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The Las Cruces City Council voted unanimously to take back $600,000 in economic incentives from a cold storage company after the company failed to produce promised jobs.
Artico Cold Management, a Chicago-based warehousing firm, was awarded $600,000 in Local Economic Development Act dollars in 2022 to build a 120,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse in Las Cruces.
The state Economic Development Department touted the investment as a potential $30 million boon to Las Cruces that would bring at least 60 jobs. The facility would have been in the Las Cruces Industrial Park near the municipal airport.
Artico Cold Management received about $1 million in promised incentives from the City of Las Cruces and El Paso Electric.
Documents presented to the council did not specify why Artico could not build its warehouse.
“Due to previously unforeseen financial circumstances, Artico Cold Storage will not be moving forward with their plans for a new facility at the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park and have requested to cancel the LEDA project,” city records said.
“It was internal in nature and stemmed from a system upgrade that massively disrupted our operations. We are still recovering,” Artico CEO Richard Taveras told the Las Cruces Bulletin in an email.
LEDA allows the government to make public investments in private business. The act allows Las Cruces to promise state funds to private businesses in exchange for job creation or other community benefits. Las Cruces oversees the money and ensures that the business upholds its promises.
