It’s not every day you hear about a business plan that looks to build a hydroponic farm as phase II after creating a design and marketing firm. But that’s the game plan for Seth Stephens, Mason Green and Louis Montes, three friends from Indiana who discovered Durango in 2015 when Stephens moved to the area to work in information technology at Purgatory Resort.
“We all came out here as a group,” Stephens said. “Nine friends piled in a car for a couple of hours together and came out here to visit.” Coming out of college with a degree in computer network administration and business administration, Stephens was offered a job at Purgatory, and he figured he could work and at the same time learn to snowboard.
“I had never seen the Rocky Mountains before,” Stephens said. “And the first time that I drove through the mountains, it was a no-brainer. Like as soon as I got here, I didn’t want to leave.”
Key for both the current Chinampas Design firm and the coming Chinampas hydroponic farm is a large 3D printer and laser engraver that allows Chinampas to create unique items as corporate memorabilia and marketing material – and in the future will be used to create the irrigation and greenhouse equipment needed for the hydroponic farm.
Three-dimensional wood puzzles of elk heads (called a vegan head mount by the Hoosier trio), dragonflies and penguins are all available for purchase on Chinampas’ website – all early products of the design and marketing firm that started in mid-October in the back half of a building shared with Think Network on Main Avenue.
Read more at Durango Herald (Patrick Armijo)