Plans are underway for the development of a $30 million Artico Cold Storage facility at the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park, just south of the city airport. The 120,000-square foot cold storage facility will be developed by Artico Cold Management, a start up company specialized in building temperature controlled refrigerated warehouses; with the goal of keeping New Mexico-grown food healthy, well preserved and closer to home by providing efficient storage facilities. Construction is expected to last between 12 and 18 months, and the proposed opening date for the facility is set for September 2023.
Alicia J. Keyes, the Economic Development Department (EDD) Cabinet Secretary, in a recent announcement mentioned that the project’s developer, Artico Cold New Mexico LLC, was granted economic assistance worth about $600,000 from the Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) job-creation fund, which will assist the company in building its chain of specialized refrigerated warehouses in New Mexico. Keyes spoke in favor of the new cold storage development, stating that it was an essential infrastructure needed in the state, to maintain a robust agricultural economy and also allow for more food production and processing closer to home. She pointed out that small New Mexico producers would benefit from this facility, especially since they don’t have the resources required to build or sustain cold-storage or processing operations.
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Artico Cold Storage facility receives $600,000 from LEDA plus incentives from Las Cruces and El Paso Electric
According to the EDD, Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA) and the City of Las Cruces played a huge role in winning over the company and bringing this Artico Cold Storage facility, which is expected to create up to 60 new jobs in Las Cruces. Artico Cold also admitted that its reasons for selecting Southern New Mexico and Las Cruces were largely due the state’s robust agricultural economy, proximal location to the Mexico–United States international border, favorable business climate, the availability of a skilled workforce and incentives. Other incentives received by the company besides the $600,000 LEDA funding from the state, include $281,400 awarded by the City of Las Cruces and $100,000 from the El Paso Electric New Mexico Economic Development fund for the project.
