Albuquerque Development Thread

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New Innovate ABQ RFP sets a tight deadline to choose a developer

Dan Mayfield
Reporter-
Albuquerque Business First

On Friday, the University of New Mexico released its long-awaited request for proposals for the Innovate ABQ site.
The RFP is the next step in the process to building a business incubation site on seven acres at the edge of Downtown. The site has been imagined as an economic development center that brings together entrepreneurs, artists, engineers, developers and more to create companies and ideas.
The RFP is looking for a developer to work within the framework that the UNM regents approved last month. The school is looking to forge a long-term public-private partnership with a developer that offers a variety of services, from real estate development to marketing and financing. The developer is expected to construct the laboratory, incubation, living and retail spaces envisioned at the site.

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Sawmill emerging as ‘something unlike what Albuquerque has seen’

Damon Scott
Managing Editor-
Albuquerque Business First

Albuquerque’s Sawmill District is seeing a lot of activity and will see more projects come online very soon.
The former brownfield site and areas adjacent to it have been feeding off its northern border with the Old Town corridor up to the south side of I-40 along Rio Grande Boulevard. The area has seen new apartments and town homes, an instantly popular brewpub in Ponderosa Brewing Co. and is the place where ACE Leadership High School built new digs. Range Cafe owner Matt DiGregory said he’ll be opening a fourth location nearby too.
Brett Hills, a director with NAI Maestas & Ward, has been very active in the area, working with hotelier and entrepreneur Jim Long on some of his projects. Long is in the midst of bringing another hotel to the area — the 118-room Hotel Chaco Albuquerque — which will be built near his flagship Heritage Hotels & Resorts property Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town. Long is also involved in other area projects, including a Sawmill Market that would be north of Hotel Chaco on Bellamah Avenue and 19th Street. This week the Bernalillo County Commission approved about $191,000 in yearly tax breaks for both Hotel Chaco and the Sawmill Market.

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Bregman: New Albuquerque sports arena is still answer to attract a team

Dan Mayfield
Reporter-
Albuquerque Business First

Sure, Albuquerque can support a professional sports team, says Sam Bregman, a local attorney and former owner of the Albuquerque Thunderbirds D-League basketball team. But a new arena would help a lot too.
An analysis from Albuquerque Business First's parent company, American City Business Journals, created a lot of buzz recently because it said that the Albuquerque-area has the economic capacity to support a major league sports team — maybe soccer, maybe another sport.
And Bregman knows Albuquerque is largely a basketball town. For five years his team, which was part of the NBA’s developmental league, averaged between 1,500 and 2,500 fans a game. The team supported itself, fans and players had a good time, and it was successful enough that the Cleveland Cavaliers bought it from Bregman in 2011.
Though it made sense for him to sell the team in 2011, it wouldn’t have made sense if there had been a good venue here for the team, he said. The Thunderbirds played at Tingley Coliseum, a 60-year-old, almost 10,000 seat arena that’s used for monster truck shows and rodeos. Bregman eventually moved the team to the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, a newer facility.

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Winrock remake has millennials in mind

By Jessica Dyer
Journal Staff Writer

First things first: Gary Goodman isn’t just building a shopping mall.
Yes, the major earth-moving underway now at Winrock Town Center will yield the state’s first Nordstrom Rack and DSW, other still-unannounced retailers and a two-level underground parking garage. When fully developed, Winrock will comprise an estimated 1.5 million square feet of retail – nearly three times what it had when the original Winrock opened to great fanfare more than 50 years ago.

But Goodman – whose Goodman Realty Group is behind Winrock’s current renaissance – never set out to build a run-of-the-mill shopping center. He has a vision for a mixed-use development unlike anything the city has seen. As evidence, consider the fact that he has a farmer on the payroll.

That’s right. A farmer.

“We just harvested about 3,000 garlic bulbs,” Goodman said proudly of the plants used as part of a new landscaping strategy at the 83-acre Uptown property.

While the 16-screen Regal Cinemas multiplex might stand as one of the flashiest additions to date in Winrock’s ongoing redevelopment, it’s the peach, apple, and other fruit and nut trees surrounding the theater that truly speak to Goodman’s larger goals for the project. More than 200 such trees already have been planted around the cinema and the new Dave & Buster’s. Their fruit will ultimately stock Winrock’s planned on-site farm store – just one component of what Goodman calls a “uniquely 21st century” development.

