The Truck Farm - Local Economic Development (and southwestern condiments) at its best

I was in Las Cruces, New Mexico this week for work with the downtown organization. If you wish you can read about that assignment and Las Cruces in the previous blog.

But among the coolest part of the work I do is the absolutely serendipity nature of the people I meet and the lessons I learn. And Jim and Cleda Hawman and their company The Truck Farm are great examples.

Jim's a farmer (at least that's how he bills himself) although for over twenty years he also worked for Sara Lee. Both Jim and Cleda are Las Cruces natives. In 1996 they began The Truck Farm in the fertile Mesilla Valley west of Las Cruces. Jim experimented with specialty crops finally deciding to specialize in berries. As production increased by 1998 it made sense to buy a local fruit and gift shop.

Well, as happens when entrepreneurs establish a differentiated market and meet customer demand, the business grew. By the end of 1999 The Truck Farm acquired two other small firms. The first was Tia Rita Products which produced chile-based products and gourmet spices and flavorings as well as packaged, easily prepared southwest dishes. Before the end of the year the Truck Farm bought the Desert Farms line of chile-based jellies, honey and other condiments.


But even though now their product range was substantial Jim continued to experiment. Here's what Cleda told me. "In 2000 we had a bumper crop of blackberries, there were tons of them. So I said to Jim, 'you've got to figure out something to do with all those berries!'" So Jim did. He experimented with mixing berries and chiles until he finally came up with Besito Caliente which means "A Hot Little Kiss". It's a syrup-like product that you can use for everything - flavoring margaritas, pouring on ice cream, spreading on pancakes, adding to cake batter, using as fruit dip, mixing with cream cheese...literally a hundred uses. They once entered Besito Caliente in a salsa contest as a joke but ended up as the winner. Another time they came in second - but there were 900 entrants. By last year Besito Caliente constituted over 40% of the sales of the Truck Farm. Well I brought half a suitcase of Truck Farm products home with me and have already dipped into the Jalapeno mustard and Cierra's Gourmet Mustard.

But I'm not in the food review business (although I found at least one source - the Hot Sauce Blog blog which raved about Tia Rita's products) and I'm not a shill for some small company in New Mexico. Rather what excited me about meeting Jim and Cleda and seeing their business was what a great economic development story it is.

Here is this small enterprise in relatively rural New Mexico that has built up a national, specialized market for their products. The majority of sales are wholesale to restaurants and gourmet food shops who use and/or resell their products. They do have a limited internet presence through the online market New Mexico's Own but Jim promises to have their own website in the not too distant future. And there is a small retail store attached to their production facility in Las Cruces.

They are selling their products nationally, thus bringing dollars into the local economy. But their purchases of both labor and materials are almost exclusively local - recirculating those dollars into the region's economy. That is effective economic development.

But here's what else impressed me. Every Wednesday and Saturday morning there is a farmers' market in downtown Las Cruces. Jim is always there with a range of his products. But he also uses that as an opportunity for first hand market research -- having people taste new products, compare different iterations, make recommendations and state preferences. Talking about getting input from your customers! And Jim takes it one step further. He says "I know how to grow things, and how to mix things as a product, but I don't know about naming the product after I've developed it." So what does he do? He asks his customers what he should call the product. The name Besito Caliente came from customer suggestions.

The small production facility (which Jim describes as very low tech) is viewable through windows from the retail section - you can literally see your product being prepared. If you ask nicely, Cleda will give you a couple of recipes for use of some of the products and suggestions on how to use others.

This is one great business...and even a better business model. The good news is that their son has now joined them at the Truck Farm.

So buy their products if you like spicy southwestern cuisine (and I definitely do). But more importantly learn from Jim and Cleda Hawman. They are what great small business and great economic development are all about.

Want to Be Part of Sustainable Develoment? Go to Biddeford, Maine

Biddeford, Maine. Never heard of it? Well, I guess that's not surprising, it's a town of only 22,000, 15 miles south of Portland, Maine. But it is one of the oldest towns in New England, with the first sawmill having been built there over 350 years ago.

Biddeford was a textile town, at its peak having over 12,000 workers in the textile mills there. But during the 20th Century most of the textile plants relocated to the Carolinas and Georgia. (As an aside, I often like to point out that self-serving politicians like John Edwards whine about the loss of textile jobs to the Caribbean, Africa and East Asia as if those jobs were some god-given right for North Carolinians. But they disingenuously ignore, in fact, that those jobs were stolen by North and South Carolina from New England less than a century ago.)

Anyway today there are only around 200 textile jobs still in Biddeford. But what still exist are 2.5 million square feet of well built mill buildings, a century or more old. Buildings, yes, but a public sector and some progressive, enlightened developers seeing the 19th century built heritage of Biddeford accommodating the residential, commercial and industrial needs of the 21st century.
There are simultaneous activities taking place among several developers, including a $100,000,000 adaptive reuse, mixed use project in mill buildings right across the river in the adjacent town of Saco. But two projects at different stages of development will serve as examples.

The Riverdam Mill project is being advanced by SpencerMonksDevelopment of Portland. SpencerMonks has acquired a 2 year option on the 160,000 square foot property for redevelopment into a variety of uses. They've done a great job of identifying the multiple sources of financing that will be required to make this deal fly. It will be neither quick nor easy, but they seem to recognize that and they have a realistic sense of the particular challenges and obsticles to this type of development.

But here's what most impressed me about their information packet. Instead of citing such imaginary competitive advantages as "low taxes" or "cheap labor" or "the latest high tech gizmos available", they have a different set of arguments why the redevelopment of Riverdam makes sense: job creation, affordable housing, smart growth, historic preservation, downtown revitalization, green development, brownfield redevelopment. In short, while they are certainly in the deal to make money (as well they should be) they have positioned their project to have significant benefits beyond their own pocketbooks. And they have recognized that Riverdam isn't a stand-alone project but one more incremental component of a broader effort.


