Recipe for success

Women E.A.R.N. fosters entrepreneurship, independence

New Mexico Business Weekly

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Megan Kamerick

Duka Sabedi developed an entrepreneurial spirit out of sheer necessity.

During 17 years in a refugee camp in Nepal, the native of Bhutan bought potatoes to resell at a small profit. She obtained a pass that let her travel outside the barbed wire to study business. She taught school and earned extra money.

Sabedi landed in Albuquerque with her parents and her husband in 2008, after a fire in the camp destroyed what little they had left. It was part of a vast resettlement effort by the United Nations of thousands of ethnic Nepalese people forced out of Bhutan in the early 1990s. She found her way to the Albuquerque Women Entrepreneurial Artisan Resource Network (E.A.R.N.) in 2009, and she is funneling that entrepreneurial energy into her new business venture, Duka Koo Jhola bags.

S. Valley Economic Dev. Center receives $50,000

New Mexico Business Weekly

Friday, November 6, 2009, 1:55pm MST

Entrepreneurial Inquiries on Rise

By Juan Carlos Rodriguez
Journal Staff Writer

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009

The South Valley Economic Development Center is keeping a positive attitude in the face of the economic downturn.
The center announced this week that the 75 businesses it houses, or “incubates,” accounted for 208 jobs and $5.76 million in wages during 2008.
Tim Nisly, the center's program manager, said existing businesses at the center, such as Realtors, have had a tough time during the downturn, but none has gone under. On the other hand, Nisly said there has been an increase in the number of people coming in to find out about starting their own business.
He said 112 people came in during 2008 seeking information about entrepreneurship. Eighty-one have already come in this year.
“As soon as the economic downturn hit, because food-based businesses don't require a large amount of capital to start up, a lot of people who were seeing their portfolios decline or were in danger of losing their job actually were looking for a backup plan. So we started seeing a lot more interest.” Nisly said. read more...

The Sweetheart Deal

How the South Valley is giving capitalism a good name

Tony Gallegos has a solid build. He’s a former wrestler with a vague resemblance to a 50-something Erik Estrada. His mind is in constant motion, making connections and synthesizing disparate information, and his mouth is rarely far behind. All the while, the wrestler in him stays on alert for leverage points on which to pivot the game to his advantage. And the game won’t be over, as far as he’s concerned, until his beloved South Valley is on an even playing field.

The South Valley, at 39 square miles, represents more than a third of Albuquerque’s metropolitan area. Many of its plazas, like Pajarito, Atrisco and Los Padillas, predate the existence of Albuquerque. But the South Valley remains unincorporated and stigmatized, and it’s plagued with vacant lots, pitted roads, higher poverty levels and a bad reputation.

“We suffer from the double-kicked-dog syndrome,” explains Gallegos. “Banks see us as too high-risk, too crime-ridden and without economic possibility, and they’ve been reluctant to lend here. The South Valley residents believe it, and they have an inferiority complex. We’ve become isolated like an Indian pueblo. And like a pueblo, if you’re lucky enough to get an education, you end up leaving because there’s no opportunity.”

Eric Williams ericwphoto.com

Teresa Gatewood, owner of T's Candy, displays a tray of NewMexigold Nuggets in the kitchen. The Nuggets are a semisweet chocolate-peanut butter candy.

Thanks to SVEDC, big changes are cooking for the South Valley—and not just in its million-dollar commercial kitchen. From food enterprises to real estate to computer services to the only Spanish-language hypnotherapist in the South Valley, if somebody has an idea for a business, the SVEDC staff will work with them to make it happen.

And while the world economy stumbles—thanks in part to the ills of corporate excess—the SVEDC is doing its part to give capitalism a good name. It’s using market forces to pull the community up from within, without handouts. After years of hibernation, the sleeping giant that is the South Valley looks like it’s beginning to stir. read more...

Standing proudly to the side was UNM law student Kristina Fisher, who, with classmate Stephen Cash, put together the operating agreement and additional contracts as part of a project in the Business and Tax Clinic.

The Rio Grande Growers Association is made up of four South Valley landscape growers and greenhouse operators who came together as a group in order to provide the landscaping plants to Mesa del Sol. The association was organized and is managed by the South Valley Economic Development Center (SVEDC), which filed articles of incorporation before seeking the assistance of the UNM clinical program.

The operating agreement that created the growers' new LLC was produced by Fisher and Cash under the supervision of Professor Nathalie Martin. The agreement with Mesa del Sol provides $100,000 for the SVEDC's administrative costs, along with startup costs for the growers. Mesa del Sol will require its landscapers to purchase about 50 percent of all plants going in at the development from the association. That money then goes straight to the growers.

As she delved into her research, Fisher, who didn't even know what an LLC was before the project, learned how to tailor the contract to best meet everyone's needs.

"We gave the SVEDC a lot of control for the first few years, after which they will hand over the operation to the growers association," she says. read more...

Growers to Provide Foliage to Subdivision

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez
Journal Staff Writer

Mesa del Sol Signs Pact for Plants with South Valley Economic Development Center

$100,000 initial investment retains South Valley’s rich heritage

April 22, 2008

Albuquerque, NM – April 22, 2008 – With the stroke of a pen, Mesa del Sol will secure a local source for drought-tolerant, low-water use and native plants while at the same time help a fledging economic group begin an economic venture aimed at retaining the South Valley’s rich agricultural and cultural heritage.

The South Valley Economic Development Center (SVEDC) and Mesa del Sol representatives signed the formal agreement at 12 p.m. April 22, 2008 at Agra Greenhouses, 2015 Gun Club Road SW.