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Nice! A sticky for ABQ!!!
Thanks Moderator and PHX31

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Downtown's grocery store to have restaurant and retail neighbors

Stephanie Guzman
Reporter-
Albuquerque Business First

Downtown's mixed-use Imperial building — which will bring the corridor its first grocery store in decades — will have some food-and-retail-focused retail neighbors.
The 12,000-square-foot ground floor Silver Street Market grocer is under construction now and is set to open in the first quarter of next year. And David Silverman of Geltmore LLC, who is in charge of the grocer and retail spaces, said momentum is building for additional tenants to locate near Silver Street Market.
Those tenants include a 3,500-square-foot restaurant on the corner of Silver Avenue and Third Street, and several other storefronts that will round out the 23,000-square-foot bottom floor, anchored by the grocery store.

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Ruth’s Chris Steak House coming to Albuquerque

By Jessica Dyer
Journal Staff Writer

A high-end restaurant chain is getting ready to serve its signature sizzling steaks in the Duke City.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House has signed a lease for space in Albuquerque and plans to open its first Duke City restaurant by late 2015, according to the company’s recent financial report.

Ruth’s Chris will take over 9,800 square feet in the Shops at Park Square on Indian School NE, near Louisiana, a space last occupied by Robert R. Bailey Clothiers.

Ruth’s Chris, headquartered in Winter Park, Fla., has about 140 restaurants around the world. The chain originated in 1965 in New Orleans, according to the company’s website, “when Ruth Fertel mortgaged her home for $22,000 to purchase the ‘Chris Steak House.'”

While prices vary by location, a look at the dinner menu for the Boise restaurant (which opened last year) shows steaks — prepared in an 1,800-degree oven and served on a 500-degree plate — start at $38 for an 8-ounce filet. An order of garlic mashed potatoes runs $8.50.

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Civic Plaza prepares for its Downtown 'intervention'

Dan Mayfield
Albuquerque Business First

Albuquerque might not immediately be thought of as a city that follows certain trends, especially in design. But in the late 1970s, the Duke City was as eager as every other city to be "modern," and with that came a spate of brutalist architecture — the original Convention Center, City Hall, several buildings at the University of New Mexico and more — were all designed around big, foreboding, gray blocks of unwelcome concrete.

So was Civic Plaza.
"It was a fad, and we jumped on it. 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵," said Tim Trujillo an urban planner and designer with Dekker/Perich/Sabatini. Trujillo, who is also with Downtown ABQ MainStreet, Urban ABQ and other pro-Downtown groups, see Civic Plaza is seen as an opportunity that has fallen short — a largely unused piece of real estate in the middle of Downtown that has the potential to spur businesses and be welcoming to visitors and nearby residents.

But, short of an entire redo of its look and structure, stakeholders are "trying to do an intervention," Trujillo said.

That aim that got a big boost recently — a new $100,000 grant from Southwest Airlines and the Project for Public Spaces. MainStreet is spearheading the efforts. It has the potential to change Civic Plaza from a brutal, hot, unfriendly concrete prairie into a modern, welcoming, friendly space, they say. The grant is to last three years and pay for events and facilities on the plaza.

"The goal is to make Downtown more attractive," said Lola Bird, MainStreet's executive director. "You have to make it attractive and add color." Trujillo agrees: "We're on the right track. "You have to make it so exciting that you will walk six blocks to see it."

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Construction of the Imperial Building in downtown Albuquerque
[IMG]20150512_122752 by mgs11, on Flickr[/IMG]

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Businessman seeks private support to make fairgrounds an economic engine

Stephanie Guzman
Reporter-
Albuquerque Business First

David Vogel has crusaded for a change to the New Mexico state fairgrounds for four years. It's been a long grassroots effort thus far, and he says now is the time for the business community to get involved.
Vogel, a former health care administrator who now does work as an economic development consultant, has touted the idea of transforming the fairgrounds into a large park, in the style of New York's Central Park.
Vogel said besides the state fair, which happens once a year, the fairgrounds aren't used enough by the surrounding community. What's more, the state has cut back on funding capital improvement projects at the fairgrounds, leaving structures in need of repair.
"The fairgrounds is a totally underutilized resource and needs a revisioning," Vogel said.

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Albuquerque Rolls Out Bike Share Project on Bike to Work Day!

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Could a parking district be the answer to Downtown's parking woes?

Dan Mayfield
Albuquerque Business First

It’s no secret that some visitors and workers coming Downtown dread finding convenient parking. Street parking can be scarce. Parking garages can be expensive.
But, David Silverman, the Geltmore Group developer behind the forthcoming Downtown grocery store at the Imperial Building, has an idea that could improve the turnover of premium spaces, make parking easier to find, and also increase the value of land and businesses — and maybe not just for Downtown. He’s proposing a parking benefit district (PBD) — a district that uses dynamic pricing techniques and modern technology to make money for an area.

Silverman’s idea, which would start with Downtown, is in the early stages. He’s in the midst of trying to find other stakeholders that would support his idea.

