Artico Cold Management announced today that it is planning to make the New Mexico Borderplex one of its first locations for a chain of specialized refrigerated warehouses. The company has been awarded $600,000 in economic assistance from the State of New Mexico’s LEDA job-creation fund, $281,400 from the City of Las Cruces’ LEDA job creation program and $100,000 from El Paso Electric’s NM Economic Development Fund.
Artico Cold New Mexico LLC will construct a 120,000-square-foot, $30 Million cold storage facility at the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park. The project will take 12 to 18 months to complete with an expected opening in Sept. 2023. The company has pledged to hire up to 60 employees.
Artico Cold Management was formed in 2021 and is planning several projects across the United States, with future plans to expand into Mexico and Latin America. It specializes in the management of temperature-controlled warehouses to help agricultural producers, food manufacturers, distributors and retailers fortify the supply chain.
MVEDA and the City of Las Cruces first met with Artico representatives in early 2021 and began dialogue on the advantages of locating in the City of Las Cruces and specifically how the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park addressed their geographical needs and industry reach.
The company ultimately chose Las Cruces because of its robust agricultural economy, proximity to Mexico and the international border, and the state’s business climate, including the workforce and incentives.
“We are very fortunate to have Artico locating at the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park and this will be the first new business with construction activity out there since 2017. A lot of time and effort has been put in by the City’s Economic Development Department and our partners to get here and we’ll soon see that this is the start of something big for the industrial park,” said Las Cruces City Manager Ifo Pili.
“Artico is not only making a significant capital investment in new facilities in the Las Cruces Innovation & Industrial Park, but the operation itself will also serve as supporting infrastructure to our rich agricultural region and will also assist in attracting future value-added agricultural interests,” commented Davin Lopez, President & CEO of MVEDA.
Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes said the project is one of several LEDA investments in the past two years, undertaken to bolster the local infrastructure so farmers and growers can have more options to store and process their products year-round.
Artico is seeing the needs for more cold storage, as consumers demand more fresh and healthy foods, and the newly formed company is working to develop several storage facilities to meet increasing demand. According to Richard Taveras, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, New Mexico will be one of the first projects. “Cold storage is in short supply across the United States, and we see the need in New Mexico for more capacity – there are significant opportunities to help producers of chiles, dairy, pecans, meats, vegetables,” Taveras said.
ABOUT THE EPE NM ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FUND
The New Mexico Economic Development Fund was established by El Paso Electric in connection with the corporate sale of the Utility to Infrastructure Investments Fund (IIF) to provide $1 million per year for 20 years in support of private businesses, projects and organizations that make or will make a measurable difference in achieving economic growth and development, expanding and diversifying the tax base, creating new quality jobs, and increasing the economic base within El Paso Electric’s New Mexico service territory. The fund is administered by the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA) and the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico (CFSNM).
