Planners seek to transform border town into destination

Trucks race along a winding road in the arid New Mexico desert. As they travel through Santa Teresa, a border-crossing port of entry and unincorporated town, they pass millions of square feet of warehouses that store steel coil, wind turbine blades and specialty glass. It’s a town that state officials say has pumped millions into New Mexico’s economy. But missing in this industrial enclave are shops, cafes, gas stations and residents. No one lives here. Now the nonprofit group that operates Santa Teresa is working to transform the area from a place where people work into one where they might put down roots. Officials are drafting plans that call for the building of a plaza on an upslope, surrounded by Mediterranean-style housing and international restaurants. Such developments also could include hotels, retail stores and entertainment attractions that would turn this industrial park into a new hot spot just a stone’s throw away from the U.S.-Mexico border...more