The Greater Yuma Port Authority is eyeing hundreds of acres of undeveloped land near the San Luis border crossing and has set aside $400,000 to study whether the commercial port could someday open to everyday car traffic.
San Luis processed $4.1 billion in commercial trade in 2025, with agriculture accounting for 72% of that volume, Port Authority Executive Director Buna George told the Yuma County Board of Supervisors on June 1.
San Luis has two ports of entry: San Luis I, which processes passenger vehicles and pedestrians, and San Luis II, a commercial-only crossing. The San Luis crossing recorded nearly 3.6 million private vehicles, about 2.5 million pedestrians and more than 47,000 commercial trucks last year — the second-busiest commercial port of entry in Arizona behind Nogales.
George said the authority is looking at roughly 97 acres adjacent to the port — land now owned by the nonprofit Chicanos Por La Causa but listed for sale — as potential sites for warehousing and logistics developments. The authority is also looking at about 680 acres off County 25th Street. “The ability for the manufacturing plants is there,” George told the board. There’s a big need for refrigerated warehouses, but the cost is $7 million to $8 million per project, she said.
Separately, the $400,000 study would explore routing private vehicles through San Luis II to ease congestion at San Luis I, where federal officials recently invested $356 million to add more vehicle and pedestrian lanes.
During the agricultural season, seasonal workers add to traffic and wait times can be a few hours, George told Arizona Luminaria. With the new remodel, the facility went from eight to 16 lanes. U.S. Customs and Border Protection staffing hasn’t caught up to the expansion yet, she said.
She said the authority plans to gather two to three years of traffic data before formally requesting more federal funding. “If we go in and ask them for more, they’re going to say hold on,” George told the board.
Any changes are probably seven to 10 years away and would require federal approval and new infrastructure on the México side as well, she said.
Board of Supervisors Chair Martin Porchas said the county needs to plan ahead for growth. “We’re kind of always playing catch up. We need to start talking about this,” he said at the meeting. “10 years will go by pretty quick.”
George said San Luis has absorbed some overflow from California’s Calexico crossing this year after protests disrupted operations there, calling San Luis “a pressure release valve” for that port.
The San Luis project is one of several major border-infrastructure projects across Arizona. The U.S. General Services Administration is preparing an environmental review for a $1.5 billion to $2 billion modernization of the Nogales DeConcini port — the state’s busiest crossing — after a bipartisan push from Arizona’s congressional delegation. Expansion also is under construction at the Douglas port of entry.
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