the monies that that we have from
the the on harmless and swell as the
state of New Mexico okay so if I
understand this correctly in order to
save this state appropriation of
approximately $900,000 we would actually
have to use that money pretty much
immediately and purchase the building is
that right
sit mayor the the state appropriations
right now are frozen and we would not
know the definite until after this
special session okay yeah because I
think they're I think they're gonna try
to claw back various monies if we
haven't spent it by now there's a chance
we may not have access to that 900,000
basel mayor based on the conversations
that we've had with our grant
administrator and her conversations with
the fa because these are state
appropriations from past years they may
not be looking at this one but rather
most recent years although this have
been reauthorized for recent years but
the the funding was committed in 2015
but ultimately we wouldn't know until
after the special session sure okay so
that obviously would would be a concern
and then so the second thing is working
with the community college can you go
back to those options I think 2a and 2b
so as dr. tortoise still with us yes
so dr. tortoise which is the one that
you would prefer the the city to work
with more either A or B 2a or 2b I was
presenting I was presenting Oh 2a or 2b
the the to be mayor oops
anyone see over there yeah we're good
the the to be is what we presented well
is a slightly different version of what
we've presented we there are lots of
needs that a creative campus is going to
have right and so we know kind of what
our building what are some of the things
that we would typically do in our
building there but one of the things I
want to say is that a workforce training
facility one there might
farms out there for a workforce training
facility for us to pitch a workforce
training facility and one of the things
that I wanted to clarify that that that
made the that I think we were all trying
to get at is that the the proposal that
I was making or the option that I was
presenting is about digital media more
broadly in that there's lots of
professions in lots of industries that
need digital media skills and there are
places where film production kind of
overlaps with that and there are other
places where it doesn't they there there
are other other ways that digital me or
other industries that digital media so
so I don't know I don't know that I
guess the workforce training facility
would would be what I actually said in
my in my powerpoint what that looks like
could could vary because there are going
to be a lot of needs for digital media
training right and some of that will
overlap with film and some of it won't
overlap the film okay so I don't know if
you can answer this or dr. Martinez so
who came up with to option to a ere this
was the original conversation that we
had had up to the creative campus
Charette and that's that was the the two
option one and two a were the ones that
we had been discussing because of how
the money's the resolution has have been
allocated the purpose of the money for
the for the for instance the city's
portion is to create a film studio or an
infrastructure infrastructure it's based
on on the items that we had as adopted
by City Council
those were the two options that we
explore up to the creative campus fair
right yeah because I seem to recall I
thought that's that's what we had talked
about a while back was a film studio and
when the university came into play
talked about working with CMI so these
are two different scenarios a and then
of course the training facility for
digital media or is this also going to
be on the same in the same part of si mi
mayor this would be because of of the
analysis that we concluded for option 2a
that's the option that we went for the
RFP to secure investment management and
operations and that seemed to be at
least from the experience we've had a in
option that was facing some additional
challenges with with to point B it would
be a lesser amount to be invested and as
dr. Torres explained or included in her
slide we may have an opportunity to
explore additional funds right now the
economic development administration has
an application open for for many
different type of eligible applicants
but the city of Las Cruces is one
applicant we can further explore how we
can tie job creation and investment to
an EDA grant to do to do some of the
additional funding that would go beyond
the 3.8 million that we currently have
or the 3 million for the monies that we
have from the city we would need to
change the resolution language to allow
for a different facility just beyond a
film studio which is how it is written
right now so get out here that we might
be able to use that 900,000 from the
state towards option 2a mr. mayor we if
outcome from the special session is that
we still have that funding the language
in the state appropriations is for a
cinematic infrastructure correct so
that's a yes
correct okay okay so yeah yes counselor
sort yeah looking at this again I
misunderstood apologize for that
I'm not into in favor of option to be
rather a favorite option to a instead
okay that's fine I appreciate that
so dr. tortoise so if the council wasn't
due to a does that there's no way that
have still some of the students be able
to learn in in those you know in those
facilities under that scenario under two
eight maybe not to the same degree that
you were looking for but but portion of
it right absolutely
you know the there's no doubt that if a
film studio were co-located with with
CMI CMT facilities that there would be
some opportunities there for students
yeah there's no there's no doubt about
that
those opportunities would primarily be
for film students and perhaps some of
the other digital media students but and
so that would be the difference is that
would primarily be for one group of
students that that we educate and not
necessarily a range of students that
Reggie Cate because because digital
media just appeals to there's different
sorts of training that happens it much
