Carrizozo - US Hwy 54/380 6 ac Corner

Dale Ritchie, the former owner of this large intersection corner, understood the phrase “location, location, location” when he acquired this property in Carrizozo. Its six acres forms the northeast corner of the intersection of US Highway 54 and US Route 380, the largest of the four corner tracts. The other corner occupants are Valero in an old service station, Allsups convenience store (see photo) and the Four Winds Restaurant. This corner property has 338 feet of frontage on Highway 54, which would provide multiple accesses – see plat. Carrizozo is 32 miles from Ruidoso and over 60 miles to the nearest city in every other direction. So, the many services and products travelers expect to purchase when in Carrizozo, offer economic opportunity for aggressive business owners. 

 The NM Department of Transportation has regular highway expansion projects underway on Highway 54 to improve traffic flow from I-40 south to international market of El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico. This is being done because the Highway 54 traffic count increases annually. Truckers traveling on Interstate 40 from points east, with a destination of the Mexican border crossings at El Paso, have found they can save several hours by taking Highway 54 south to El Paso, instead of using I-25 through Albuquerque and the Rio Grande valley. This valuable Highway 54 time saving route is increasing traffic through Carrizozo every year. U.S. Route 380 is an east–west United States Highway. The highways eastern terminus is 600 miles east of Carrizozo, in Greenville, Texas at its intersection with Interstate 30. 

This property was a gas station operated by Dale Ritchie. Its above ground fuel storage tanks, removed in 2018, were located within a concrete monolithic-poured retention structure which eliminated underground fuel tank contamination issues. The pumps and underground fuel lines have been removed and the canopies and small C-store were demolished. A Dollar Store has opened on adjacent land to the north. So now this six-acre location sits between the Dollar Store and Carrizozo proper. Priced at $850,000 ($3.25/SF) for 6.03 acres.

This six acre property is substantially larger than the other three corner properties, whose expansion would be extremely difficult to achieve. Carrizozo is 30-50 miles from the nearest town, so automobile and truck traffic expects more services available than currently exist. Thus, this property can be developed for multiple business activities.