D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
August 2010
Business Beat
Lodge going local CVS eyeing Cruces iPhone coming Freeport-McMoRan booming.
By the time you read this, Bear Mountain Lodge in Silver City may have new, local owners, with closing scheduled for the end of July. Originally built as the Rocky Mountain Ranch School for Boys in 1928, the lodge and surrounding acreage were donated to the nonprofit Nature Conservancy upon the death of Myra McCormick in 1999. She and her husband had operated it as the Bear Mountain Guest Ranch for more than four decades. The Nature Conservancy remodeled the lodge and reopened it in 2001, then abruptly shuttered the lodge and put the property on the block last fall. Watch this space next month for details on the new owners' plans.
Mike Trujillo will be promoted to president and chief development officer of AmBank, following the announcement by long-time president and CEO Joseph Casey that he will retire in November. Dennis Van will step up to be executive vice president and chief operations officer. Casey, who became president and CEO in 1996, will remain on the bank's board of directors.
Silver City Realtor Cissy McAndrew of United Country Mimbres Realty has been named one of the top 250 real estate sales and service professionals in North America by Quality Service Certification Inc. The ranking reflects surveys of consumers about some 30,000 participating brokers. www.QualityService.org
Will CVS bring its war with rival drugstore chain Walgreens to Las Cruces? The company has asked city officials to rezone two properties off North Main Street. CVS currently boasts more than 7,000 locations, compared to Walgreens' 7,500-plus drugstores.
Alamogordo-based Bank '34 plans to consolidate its two existing Las Cruces operations into a new, full-service commercial bank under construction in the 200 block of North Telshor Boulevard, next to Olive Garden.
The Order of Clear Mind Zen will open its new headquarters on August 16 at 642 Alameda Boulevard, Suite E, in Las Cruces. The Clear Mind Zen Center will offer a complete array of Zen Buddhist and contemplative services, including daily Zen meditation at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. as well as a full Zen Buddhist service at 9 a.m. on Sundays. The Center will also offer monthly zazenkai and quarterly sesshin retreats. (575) 680-6680, clearmindzen.org
The iPhone has moved a little closer to southwest New Mexico with the completion of AT&T's acquisition of former Alltel properties in primarily rural areas in 79 service areas across 18 states, including Grant County. To secure regulatory approvals for its purchase of Alltel in 2009, Verizon Wireless agreed to divest the properties. Once network transition work is completed, AT&T expects to roll out its 3G mobile broadband network to all the acquired properties and their approximately 1.6 million ex-Alltel subscribers.
Over a period of approximately 12 months, AT&T will launch service on a market-by-market basis as network integration work is completed. For now, the company said, there are no changes to customers' phone numbers, rate plans, network coverage, customer service contacts or processes for making monthly bill payments. During network integration, customers will have the opportunity to select a device comparable to their existing device at no additional cost, or choose an upgraded handset from AT&T such as Apple's popular iPhone. Rebranding to AT&T will also occur on a market-by-market basis as service is launched.
Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., which owns the mining operations in Grant County formerly run by Phelps Dodge, reported that its second-quarter net earnings rose to $649 million, or $1.40 per share, up from $588 million, or $1.38 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $3.86 billion, up from $3.68 billion a year earlier. The numbers easily beat Wall Street estimates and boosted the company's stock price. Analysts who cover Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) have a consensus price target of $95.94 per share for the stock, which was under $70 in late July.