Work is expected to finish on the building of a big temperature-controlled cold storage facility within the borders of the Innovation and Industrial Park in Las Cruces, located just to the south of the Las Cruces International Airport.
The project belongs to a recently-launched Chicago-based company called Artico Cold Management, and will provide cold storage space for an array of vegetables and fruit as part of a larger supply chain carrying agricultural products to supermarkets.
Construction of the new warehouse is expected to take up to 18 months, with an anticipated completion date of sometime in September 2023.
Altogether, the new company plans to spend around $30 million building a specialized refrigerated warehouse.
The project is the recipient of some $600,000 in Local Economic Development Act funding, awarded by the New Mexico Economic Development Department.
An additional nearly $300,000 in support has been approved by the City of Las Cruces.
In a statement announcing the project, Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes remarked that small producers in New Mexico “don’t have the resources to build or maintain cold-storage or processing operations.”
Continued Keyes: “We need this infrastructure in the state to sustain a robust agricultural economy so we can grow and process more food closer to home.”
Artico officials have announced a business plan calling for the future construction of similar facilities in both Mexico and Latin America. The exact locations for those facilities have not yet been disclosed.
By Garry Boulard