broader set of skills because those
people are going into different
professions but if a film studio was
located there's no doubt that students
would benefit from those opportunities
there so although you would prefer to be
isn't you wouldn't you could still work
with to a yes okay all right I've got I
see senator steinborn has his hand up I
actually have a question for you senator
and then you can kind of incorporate
your comments so if we were to do to a
what you could still maintain your
facility
they're at 2100 Valley and if so what
would you need from the city so yes
mayor well I mean right now I don't know
I don't see my video I did I think I'm
probably good to go yes right now I mean
2,100 we have a lease on 2,100 we have a
great partnership with the ACCC we all
agree that until and unless there's a
purpose-built studio which honestly even
if we were to do that
that's several years down the road that
2100 is is the ballgame right now for
the community and so we're good on that
right now we do think it's incredibly
prudent in interest of creating economic
opportunity right now that we do look at
the sound treating option I can tell you
I have spoken to the DFA and I believe
that the film if we are looking at doing
some capital outlay suites in the
session but as of a few days ago the
studio funding in fact not know las
cruces projects were on that sweep list
at all in fact I think there was only
one in Dona Ana County so that's really
great
fact I have a budget update here in
about an hour but so yes to a is the
option I think film Las Cruces would
prefer mayor because what it does is it
continues to pursue partnerships to
build that purpose-built facility I
think we need to be leaning on the state
hard to help make that happen as I said
earlier as they've done for other parts
of the state and and I think it just
keeps the council's options out there
okay so you're okay with 2a then huh I
thought you wanted one no well no mayor
I want to leave our options up and we
very much like the idea I'm just reading
it on my phone here no we like the idea
in fact we were we've been pushing for a
co-located film studio in the academic
environment for the beginning and then
that's how the creative campus came into
being we like that idea it's just we
also think 2100 is still an option that
we should not close the door on because
option two is going to require
purpose-built new facility that's going
to require millions more and so far we
have not secured that money whereas we
do have the money for option 1 if we
were to find a great studio partner
I just think Oh Bob still be on the
table how long is your release for it's
a yearly lease and you lease okay that
was just yes sir okay dr. Martinez and
dr. tortoise so can you go back to the
amount that the dollar amount again he
had the three million from them at two
point nine so what if hypothetically we
were to put 2.75 2,750,000 and we still
be able to get those state same state
appropriations there it's a question
okay you see where they hold harmless
GRT is at two point nine million well
two million two million point nine nine
hundred forty six thousand seven hundred
seventeen yes if that was to be changed
to two million seven hundred and fifty
could we still get the state
appropriation that those still the same
amount and that total would be roughly
two hundred thousand dollars less yes
ma'am you think we could still do that
the the HH GRT funds our city funds so
we you as City Council have yeah I got
that but I mean do you I guess would the
state this the state appropriation was
it based on that exact dollar amount or
if we were to change it a little bit
would they still give it to us I guess
state appropriations are independent
from the funding that the city how it is
okay the reason why I was asking senator
steinborn is is it that that extra two
hundred thousand let's say we removed it
from there we would set it aside to make
sure that you had a lease on that in
case the Community College couldn't
couldn't continue because I didn't I
mean I I heard dr. tortoise but you know
granted we don't know what the future
lies but this way here would be enough
funding for for annual leases at 2100
Valley and keep your operation
over there while we're still working the
partnership with the university is that
something you would consider the mayor
and councilor okay can't start the video
but I have unmuted myself okay the video
is good um to be clear the the funny
that we got from the state by law can be
used only for cinematic infrastructure
owned by the city of Las Cruces its
capital outlay so I don't believe that
it can be used for rent as far as you
know no rhe I'm sorry our hhrg are tiny
oh can you use the city funding so let's
say we set aside two hundred thousand of
it right to be enough for four for
roughly four years for annual leases in
case they're Community College something
happens and they're not able to help you
because you said it was forty five
hundred a month that comes out to about
fifty thousand a year give or take we
set aside two hundred thousand that's
four years by that time we'll have
things develop there at the Community
College and the sound stage you know I
think we might be able to be in a better
position by that and and see how we
might be able to transition if need to
either purchase that building or do
something else but it keeps your
operation going and keeps us gives us
the opportunity to move forward with
this mr. mayor this is David all before
we commit to that I'll ask staff to
pursue that but I want to remind you
that that's a th DRT fund and I believe
that money came out of bond proceeds so
we would need to review the possibility
of is his leasing property for that
purpose and eligible expense under bond
proceeds I can't answer that immediately
but that's something we'll research and
we'll report back to the full council
okay well leasing it as well but it also
inhabit still enables economic
development to occur through the film
business so yeah it's not like you know
so we're we're we're ensuring that the
film business is still taking place at
