Military boot maker takes over the former Eagle Industries plant in Lares and files for its use permit
PR Footwear, a subsidiary of Illinois-based Belleville Boot Company, will make military boots at the former Eagle Industries del Caribe plant in Lares and plans to create up to 300 full-time jobs over the next three years, sanjuandailystar.com reported on October 6, 2026. The Lares plant and a second facility in San Sebastián will be the company's first manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico, according to the outlet.
The lease and the incentives
The company will occupy two properties of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) in Lares totaling 71,238 sq ft (about 6,618 m2), along with two adjacent lots of 1,434 m2, and will lease a 23,862 sq ft (about 2,217 m2) industrial building in San Sebastián for raw materials, the outlet reported. In all it will lease 95,101 sq ft at an annual rent of approximately $260,282 under a 10-year contract with preferential renewal options. theweeklyjournal.com reported the same terms a day earlier and put the incentive package at $2,425,134.
Of the incentives, granted by the Department of Economic Development and Commerce under the Incentives Code, up to $750,000 supports the 300-job target, $1.37 million covers 30% of the cost of acquiring, transporting, installing and validating machinery and equipment, and up to $300,000 may go to infrastructure improvements, the outlet reported. Eagle Industries operated at the site for more than two decades, and the industrial development company began marketing the buildings after it ceased operations; the new tenant and the agency will carry out improvements and repairs to fit the boot lines, according to the outlet.
The site in the records
The former plant is at 20 Calle Emilio, in Barrio Pueblo, Lares. The property covers 47,958 m2 (about 12.2 cuerdas, or 11.9 acres) and is zoned light industry (I-L) on 99% of its area. The property-tax roll still lists Eagle Industries del Caribe as the owner of record, and the industrial development company holds the site's single permit, approved on February 24, 2022, and renewed on October 16, 2025.
Three days after the announcement, on October 9, 2026, a single-permit application named PR FOOTWEAR LLC-Lares was filed for the property (case 2026-713704-PU-472716). It describes the business as the manufacture and sale of military and tactical footwear, lists 100 parking spaces and declares 50 jobs, and it is under inspection. A single permit bundles the use permit with the other authorizations a business needs to operate.
Industrial property in Lares
Property records list 19 active industrially zoned properties in Lares with 86,194 m2 of land between them, so the former Eagle site alone is more than half of the town's industrial land. The industrial lots that changed hands since 2022 were small: a 361 m2 lot on Carretera 111 sold for $170,000 in July 2026, and a 1,083 m2 lot at Km 26.1 of the same road sold for $99,900 in October 2025 and for $130,000 in June 2026.
Warehouses offered for sale in Lares since 2023 asked $550,000 to $1.8 million for 208 to 1,331 m2 of building, and every one of those listings has since been withdrawn; a 465 m2 warehouse in Barrio Pueblo was marked sold at $300,000 in 2022. Industrial-type spaces for rent in a three-level building in Barrio Pueblo asked $400 to $1,000 a month.
The town's residential market is small: the Lares market profile counted 46 homes listed for sale and 8 for rent on October 18, 2026.