Posts Tagged ‘El Paso Times’

Article courtesy of El Paso Times

By Vic Kolenc

SANTA TERESA – With a stroke of a pen, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez on Tuesday started the wheels rolling for a proposed $400 million Union Pacific rail facility in Santa Teresa.

Martinez, appearing in a Santa Teresa warehouse filled with politicians and area business people, signed recently passed state legislation exempting Union Pacific from paying locomotive fuel tax so the railroad company will develop the new facility.

The locomotive fueling station and intermodal freight yard are expected to create 3,000 jobs during four years of construction and to bring 600 permanent jobs, Union Pacific officials have said.

Martinez also signed two other pieces of recently passed legislation: one creating a zone around Santa Teresa and Columbus, N.M., for overweight cargo trucks, which economic developers say should attract more industrial distribution centers, and another to create a border infrastructure fund to make it easier for the New Mexico Border Authority to attract private and public funds for international port of entry improvements.

“As activity increases, Santa Teresa will reap benefits for new commercial and industrial development,” Martinez said. “Today, with the signing of these bills, New Mexico has the opportunity to expand on the possibility of growth.”

Former El Paso Mayor Joe Wardy, vice president of strategic development for Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution, an El Paso trucking and warehousing company, said the Union Pacific complex should help the entire area because Union Pacific’s facilities in El Paso are at capacity. “This helps us as a logistics center,” Wardy said.

Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator in Santa Teresa, said, “We’re talking about a project that will change the face of our region and make this the logistical hub of the border.”

Zoe Richmond, director of public affairs for Union Pacific’s Phoenix office, which oversees this area, said the railroad plans to keep its El Paso facilities, including a small intermodal freight yard. But some of its 400 El Paso jobs will eventually be shifted to Santa Teresa, she said. “We had no room to grow. We are land locked in El Paso,” Richmond said.

Union Pacific hopes to begin construction on the 2,200-acre Santa Teresa facility this summer, Richmond said. The company has already begun talking to area educational institutions about work-force development, she said.

This is the third time bills have passed the New Mexico Legislature to bring the Union Pacific facility to Santa Teresa. The project never took off in 2006 because Union Pacific had trouble securing all the land it needed, Richmond said. The project was again ready to be launched in 2008, but the recession killed it, she said.

Everything looks good this time for construction to start this summer, she said. Union Pacific hopes to have the facility open by 2015, Richmond said.

James Robinson III, president of J.H. Rose Logistics, which operates a 65,000-square-foot distribution center in Santa Teresa, said the rail facility should bring more freight traffic into the area. And the overweight truck zone will allow more cargo from Mexico to come into Santa Teresa warehouses, which should help his company and other distribution centers bring in more business, he said.

Pacheco said the overweight truck zone allows trucks to cross from Mexico to Santa Teresa warehouses without heavy loads having to be broken up into several loads as is done today. This can be done at the Santa Teresa port of entry because it has no bridges, which are sensitive to heavy loads, as do other El Paso-area ports, Pacheco said.

Loads of cement or scrap metals that need to be returned from Mexico manufacturing operations to be processed in the United States, are some of the heavy loads that could be processed at Santa Teresa, he said. More finished manufactured goods also could go into the overweight truck zone, he said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; (915)546-6421.

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.

Article courtesy of El Paso Times

By Ramon Bracamontes

Photo courtesy of International Business Accelerator

SANTA TERESA — Union Pacific is poised to expand its operations in the El Paso region by building a new $400 million railroad hub in Santa Teresa that is expected to provide Southern New Mexico with a $500 million economic boost, officials said Friday.

Construction of the hub will begin this year if the New Mexico Legislature approves a locomotive fuel tax exemption for Union Pacific.

The company’s plans were announced Friday by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez during a press conference with Union Pacific officials in Santa Teresa. Neither the governor nor Union Pacific said how much that tax exemption was worth.

They said only that Union Pacific pays a lot in fuel tax in New Mexico.

Martinez said she is already working with the Legislature to approve the tax break.

“I am here to honor a commitment the state of New Mexico made three years ago,” Martinez said.

She said she is hopeful the Legislature will approve the tax exemption, which will allow “Union Pacific to start building and New Mexicans to start working.”

The railroad and New Mexico officials originally announced plans for the project in 2006. It was halted after Union Pacific encountered problems acquiring the land, and the effort slowed when the national economy stalled.

Now that Union Pacific is prepared to spend $3.2 billion to improve its operations nationwide, the company is ready to invest in Santa Teresa, said Aaron Hunt, spokesman for Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific.

Construction of the facility is expected to create 3,000 jobs from 2011 to 2015. About 300 permanent jobs will remain after the hub is built.

The company’s plans include moving some of its fueling and maintenance operations from El Paso to Santa Teresa.

However, Union Pacific will keep its El Paso rail yards and its cross-border rail service between El Paso and Juárez, Hunt said.

“We are not leaving El Paso,” Hunt said.

“To be able to expand, we need to do it here. Everything you see in El Paso will remain. And everyone who has a job in El Paso right now will have one in 2015.”

The only major change is that some of those employees may have to work in Santa Teresa, instead of Downtown El Paso.

Sunland Park Mayor Martin Resendiz said the new hub will go a long way toward improving the economy in his city and in Santa Teresa.

“We’ve been waiting for years for this project to begin,” Resendiz said.

“It will help the entire region.”

Union Pacific’s new hub is about one mile northwest of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry and adjacent to the Verde Realty industrial park that abuts the port of entry.

The 23-acre hub includes a new fueling facility, crew-change buildings and a switch yard.

Verde Realty official Justin Ruby did not want to comment on what the hub means for the commercial parks, its tenants and future development.

“We are very excited to have Union Pacific here and next to us,” Ruby said.

For years, Verde Realty has been working with New Mexico’s elected officials to expand and develop the area around the Santa Teresa Port of Entry.

In 2005, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman secured $14 million to aid in the construction of roads leading to the Union Pacific facility, which has been on hold for the past few years. That money remains available for the project.

Bingaman also worked with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to expedite a land exchange with the New Mexico State Land Office in order to provide the land needed for the facilities.

“This inland port will give New Mexico a stake in one of the most important rail corridors in the country,” Bingaman said. “In the long term it will enhance New Mexico’s standing as a great place for commerce.”

Ramon Bracamontes may be reached at rbracamontes@elpasotimes.com; (915) 546-6142.

The 16th Annual NAFTA Institute “Supplier Meet the Buyer” Trade Conference attracted record crowds to Sunland Park, New Mexico on June 11-12. The event, held at the Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino, began with business-to-business roundtables between over 250 suppliers and buyers from 43 maquiladoras such as Foxconn, Delphi, Bombardier, Toro, Sumitomo, ADC Telecommunications and Electrolux. An additional 300 small businesses attended the event to promote their products in the small business B2B sessions and to learn about cross-border trade.

On the following day, attendees heard from experts on a variety of issues ranging from border security to rail shipping to financing issues. There were also presentations regarding Foxconn’s San Jeronimo project, Union Pacific’s Santa Teresa rail relocation project, and the Punta Colonet port project.

The annual event is organized by the International Business Accelerator (IBA). Additional event hosts for 2009 included the New Mexico Economic Development Department Office of Mexican Affairs, The North American Institute (NAMI), the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, Gobierno Municipal De Juarez, Western New Mexico University and the New Mexico Small Business Development Center (NMSBDC).

See related articles from the Las Cruces Sun-News, El Paso Times, New Mexico Business Journal .