The second project is a little more downstream, so to speak. The North Dam Mill development is currently wrapping up their first phase and moving on to Phase II. The North Dam Mill, is actually a complex of three former textile mill buildings totaling nearly 400,000 square feet. Already completed in Phase I are 60,000 square feet of retail, commercial, studio and industrial space. The first phase started in late 2005 and currently houses some 40 small businesses including several retail shops, a coffeehouse, studios for photographers and artists, a print shop, a dance studio and others.

This project has solidly positioned itself as the venue of choice for the creative economy activities of the 21st Century. They are also in ongoing negotiations with fast growing University of New England, both for student and faculty housing but also for direct University activities. There are several great models for college facilities being located in former mill and industrial buildings, by the way. Two of my favorites are the University of New Hampshire - Manchester and the University of Washington - Tacoma. In both cases university leadership was sufficiently enlightened to understand that those underutilized buildings and college activities were a natural fit. And students always add vibrancy and excitement to an area.

The development team at the North Dam Mill has wisely left unspecified exactly when Phase III of their project will begin. That allows the market to adjust, for lessons to be learned from earlier phases, and for risk mitigation as the project moves forward. The three big mistakes that preservationists often make with these kind of buildings is "We have to do it all; we have to do it now; we have to do it on this preconceived use." Doing it in phases is the prudent way to approach these projects and that's what the North Dam Mill people are doing.



So these are both enlightened private sector development groups. But as I'm sure both would tell you, they would not have a chance to be successful were it not for strong support from and assistance of the City. Currently underway is a Mill District Master Plan and consideration for both a tax increment financing district (TIF) and a National Register Historic District.

This is a great example of Smart Growth. The existing vacant space in mill buildings in Biddeford can probably accommodate all of the economic and residential growth for the next two decades...all without consuming a single acre of additional land at the periphery. And reusing buildings - the ultimate in recycling - is far more environmentally responsible than just adding some solar panels to a new crappy building in Sprawlsville.

In the sometimes arcane world of international, academic historic preservation conferences, there are often sessions on the "spirit of place" and not infrequently papers delivered arguing that adaptive reuse like is taking place in Biddeford represents the destruction of the "spirit of place". What absolute nonsense! I heard the Mayor of Biddeford, Joanne Twomey, talk about what is happening in her community. She said that her grandmother, a French-Canadian, migrated to work in the mills in Biddeford, and so she certainly was aware of the character and quality of the "spirit of place" of those mills in the textile days. But Mayor Twomey's pride and excitement over what today is happening absolutely reflects a new "sense of place" perfectly appropriate for that town and those buildings.

So go to Biddeford for a visit or to invest or maybe as a great place to relocate (at VERY affordable rents) your "creative economy" business. And I'm sure that Rachael Weyand, executive director of Heart of Biddeford, the local Main Street program, will be happy to help you. Oh, your firm is in Boston you say? No problem. A new Amtrak station is being completed in the midst of the mill building redevelopment...so walk to the train and ride the 90 miles to Beantown.

The textile industry has largely abandoned Biddeford and towns like it for cheaper labor elsewhere. But the built legacy of those industries still stands and is calling for adaptive reuse in the 21st century. Smart cities and investors are answering that call.

Historic Preservation as Economic Development

Hurray for the Economic Development Administration (EDA) of the US Department of Commerce! They have taken a GIANT leap forward in refuting the long-held belief in some quarters that communities have to choose between historic preservation and economic development.

That was always a false choice, of course, but a commonly held one.

But there is nowhere better from which enlightenment should flow than the EDA.

What has happened? Well this year for the first time the EDA has added to their annual awards a category called Excellence in Historic Preservation-led Strategies to Enhance Economic Development. This award takes its place along side existing categories such as Excellence in Rural Economic Development, Excellence in Technology-led Economic Development and Excellence in Enhancing Regional Competitiveness.

Why has this happened? Well, I don't know for sure, but here's my speculation. In 2006 First Lady Laura Bush and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) held the Preserve America Summit.

An underlying purpose of the summit was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act (passed in 1966) and to look forward to what the future role of the Federal Government in historic preservation should be. And to do this the ACHP organized 11 groups of experts on a variety of topics to address the issues and make recommendations. Each of the working groups was co-chaired by someone from the Federal Government (nearly always a senior official) and someone from the private or non-profit sector. One of the groups was called Using Historic Properties as Economic Assets.

The Federal co-chair for the group was Jim Yeager, Chief of Staff of the Economic Development Administration and the group was facilitated by Sandy Baruah, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development.

I frankly don't know what interest, if any, either Mr. Yeager or Assistant Secretary Buruah had in historic preservation prior to the Summit. But what they both did do was listen diligently and intently. And I believe they clearly saw the role historic preservation could play in local economies. The working group provided the Advisory Council with a number of important recommendations.

I particularly like the title they've given the award -- Preservation-led Strategies. That suggests that preservation isn't the end, but the means, and in this case the means of effective economic development. The nominations were evaluated on how effectively they used regional historic assets to advance innovative economic development strategies. This award by EDA is one of the first specific actions that a Federal agency has undertaken as a result of the Summit, and they should be heartily congratulated for it.

And by the way, the first winner of the Award is the Main Street Project of Silver City, New Mexico. Main Street is the most cost effective form of economic development of any kind in the country. And Silver City's program represents the kind of bottom up, self-help economic development that has made Main Street a success for nearly 30 years.

So congratulations Silver City and heartfelt thanks to the Economic Development Administration and Assistant Secretary Buruah.