A southwestern location was among the keys to a decision by leading cabinet manufacturer Merillat Industries to choose Los Lunas for a new $36-million, 260,000-sq.-ft. (24,150-sq.-m.) facility. Merillat, a division of Masco Corp., hired Mike Mullis, owner of Memphis-based site consultancy J.M. Mullis Inc., to help in the search process.
      "We've worked with him in the past, and he led us through the process out there," says Jim Olszewski, Merillat's manager of facilities engineering. "We narrowed it down to sites in Nevada, Utah and New Mexico."
      Work force availability was another major factor in the site choice, Olszewski says. Los Lunas offered that, and all the required infrastructure is already in place. The plant, which will serve Merillat's fast-growing western U.S. market, will be built on a 50-acre (20.2-hectare) site in the Los Morros Business Park. Plans call for construction to begin during the second quarter of 2005, with the plant becoming operational by late 2006. The project will create about 700 jobs.
      Merillat will receive about $24 million in state incentives, including rural jobs tax credits and training reimbursement. The Los Lunas Village Council also approved $67 million in industrial revenue bonds for the project. Jobs at the plant will pay between $22,000 and $26,000 annually. That's above Valencia County's average annual wage of $20,500, making the project qualify for the state's credit for high-wage jobs.
      "New Mexico also offered a very up-front approach, and the state's political leaders and officials made us feel welcome," Olszewski says. "Los Lunas is a rural location. It ties back to our roots because a lot of our facilities are in rural locations."
      One of those accommodating state officials was Gov. Richardson, who met with Merillat's search team twice during the process.