A developer who's struggling to build a drive-thru Starbucks in New Mexico hopes the third time's charm after two arson attacks at a construction site now nicknamed "Charbucks."
The stand-alone coffee shop would be Starbuck's first in Taos, an artsy town of 6,500 that has company outlets in two supermarkets but a history of opposition to some national chains, Reuters reported Saturday.
"We don't know who did it, but we loved it," holistic healer Todd Lazar said of the fires while chatting with other regulars outside Taos' World Cup Cafe.
Stickers showing the Starbucks' logo in flames — with its iconic mermaid's face replaced with a skull — have been plastered on locally owned businesses, Reuters said.
The first fire damaged the northeast corner of the partially built Starbucks store a year ago, with the words "F--- No" painted on a window.
A second fire burned the building to the ground two months later.
No one was injured in either blaze, but the second fire knocked out power to a funeral home next door, forcing the relocation of the bodies stored there.
In December, Town Manager Andrew Gonzales said plans were in the works to resume construction, the Taos News reported at the time.
"For them not to rebuild sends a message that this is OK, that this is how you stop businesses that you're uncomfortable with," Gonzales said.
The site is now protected by video surveillance cameras, and a security guard sleeps in a camouflaged trailer ahead of the store's planned opening in spring 2025, Reuters said.
Neither contractor Hart Construction nor Arizona-based developer and property owner Clint Jameson, who plans to lease the building to Starbucks, responded to requests for comment.
A Starbucks spokesperson, Sam Jeffries, said that employee safety was the company's top priority and that it would work closely with local police once the store opened.
Taos' economic development director, Christopher Larsen, said officials supported the Starbucks project because it would create jobs and tax revenue.
But two or three national chains canceled their own plans in Taos after the second fire, citing the belief that the town "doesn't want corporate America," Larsen said.
Police believe they know who set the fires but don't have enough evidence to arrest anyone, Larsen said.
The town's police chief declined to comment, but local officials have offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has offered another $5,000.
