By Tom Schneider
Current-Argus Staff Writer
Posted: 04/21/2009 09:11:33 PM MDT


CARLSBAD — Creating connections to build the community that's the function of the Carlsbad Department of Development (CDOD) as explained by John Waters, CDOD executive director. "We want to be seen as a nexus of business and industrial activity, with everything anyone would want to have in a community," he said.

Waters and CDOD staff presented a quarterly progress report to department members Tuesday. The eight months that the CDOD has been fully staffed and operational have seen its activities expanded significantly, Waters said.

A notable success has been the decision of Carbon Diversion Inc. of Hawaii to locate a pilot plant in the Carlsbad Industrial Park, with a groundbreaking on its $15 million manufacturing plant scheduled for next week.

Carbon Diversion uses their CDI Carbonization Process to process green waste, tires and municipal solid waste, turning it into biofuel, electricity and pure carbon, all of which are easily marketable. The company expects to bring 65 initial jobs to the community, plus an additional 300 jobs within two years, Campbell said.

Since August, more than 20 restaurants and 13 retail chains have been in contact with the CDOD, all of whom have expressed an interest in expanding into the local market.

Waters took over as executive director one year ago, and in that time has expanded the group's operations to be more sharply focused on marketing, to promote the community to outside businesses interested in expansion here, and on local business development to strengthen and encourage existing enterprise. "We have a far-reaching mandate for local business development and our marketing department," he said.

John Safin, director of local development, works with existing businesses in Carlsbad and South Eddy County to strengthen the existing economic base, while Jeff Campbell is in charge of business recruiting and expansion through the marketing department.

"Business retention is important," said Waters. "Small business successes are part of the overall success.

"Our job in marketing the community is to promote the community; Carlsbad is a very diverse and strong community," he said.

"Opportunities in manufacturing, in retail, in franchises: everything that we bring into Carlsbad makes it an even stronger community," said Waters.

"That is our strength a wide variety of businesses both small and large, and government agencies as well," he said. "We have opportunity and we have a quality of life that many communities don't have."

The economy has forced most businesses into a holding pattern where expansion is concerned, Waters said, and some forecasts call for the current recession to extend outward for as long as 12 months. Many are just waiting until the time is right and are already looking at Carlsbad, he said.

"Carlsbad is a number one choice when they do get back to expansion," Campbell told CDOD members. "We have a number of people interested in coming here if someone a franchisee would come forward. One of those is TGIFridays.

"We have also had a lot of interest from hotels looking at properties in and around Carlsbad," he said. "Within 10 or 12 months we'll have some announcements to make."

Other recruitment efforts, Campbell said, involve two freight transportation companies, a dry cleaning chain, an orthodontic supply company, a power plant, franchise business opportunities and even a small amusement park.

"There's also an international construction supply/home improvement retail store," he said.

"I'll leave it to you as to which one that might be," he said with a smile.

With business expansion and growth comes the need for more housing, and affordable housing has long been in short supply in Carlsbad, Safin noted.

"We've been working very rigorously on housing expansion, working in connection with a number of entities to create housing," he said.

The Carlsbad Housing Coalition, the Housing Grant Board, the City of Carlsbad Housing Plan Committee, the Carlsbad Retirement Board and the Carlsbad Board of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors are aggressively being brought into the mix, Safin said. They also proactively recruit residential developers and cultivate relationships with local lending institutions and other financing sources.

Three major housing projects are underway which should result in more than 400 single family homes and more than 200 apartments being built, he said.

Waters added that with the continued success of WIPP the nation's only licensed nuclear waste repository the foreseeable future for Carlsbad looks bright.

"Looking forward, into the year coming up and the decade beyond, the door has only started to open," he said.

"Promoting WIPP and its associated industries will be a major thrust for the CDOD into the next decade," he said.

###

Printable version of the CDOD's official press release.