2100 Valley
continues and so that would be my
premise but I appreciate you looking
into that mayor if I can respond
I'm sorry times up oh can you state your
name please yeah sister senator Jeff's
time one president in film Las Cruces
I very much like the idea of recognizing
the importance of 2100 and making a
long-term commitment if the owner is
amenable to that having said that I
would also point out that we get the
funding we get for the studio right now
is more than just the rent because we
have to fill mas Cruces has to pay for
insurance some other things related to
the facility a little part-time studio
coordinator and all of that funding
comes from the Community College of
course the city's $95,000 a year doesn't
pay for any of that and so just
recognize the expenses for the studio
are probably 65,000 here also we would
if the city wanted to set aside some of
SH hold harmless gross receipts money to
please include a little bit for the
sound treating that's really an
important element to help help us
achieve the success we all want there
the other thing is I would still ask
that if we do this we don't we don't
then say okay but we're going to give us
away the rest of the capital for another
type of facility because we just think
that you may end up wanting to go that
direction so I'm not sure if you're
saying that we go and like Newby but we
set aside a little money for this I
don't know if that's what you're
suggesting but I wouldn't be crazy about
that but I like what you're bringing up
no I was thinking I think council wants
to go to a right there's an apple and
and move forward with that still be
there to assist you a little bit yeah so
that'd be great there it's like if I
could say something this is this is
morning again yes one of the things one
of the obvious ly we could we we will
work with city and we'll film Las Cruces
and with with partners as we find them
we're we're excited about this
opportunity what's so exciting about
this discussion as it finally feels like
we may be taking
we may be taking steps forward to to
definitively forward to to put us in a
different place on on film and digital
production and education one of the
things I like I'd like to ask the mayor
and the council to continue to consider
is that as we think about that film is
one portion of the tremendous needs that
we're going to see for digital
production and education over a period
of time and so that as we as we move
forward we just keep that context in
mind whether whether we're talking about
film facilities whether we're talking
about education facilities is that is
that the digital needs in our community
and across the country are going to be
tremendous and and and are gonna require
a range of skills to be taught and so I
just I just want us to keep thinking of
that foundation as well thank you mayor
okay thank you
looks like we have Mayor Pro Tem gondola
and then come serve ask us have some
follow-up questions thank you thank you
I appreciate the option of setting aside
you know four-year lease I I was going
to recommend that part of that money be
for the sound infrastructure that was
spoken of a Fiat mr. gray and Senator
Steinberg I think that's really
important and also one of the one of the
one of the things that I discussed is
having that that report in front of us
to be able to determine what other
opportunities may exist in terms of
spending that money a little bit to
enhance that building just to make it to
make it where folks want to come over
here again it's one of those things the
chicken and egg right and so I think
that's certainly important
and I would look to Senator steinborn
and Mr curry to let us know what other
things improvements might be necessary
in order to entice people the industry
to come to Las Cruces that's all thank
you Mary
thank you everyone knows that the
chicken came first councilor Vasquez
Thank You mayor and thank you to
everybody who is continuing this this
thoughtful discussion I don't have any
further questions other than to say that
I strongly support option to be I don't
support option 2a and I would need more
information I think as councilor down
that I said about the condition and
potential of that facility over a
two-year term to commit to a such a
large investment in the in the rent of
that particular building so I just
wanted to say that as we wrap up the
conversation thank you Thank You
councillor sword councillor abate this
Duty yeah in response to counter Bastas
yeah I would like to ask doc president
Thoris if she was free of paying that
forty fifty thousand a year rent on the
2100 Bali building would could she put
that money towards media the digital
media education another words option B
or - Thank You V mayor council short we
get we are not we did not have any plans
to stop stop supporting 2100 you know
that was still that was still kind of in
our in our short term long short term
plan but they know where we go and so
would it be possible to reallocate those
dollars somewhere else in terms of other
digital media needs sure we would we
would certainly certainly consider that
so another we could do both be to be
into a
if the money's were available at the
rent money we we would be able to we
would be able to think about how we
wanted to reallocate that because it
wasn't like we were gonna eat that back
any time any time soon right okay okay
so we can do it all it looks like we can
do it all
that's what I'm gathering we need to do
it all - yes all right I don't know we
can do it all
but dr. Martinez James might comment you
like to say yes mayor thank you very
much and thanks to all of you because
you you're you're very excited about the
opportunities and you see the long-term
benefits
unfortunately we we would want to have a
lot of a lot of money to support all the
initiatives unfortunately we are
constrained with with the 3.8 for us to
define the next steps and so one option
one one item that I want to remind you
is for option to walk to me option one
if we were to purchase that the
coca-cola building we would still need
to retrofit it and then for option 2a we
