The Chetumal hub, Quintana Roo: 21.5 MW next to Belize, no pipeline, no investment

Bajío Ventures · October 2026 · The welfare hubs, one by one

Chetumal is the only one of Mexico’s welfare development hubs (Polos de Desarrollo Económico para el Bienestar, PODECOBI) on the southern border: it sits 7.4 km from Belize. It covers 87.80 ha in Othón P. Blanco, 3.5 km from the airport and the Tren Maya “Chetumal Aeropuerto” station, and 2 km from the port. The municipality zoned it as an industrial park with a bonded area. Proyectos México offers up to 21.5 MW, but gas arrives compressed, not by pipeline. The Official Gazette (DOF) declared it on 1 July 2025 and the agreement with the state was signed on 6 August 2025. More than a year later it is still in pre-investment, with no developer, companies or investment announced.

The fact sheet

Field	Data
Official name	Polo de Desarrollo Económico para el Bienestar Chetumal
State and municipality	Quintana Roo / Othón P. Blanco
Area	87.80 ha in three sections (67.46 + 13.08 + 7.26 ha)
Declaration (DOF)	1 July 2025 (signed 19 June 2025)
SE–state agreement	6 August 2025
Target sectors	Electric power, textiles, metallurgy, machinery and equipment, agro-industry, ICT, international trade, warehousing and distribution
Developer	Not announced
Announced investment	None
Status	Pre-investment (Proyectos México, revised 5 August 2026)

Connectivity

• Federal highway 186 Escárcega–Chetumal.
• Airport and Tren Maya “Chetumal Aeropuerto” station: 3.5 km.
• Port: 2 km.
• Belize border: 7.4 km.
• Close to the Chetumal Free Zone (Proyectos México).
• Land use “Parque Industrial con Recinto Fiscalizado (PIRFE)”, municipal permit DGDUMAE/110/2025.
• Talent (Proyectos México): 697 STEM graduates and 5,217 STEM students.

Energy and water

Proyectos México offers up to 21.5 MW, compressed natural gas and regional water of 1,741 hm³ per year. The water figure describes regional availability, not an allocation to the hub.

For 87.80 ha, 21.5 MW is ample. It is enough for cold storage, agro-industry and several textile or machinery plants, which typically need from under one megawatt to several per plant. The limit is gas. Without a pipeline, compressed natural gas arrives by truck, and its cost per unit of energy is usually higher than piped gas. That weighs on metallurgy, one of the declared sectors, which depends on process heat. The hub also lists “electric power” as a sector in its own right, with no project attached.

What to watch

• No developer, no tenants. No companies, amounts or jobs announced as of October 2026.
• Competition within the same state. On 7 August 2026 the DOF declared a second Quintana Roo hub, the Distrito Financiero y Tecnológico de Cancún. On 7 September 2026 President Sheinbaum said that site “has not been approved” because it sits on jungle land. State attention may be split between the two.
• Compressed gas. Without a pipeline, heat-intensive sectors face an energy-cost disadvantage.
• Dates. In December 2025 the federal government said nine hubs, Chetumal among them, would start in Q2 or Q3 2026. In August 2026 the official sheet still read pre-investment. A Ministry of Economy release titled “…lanzan Polo del Bienestar Chetumal I” could not be accessed.

Our view

The municipality waives 100% of local fees in 2025–2027 (property tax, licences, land use). The federal incentive is the same in all 15 hubs: 100% immediate deduction of new fixed assets plus an extra 25% on the increase in training or innovation spending (details in the pillar piece). There is no income-tax exemption. With a bonded area, border, port and Tren Maya, Chetumal profiles as a logistics and distribution hub towards Central America more than a heavy-manufacturing site.

For an energy developer, Chetumal is the hub in this batch where on-site solutions make the most sense. Without a pipeline, solar self-supply with storage competes well against compressed gas for warehouse and cold-chain loads. Installations under 0.7 MW need no generation permit. The condition is the same as in the other hubs without tenants: a developer is needed to sign with.

Series: The 15 welfare hubs as of October 2026 · The Michoacán hub and Guanajuato: one corridor

Sources: DOF, Chetumal hub declaration, Jul-2025 · DOF, PODECOBI tax-incentive decree, May-2025 · Proyectos México, PODECOBI Chetumal, Aug-2026 · SE, coordination agreement with Quintana Roo, Aug-2025 · DOF, Distrito Financiero y Tecnológico de Cancún declaration, Aug-2026 · Plano Informativo, environmental limit on the financial hub, Sep-2026 · La Silla Rota, hubs starting in 2026, Dec-2025

Bajío Ventures — a Mexican energy-infrastructure investment group based in Guanajuato.