Fresh Foods plant may not come to SF

Newly formed company says cost to convert a building is prohibitive

SANTA FE — A state-of-the-art high-pressure food processing plant may not come to Santa Fe after all.

New Mexico Fresh Foods, a newly formed company headed by Kelly Egolf, who also operates the Verde Juice Company in Santa Fe, said the cost to convert a privately owned building at 1549 Sixth St. into a processing plant turned out to be higher than expected.

“That building is no longer a viable option. The budget for the renovations simply would not work,” she said.

As a result, she’s now looking at locating the plant in another city, possibly Albuquerque.

“We’re also looking and scouring other areas, but so far we haven’t unearthed any warehouses that are available,” she said, adding that the plant requires a large refrigerated space.

Building a new plant from scratch was also an option, she said.

Fresh Foods would use cold water pressure to denature bacteria and extend the shelf life of fresh foods without chemical preservatives. Its plans have been promoted as moving Santa Fe’s economic development efforts toward a “new food economy.”

At a City Council meeting in August, Egolf said New Mexico Fresh Foods expected to hire 162 full-time employees at salaries averaging approximately $43,000 per year. The 17,000-square-foot plant was projected to process more than 100 million pounds of food products over a 10-year period and generate $2.5 billion.

Egolf was at the City Council meeting to ask the city to issue $18 million in industrial revenue bonds to help fund construction of the $27 million facility. The council threw its unanimous support behind the proposal, passing a resolution declaring its intent to issue an IRB.

The Santa Fe location was also located in an “opportunity zone.”

Created in 2017 as part of the Trump administration’s federal tax cut bill, opportunity zones are intended to entice long-term investment in low-income and underdeveloped areas to stimulate business, create new housing and generate jobs.

Egolf said the Albuquerque location she was looking at is also located in an opportunity zone.

She said that New Mexico Fresh Foods would also pursue an IRB in whatever city they might locate.