would still need an investment of about
8 million plus someone to manage and
operate the same would apply well the
management and operation would also
apply for the acquisition of 2100 the to
2 B would be the least costly in terms
of new construction and we could
potentially look at this grant that I
mentioned before if we're able to frame
it as a direct job creating opportunity
for the community and as a as a
resiliency response to the current
situation for Career Pathways thank you
for that clarification dr. Martinez I
unfortunately I took the position that
are that those investors were still
around so they never came through the
ones that initially had responded to
this mayor the investors were interested
however because they did not have the
knowledge or connections to the film
industry it would have meant for them to
build a building with no one to securely
or commit it to use it solely as
primarily the reason why the investment
did not go through - okay well thank you
for that changes a lot changes the whole
the whole spectrum here coughs our
Baker's to be yes no I was just gonna
ask for some clarification if we'll be
able to see those performance based
based measures for FLC before we make
any final decisions I'm sorry Cal so can
you repeat what you just said please let
my apologize no no problem I was gonna
ask if we were going to see that yearly
update for film Las Cruces before we
make any final decisions on this project
they the performance-based measured
update oh I see
mayor um counselor of a test do B this
is your call and if you rather pause the
decision until you hear that
presentation in the meantime we can send
you the contract with the deliverables
for your review and analysis okay I
personally would like to see the review
but I'll leave the decision to the
council as whole but I just think it's
something we might want to consider
thank you who's trying to speak so
bright it's more italian-american
to interject and clarify that since this
is a work
there will not be a decision at this
meeting it's information-sharing and we
can certainly provide you whatever
information your request during the
session at a later date so that we can
come forward with something for being
spied on okay we're sure thank you for
that and but usually I like to get some
sense of directions so staff can start
working on it but but I appreciate that
I appreciate that
councillor Flores Thank You mr. mayor
and I do I think that the options we
have right now are the chicken the egg
thing you know it's like but anyway all
right I'm aligned with a counselor a
basis to be honest my thought because
Mandy does a while quite a while ago
said that because there was a question
about tracking and and that and Mandy's
Mandy's response to a betas Dubes
question was that as of March from Las
Cruces is fine that there's a monthly
report and that it was okay that it met
the expectations so I would I too would
feel a lot better about proceeding with
this because there have been so many
questions and I don't doubt that there's
been a lot of work and then we've been
at today's today's session we've been
hit with I mean we're talking about
chicken and the Agri time talking about
apples and oranges we're talking about
these different options that somehow
they're not totally in Congress but
they're somewhat
yeah it seems like we could go into the
CMI thing with the dACC or CCC could
probably do that independently I don't
know but but I I would feel a lot more
comfortable if we had that if we took a
look at a full presentation by the
Economic Development Department insofar
as the tracking and because I think that
film as closest has been around now for
what six years and in the two years I've
been on council I've been hearing the
same thing and so I would just like some
somehow some clarification and some
clarity wealth clarification Karen I
would like to have I would like to see
another report I would feel more
comfortable with this course we're not
voting on it today
but I would like to see that thank you
okay so dr. tortoise on option to be
this workforce training facility do you
have and you may have said this I'm
sorry but approximately would there
would be the size of the facility mayor
and council members I don't I didn't
have a specific notion there but let me
talk a little bit about what the idea is
I think the council FLOTUS just say well
dACC could we there's no doubt that we
could build the building that we've got
funding for on our own right we we could
do that the beauty of this sort of
project is I think we go from having a
building that can serve a function right
that would serve a function the way all
of our buildings serve functions in
terms of providing learning
opportunities for students and people in
our community it could do that what I
love about this project is the idea that
we actually gain from working together
so we go from a good project that meets
its need so potentially a spectacular
project that drives not just workforce
development terms of the training but
economic develop in terms of who we can
attract
community so that's that's kind of the
beauty of doing this together of working
collectively on this I don't have I mean
I can tell you that the square footage
that we're talking about for this the
the dACC facility is about 15,000 square
feet is what we're doing so if we were
to build a second facility it would it
would actually depend on did you know
what if we did a post production
facility what if we did a soundstage
that would that would we would develop
that kind of collectively as well as
we're working on the planning but I can
tell you that just for comparison's sake
the building that we're thinking about
on the dACC side is 15,000 square feet
which if you've been in the building at
East Mesa that's that's what
approximately the size of the CMT
building at at East Mesa so I don't have
a specific answer for you mayor but that
does provide a little bit of a context
of what it what it might look like so
you have a you have the land already
secured then I believe that the land is
secured through Arrowhead Park and dr.
