New manufacturing facility expected to bring nearly 1,000 jobs to Los Lunas

LOS LUNAS, N.M. — A private investment firm is planning to build and operate an aluminum can sheet rolling mill and recycling center in Valencia County – creating more than 950 jobs in the process.

Louisville-based Manna Capital Partners plans to purchase 1,300 acres of land in Los Lunas and invest more than $2 billion for its construction. The 950 jobs will pay an average salary of $68,000 a year.

“Our quality of life is just going to go up and become even higher,” said Kristen Gamboa, the village’s senior economic developer.

Gamboa said the project is expected to have a $3.4 billion impact over the next decade.

“These dollars are just going to reverberate throughout the community – into the county, into central New Mexico, and really the entire state,” Gamboa said.

Amazon is building a new fulfillment center in Los Lunas, and Facebook already has a data center there. Gamboa said there’s a good reason big companies are moving to Los Lunas. The main reason? The village is so close to Albuquerque and the interstate.

“The Albuquerque International Sunport is just a short 15-minute drive north, you pass through the beautiful Pueblo reservation, and you pick someone up, whether that’s a c-suite executive or a client and you bring them back down and boom,” Gamboa said.

Construction is set to start by late next year, with manufacturing expected to start in 2026. The global demand for aluminum cans is expected to see strong growth over the next decade.