ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Sixty-four new jobs are coming to Albuquerque. BlueHalo a national security and technology company announced Tuesday they are expanding in Albuquerque near Gibson and Carlisle. The expansion will help the company better manufacture products for space, energy as well as air and missile defense for the government and commercial customers.

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The expansion will add 64 new jobs to the existing 260. The total economic impact from BlueHalo is more than $3 billion over the next 10 years. “What a beautiful day in Albuquerque although, every day you’re announcing new jobs, new capital investments, new opportunities, new innovations and technologies… I don’t care what the weather is like. We’re happy about the progress in this incredible city,” said Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The Max Q location at Gibson and Carlisle was the selected site for the 200,000-square-foot campus. In November of 2020, KRQE reported on the Max Q space. Next month, crews will start construction by moving the Kirtland Air Force Base security wall.

“We will relocate that wall back about 560 feet to the south, and it’s all dirt right now. It was all old base housing,” said Kevin Yearout of Thunderbird Kirtland Development Corp.

The move will free up more than 70 acres that are currently just dirt, to build at least six new upscale office buildings, a hotel, stores and restaurants. Yearout says to think of it like a walkable business park similar to Uptown off I-40 and Louisiana. “A place where you could spend a little time at night and have a you know, have a beer and a burger, that type of thing,” Yearout said.

Yearout say they’re still searching for more tenant but add BlueHalo’s commitment makes this decades-long plan more realistic. Work on the site is set to ramp up in just a few weeks with the construction of a new building for BlueHalo and another undisclosed major tenant. The developer says they hope to announce another large company coming to Max Q by the end of August.