Movie plot continues to affect Sandoval County

In the movie's opening scene, Alec Baldwin delivers a profanity-laced crackdown to the company's sales staff.

"Always. Be. Closing," he repeats in the monologue, a mantra that essentially means all conversations and actions a salesman takes are meant to be working toward closing the deal.

Over his left shoulder is a sign of what salesmen are being told to sell: "Rio Rancho Estates."

The movie, "Glengarry Glen Ross," is the story of salesmen working under immense pressure and tight deadlines to sell land in a fictional place called Rio Rancho Estates in Arizona. It's loosely based on the history of Rio Rancho, and the legacy continues to affect the City of Vision.

AMREP Corporation, which through a subsidiary is a major land developer and homebuilder in New Mexico, purchased large amounts of Sandoval County land in the 1960s and 1970s and sold Rio Rancho Estates property to people all across the country and some people overseas. Pitches were made over extravagant dinners and potential investors were flown to central New Mexico.

Advertisements used during the time show a beautiful small town where homes are sandwiched between mountains, the nonexistent Jemez Canyon and a golf course — much of it as fictional as the play and movie Glengarry Glen Ross.

"Where the sun shines 360 days a year," one advertisement reads.

Rio Rancho Estates sales had significant fallout. In a 1977 trial in federal District Court in Manhattan, four AMREP officials were convicted of mail and land fraud charges and were sentenced to six months in jail. The company was fined $45,000 in connection with its sales practices, according to the New York Times.

Flashforward 50 years and some of those parcels are still owned by family members of investors who never developed the land. The sales practices still affect development throughout Sandoval County because so many people own undeveloped, half-acre plots, said Sandoval County Manager Wayne Johnson. Many of the landowners have no idea about the property until they receive a property tax bill because they inherited the property after a relative died.

"Where we are right now was Rio Rancho Estates because (AMREP) owned pretty much all of it," Johnson said. "And they carved it into half-acre lots. ... And they started selling property in New Jersey and Grand Central Station in New York, all over the country."

Johnson said that is part of the reason that much of Rio Rancho residents work in Albuquerque or Santa Fe.

"Rio Rancho originally was envisioned as a bedroom community to Albuquerque. ... Today, about 68% of Rio Rancho's population of Rio Rancho's working population drives to Albuquerque," he said. "From an economic development perspective, that is not what you want for a stable, growing community. You want more than just rooftops."

Intel has nearly 3,000 employees at its Rio Rancho factory. The company is the county's largest employers. Johnson said he would like to see more company's expand into Sandoval County and bring higher paying jobs to the area.

"Ultimately, what you want to have ... is economic base development," Johnson said. "And to do that you need business parks."

Johnson said the Rio Rancho Estates land has a marginal economic benefit to the county. It's not developed and connected to infrastructure so there's only a small amount of tax revenue the land generates from property taxes.

Johnson said the county is often approached by landowners who simply want to give the land back.

"We've had somebody from Switzerland contact us because they received a tax bill ... because somebody died and (the land) ended up being owned by somebody in Switzerland," he said. "We often receive requests to give back land. And this isn't a new thing for Sandoval County. It's been happening for years."

There are efforts to assemble the land so it can be used for economic development. Many local leaders are hopeful that more office parks and businesses will be locating in Rio Rancho in the future.

"We have a huge amount of land available," said Jerry Schalow, president and CEO of the Rio Rancho Chamber of Commerce.

Mike Skolnick, a broker and co-owner of Excalibur Reality and Investments, has been developing in Rio Rancho for 20 years. He said he's found a niche by tracking down people who have owned land in Rio Rancho for decades.

"I won't use too many expletives to describe it. I've been dealing with thousands of landowners all over the country, and, in some cases, the world," he said.

He's currently involved in the residential and commercial development of the Los Diamantes neighborhood. There's a proposed business park in the area near 10th Street and Westside Boulevard.

Johnson said Rio Rancho and Sandoval County home values would increase if their were more high-paying jobs in the city.

"We understand a couple things. First of all, that land needs to be improved. And second, we need to have economic base jobs on the west side of the river," Johnson said. "This land assembly problem isn't a new thing for us.

"If you can't assemble it you can't build larger scale properties, you're stuck with small-scale retail and you're stuck with rooftops."

Skolnick said Rio Rancho is friendly to developers, and there are business parks planned, including one in the Los Diamontes area near 10th Street and West Side Boulevard.

Skolnick grew up in New York and was introduced to New Mexico in 1968 when his parents came home from dinner and announced they had bought land in Rio Rancho. Skolnick's father and his business partner were convinced they had made a great investment.

"Then AMREP ... chartered a plane and they fly you out to, quote; un-quote, see your land," Skolnick said.

But Skolnich said he's encountered landowners who made the trip to central New Mexico to see their golf course property, even though they had actually purchased barren land miles away.

AMREP continues to own land and build homes in Rio Rancho. The company and its subsidiaries own 16,000 acres of both developed and undeveloped land, according the Sandoval County Assessor's Office.

Officials at the company's Rio Rancho office didn't return a request for comment.

"Rio Rancho was, in my opinion, set up as a land scam," Skolnick said. "Who would have ever thought it would become the third largest city in New Mexico?"