Originally this sugar mill was established as a sugar factory or "trapiche" known as Hacienda Monte Grande/Hacienda San Juan Bautista de Monte Grande, owned Juan Manuel Tejada ( -1856). In 1835 Juan Manuel was Regidor, or council member of the Arecibo Municipal Government , he died in 1856 victim of the cholera epidemic that affected the island.  Official Arecibo Municipal Government records[1] show that in 1845 Juan Manuel Tejada was the owner of the second largest sugar factory with a blood driven sugar mill in Arecibo, with 200 cuerdas planted with sugarcane valued at $108, 320 pesos behind Manuel A. Zeno who owned 250 cuerdas valued at $18,826 pesos.

José Ferreras Pagán in his 1902 book Biografía de las Riquezas de Puerto Rico states that Hacienda Monte Grande was established in 1836 and since 1874 was managed by the Sucn. Tejada.  He states that it was upgraded in 1887 to a central sugar mill when it consisted of nine hundred seventy five cuerdas of which five hundred were used to grow sugarcane, employing some two hundred fifty people. Ferreras Pagán also states that when he visited the property in 1902, the representative of Sucn. Tejada was Manuel Ortiz who was indeed Manuel Ortiz Tejada, grandson of Juan Manuel Tejada and son of Spanish immigrant Manuel Ortiz Latorre ( -1858) and Tejada's daughter Josefita Tejada. Astrid Cubano Iguana in her essay La Economía Arecibeña del Siglo XIX Identification de Productores y Comerciantes states that in the decades of 1870 and 1880 the Tejada and Ortiz families were owners of Hacienda Monte Grande and Hacienda Las Lisas both of which affairs were handled by a resident manager as the families resided in Spain.

Ownership by Juan Manuel Tejada in 1841 is verified in the document Las Haciendas de Arecibo: Expediente de la Visita a las Haciendas de 1841 published by the Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogía Inc. in 2016 that reports the findings of the government visit to several haciendas in Arecibo to verify the way they treated slaves.  In summarizing the visit to Hacienda San Juan Bautista de Monte Grande, the document states it was then the property of Juan Manuel Tejada and representing his ownership were his son Andrés Tejada, also Regidor or council member of the Arecibo Municipal Government in 1841 and caretaker Pedro Lefebre.  The Slave Register of 1872 shows a number of slaves whose owner was Sucesión Tejada.   ​

Central Monte Grande was located some 3 km southeast of downtown Arecibo, about ⅔ miles southeast of Hacienda Santa Barbara and ½ mile northeast of Central Cambalache near the road to Manatí.  In one of the aerial photos below, provided courtesy of Carlos Alemán, the chimney of Central Cambalache can be clearly identified. It used waters from the Caño Tiburones which was located just to the north.    

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[1] Cuaderno de la Riqueza Agricola formado por el Ayuntamiento para el reparto del subsidio de 1846, source: AGPR