Las Cruces Industry Profiles

Las Cruces is an economically diverse community, with resources in many key industries.  From Aerospace and Aviation, to Health care and manufacturing, Las Cruces has the resources to help you start your new business, or grow your existing one.  

For more information about our key industries, see below

Digital Media Industry

The vibrant and growing community in Las Cruces is becoming a central hub for innovation, technology, research, and business development. It offers a number of new opportunities in digital and creative media due to the outstanding programs at New Mexico State University and Dona Ana Community College. Along with that, the Las Cruces Film Office assists with identifying an experienced and capable pool of crew, talent, and services available to take advantage of the opportunities for a wide variety of area assets. The office works with film location managers in locating unique locations for motion pictures, documentaries and television.

Health Care Industry

The City of Las Cruces has a robust healthcare industry that continues to grow. From 2008 to 2018, there was an increase of 505 establishments in Dona Ana County. These establishments vary in ownership from federal, state, and local government and the private sector. There are two medical centers within the City, MountainView Regional and Memorial, and other various options from home healthcare services to services for the elderly and person with disabilities.

Manufacturing Industry

Located in close proximity and with easy access to the maquila plants in northcentral Mexico, the Borderplex is ideally located to take advantage of multiple transportation modes serving both U.S. coasts.Manufacturing employment currently makes up 4% of nonagricultural wages and salary employment in Dona Ana County. In 2014, manufacturing receipts totaled $408.1M, 5.7% of total reported gross receipts.

Value-Added Agriculture

As a leading area for a number of food crops there are opportunities in food processing as well as bio-fuel production.

Green Energy

With an average of 340 days of sunshine and available land, Las Cruces is ideal for the expansion of solar energy projects. Also, a good supply of brackish water makes it attractive for algal-fuel production.

Aerospace/Aviation Industry

Rapidly expanding opportunities in commercial spaceflight and the increased demand for Unmanned Aeiral Systems (UAS), the New Mexico Borderplex is gaining respect in aerospace and space related industries. Examples of aerospace centers in the New Mexico Borderplex:

Spaceport America

The nation’s first purpose-built commercial space facility. It has an average elevation of 4,500 feet and a lack of conflicting operations, facilities and environmental constraints. Designed to accommodate all classes of aircraft including wide body commercial aircraft, Spaceport America is also used by numerous private companies and scientific and engineering research programs. The site will soon be capable of accommodating the activities of both vertical and horizontal takeoff space launch vehicles and serve as the base for preflight and postflight activities.

White Sands Missile Range

Established in 1945, White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a test range that functions to support missile development and test programs for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, NASA, other government agencies and private industry. It is the largest open-air land test range in the country and boasts state-of-the-art environmental testing chambers, an extensive data collection instrumentation suite and data processing and modeling & simulation (M&S) facilities.

NASA White Sands Test Facility

The NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) provides expertise and infrastructure to test and evaluate spacecraft materials, components and rocket propulsion systems. WSTF plays a key role in the nation’s space effort and enables the safe human exploration and utilization of space.

New Mexico State University Physical Science Laboratory

Physical Science Laboratory (PSL) is a multidiscipline, aerospace and defense-oriented scientific and technical organization.  Its key capabilities are grouped into four laboratories:  Information Operations Laboratory, Aerospace and Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Telemetry and Missile Systems Laboratory and Emerging Technologies Laboratory.

Las Cruces International Airport

Las Cruces International Airport is the only small community airport in U.S. to be certified by the FAA to test UAV’s.