• The giants
    of the industry

  • In Mexico Industrial Parks are more than surfaces geographically delimited and designed for the settlement of industrial facilities, given the opinion of Pablo Charvel Orozco, President of the Mexican Association of Industrial Parks (AMPIP), there are a kind of ‘plug and play’, industrial developments which companies arrive to establish without concerns to begin working in suitable conditions of location, infrastructure, facilities and services, and with a permanent administration for its operation.

  • Foreign investors that arrives Mexico to visit industrial parks become surprised, because they find interesting to find first world developments, which have several certifications and industrial plants of world class, said in interview the president of AMPIP.

    “Industrial parks have been gradually evolving, they are no longer maquiladora or assembly plants, they´ve become incentives that attract an industry increasingly specialized, which has generated a real technology transference through the different regions of the country and a real bond between the academy and the industry; it is beginning to create a virtuous circle in which workforce is better prepared, salaries are better and we are attracting more industry because we have trained engineers for the work,” remarked Pablo Charvel Orozco.

    In this context, he declared that investors also have noticed that there are great talents in the Mexican labour. “Lots of the industries are installing their research and innovation institutes in Mexico, and that is cause of much pride for us, and for that, from industrial parks we try to provide all the necessary facilities. The future is to invest in innovation and technology to continue being competitive and successful and that industry zone survives against all the challenges of the 4.0 manufacture, of the robotization and of the automatization.”

    It is worth mentioning that the AMPIP works with continuous improvement and better practices programs to offer competitive industrial parks and standardize them with world tendencies, for example, through certifications as Authorized Economic Operator Standard (AEO), its industrial parks will be the first ones at a global level to obtain it.

    “In AMPIP we attract the industry and we are an enabler to provide optimum conditions for investment in order that investors feel confidence. Great investments are made in their fabrics and industrial plants, that is why we provide optimum conditions and warranties so that they feel comfortable and secure to come into Mexico,” noticed Charvel Orozco.

    He added that the advantage of settling in an industrial park is that generally these are developed in regions connected to highways and sometimes with railroad sidings and they are located near areas of population where workforce can be found, technical schools or universities. “An industrial park is a limited area that has services and quality infrastructure, I mean streets well paved, with excellent signaling, as well as tanker trucks entry and exit. In this limited area that we call industrial parks we receive fabrics, maquiladora industry or logistics warehouses that settle to have the benefits, to obtain all permits required and also to avoid conflicts with population areas, because the industry is not mingled with households.”


    Industrial parks in Mexico
    Pablo Charvel is convinced that all Mexico has the potential to develop industrial parks. However, he noted that each area of the country blossoms according to their characteristics. “There are areas that have developed more in the country, for example, northern border region was first promoted, when maquiladoras started to arrive and over the years the regions have been gradually evolving based on the kind of companies that arrives. After North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) began the development of north zone to the center, in Monterrey, Guadalajara an all Bajío, all around metropolitan area because in the domestic market there is also a great demand of industrial areas,” explained AMPIP president.

    He affirmed that, the alliance between AMPIP and ProMéxico has been strategic to promote Mexico as an attractive country for the industry as a manufacturing platform for the world. “We also make a work of direct promotion in foreign agencies, but it all depends on the ambition of each industrial park, of its characteristics, but we all make promotion outside and inside to attract industries. At the beginning, we convince them to invest in Mexico, then in certain State, then in certain city and subsequently in one of our industrial parks.”



    Furthermore, he observed that the strategic location, Mexico´s trade agreements with different countries and the access to qualified labour at competitive costs are some of the principal incentives that generate the investment of Mexico´s industrial parks. “They also come for the logistics, to produce in maquiladora schemes; companies come and settle to know the different markets of the region.”

    The decision to lease or buy in an industrial park in the country depends on the internal strategy of each company, said Pablo Charvel Orozco. “Sometimes the company prefers to lease an industrial plant and invest in what they can do best, in its production, or its machinery and we become his partners in real estate.”

    AMPIP president explained that in all the industrial parks exist different schemes to sign up clients. “When we talk about built-to-suit, for example, it means tailor-made, a plant or an industrial building with certain requirements of height, of resistance in the floors and set to install its production lines. For example, sometimes they require certain wide of the plant, certain percentage destined for offices or with capacity for special installations, then we make a tailor-made, exactly as industry requires. In this scheme we can lease or sell the plant, sell the land and build the plants according to their necessities.”

    He admited that currently, the Mexican industrial real estate market is attractive, consequently many companies are arriving. In this context he recommended industrial developers to have a corporate building to have something to offer to clients, because some do not like to wait for it to be built but they demand industrial plants that allow them to start operations immediately. “Thanks to the effort and the recovery of the economy today vacate of industrial parks has been reduced and more developers are building speculative buildings to bring new investments. The majority of the regions have a minor stock of ten percentage of vacate.”

    Companies that have settled in Mexican industrial parks in their majority are of American and Asian origin, although there is also presence of Germans, Spaniards and entities from other parts of Europe. And although big corporations as automobile companies are owners of its properties, lots of their suppliers generally choose to lease.

    AMPIP president concluded saying that, the creation of industrial parks generates virtuous circles in different regions of the country, in consequence, social and tourist development, as well as more economic flow in different levels.


    “We as industrial developers actively participate in the economic development of the cities and communities where we settle. The success stories are along 250 industrial parks that we have registered in our Association, which have cooperated in the development of the communities; are long-term real estate businesses with a high impact in the national economy.” 

    A little bit of history
    The history of industrial parks in Mexico dates back to the sixties, at the end of the ‘Bracero Program’, a temporary labour agreement celebrated with United States in 1942 that allowed Mexican citizens to work legally across the border to meet the lack of local labour who attended the Second World War. However, by the end of the War, workers were replaced by soldiers who returned home.

    In order to solve the unemployment problem that was generated in the northern border at the end of the ‘Bracero Program’, through the National Border Program (PRONAF) maquiladoras, domestic and foreign companies operating under a tax regime which allows them to import inputs free of tariffs for assembly, transportation or repair of goods destined for exports.

    Given the demand for infrastructure for the installation of maquiladoras, PRONAF included the creation of the first industrial parks in the country with the support of public resources through Nacional Financiera. To such an extent that by 1966, aroused the first industrial park in Ciudad Juárez under the leadership of Jaime Bermúdez, founding partner of the AMPIP.

    According to the AMPIP, the advantages of an industrial park in Mexico can be understood from three criteria: it sits on privately owned land with permits required for the operation of industrial plants and distribution centers; has urban infrastructure and with water and discharge; electricity, telecommunications and natural gas options, rail, water treatment plant, fire station and other ancillary services; and finally it operates under internal rules and has an Administration which coordinates security, the proper functioning of infrastructure, promotion of real estate and general management procedures and permits before authorities.