Martinez could probably speak to that
she's probably more familiar with those
conversations than then I did but I
believe so yes okay and let me just ask
senator Stein were real quick senator so
what if we were to build hypothetically
a new facility about how many square
feet would what we need and yeah about
any square well if you're talking about
the traditional film industry you're
going to need at least close to 40,000
square feet and you really I mean that's
so important for the council to
understand and it was something we had
to come to understand when we got into
this economic development that you you
know what the industry needs and usually
what they're used to is a 15 to 20,000
foot stage again you need about five to
ten thousand square feet of office space
you need a production mill that it's up
to 5,000 square feet not to mention
craft services parking loading docks
so just to be clear a 15,000 square foot
building isn't going to accommodate
isn't going to accommodate film
production so if you're talking about
putting your money into something
whatever you put your money into if
you're trying to accommodate that
industry just understand that that's the
scale you need to be operating for to
accommodate a smaller medium-sized show
not even a large show or multiple shows
that's kind of a starter package Mayer
is you're gonna need 40,000 square feet
at least I think when we work with the
city architect years ago and designed a
facility I think I don't know the number
that comes out of my head was 45,000
square feet was the minimal plan that
they had come up with that was under
former manager Garza they hired an
architect and looked at that and then
2100 came in to vision kind of at the
end of that so with all due respect to
the Community College proposal and I
would love to work with the president
and that might be an alternative to see
if there is a way how we could meld that
plan because I think we would all love
to do the digital media but if we want
to have all options and say that we it
has to be scaled to the right size sure
dr. Torres one couple more questions
please
so this so if we were to do this 3.8
million you you think that's enough to
build your facility no I do I do not
there and council no it's it's not we
would have to pursue we would have to
pursue other funds there's no doubt
about it and mayor yes Martinez just for
clarifications for option 2a we would be
looking at a film studio 402 B it's a
workforce training facility so the the
sizes would be different because the
purposes would be different as well but
ideally would be yeah it wouldn't
require the the
same size as a film studio would require
okay thank you thank you for that but
doctor thoris so can you just give me a
ballpark for what you think your
facility would run if you were to do it
stand alone by yourself if if we you
mean do you mean how much it would cost
right
the workforce trained oh if we were
doing if we again and Senator signboards
right we could you know the
collaboration will yield other things
but if we're talking about a workforce
training facility for digital media that
would allow for kind of a range of kind
of the industries to be served right and
a range of the skills to be taught and
not just film you know 15,000 square
foot building we could do a lot with the
15,000 square foot building that would
that would allow us to kind of expand
spaces that we could use that cm I could
use that industry partners could use but
back that's a that's a guess mayor I'm
not I'm not I know that we can do a lot
with a 15,000 square foot building and
again this would be digital media and
not necessarily film if it would allow
us to expand some of those industries
and some of those some of those things
that we do but again not the film side
of digital media it would be other sorts
of industries and that we would be
serving do you have a thank you do you
have an approximate amount that you have
set aside for debt service if we were to
move forward with this did you if you
know for sure that you have you know
what I counsel around out X 15,000 won
five is the building she had asked a
question you know what I'm sure we do
there I do not know that offhand but yes
we do but I can get that information and
this is this is this would be in
addition to the 4,500 that you give film
Las Cruces
we can't film Los Cruces i senator
Steinberg correct me I think I think
Senator Steinberg we're close to 60,000
right I think is what we are yes this
would be in it this would be in addition
now this second building when we talk
about option 2 that would be that would
really be in collaboration so that
that's something that would have to be
that would have to be collectively
discussed and figure out how we're gonna
do that mayor because one we all have
kind of constraints on on on us in terms
of how we bill so for example there's
some of your money that you have to own
you know one of the issues that we face
as we go to capital outlay with New
Mexico Higher Education Department and
one of the issues we wrestle with is how
much square footage an institution of
higher ed has and so we're seeing as
option to the B would be really a
collaboration that we would need to to
work out but it would it would serve as
a training facility for the kinds of the
kinds of industry needs that we have and
we would be a part partner in that how
that would be worked out would we would
have to just discuss that so let me tell
let me let me just share with Council
what I've been kind of putting in my
head here one I would like for us to
maybe look in another work session where
where we theoretically look at this
workforce training facility which if you
know if it's at 4 million dollars and if
we can build a film studio for say six
brand-new so that's ten all right let's
just say 10 I'm just going to use that
for example with money as cheap it is as
it is today we could probably well the
university could probably bond that out
for probably in the neighborhood of
thirty five thousand a month to build
that complete so you back out the four
thousand that they will save in rent and
I'm just putting aside ten thousand that
that the university would be putting up
if we were to come up with fourteen
thousand of our ourselves we would do a
transfer that's one hundred sixty
