Our Story
Learn our story, leadership, and mission shaping manufacturing in Mexico.
Overview
When You Arrive, You Start Operating
Your building is standing. Your buses are running. Your clinic, your daycare and your payroll team are minutes from your door. On day one, your job is production, and only production.
Bella Vista Campus
Space & Land
Total Land: 121 acres
Industrial Space: ~1.6M sq ft under management
Availability: Move-in-ready Class A buildings available now, plus new construction on our standard footprint
Utilities & Infrastructure
Electrical Power: 20 MVA (20,000 kVA), run to the buildings
Natural Gas: 4-inch line at 300 PSI
Water Security: On-site desalination (~211,000 gallons/day) and water reclamation plants
Security: Controlled access and CCTV with 24/7 monitoring
Location & Logistics
U.S. Border Access: ~260 mi via Highway 15 to the Nogales, AZ crossing; Tetakawi cross-dock in Tucson, AZ
Regional Access: Port of Guaymas 15 minutes away; Hermosillo, the state capital, about 85 mi (about 90 minutes)
Workforce & Amenities
Employee Transportation: 6,500+ employees ride daily routes across the region
On-Site Amenities: Medical center, daycare center, and sports complex
Certifications
IMMEX shelter program; OEA (Authorized Economic Operator); ISO 9001 quality management systems
Why Bella Vista
Why Companies Choose
Bella Vista
Empalme, Sonora, is a railroad town that became a manufacturing hub. A job on this Campus is a career, so the people you train stay.
Your Workforce Grew Up on This Campus
Empalme families have built here for a generation; some of today’s engineers are the children of the first hires. Skills are the local norm.
HR Coordinators Sit Inside Your Plant
Our HR coordinators work inside your building, not across town. Attendance, hiring and the union are their job; production is yours.
Your Power and Water, Already Here
Power is contracted to the Campus and water comes from our own desalination plant. The town keeps its supply; you are served from ours.
Statistics
Bella Vista, by the Numbers
40+
Years helping manufacturers in Empalme.
15+
International manufacturers on Campus.
8,500+
Employees supported on the Campus.
On Campus
Around Your Factory, Already Running
Five things a standalone plant spends its first year building. Here, they are already running:
- Recruiting, payroll and HR, with Tetakawi as employer of record
- Import and export under our programs, through our Tucson cross-dock
- EHS, environmental and fiscal filings, plus indirect purchasing in Mexico
- Regional bus routes, a clinic, a daycare, a sports complex
- Build-out and equipment yours to specify; utilities at cost
Case Studies
Manufacturers Growing at Bella Vista
These leaders asked the questions you are asking now. Their answers about Bella Vista matter more than ours.
“There’s a lot of turnover at a border, and training people takes time. You want people who work longer with you and grow that sense of belonging to the company. That is why the company chose Empalme: a little to the south of the border, but not too far, in a place where people stay.”
Carlos Rivera, Plant Manager, HUBER+SUHNER
“TE has been here since 1989 and has been evolving right along with Tetakawi. The key to this relationship is Tetakawi bringing in the talent and the human resources, and we bring in the technology and the products that need to be built here. That bond is what has kept us growing, on the talent this region has.”
Ricardo Gómez, Director of Operations, TE Connectivity
“Until I ran a company without a shelter partner, I didn’t understand how complicated it is to operate in the legal and HR ecosystem: getting your people to work safely, running your own bus systems, managing daycare and medical services. If I had known at the beginning how good I had it, I would have rethought some things.”
Jon Jensen, Manufacturing CEO, repeat Tetakawi client since 2001
Campus Pillars
Everything You Need to Reach Your Potential in Empalme
Predictable manufacturing in Empalme takes reliable space, people, logistics and compliance. At Bella Vista, one partner runs all four. No patchwork of vendors.
Industrial Space
Move into a Class A building at Bella Vista, ready to run or adapted to your process. Tetakawi maintains the building and the Campus around it, so the building is never your project.
Workforce
Set the roles and the standards, then run the plant. Tetakawi recruits across the region our buses reach, employs the people, runs payroll and benefits, and holds the union agreement, so your managers run production, not HR.
