Building Businesses in Valencia County

BELEN—It’s a struggle familiar to nearly every mid-sized city and small town in New Mexico.

Attracting and retaining businesses — small and large alike — is a process local government doesn’t have a whole lot of say-so in but is a major concern for the future of any community.

It is commonly assumed that a key focus of local government is to attract businesses to the community and to create jobs and increase the tax base. However, economic development in any city, county or state is driven by private industry, local property owners and the free market.

Every city can entice business ventures with improved infrastructure and tax incentives.

In Belen, the growth of new businesses has steadied, but city leaders still hope for more as well as an increase in much-needed affordable housing.

When recreational cannabis was made legal in New Mexico, a massive amount of retail shops in the state opened. In December 2023, the Belen City Council approved an ordinance limiting the number of cannabis shops to seven. Since the ordinance was adopted, three of the seven cannabis retail shops have closed, and no other potential retail shops have applied for business licenses.

“It’s a classic case of supply and demand,” said Belen Mayor Robert Noblin. “It’s actually a statewide thing. Everyone jumped on that bandwagon because it looked like a great opportunity, but at the end of the day, there are only so many consumers to support a business.”

Along with the cannabis shops closing, two Family Dollar stores in Belen shut their doors. In 2024, Family Dollar closed 600 stores in the first half of the year, and an additional 370 stores will close up over the next few years as their leases expire.

Belen City Manager Roseann Peralta said the closing of these two retail stores had little to no effect on the city’s gross receipts taxes.

“Those people who were shopping there are just going to other stores, such as Walmart,” Peralta said. “I think they’re more of a convenience for people. That’s how I use it. Instead of going all the way to Walmart, I’d just stop by on my way home.

“But now that they’re closed, we still have to shop, either at Walmart, Lowe’s or the other dollar stores.”

Noblin said he’s seeing a shift in business practices in many national chain stores, which might have an impact in New Mexico and Valencia County, such as the possible closure of one of the Walgreens in Los Lunas and the sale of Albertsons.

“They’re probably selling more online to consumers with grocery and prescription pickup and delivery,” Noblin theorizes. “They use an app and they’re done with shopping in person. Physical locations are very expensive to maintain.”

Peralta said there are still plenty of locally-owned places to dine in Belen, with several of them moving to different locations in the Hub City.

Rita’s New Mexican Restaurant recently moved from its location on Becker Avenue and Sixth Street to a newly-renovated space on North Main Street.

Over the summer, Fat Sats Bar and Grill reopened after the COVID pandemic forced them to close in 2020. While the grill is no longer, the establishment has local food trucks on hand selling their sustenance, while Fat Sats offers a variety of beers, wines, mixed drinks and liquors.

“The benefit is to the food trucks themselves,” Noblin said. “They have more business and more profitability there.”

The local eatery is enticing customers with a variety of entertainment, including live music, karaoke, open mic nights, comedy and even games for the whole family.

Several other new businesses are also in the construction phase and are set to open their doors in the near future. A new, large Allsup’s convenience store is under construction on the I-25 Bypass across from Walmart, and a Champion car wash on North Main Street is near completion.

Steven Tomita, the city’s development services director, said Allsup’s leadership is still contemplating building a second new store somewhere in the Hub City.

“They’re changing direction in wanting to compete with some of the bigger gas stations like Circle K,” Tomita said.

He also said Walmart is going to bring back its fueling station, and Peralta said Love’s on Camino del Llano is in the process of expanding its fuel island.

“They’re having such a big demand for gas they can’t keep up with it,” Tomita said. “They’ll also be adding a few RV stations to its large parking area in the back for people to stay overnight.”

Tomita said another new RV park will soon be built on the I-25 Bypass next to Tractor Supply.

“It has to do with cost,” Tomita said. “A lot of people who are coming in to work at Facebook and Amazon don’t necessarily have a house, and they can’t get one right now, so they’re depending on RV parks.”

Another major investment for Belen was when Starbucks built and opened a new, 2,293-square-foot coffeehouse this past May on Main Street. Exclusive Auto and Moto Specialties renovated the old Circle K on Main Street and also opened in May.

Along with some business development in Belen, there is also an increase of home construction in the city.

“We have a lot of construction of new homes on the west mesa, vacant lots are being picked up,” Peralta said.

There have been 110 homes built so far, and Tomita said the builder is looking and working on acquiring more property for constructing more homes. He said they are looking at constructing a total of 250 new homes.

“The key with Belen, when I was marketing all the retailers, is I would try and tell them we have more than 30,000 retail purchasers in the area,” said Tomita, who had been the city’s economic developer at one time. “People come in to Belen from Socorro and even Los Lunas to shop at Walmart. The retailers just wouldn’t believe me. They needed to see the homes.”

While numerous new homes are being built in Belen, city leaders are concerned there isn’t enough affordable housing for the area. Tomita said what was once very affordable, newly-built single-wide mobile homes are now selling for $225,000.

“That’s the challenge everywhere — the affordability of housing,” Tomita said.

Noblin says the future of economic development in Belen is bright, and the city is actively trying to recruit a new economic developer to its ranks.

“I see great potential on the north interchange for an investor who wants to put in some apartment complexes,” Noblin said. “When you look at the growth to the north of us in Los Lunas — Amazon for example and the number of employees, and Arcosa — it’s great to have these opportunities for jobs, but we ought to have housing for these folks.

“Someone is really missing the boat when it comes to housing like that in the county,” the mayor said. “I think it would be a great investment for someone.”

Peralta said properties in town, even in downtown Belen, would be a great location for a large apartment complex to be built.

“We see here a lot of water accounts are renters,” the city manager said. “A lot of other houses being built are duplexes for people to rent. Someone is missing that boat for sure — especially apartment complexes.”

(Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series about economic development. For the next several weeks, the VCNB will be exploring business growth in the different communities in Valencia County.)