thousand a year that would go almost
sixteen years and we would have to put
over that 2.8 million I think I think
what I'm trying to say is I would really
like to see us have another work session
where we actually look at building both
using these monies and instead of us
coming up with this 2.8 million at one
time we'll just do every year transfer
to the University for the college of
170,000 which would be our portion of
the debt service for many years to come
and you'd have a brand new building
you'd have both kind of like what
counselor sort was talking about do
everything and that that really does do
everything I mean right now interest is
so cheap
if money is so cheap and we can take
advantage of it it's like it's like I
think so looks like we have house was it
counselor debate the studio did you have
another question or did you forget to
put your hand down and counselor FLOTUS
you forget 4chan down the gym that
question I know I I didn't forget to put
my hand down I I'm looking at this and
I'm thinking that it isn't so much that
Jeff Stein born and dr. mone got the
rest aren't on the same page but it
looks like they have different interests
in this work session today and and and
and I and I said apples and oranges and
I and it's pretty much that in the way
I'm perceiving all this and you know the
conversations that we're having so
because you look at option one it's an
acquisition and then we started talking
about and then Don Gray and I said well
you know it's gonna cost thirty forty
thousand dollars to do the young
sound treatment and so you know I and
all these little all these bits of
information and I'm not sure how all of
it is connected I don't understand I
don't know if dr. Torres has been having
conversations with either Don or John
Foley or Jeff Stein born or maybe with a
work for solutions or with the bridge
you know I because I'm just wondering
how all of this and I just don't see it
I just don't see us making a decision
that would involve all these all these
moveable parts here there are there are
a number of moveable parts and I don't I
just don't see how and and Jeff has made
it clear she's me senator Steinberg has
made it clear that no you know option
two is totally different you know we're
talking about film and dr. Torres has
made it clear no we're just talking
about digital media so so it's not a
question of I just don't see how that
the the twin have met here and perhaps
dr. Martinez could explain it to me if
you would please I'd really appreciate
that yes mayor Councillor Flores thank
you for your question I believe that the
the common theme here is developing a
cluster an economic cluster that has
different elements to it one one the
digital media cluster for instance is
composed of ganymede and the CMI the
Creative Media Institute and the
Creative Media Technology in the
facilities at 2100 South Valley and in
workforce solutions and workforce
collections we're actually currently
working with them to see what type of
trainings we can expand upon in
partnership with the city and digital
media it's it's one of the
areas that we are exploring digital
media is also a a prior or sector that
is a targeted sector for the city within
our contract with Medina for this stage
it's an it's a priority for for the
state as I mentioned the incentives
available for film also expand to other
sectors or other areas in the digital
media including gaming and since
ketamine when they produce their their
game their games they can utilize that
to leverage upon the incentives that the
state has for film and so I think in the
in the bigger picture I agree with you
that we've been talking about very
specific elements but all of them the
overarching theme is the digital media
cluster in our region okay so given that
I thank you thank you so much dr.
Martinez Ickes I partially understand it
I I understand the goal of the what dr.
daughters would like to see and I
couldn't agree more we need jobs we need
we need our youth for our potential
workforce be the it youth be it new and
new entries reentry's because of the
shift we're having over rounded our
economic system here in the US and how
we brought the world cause of Kogut but
but today were either but not that we're
making a decision today is as mr. Leo
pointed out but today we're still
pondering these issues and and the issue
is it seems that if we go with option
one option two is totally wiped out if
we go with option two option to be
option one is totally wiped out so they
kind of cancel with each other
and so I I just I I still you know I I
still don't see because option one is
pretty much a status quo it would be the
currently leased to dACC managed by mlc
and then potentially de yada yada so I'm
still at a contact to me it's a fonder
II it's it's you know I I understand
exactly what you explained but III think
that that the options definitely cancel
out each other is it it isn't as if it's
there's a melding somewhere but oh well
that's that's the way my brain works
thank you very much dr. Martinez I
appreciate your oh thank you make one
more comment I'm sorry is this this
morning yes Marin and and members of the
council one of the things I wanted to
say and I think maybe it goes back to
something that counselors or sword said
and mayor's the mayor said is like we
want it all could we do everything and I
think that the original planning for the
creative campus I mean I think we've
been talking about for a long time and
part of why I'm presenting this as it
feels like we're starting to ramp up to
move in this direction but one of the
things that that would be fabulous is if
we could do all parts of the creative
campus you know we come together and we
say this is what we want this to look
like that would be preferable right that
would be ideal we could build the
creative campus all at one time
I think one of the issues we're
wrestling with is that is that we will
have we will do this in phases what what
do we have funding for what's the big
plan what do we have funding for now
what do we have funding for next what do
we have funding for next what do we have
funding for banks and so I think part of
the issue here is is we we're very
interested in the workforce training
facility in digital media but we also