Logistics
Bring materials in and ship product out with carriers you select, through our own cross-dock in Tucson. Tetakawi holds the Mexican import and export permits, so your team moves product, not paperwork.
Compliance
Operate under Tetakawi’s IMMEX shelter program, without forming your own Mexican company. Tetakawi’s entity holds the registrations and the administration, while you run the plant in Empalme.
Featured Resources
Make Confident Decisions About
Manufacturing in Empalme
FAQs
What Manufacturers Ask Us About Bella Vista
The questions we get most often from manufacturers looking at Empalme. If yours is not here, ask us.
Do we need to form our own entity to manufacture at Bella Vista?
No.
Your operation runs inside Tetakawi’s Mexican entity under our IMMEX shelter framework. That entity employs your workforce, holds the import and export registrations, and is the one Mexico registers, audits and inspects. You run your plant in a building on the Campus and direct your own production.
Tetakawi also runs the property. The HR, import-export, EHS and purchasing teams that would set your operation up work on the Campus, a few minutes from your building.
Can we staff a plant in Empalme and keep the people we train?
Yes.
About 8,500 people already work for manufacturers on this Campus, so operators, technicians and line supervisors who have done the work are common in Empalme.
Daily routes reach across the whole region and more than 6,500 people ride them to work each day, so we can present candidates from well beyond Empalme.
You give us the job descriptions and the hiring plan. We recruit and screen, present the candidates who fit, and you choose. On your instruction we make the offer, and Tetakawi employs them and runs the payroll. We recommend pay from what the same jobs already earn around the Campus. HR, transport and labor compliance are Tetakawi’s from there.
Is there space available at Bella Vista now, and how quickly could we move in?
Yes, both kinds.
There are move-in-ready Class A buildings open now, and land for new construction on our standard footprint of about 35,000 square feet.
Because the buildings already exist and power, water and gas are already at the Campus, your schedule from signing is set by your build-out and equipment lead times.
Availability moves, so tell us the footprint you need and when you need to be producing, and we will tell you what is open.
How do costs in Empalme compare with the U.S. or a border city?
Lower than either, on direct labor.
Direct labor at this Campus starts at about $4.33 per hour fully fringed for unskilled positions, with semi-skilled roles from about $5.78 (at 17.5 pesos per dollar). Fully fringed means the wage plus the employer’s payroll taxes and benefits. Guaymas and Empalme are one labor market, so these wage figures hold at our Roca Fuerte Campus too.
For scale, the same roles in U.S. manufacturing start at about $28 an hour for unskilled positions and about $30 for semi-skilled roles, wages plus benefits (our calculation from BLS 2025 wage and 2026 benefit data).
Tell us what you are planning, and we are happy to run the numbers with you.
How does our freight reach the U.S., and who is responsible at the border?
Through Nogales.
Bella Vista sits on four-lane Highway 15, about 260 miles from the crossing. Your freight moves north under Tetakawi’s Mexican export programs and is received, staged and consolidated at our own cross-dock in Tucson, an hour north of the border, where Mexican and U.S. carriers hand off and partial loads are combined for the U.S. leg. The deep-water Port of Guaymas is fifteen minutes away if an ocean leg suits your suppliers.
In Mexico, Tetakawi is the importer and exporter of record; entering the United States, your company is. A licensed Mexican broker files the entries under our programs, and your U.S. broker files from the export documentation and part-level data our team helps prepare.
What does it take to find out whether Bella Vista is right for us?
Four steps, same as every Campus.
1. Get in touch. A conversation about your goals for Empalme: volumes, processes, headcount and timing.
2. Measure ROI. We build the business case with you: the full cost of running your operation on this Campus, the risks and the trade-offs. If another Campus fits better, we build that one too.
3. Site visit. Walk the Campus, meet the people who would run your account, and talk with manufacturers already producing here.
4. Launch and grow. When you give the green light, the same team that helped you build the case guides the launch, and the people who run the Campus are a phone call or a short walk away.
