Plans are in the works to move the EMW Gas Association offices from its long-time home in Estancia to Moriarty.
Owned by the municipalities of Estancia, Moriarty and Willard, the association has been serving the area since 1964.
But EMW has outgrown its 2,700-square-foot building in Estancia, said Eddie O’Brien, general manager, and the nine-member board of directors already unanimously agreed to the move.
“We have two employees in every office,” he said. “We’re getting a little cramped.”
The gas company has seen significant growth, with nearly 6,000 active accounts and a service area that stretches as far north as Stanley and dips east into Bernalillo County and south to the Gran Quivira site within the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. EMW has 71 miles of transmission lines and 640 miles of distribution lines. It has 19 field and office employees.
The plan is to build offices in the 6,000-7,000-square-foot range, O’Brien said, with estimated costs for a turnkey building of about $450 per square foot. It would sit on land the association already owns and where it already has maintenance shops near Moriarty City Park.
“Instead of spending a whole lot of money rebuilding shops, we’ll build a new office and revamp the shops to more fit our needs as we’re growing,” he said. “We’re hoping that will be it for us. That covers all future growth so we won’t have to be going through this again in the future as we continue to grow.”
The association would retain a presence in Estancia with a local service truck as well as a site for local residents to make payments, said Estancia Mayor Nathan Dial, who is also a EMW board member.
“I hate to see things moving out of Estancia, but in this process I’m kind of neutral,” he said. “As a board member, I understand the logistics. As far as gross receipts for the town of Estancia, it won’t really have that much of an impact.”
As for what happens to the existing site in Estancia once the move is completed, it is unclear whether the association would retain ownership or it would revert to Estancia.
Either way, Dial said he thinks it would be a perfect location for the town’s police department, which, when at full strength, would have a chief, a sergeant and three patrol officers. That move would require the board of trustees’ approval.
Right now the association is looking at several designs and also looking for approval from Moriarty’s planning and zoning department, and the city council.
“That’s really as far as we’ve gone,” O’Brien said. “We’re talking with a contractor that’s working on a few different floor plans. But we’re still in the planning phases.”
Still, EMW officials are looking to move fast on the project, with a goal of breaking ground by summer.
“We’re hoping to break ground in June or July,” he said. “Now we’re going through the permitting process and getting surveys done. So it all depends on how fast we can get (planning and zoning) to move and get the town to approve it. We’re hoping by this time next year, we’ll be in a new building.”