As part of the agreement, the SVEDC has assisted local growers in creating the Rio Grande Grower’s Association (RGGA). read more...

Café Is a Collaboration Between Two South Valley Community-Based Groups

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez
Journal Staff Writer

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Albuquerque's newest coffee shop is proud to call the South Valley home.
La Plazita Café is now entering its third week in business at the South Valley Economic Development Center, 318 Isleta SW.
The café has all you could ask for: fair trade coffee, comfortable couches, wireless Internet, pastries, high ceilings, lots of natural light, juice and the occasional impromptu dance performance.
But it's more than just a coffee shop, it's a collaboration between two South Valley community-based organizations, La Plazita Institute and the Economic Development Center.
The business is operated by La Plazita, an organization that works with at-risk youths and runs the Sanchez Farm, a storm water drainage pond that doubles as a community farm.
"I always dreamed about something like this," said Albino Garcia, La Plazita's executive director.
Garcia said he envisions the café as becoming a meeting place for the South Valley community, and added that some of the money will go back into La Plazita.
"This is going to support the real work, the hard work," Garcia said of his work with gang-involved youth.
He originally planned to start the café at the La Plazita building, but instead worked out an agreement with the Economic Development Center, which strives to improve the economy of the South Valley by providing classes, affordable office space and a commercial kitchen to potential entrepreneurs.
Tony Gallegos, the center's executive director, said the café fit well with his organization's mission.
"It provides an open door to the community to come out here and see what we're doing and what we're all about," Gallegos said.
Still, Gallegos said the idea of successfully getting a café off the ground in the South Valley is a bit different.
"This is uncharted territory," Gallegos said. "I kind of feel like Captain Kirk here." read more...

Helping Small Businesses
By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez
Journal Staff Writer

Saturday, December 8, 2007

The South Valley Economic Development Center is offering even more help to local residents who may want to see what starting their own business is like.
Beginning next week, SCORE, a national nonprofit organization made up of current and retired business people who mentor and counsel small businesses, will operate one day a week out of the EDC.
Royce House, a SCORE volunteer, said the alliance with the EDC is a natural fit.
"We had visited with them when they opened up (in April 2005) and we've kept in touch," House said. "We said some time in the future we ought to get together, and that time has now come. We start up on the 12th of next week."
SCORE will be at the development center every Wednesday after that.
Development center director Tony Gallegos said partnerships with groups like SCORE help the EDC with its mission of improving the economy of the South Valley.
"We offer the office space, the commercial kitchen, but what we can't do is the actual training," Gallegos said. "I'd have to hire 25 people."
House said his group will be able to provide help with topics such as business licenses, marketing plans, how to obtain loans and others.
"We have a whole host of different skills offered by our members," House said. read more...

South Valley center fosters small business success

Ashleigh Sanchez

September 4th, 2007

Hoffman's dream is to open a cookie cafe one day. He was busy working in the kitchen at the South Valley Economic Development Center on Sunday. "I'm getting ready for the State Fair right now," said Hoffman, owner of cookie company Albucookie. "We are making huge amounts of cookies." Hoffman said the center has been a big help to his business.
"It's a great resource for small companies that don't have a lot of capital," he said. "It's a great learning ground." The center promotes small business growth in the South Valley, said student Ilana Blankman, a volunteer at the center.

Albuquerque's South Valley needs businesses to support its community, Blankman said. "The South Valley is one of the oldest communities in New Mexico and the longest continuously occupied," she said. "Sixty thousand people live here, but there is very little in the way of services. So, all these people live here, but they spend their money somewhere else."

The center, at 318 Isleta Blvd. S.W., opened its doors in April 2005. It focuses on helping develop the South Valley's food businesses, Blankman said. She said a big part of that is preserving the valley's long-standing agricultural tradition. "Industry is really cutting down on agriculture," she said. "Now the South Valley is a cool new place to buy a house, the land prices are really going up and the development is really threatening agriculture."

The center offers office space that a small business can rent out for less than market price, Blankman said. It is equipped with a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen that anyone in the community can rent to cook locally grown produce, she said. "It helps support agriculture in the South Valley by allowing people to bring what they grow here to process and make into value-added products," she said. read more...

New South Valley Incubator Tackles Its Future

By Rory McClannahan
Journal Staff Writer

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Getting the South Valley Economic Development Center on Isleta Boulevard SW built took more than 10 years of work by hundreds of people.
A handful of those people recently got together to slap themselves on the back for a job well done and give each other encouragement for the work that remains to be done.
"This place is only going to work if we work with all the organizations and people who contribute to its success," said center director Tony Gallegos at a reception. "I think we're off to a great start, but there is a lot of work to do."
The reception was held to celebrate the center— which opened in 2005— and the 20th anniversary of the Rio Grande Community Development Corp., RGCDC, which runs the center.
The seeds for the center were planted in 1995 when RGCDC got a $50,000 planning grant from the city of Albuquerque to study the economic development needs of the South Valley. After that, about $2.5 million in grants trickled in from federal and state government organizations including the Housing and Urban Development Department, the New Mexico State Legislature, the Department of Commerce and Bernalillo County.
And what did they get for their money? read more...

Córdova involves South Valley residents in economic development vision

By Carolyn Gonzales

July 28, 2003

Teresa Córdova, associate professor in the UNM School of Architecture and Planning and director of the school’s Resource Center for Raza Planning (RCRP), looks forward to the groundbreaking of a South Valley small business incubator in September.

“The Resource Center for Raza Planning has been working with the Rio Grande Community Development Corporation since 1996 to bring this kind of economic development into the South Valley. The business incubator and the commercial kitchen and are in direct response to community input,” Córdova said. read more...