About Atlantis

Atlantis is built on four decades of Mexican manufacturing operating experience.

Atlantis Development Inc. is a Texas C-Corp incorporated in 1979. Its operating partner, SUMMA Group, was founded in Ciudad Juárez in 1982. The two companies have always shared a binational architecture — Atlantis on the US side, SUMMA on the Mexico side — and have spent forty years moving capital, real estate, and manufacturing operations across the busiest land border in the hemisphere.

Our Story

The decision platform a multi-decade operating group always wished its clients had access to.

The market for Mexico nearshoring advisory has had three flavors for as long as anyone can remember. Industrial real estate developers sell space — your shortest path to a building. Shelter providers sell payroll and HR insulation — your shortest path to compliant labor. Site-selection consultants sell a process — your shortest path to a recommendation. Every one of them has a clear product. None of them sell decisions.

Atlantis was built to fill that gap. Manufacturing executives walking into a Mexico expansion need a clean read on cost, tariff exposure, regional fit, and timing — modeled, sourced, and current — before any building, any shelter contract, any state incentive package gets put on the table. The decision is the product. Everything else follows.

Atlantis Development Inc. was incorporated in Texas in 1979, the same era SUMMA Group was being founded in Ciudad Juárez. From day one the two companies operated as a pair: Atlantis as the US-side legal and capital vehicle, SUMMA as the Mexico-side operating group. Carlos F. Salas-Porras founded SUMMA in 1982 after a finance career at Citibank Mexico and an MBA from Columbia. From a Juárez base, SUMMA grew into a multi-corporation real estate and advisory group whose past customers include Foxconn, Jabil, Yazaki, Lear, BRP, Emerson, Kimberly-Clark, Nestlé, GM, Xerox, Mattel, and Superior Industries — over seven million square feet leased and sold across Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Mexico City, Baja California, Veracruz, and the Texas border.

That binational footprint is not a marketing claim. It is the structure. SUMMA-developed industrial parks have been sold to investor groups on both sides of the Juárez–El Paso line. SUMMA's logistics partners have run class-C and MRO supply for manufacturers across the border in El Paso. SUMMA's land inventory in Chihuahua, Baja California, Veracruz, and the Bajío sits inside the same operating discipline that shaped Magnaplex Industrial Park in Juárez and the Punta Azul resort plan in La Paz.

Atlantis is the next layer. Same operating foundation. New decision infrastructure. Modern cost modeling, current tariff and USMCA framing, regional intelligence updated against primary sources, and an advisory bench that has actually placed factories — not described how factories get placed.

Past customers — SUMMA Group

Foxconn

Jabil

Yazaki

Lear

BRP

Emerson

Kimberly-Clark

Nestlé

Xerox

Mattel

Superior Industries

Our Approach

Decision Infrastructure, in three layers.

Most Mexico advisory engagements collapse the model, the network, and the execution into a single billable pitch. We separate them, run them in sequence, and let the client opt out at the end of any layer.

01

Model the decision.

Cost comparison versus your incumbent geography. Tariff exposure across Section 122, Section 232, USMCA Chapter 4 rules of origin, and the IEEPA window. Regional fit across the Northwest, Northeast, Bajío, Central, and Chihuahua corridors. IMMEX qualification scoped against your product mix. The output is a written brief, not a slide deck — defensible to a board, current against primary sources, and honest about what the model can and cannot answer.
02

Connect to operators.

Once the brief is right, the network goes to work. Vetted real estate — build-to-suit, sale-leaseback, purchase-leaseback, raw land — drawn from the SUMMA bench in Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Bajío, Mexico City, and Baja California, plus US-side 3PL, land, and development partners along the Texas border. Mexican legal and tax counsel selected for your specific entity structure. Shelter and IMMEX administrators evaluated against your timeline and risk posture. We make introductions; we do not collect referral fees that distort our recommendations.
03

Advise through execution.

Once operators are at the table, SUMMA principals stay engaged as advisors and conciliators — not project managers, not contract negotiators on your behalf. Decades of operating experience across federal, state, and municipal levels. Three engagement packages — concept-stage advisory through full operating partnership — are in production; until they land, every Atlantis engagement is bespoke.

Our Team

Three principals. A bench of twenty-one. Two-hundred-seventy-eight combined years in Mexican real estate and manufacturing.

The operating partnership behind Atlantis is small, senior, and binational. Headshots are in production; full biographies will land alongside the formal launch.

CSP

Portrait — in production

Carlos F. Salas-Porras

Founder & CEO

Founded SUMMA Group in Ciudad Juárez in 1982 after a finance career at Citibank Mexico and an MBA from Columbia. Has served as Chairman & CEO of SUMMA ever since, building a multi-corporation real estate and advisory group that has leased and sold more than seven million square feet to blue-ribbon manufacturers including Foxconn, Jabil, Yazaki, GM, Mattel, Xerox, Nestlé, and Kimberly-Clark. Active board member at numerous Mexican and international financial institutions, economic chambers, and foundations.

LinkedIn — link pending

Portrait — in production

Jorge Méndez

Chief Operating Officer

Joined SUMMA Group as COO and CFO after regional corporate banking roles at Banamex (Citigroup) and Santander. Holds a Bachelor in Administration from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, a postgraduate in Finance from the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Juárez, and an MBA from the IPADE Advanced Management Program. Has led strategic business alliances and capital structuring across SUMMA's industrial, commercial, and resort portfolios.

LinkedIn — link pending

Portrait — in production

Margarita González

Chief Financial Officer

Joined SUMMA Group as Comptroller and Tax Expert after serving as Tax Manager at KPMG. Certified Public Accountant with a tax specialization from the Tecnológico de Juárez, and former professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Juárez. Leads fiscal and financial strategy across SUMMA's joint-venture corporations and Atlantis's binational entity structure.

LinkedIn — link pending

Our Partners

SUMMA Group is the operating foundation Atlantis runs on.

Anchor partner

SUMMA Group

Founded in Ciudad Juárez in 1982 by Carlos F. Salas-Porras. A multi-corporation real estate and advisory group structured around single-asset corporations — each project insulated from the next, each capitalized for its own joint-venture profile. Twenty-one principals, two hundred seventy-eight combined years in the Mexican real estate market, and a track record across housing, resort and commercial, and industrial development that includes the Magnaplex Industrial Park in Juárez, the Punta Azul resort plan in La Paz, and named build-outs for Foxconn, Jabil, Yazaki, BRP, FAMSA, and Mattel across Chihuahua, Casas Grandes, Monterrey, and Mexico City.

SUMMA's reach is binational by design. Industrial, commercial, and logistics deals on the US side of the Juárez–El Paso corridor — Interpoint Business Park, PPS Intermart class-C and MRO supply — sit inside the same operating discipline as the Mexico-side portfolio. Atlantis advisory leans on this depth for site selection, tariff and incentive structuring, shelter introductions, and 3PL/land sourcing across both sides of the border.

Headquartered in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua

Industry memberships, certifications, and additional partnerships in development. SUMMA Group holds LEED-aligned credentials through a Tierra Café partnership recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council; full Atlantis-era memberships will be published as they are formalized.

Atlantis Development Inc.

The legal entity behind Atlantis.

Legal name: Atlantis Development Inc.
Entity type: Texas C-Corporation
Incorporated: 1979
Operating partner: SUMMA Group, Ciudad Juárez (founded 1982)

Services delivered through Atlantis Development Inc. and partner operating entities in Mexico. Educational content on this site is not legal, tax, or investment advice. For engagement-specific guidance, start a conversation.