“Here, people just have a perception that there is no parking because we manage and market our supply so poorly,” Silverman said. “There are more parking spaces in Downtown than at Cottonwood Mall. It floors you. They’re just not being used.”
A PBD uses market-based pricing to sell parking spaces. A valuable space, one in front of a business many want to go to, could be worth $5 an hour, while those far off could be worth just 25 cents an hour. Because the spaces could be controlled with new technology like a parking app or with a smart kiosk, they could be tuned to meet daily surges too. Spaces outside the Sunshine Theater during a popular concert at night, for example, could be priced much higher than those down the street or in a city-owned garage.

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Progress at the Imperial Building
[IMG]20150520_123120 by mgs11, on Flickr[/IMG]

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Conversion of Downtown Albuquerque's former federal building hits milestone

Stephanie Guzman
Albuquerque Business First

A long-vacant high rise in Downtown Albuquerque will soon reveal the transformation of its first two floors into loft-style apartments. Construction crews have been working at the former federal government building, located at 517 Gold Ave. SW, for years— and the living units are now taking shape.
The 58 units on its first two floors will include industrial-style ceilings and high-end appliances in the kitchen. Unit size will range between 400-and-1,100 square feet and the market rate rent is set for $1.50 per square foot — starting at about $600 per month, not including utilities.

Alex Vasquez, founder of Albuquerque's Rhino Realty, was hired by the project's developer — Anthony Mehran — to market and manage the apartments. He said the project has taken several years because it's a huge task to turn office spaces into living units.

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Bernalillo County approves $1 million for Innovate ABQ

May 27, 2015, 11:43am MDT
Damon Scott
Albuquerque Business First

The Bernalillo County Commission voted 5-0 Tuesday night to issue $1 million in funds to the University of New Mexico’s Innovate ABQ project in Albuquerque’s East Downtown.
The funds require UNM to draft a five-year business plan and give the county a seat on the Innovate ABQ board of directors. The county had been asking UNM to provide for a 10-year business plan as part of the conditions. A reduction to five years was approved on a 4-1 vote, said said Andy Lenderman, a spokesperson in the county’s public information department.

The funds were approved after a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was voted on by all five commissioners. It is the latest in a string of funds the project has received — including money from the city of Albuquerque, the federal Economic Development Agency, Nusenda Credit Union and the UNM board of regents.
Innovate ABQ, located at the northwest corner of Broadway Boulevard and Central Avenue at the former First Baptist Church site, aims to create a new entrepreneurial center adjacent to Downtown.

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Winrock Town Center construction time-lapse

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The Jaynes, Corp. Drone takes a tour of the YES Housing, Inc. Imperial Building construction site.

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Imperial Building construction by Jaynes Corp Twitter feed.

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Albuquerque's Titan Development turns focus to offices after success in apartments

Stephanie Guzman
Albuquerque Business First

Albuquerque's Titan Development has completed many of their massive and successful Broadstone multifamily projects in the city and has more under construction. And while demand remains for more, Titan is turning its attention toward office projects too.
Kurt Browning, chief development officer with Titan, said he and his colleagues are in discussions about developing new office buildings. "We're looking at two sites right now. We've talked to a couple of end users," Browning said.

It would be the first time in several years that a developer has embarked on any significant Class A office projects. One notable exception is Scott W. Throckmorton of Argus Investment Realty, who has cleared the way for the 85,000-square-foot Independence Square office building in the North I-25 corridor on the northwest corner of Jefferson and Osuna Road. He's marketing the project now, although no construction has started yet.

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Pricey Nob Hill apartments show strong demand

By Richard Metcalf
Journal Staff Writer

Fourth-floor apartments with monthly rents of $2,000 and up are seeing strong early demand in initial lease-up of the upscale Platinum Apartments in east Nob Hill, developer Rick Goldman said Thursday.

Multiple offers have been made on some of the primo top-floor units — one has a 1,500-square-foot deck — and several have been leased, he said. The four-story, 60,000-square-foot building, which has 75 apartments, is scheduled for move-ins on Aug. 1.

“There is a big demand for this type of unit in areas with high walkable and bikeable scores,” said Todd Clarke of New Mexico Apartment Advisors, who is not involved in the Platinum project. “It should do phenomenal.”

Monthly rents start at around $1,000 at Platinum, and go up based on size and location within the building. Units range from 565-1,350 square feet. Six units are at street level, while the rest are on the upper floors. Information is available at www.platinumabq.com.

For an apartment property of its size, Platinum’s top monthly rents are probably cracking a ceiling at $2,000 and up, although Clarke said, “There are a lot of units out there with rents that start with a 1.”