NAIOP attendees hear three local small-biz success stories

RIO RANCHO – Judging by the reaction of the three-dozen or so attendees at the monthly NAIOP meeting the morning of Oct. 12 at Rust Medical Center, even though some have eaten or had a drink at Turtle Mountain Brewing Company in the city, not many knew the struggles owner Nico Ortiz had to open not only his TMBC on 36th Circle, off Southern Blvd., nor the trials and tribulations that went into his second location, in Enchanted Hills, about to celebrate its second anniversary in early December.

And not many – maybe no one – knew a national pinball parts distributor is in the City of Vision, and has been for a decade.

They found out and had more than a few questions.

• Edit House: Of course, everyone knew of the track record of Edit House: Ed Smith and his wife Kim, and eventually their two sons, run one of the prominent video production companies in New Mexico, among the top video production and film companies in the Albuquerque region since 2003. Owners Ed and Kim Smith expanded Edit House Productions into a full-service advertising agency, even branching off the advertising agency into a division called Ad House Advertising, which became the first New Mexico company to reach the status of a Google Partner — Google’s recognition of digital agencies that meet their performance and educational standards.

“We came (to Rio Rancho) because of the schools,” Smith told the gathering, after the couple moved from Wichita, Kansas, to Roswell, worked at KRQE-TV in Albuquerque and then crossed the Rio Grande to the City of Vision in late 1999.

“We came to our senses,” he quipped, relating how Edit House grew in its two-plus decades from 100 square feet to its 6,000-squre-foot building on Quantum Road. Edit House cranks out, he said, 30-50 commercials a week in its studio and edit suites on Quantum.

Now with nine employees, he said, “We love it here … We’re part of the community and the community’s part of us.”

• Mezel (ME-zull) Mods: Sure, many of the attendees probably played pinball once or twice in earlier days, but it took former Intel employee Kristen Browning-Mezel to educate them on how her and her husband’s business has grown in the last 10 years.

“Pinball used to be a thing back in the ’90s,” she said, and it’s been undergoing a recent resurgence. Her family’s company began in the family home, when her husband decided the best way to get a pinball machine for himself was to get one with a Star Wars theme, knowing his wife loved the movie.

It didn’t her long to realize they multiply, because by the end of a year, there were seven pinball machines in their home.

A few years back, Kristin Browning-Mezel’s husband Tim was dissatisfied with the donut shop in his “Getaway” pinball machine, so he tried to remake it himself. And that’s what led to Mezel Mods ultimately becoming a spare parts and custom parts outlet for pinball machines, even though, she said, the company doesn’t have a single customer in Rio Rancho and only a handful statewide — but the rest of the U.S. and world know about the firm.

Pinball machines can run a gamer from $6,000 to $12,000, she said, with the popular Godzilla game running about $10,000.

The company, which uses 3-D machines to produce its parts, has six employees.

Where else would you go to find a “007 James Bond pinball silhouette topper”? Their website had that and other custom toppers for gamers who want a touch of uniqueness in their mancaves or womancaves. Plus, Browning-Mezel said, the firm on the east side of NM 528 has some pinball machines for sale.

• Turtle Mountain: Nico Ortiz told the story of his first location, a one-time laundromat on Southern Blvd, which became successful enough to lead him to buy property and have Turtle Mountain South built on the cul-de-sac off Southern; it opened in December 2006.

Ortiz, who grew up in Santa Fe, said a visit to El Vecino in Northeast Albuquerque opened his eyes to a way to expand his business.

“It was the only place in the Metro area with a brewery,” he said, and that led to him installing a brewery in his 36th Circle site. He said he plans to move it to the northern location, which “anchors a resurgence of activity (in Enchanted Hills).”

“We had a couple stumbles,” he said. “Rio Rancho has been fantastic,” and with the new location and what he termed “pent-up demand” in that part of the city, “Turtle Mountain is bringing gross receipts into Rio Rancho instead of (gross receipts) going out.

“The availability of commercial space is limited,” he lamented, which limits what independently owned restaurants have available to them, compared to the corporate chains, with deeper pockets. When Turtle Mountain began here, there were only a handful of independent eateries here, among them O’Hare’s and Joe’s Pasta House.

Soon to be the board chair for the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce, he said the post-COVID days have been brutal for finding kitchen and staff help, who all seem to want wages “higher than they’ve ever been,” noting he has 115 employees.

Mayor Gregg Hull touted Ortiz for his business sense and opening in Enchanted Hills Plaza, where the first anchor tenant, Bed, Bath & Beyond, exited a few years ago.

“The national retailers left,” Hull said. “People want more of that local experience now. … It all started because of Turtle Mountain.”

Hull will be the guest speaker at the Nov. 2 NAIOP meeting, at which time he’ll present his annual State of the City address at Premiere Cinemas. NAIOP meetings are free and open to the public.