Las Cruces entertainment district shuts its doors, owner comments are eye-opening
Businesses come and go for many reasons. Here in this space we don’t usually consider the opening or closing of one business or another as a big deal because we know the trends and the data. We know that New Mexico is in a massive oil boom but that our political classes have completely fumbled the ball and that shows no signs of turning around. So, while oil and gas remain growing, job creating, revenue booms for New Mexico, the rest of the private sector economy is relatively weak and experiencing slow growth.
Recently the Amador Entertainment district in Las Cruces closed and we found the reasons provided interesting. The news article can be found here, but the relevant comments are below:
“We know it was a tough year, 2024 was a tough year for a lot of people in town, it was a tough year for a lot of businesses, and Amador was no exception,” Bower said.
The closure marks the end of an era for the downtown area, highlighting the challenges faced by the business over the past year. Bower explained the decision, saying, “We are going to be closing and might come a little unexpected, but given where things are in the market, it’s time to do it. If we felt there was light at the end of the tunnel, we could probably figure out a way to keep it going, but at this time, it’s not something that we’re prepared to do.”
I never had the opportunity to check out Amador as I live in Albuquerque, but it looks like a fun place. More importantly, Las Cruces voters just jacked up their gross receipts tax and the City’s minimum wage of $12.65 an hour is above even the State’s inflated $12.00 an hour wage. Was inflation the issue or something else? Of course, the Legislature could easily goose the economy in a positive way (with plenty of money left over) by giving taxpayers a break on income or gross receipts taxes, but they haven’t really done that.
