Hundreds of jobs coming to Los Lunas
Valencia County News Bulletin
By: Deborah Fox
August 27th, 2014
http://www.news-bulletin.com/2014/08/27/news/hundreds-of-jobs-coming-to-los-lunas.html
Gov. Susana Martinez announced 250 well-paying jobs coming to the Los Lunas area at a ground-breaking ceremony Wednesday in Los Morros Business Park for Accurate Machine & Tool Co.
“They are creating 250 manufacturing jobs right here in Los Lunas,” said Gov. Susana Martinez. “We were competing with Amarillo, but when it came down to it, New Mexico turned out to be a better place to do business than Texas.”
The South Valley company is expanding production and moving to the Los Morros Business Park, west of Interstate 25.
The owners of Accurate Machine & Tool Co. were considering location moves between Amarillo or Los Lunas, but the governor and Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela formed a team to develop a persuasive package to keep Accurate in New Mexico, Barela said.
The package includes a $400,000 Local Economic Development Act grant, and lower tax incentive to persuade the company to stay and move to Los Lunas, he said.
“They also qualify now for another incentive program called the Job Training Incentive Program,” Barela said. “New employees they hire, provided they hire New Mexicans, (the company) will be eligible for job training reimbursements.”
Greg Pluemer, an officer of the family-owned business, said the 250 jobs will be created within five to seven years.
About 100 permanent jobs will be created within the first year, and about 150 temporary construction jobs to build the plant, said Ralph Mims, the village’s economic development manager.
Construction is expected to begin some time in October with the plant in full operation by the spring.
The village council recently approved an industrial revenue bond worth up to $30 million to help the company construct, equip and start operations. The IRB provides the village with a mechanism to offer property-tax exemption to Accurate.
The company will deed the land it purchases back to the village to receive tax-exempt status, but a payment in lieu of property taxes can be established in negotiations.
The manufacturing plant will be housed in a 107,500 square feet building with jobs paying an average of $18 per hour, said Mims.
The plant will be built on land purchased from Tim Cummins, of Rio Real Estate, totalling 13.7 acres on Purple Sage Road off Los Morros Road.
Cummins is also the project developer and he said the next step is negotiations on the terms of the IRB between the village and Accurate Machine & Tool Co..
The New Mexico-grown business was started by Pluemer’s father, Herb, in 1962. His two sons, Steve and Greg, are the officers and principles of the company.
Accurate Machine & Tool Co. manufactures metal tool components, precision medical products, mold making, custom one-of-a-kind products and on-the-spot machining as well as tooling nonhazardous parts for nuclear weapons.
Under the same roof, a plastics business, ACIM, was added in 1998 to expand production and product lines to include plastic components.
It manufactures plastic cups for Coca Cola and Disney, Hallmark and other large customers.
The businesses have grown and outgrown the current South Valley location.
Mims said young people in the county move in search of career opportunities and well-paid jobs that the county and state lack.
“With them creating this manufacturing plant, and there will be more manufacturing plants, it will keep the young people in the state; they’ll stay in New Mexico instead of going to Texas, Arizona, Utah,” Mims said. “They’ll stay within New Mexico and spend money within New Mexico.”