Article courtesy of Las Cruces Sun-News
By Brook Stockberger
LAS CRUCES – A Minnesota-based company that manufactures large radiators and other cooling systems plans to set up a location in Las Cruces in the building that used to house the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. at 2100 S. Valley Drive.
Edgar Lopez of Investment Management Associates Inc., and a board member of the New Mexico Border Authority, said that L&M Radiator Inc. of Hibbing, Minn., could hire as many 60 workers by July and ultimately as many as 200 as the facility operates multiple shifts.
“They make huge, industrial-sized radiators,” said Lopez, whose company performs property management and retail development. Lopez’s company represented the bank after the building was repossessed, he said. Eventually L&M Radiator, which mothballed a plant in El Paso two years ago, took interest in the location.
“These will be great jobs,” Lopez said. “Not just minimum-wage jobs, but skilled jobs.”
Christine Logan, the city’s economic development administrator, and Davin Lopez, CEO and president of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, confirmed the news. Lopez said his organization can be of assistance to the company.
“We are currently looking to work with them on job training dollars and federal job hiring incentives,” Lopez said.
A message left with L&M Radiator’s home office was not returned by Tuesday afternoon. Lopez said he expects the company to soon issue a news release about hiring plans.
L&M Radiator laid off 67 workers in 2009 at its plant at 6966 Market St. on the east side of El Paso. The plant had been in operation in El Paso for 30 years. A downturn in the oil/gas and mining industries – L&M’s main customers – coupled with the recession substantially reduced sales, the company reported at the time.
L&M Radiator, which also has locations in Mexico, Australia and Germany, makes cooling systems for heavy machinery, buses, oil field equipment and others. It sells products under the brand name MESABI flexible core heat exchangers.
Vic Kolenc of the El Paso Times contributed to this report.
Brook Stockberger can be reached at (575) 541-5457.
