New Mexico gets scientific ghost town

wireless networks, CTV reports.

Mayor Sam Cobb confirmed to The Associated Press that the southeastern New Mexico community was selected prior to a news conference on Tuesday with governor Susana Martinez and the investors developing the Centre for Innovation, Technology and Testing, or CITE.

According to MSNBC, Pegasus Holdings and its New Mexico subsidiary, CITE Development, had narrowed the list of potential sites to two last month. Officials announced during Tuesday's news conference that Hobbs beat out a location near Las Cruces.

The investors developing CITE were looking for open spaces. Another plus was the proximity to federal research facilities like White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico and Los Alamos and Sandia national labs.

The development is being billed as a first-of-its kind smart city, or ghost town of sorts, on about 15 square miles west of Hobbs.

Bob Brumley, senior MD of Pegasus Holdings, said the town will be modelled after the real city of Rock Hill, South Carolina, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings, old and new. No one will live there, although they could, as houses will include all the necessities, like appliances and plumbing, Chron.com writes.

The point of the town is to enable researchers to test new technologies on existing infrastructure without interfering in everyday life. For instance, while some researchers will be testing smart technologies on old grids, others might be using the streets to test self-driving cars.

"The only thing we won't be doing is destructive testing, blowing things up - I hope," said Brumley.