know that the chicken and the egg
whichever one the film studio is we
so know that we need that to drive to
drive economic economic development in
the in the county and so I guess part of
the issue here is is that we don't have
money for everything if we did I think
we could put - a plan together that
where it would all come together and
where the pieces would would fit nicely
together but the fact is that we're
gonna have to we're gonna have to face
because it's a big project it could
ultimately be a spectacular project for
this community and it will take it will
take investment Thank You senator
steinborn you got a comment senator
steinborn Jeff I'm here I'm here mayor
well you know sorry mayor so much has
been said I'm not I'm not sure I just
want to be really clear the money that
was appropriated from the state the 980
thousand was for entertainment arts
which certainly includes digital for
commercial production so the spirit in
which that funding was raised by myself
and my colleagues was to generate
commercial activity and yes you can use
that jointly for Workforce Development
but that's but that's the different
nature from the spirit in which myself
and my colleagues appropriated money so
that's an important to note I also want
to just say though mayor you know going
back and of course you know because you
were there the whole time the film
community worked incredibly hard to not
only raise that million dollars over two
sessions but to go to the council
repeatedly to then lead to your
commitment to three million dollars for
the film industry not not to not include
the digital gaming world and the digital
entertainment world that kiss again we
worked with dr. Beaubourg going back to
the beginning to come up with this idea
of a creative campus where all these
worlds came together and we helped
champion that idea but I just want to
tip my hat to the film community because
what's being proposed here today is to
basically take the money and take their
years of effort to raise that money and
I think we need to be nimble certainly
and spend the money wisely which is why
it hasn't been spent today we're
we're prominent in that but I think what
I would advocate for is that we we don't
go that route and instead what we do is
we work together to see how we can
achieve both the new digital gaming we
try to embrace the existing $500,000,000
film industry that exists in the state
you know that there is a hundred million
dollars for your film incentive to
support so I just want to say those say
those thoughts for your consideration
that's why we're partial to option 2a
because it kind of includes both visions
Thanks well senator steinborn I mean
what what did you think about having
another work session where we actually
combined 2a and 2b and if we were that
way there we just get it done and yeah
you know that way there the the funding
source this 2.8 million that we have or
3 you know that the city has in
conjunction with the university or the
Community College will pay that debt
service off in 16 17 years so no and
instead of it just you know putting it
towards one of these I think we can
actually do two and I know that I go
real fast when I put these things
together
I guess one what I'm gonna ask my
colleagues is let me let me work with
let's not move on anything other than
come back to another work session but
it's but basically we're gonna look at
what it would take to have 2a and 2b on
this on this campus whether it's 10
million or 15 million what the debt
service is what we think that the
Community College will pay and what we
can pay and we won't even have to cough
up that 2.8 million dollars we'll just
use that for annual payments to the
University for the debt service and then
you have a new facility this there be a
new film studio and the training
facility that that that'd be one of a
kind but I'm just you know like I said
and money is so cheap right now it's
it's it's ridiculous to if we can borrow
what 10 million or 15 million at
literally nothing
why not do it get that security and have
this facility here whereas normally we'd
norm you know if this had been three
years ago we wouldn't be able to touch
it doing it this way but in light of the
the lending industry I think we can is
what I'm trying to get it you know we
will make any decisions but let us come
back with this this hybrid option where
it's actually both put together man I
mean yes sir and then set some money
aside for for you for probably four
years because that's about how long it's
going to take
yeah I like that idea mayor I would just
throw in two caveats that I don't hope
aren't lost and that's number one I
would encourage you and the staff and
everybody to really lean on the state to
help recruit a Content producer to Las
Cruces in the same way Netflix and the
NBC Universal there's rumors of another
big content producer that might be
coming to the state which you can expect
to be another Albuquerque situation with
lots of liter dollars we have the money
or the money that you are putting up is
a quite an attractive piece of eight to
the film industry into that content
industry to come to Las Cruces and so we
ought to be trying to leverage the money
you're talking about to get the state to
play a role and number two and I think
by the way we need that partnership to
make the commercial side of the studio
successful so I would hope that you
would continue to urge your economic
development department to be aggressive
in that pursuit the second thing is is
if we could get some support from the
staff on chasing down the sound treating
that would be a big deal in the short
run so that we could get more work here
thanks okay councillor sword o Thank You
mr. mayor and thank you senator and
president Thoris and all for hammering
this out and this has gotten a lot more
complex than I remembered um yeah and
this this training facility is so
you hear it I not even sure what it
needs but I'm willing to have us explore
it for sure my question for president
tourists now you just passed a bond
issue so this training facility for
digital media is not part of that bond
is that correct sorry to put words in
your mouth but no mayor and councillor
the actually there is a building that
CMT is planning to build on this
property that is separate from this kind
