City Grill

Mike Puelle
CEO
AGC New Mexico

New Mexico’s recovery from the downturn has lagged behind other Southwest states and the nation, Puelle says. One of the few bright spots has been Albuquerque, which has been a bulwark against the continued sluggishness in Las Cruces, Santa Fe and rural areas of the state. “We at the AGC are trying to push some of the tools that are being used in other parts of the country like public-private partnerships,” Puelle says. “The biggest impediment to P3 projects is that they are perceived not as a partnership, but privatization.”