NEW MEXICO – The New Mexico Economic Development Department (EDD) granted state aid to Sanchez Farms to boost the company in a planned future expansion in the Mountainair area.
According to EDD information, the business has been awarded $150,000 from the Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) job creation fund. Javier Sanchez, owner of Sanchez Farms, has committed to invest $250,000 of private capital in the Estancia store and additional money if future expansion in nearby Mountainair and the Mercedarian communities of Manzano, Torreon or Tajique comes to fruition.
Sanchez, a graduate of the University of New Mexico with a degree in Entrepreneurship and Regional Planning, assumed ownership of the farm-ranch and hardware store in February 2023.
The rural development assistance was made possible by a change in the LEDA statute in 2020 (SB118), supported by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, which allows investments in retail projects in communities with a population of 15,000 or less. The project must not compete with an existing business in the community.
Sanchez, who farms 400 acres in Ewing, a tiny farm belt nestled in the high plains between Estancia and Mountainair, and whose grandparents hail from Manzano and Abó, now runs Estancia Valley Feed & Supply with his grown sons, Gilbert and Noé, with plans to hire two full-time employees.
“Logistical hurdles have been a long-standing problem in economic development since the 1860s, when early valley traders exchanged hides and wool for dry goods in Belen and Las Vegas,” Sanchez said.
“We have ever-changing challenges in growing New Mexico’s economy, especially in the smaller rural areas,” said EDD Acting Cabinet Secretary Mark Roper.
The EDD incumbent stated that investing in a retail business aimed at supporting farming and ranching businesses demonstrates that you can innovate and use tools like LEDA to create jobs and invest in rural communities
LEDA is available for investments in land, buildings or infrastructure. Funds will be paid to Sanchez Farms as the business meets the economic development criteria set forth in a project participation agreement.
