Northrop Grumman on Thursday unveiled the company's new Albuquerque facility — the first piece of a technology hub being built at Kirtland Air Force Base.
The national aerospace and defense company plans to use the 27,000-square-foot facility for space systems and cybersecurity operations and employ around 100 people in Albuquerque, said Matt Verock, vice president of the company's space security systems. Those employees will work on ground leased for Max Q, a planned tech hub spanning 70 acres along Gibson Boulevard SE with room for up to 1 million square feet of office, commercial, retail and lodging.
Northrop Grumman will fold operations from its previous 21,000-square-foot Albuquerque facility near the Albuquerque International Sunport, which had around two dozen full-time employees, into the new facility near the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Albuquerque-based Dekker Perich Sabatini was the architect behind the building, Wilger Enterprises handled general construction and Bohannon Huston did the civil engineering.
That facility is the first building to go up as part of Max Q. Northrop Grumman is the "anchor tenant," said Kevin Yearout, who manages the firm behind the project, Thunderbird Kirtland Development LLC.
"[Northrop Grumman] is the exact tenant we had in our minds when we came up with the idea," Yearout told Albuquerque Business First at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new facility on Thursday. "Somebody who works directly with Kirtland Air Force Base will benefit from being right next to their client and have access back and forth."
Northrop first announced the facility last April. While originally set to open in February 2023, some minor delays pushed the construction's completion back a couple of months, Yearout said.
Having the new facility located in close proximity to the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Space Rapid Capabilities Office and the Space Systems Command — all of which have a presence at Kirtland Air Force Base — can help speed up the development of Northrop Grumman satellites and other space products and technologies, Northrop Grumman's Verock said.
"It lets our people and our customer teams work hand-in-hand on emerging threats … in a very effective and efficient and fast way, which is really needed today," he said.
While he didn't offer any specific details, Verock said Northrop Grumman anticipates growing as its customer demand increases.
"As that happens, we'll look to increase the population here," he added.
Verock delivered a statement on behalf of Northrop Grumman as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony. He was joined by other representatives from the company, alongside Yearout, Bernalillo County Commissioner Eric Olivas and U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico).
Heinrich, in his remarks, said work on the Max Q development, starting with Northrop Grumman's facility, "is going to be incredibly important for years to come." The U.S. Air Force and Thunderbird Kirtland Development LLC signed a 50-year enhanced use lease to develop the Max Q in October 2020.
Blue Halo, an aerospace engineering and defense firm based in Virginia, had planned a 200,000-square-foot development as part of the Max Q project but pulled away from it in March 2022. It instead opened a 73,000-square-foot manufacturing facility within Albuquerque's Sandia Science and Technology Park in August last year.
