State Rep. Joy Garrett, chair of the legislative site committee, convened a briefing at Los Luceros on its history and current programming, where New Mexico Historic Sites and local partners described plans for a commercial kitchen, festivals and preservation work.

Why it matters: Los Luceros is a state-owned historic site that committee members said serves as a cultural and economic anchor for the region. Officials described active efforts to create revenue-generating programs (a commercial kitchen and recurring festivals) and to sustain long-term preservation of multiple historic buildings.

Anne McCudden, executive director of New Mexico Historic Sites, summarized the agency’s portfolio and said Los Luceros is part of an eight-site system undergoing strategic planning. “We want that visitor experience to be wonderful,” McCudden told the committee, adding she has spent time visiting the sites and working with site managers to address infrastructure and long-term financial stability.

Eric Vasquez, executive director of the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area, described partnership projects based at Los Luceros that aim to spur local economic activity. He said the site’s program list includes the Rio Grande Sky Fiesta, an annual arts show, partnerships with Northern New Mexico College for artist entrepreneurship training, film-industry training and a planned commercial kitchen. “The point of this kitchen is that a lot of the food infrastructure that’s available for local production… has closed down over the years, and there’s nothing really available for this region,” Vasquez said.

Michelle Zupan, site manager at Los Luceros, provided local history and described the adjacent ancestral pueblo; she noted the site sits on unceded Tewa land and traced the property’s multi-century history from Pueblo agriculture through Spanish land grant and 20th-century museum use. “We are all very, very proud of it, and we are honored to welcome you and to share that with you,” Zupan said.

Committee members asked operational questions. In response to a question about whether the planned kitchen will be available for local producers to prepare products for sale, Vasquez said, “Yes, that is the plan. We're still in the phases of getting the health certification completed. Like I mentioned, water and all those little things are sticking points, but we’re moving through it.” He said the kitchen would also host resident chefs and training programs.

Officials provided staffing and budgetary context. McCudden said the total historic-sites budget (including salaries and services across all sites) is “a little over $3,000,000” and that she would provide a per-site breakdown later. Zupan said Los Luceros currently has four historic-site staff and two facilities staff, for six full-time site employees.

Vasquez and McCudden described recent and planned investments: reopening Taylor Mesilla Historic Site in November, preservation work at Fort Selden and Coronado mural restoration, and site infrastructure projects at Los Luceros including work on the hacienda and the kitchen conversion. Vasquez said the site purchased a freeze dryer and other equipment and plans classes and production opportunities for local food producers and artists.

Committee members praised the site and pressed for more detail on budgets, permitting and certification timelines; McCudden said she will provide requested budget breakdowns and that staff are working through water- and health-code approvals.

No formal committee action or funding vote occurred during the presentation; the session moved on after members accepted a tour and lunch invitation and prepared to review other agenda items.

Ending note: Officials invited committee members and the public to attend the fall festival and the Rio Grande Sky Fiesta and encouraged legislators to view the visitor retablos and the hacienda restoration on the scheduled tour.