Wedged between the Rio Grande and the Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque offers a supportive environment for entrepreneurs and lots of fun outdoor activities when the work is done.
The city of roughly half a million people in Central New Mexico is surrounded by skiing, snowboarding and three World Heritage sites showcasing the state’s ancestral pueblo culture.
Business Assets
- Albuquerque has one of the nation’s highest levels of college graduates, with 32 percent of people 25 or older having a bachelor’s degree or higher.
- Cost of living is four points below the national average.
- The Central New Mexico Community Workforce Training Center offers advanced manufacturing as well as microelectronics programs for the local semiconductor industry.
Major Companies
- Sandia National Laboratories, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, develops, engineers and tests non-nuclear components ofnuclear weapons.
- Inteloperates a large semiconductor factory in suburban Rio Rancho.
- Kirtland Air Force Base has a nuclear weapons center, research lab, munitionsmaintenance and training center and cruise missiles.
- Northrop Grumman
Business Information Links
- The Albuquerque Small Business Development Center at Central New Mexico Community College.
- Albuquerque Economic Development.
- Accion. Provides access to business credit, loans and training.
- The Loan Fund. Provides loans, consulting and training to small businesses, entrepreneurs and nonprofits that can’t get bank financing.
Cowork Places
Startup Incubators
- WESST Enterprise Center. Has a suite dedicatedfor veterans and active military.
- BioScience Centerin Albuquerque.
- ABQid. Uses the Lean Startup customer validation process.
- TEAM Technologies Accelerator.
Major Attractions
- Hundreds of hot air balloons fill the sky each October at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, attracting more than 800,000 people a year.
- The ABQ BioPark complex has a zoo with more than 900 animals, botanical garden with plants from across the American Southwest, fishing at Tingley Beach and an aquarium where you can view the Shark Tank while dining.
- Two UNESCO World Heritage sites are within a two-hour drive from Albuquerque: Chaco Culture National Historical Park and Pueblo de Taos.
- Petroglyph National Monument, which includes volcanic cones, archeological sites and thousands of images carved by AncestralPueblo peoples and early Spanish settlers.
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This post is by Caren Burmeister. Caren is a retired newspaper reporter turned freelance writer who enjoys yoga and caring for her two fat cats.