Oct. 25--EL PASO -- A lot of companies are looking at the El Paso area this year, but El Paso's industrial recruiter succeeded in getting only one company, a milk-processing plant with 80 jobs, to locate in El Paso so far in 2009.

The recession and tight financing are keeping companies from making location decisions right now, said Bob Cook, 50, president of the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp., or REDCo, a private, nonprofit organization funded mostly by private investors. City Hall and the city water utility provide $300,000 of its $1.4 million operating budget.

Cook said 179 companies are looking at El Paso and 47 companies have put the city on their "short list" for possible facility locations. It's the busiest REDCo's staff of seven has ever been, he said.

REDCo also helped bring 10 companies with a projected 2,300 jobs to Juarez in 2008 and 2009, Cook said. But Cook said he couldn't specify how many of those were brought in this year.

The activity comes as REDCo moves past its fifth year of operation, which Cook has directed along with a board of directors.

Since June 2004, REDCo takes credit for helping bring 28 companies to El Paso with 6,178 jobs in place. Those companies are projected to possibly create an additional 1,410 jobs in the future, according to REDCo data.

That surpasses REDCo's goal of bringing 5,000 new jobs to El Paso by the end of 2009, Cook noted. However, it missed another goal of bringing $200 million in facility investments from

new companies by the end of this year, Cook said. New companies have announced investments between $131 million to $159 million in El Paso facilities since 2004, REDCo data show.

El Paso added an estimated 20,600 civilian jobs between June 2004 and June 2009, according to Texas Workforce Commission data. That means the 6,178 new jobs tied to REDCo's efforts account for 30 percent of the new jobs created during that period. A study done by a University of Texas at El Paso institute also estimates that the 6,178 jobs helped create an additional 3,658 secondary jobs in El Paso during 2004-09.

REDCo also helped bring 32 companies to Juarez with a projected 13,940 jobs since June 2004, Cook said.

One of REDCo's four recruiters is focused on recruiting companies to Juarez. For every 10 jobs created in Juarez, one job is created in El Paso, Cook said.

Former El Paso Mayor Joe Wardy, who was on REDCo's initial board, said he gives the industrial recruiter good marks for its accomplishments so far.

"We lacked a tremendous amount of sophistication" and an adequate recruitment budget before REDCo's formation, Wardy said. "Without it, a lot of jobs would not have come here," he said.

"A lot happened by luck in the past, but there's no luck no more. It's very competitive on economic development now. It's a very high-stakes game. e ," said Wardy, vice president of strategic development for Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution, an El Paso trucking and logistics company.