Rail park rolling closer to Dec.-Feb. opening

Developers sign up operations manager

LOS LUNAS—The Central New Mexico Rail Park will soon be open for business.

Strategically located for multimodal transportation west of Interstate 25 in Los Lunas, the industrial rail project is gaining momentum. The developers, RIO Real Estate Investment Opportunities LLC, have signed an agreement with Black Gold Terminals to manage operations at the rail park.

Black Gold Terminals, which provides on-demand switching, loading and unloading, is a subsidiary of Blacklands Railroad of Texas.

The developers hope to bring rail cars into the park between December and February.

“We really see this as a part of the larger opportunity for New Mexico, which is transportation,” said RIO partner Tim Cummins. “We believe our park can be a potential access into the commerce that goes though New Mexico on the transcontinental line of BNSF.”

The estimated $25 million, 1,400-acre project is being developed by RIO to move manufactured and other goods into and out of the state.

Some of the funding for the rail spur into the site was provided by a $400,000 LEDA grant from the Bernalillo County Commission, which sees the project as a boon to the whole region.

It is intended to generate all types of jobs, including heavyequipment operators, truck drivers, shipping and warehouse positions, assembly and manufacturing jobs.

Cummins said track is currently being extended into the park and should be ready for operations no later than the first quarter of 2019, something he called a “huge step.”

“It completes our infrastructure for access to the park for businesses,” he said.

The RIO group is gearing up for marketing to warehouse distribution, manufacturing and fulfillment centers.

Earlier this month, Los Lunas received a $1.3 million U.S. Department of Commerce grant to install a 21,000-foot potable water pipeline that will serve the development.

“We hope to have the water in by the first part of next year,” Cummins said. “The timing of the water being available probably lines up with when the first buildings would be out there, so it all lines up pretty nice.”