Article courtesy to the Las Cruces Bulletin
By Gabriel Vasquez
Not many people know about the West Mesa Industrial Park, a 1,820-acre development located on Interstate 10, eight miles west of Las Cruces. It is home to several companies specializing in light and general manufacturing, and more are coming.
Most recently, Alaska Structures (AKS), a company in Las Cruces for more than 10 years, has expanded from its South Main Street facility into the 180,000-square-foot West Mesa building previously occupied by Rea Magnet Wire.
“I can confirm they are now occupying the old Rea building, and have taken over part of the Parkview site as well,” said Davin Lopez, president and CEO of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance.
The Parkview Metals site, vacant since 2007, stands at 100,000 square feet. AKS leased all but the office space in the building as it continues to consolidate its El Paso operations into Las Cruces.
“(AKS) will need more employees, but I do not know if they are hiring right now,” said Christine Logan, administrator for the city’s Economic Development Department. AKS designs, engineers and manufactures fabric-building systems for extreme environments for both military and commercial use. It recently was awarded a large contract that called for the expansion. Expected employment for the Rea site is 75 to90 employees, city officials said, with a possible expansion of up to 170 employees once the Parkview site is fully operational.
“It’s safe to say, that any local company that expands at this rate can only be a great opportunity for us,” Lopez said.
Although industrial buildings are still available for lease, space on the West Mesa is becoming more of a hot commodity.
“Don Billings has a 6,000-square-foot spec building available on Trigg Loop and NAI 1st Valley is marketing a 23,000-squarefoot facility on Crawford Boulevard,” Logan said. “Although there are not many buildings available, there are several development ready land parcels available through private land owners and the city.”
Current West Mesa tenants include Samson Equipment, which continues to do well and is looking to acquire additional land for expansion. F&A Dairy Products has completed a significant expansion and has recently upped its employment number to 93.
The Sapphire Energy research and development site continues to grow and now employs 24 full-time and has added several interns from New Mexico State University.
Onion producers Barker Produce have a new facility under construction on the West Mesa and Premier Distributing opened a facility there in February and employs 63 people in the park.
For more information on the West Mesa Industrial Park, a city-owned light manufacturing and industry development, call (575) 541-2286.