of second second facility we are
definitely planning to put and that's
what the bond has paid for but this was
a second facility that where we were
looking to see who could we find
additional additional funding to try and
spin out the campus a little bit more I
see so the building is for CRT and this
in digital media would be something
extra yes okay that's that's what I
wanted to get clear
so yes good that's a good idea
so I like what the mayor is talking
about this could could could be work I
think what we need to concentrate and
I'm not saying we haven't but we need to
find a manager an operator for this
whole operation and so I hope Don gray
can help us out with that
but somebody anyway so we can find out
somebody that operates it and manages it
and keeps it running and so forth Bess
so that's what my little two cents worth
putting thank you Mary that's all I have
right Thank You councillor did you know
the comment comes earlier FLOTUS oh you
took your hand out okay so since we're
not acting on this or moving on this all
all I would like to do all I'm going to
need is to get from from dr. tortoise
how much of a set-aside that the
university would have for
this facility this workforce training
facility and then we can get a quote
from our bond counsel as to how much our
debt service would be I don't know who
you all use you might use the same one I
have no idea
RBC Capital but just to get an idea of
how much it would cost and then bring it
back to Council and we'll just kind of
continue this part and and show where if
we had both facilities on the campus I
really think it's something that's at
least worth looking into
because it'd be a new facility a new
sound stage with with whatever is would
be needed and then this workforce
training facility my goodness you could
go back and forth you could that I think
that was probably the only one in the
state to have both a film studio and a
training facility on the same building
so if that's okay with Council with that
we could kind of look at that and just
run those numbers
senator Stein what did you have another
question or did you have a sorry no I'm
good mayor I've spoken my piece thanks
okay council FLOTUS did you have a
comment
Thank You mr. mayor I think that I just
want to say again that I would I would
like to see that report that the
Economic Development Department the
reports that Randy Gus made reference to
thank you oh yeah sure well how about if
we bring that back when we have another
work session on this that'd be okay well
that would be you that would be fine it
would be yes yeah because I think their
monthly so right good yeah whichever
comes first thank you I'm sure they can
send it to you
Thank You mayor yeah I think I'm okay
moving forward with the work session but
also just you know just want to after
hear the discussion you know person I
feel like Workforce Development is is a
commercial use it will lead to jobs it
will lead to economic activity and will
come from folks that attend our
University and spend local dollars on
their education here and it's actually
something tangible that could happen in
the next year or two or three something
that's really solid that we can hold on
to that's not based on speculation or
what the market will do or what the
state potentially will or won't do it's
something we have available to us and
with a awesome willing partner in dACC
so do support moving forward with the
works that you have wanted to make that
point because investing in our young
folks in this industry is something we
can do now that doesn't require you know
the potential or spec investments of
others so want to make sure that you
know that that's strongly considered so
thank you Mary okay thank you okay well
dr. tortoise is that something that
you'd be okay with we have another work
session but if this work session we may
actually be able to do both the training
facility and and film studio yes of
course mayor but can you work on getting
for me
the one you know I think you said is
about sixty thousand you give to two to
film Las Cruces which theoretically if
we do this facility this large facility
and I and I would envision it to be
separated you know one part would be the
training facility and then the other
part would be the would be either film
studio so I think we could still use
that money that Senator steinborn and
and others helped raise but we would
need that debt service that that the
community college would be willing to
have paid on the Digital side for the
training facility only when we had those
two together that and then the rent and
then we'll see on our side whether it
would cost to build the soundstage and
we'll put it together take that total
amount get a price
as to what the cost of funds would be
from our bond people and bring that back
for the second work session and then at
that time we'll be able to really just
focus on either 2a or 2b and possibly
one but but I'm confident that with the
price of money as cheap as it is I mean
I bet you there's discussion we may be
able to get it for half a percent
interest that's unheard of that's our
debt service ET for ten million like
twenty five thousand dollars a month
that's that's nothing you know that's I
mean something but it's nothing four
thousand in ran and if you guys already
had ten thousand budgeted so that's all
we need to give you is ten thousand a
month that's nothing you know do that
pretty easy one hundred twenty thousand
a year I go work on that mare
okay great and I'll get with you dr.
Martinez tonight like I said I know I
talked real fast on this stuff it just
unfortunately it just flows through my
head real quick but I'll put it down on
paper for you and then senator steinborn
and dr. Torres I think we can actually
accomplish both of these right now this
time in history because of the money is
so cheap it never has been this cheap
ever okay well I guess that's it this is
the only thing we have on this work
session correct okay I believe so so
I'll entertain a motion to adjourn
removed is there a second I'll second it
mr. mayor and breakouts rhetoric that we
adjourned
all those favor signify by saying aye
aye aye those opposed I were adjourned
its 401 p.m. we need a few minutes to
switch over and then we'll go to our
special city council meeting