Eddy County Leads New Mexico in Business Growth, Study Finds

    EDDY COUNTY, NM, July 22, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In a recent study released by the financial consulting firm SmartAsset, Eddy County's business growth ranked number one in New Mexico this year, moving up two spots from 2015. The study looked at the number of new businesses, GDP growth, and building permits in counties across New Mexico. Eddy County topped New Mexico with 10.8% business growth and a business growth index of 45.18.

Strong industrial diversity has led to Eddy County leading the way in growth for the state. The market relies on more than just one industry, to include nuclear, potash, manufacturing, retail, oil and gas, and construction. Several of these have flourished lately, as the community has seen an influx of new businesses.

"Economic development is something that Eddy County prides itself on and strives to improve," said County Commissioner Susan Crockett. "We are proud of our growth and look forward to continued economic development opportunities. We appreciate our valued partnership with the Carlsbad Department of Development (CDOD) who work strongly with the City and County to continually bring in new business."

Further on the industrial front, Carlsbad, the major municipality in Eddy County, has seen areas of expansion recently in the aviation area. In April, the CDOD attended the MRO of the Americas show in Dallas, TX. The aviation themed tradeshow, which was attended by over 13,000 and had 830 companies represented, has already paid dividends for the market. Celtech Corporation in Carlsbad, which houses 75,000 square feet of facilities, comprised of 12 buildings, was represented by its parent company, Atec Inc., at the show. Since then, the CDOD has been working towards assisting Celtech expand operations.

"The CDOD is excited to see Eddy County at the top of the list of growing communities in New Mexico for 2016," said Dr. Russell Hardy, CDOD president. "This report further validates the growth and investment that we have seen with respect to new businesses and business expansions in Carlsbad, Eddy County, and Southeast New Mexico."

The nuclear industry continues to grow as well. WIPP, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, is scheduled to resume its full operations in the near future. This is welcome news to the community as a whole, and other businesses will also see an incline in their operations upon WIPP's re-opening.

Carlsbad is full of companies that provide a terrific synergy for others looking to relocate. The market has a well-trained and educated employee base with skills needed in the manufacturing world. State incentives are available based on industry and employee type, as well as local incentives like no municipal impact fees and Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRBs) as well. Carlsbad continues its unprecedented market growth, as both industrial and retail sectors are expanding. Carlsbad, in Eddy County, has been leading oil production in the state of New Mexico for three years, and Eddy County continues to rank high in the nation for oil production.

SmartAsset incorporated several factors in the methodology for the study. The study aimed to capture the places across the country that are receiving the most incoming investments in business, real estate, government and the local economy as a whole. To do this they looked at four factors: business establishment growth, GDP growth, new building permits and municipal bond investment.

The change in the number of businesses established in each location over a 3-year period was tracked. This showed whether or not people were starting new business ventures in the county.

The second factor reviewed was the GDP growth. Real growth (inflation adjusted) in the local economy was used in the study.

Investment and development in the local residential real estate market was also tracked. To measure this real estate growth, they calculated the number of new building permits per 1,000 homes.

The final factor considered was investment in municipal bonds. They found total municipal bond debt raised by a county over the last five years, which was divided by population. This provided a per capita look at investment in local government.

Every county was scored on these four factors in the study, with weights being equally allocated to each factor. The scores were then combined to create a final ranking of cities. With that ranking, they created an index where the county with the most incoming investments was assigned a value of 100 and the county with the least investment activity received a zero.

The Carlsbad Department of Development is the economic development agency for the City of Carlsbad and Eddy County, New Mexico.

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