Albuquerque Development Thread

[ABQalex]

An event was held last week to promote the Rail Trail in the Cantina Real structure at Glorieta Station. On display was a new rendering of the "Neon Tumbleweed" feature that's planned at the Central Crossing. It looks like they're refining the design and getting away from it looking like an actual tumbleweed and more like just a generic spherical structure made out of a geometric latticework.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DFoUPHfviWb/









Downtown Albuquerque News recently reported that the city has purchased the final portion of right of way for the Rail Trail. The narrow strip of land runs west of Rio Grande Boulevard in West Old Town. The story also says that the city is getting ready to announce another purchase of property along the Rail Trail right of way, presumably for future development or a park space.

https://downtownalbuquerquenews.com/

Purchase of skinny West Old Town property rounds out Rail Trail corridor acquisitions

The city has "basically completed" its property acquisitions for the Rail Trail corridor with the new purchase of a long, thin parcel in West Old Town, Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency Director Terry Brunner announced last month.

The strip of land - whose shape can be traced back to Spanish colonial times - is one-third of a mile long and runs east to west parallel to and between Edna and Hollywood Avenues. It has, over the years, been routinely mistaken for an alley, but it is in fact private property - a reality the now-former owners hammered home by fencing it off sometime between mid-2020 and mid-2021.

There is not yet a timeline for actually building the trail on the property, and planning has not yet begun, but there looks to be plenty to consider.

"The width of the lot gives us opportunities to incorporate features like art installations, landscaping, seating areas, and pull-out spaces," city spokeswoman Sarah Supple said. "Before moving forward, though, we'll want to engage with neighbors whose homes back up to the alley to ensure the project aligns with the community's needs and interests."

City officials had previously expressed interest in placing the West Old Town section of the trail along Soto Avenue, a lightly used street that runs behind the shopping centers on the north side of Central, arguing that its proximity to the corridor's commercial property would help inspire new economic development there.

But they have since thought better of it: "Safety was the primary factor in selecting the alley route over Soto," Supple said. "The Soto alignment would have brought trail users uncomfortably close to Central, where limited sidewalk and street space create significant safety challenges for accommodating a trail. Additionally, we determined that the economic benefits of running the trail behind businesses in that area would be minimal."

The Rail Trail is planned as a giant loop connecting the Downtown core to Wells Park, Sawmill, Old Town, West Old Town, and the bosque trail before returning to the core via Barelas and the Rail Yards. While the city has acquired all the land needed for the trail proper, it plans to announce another major purchase soon, which will also be connected to the trail but not involve its right-of-way, Brunner said.

Long skinny lots have been a fixture of the Middle Rio Grande Valley since it was controlled by Spain. The general idea in those days was to provide property owners with both workable farmland and access to water, historian Matthew Schmader told DAN in 2021. Most of the skinny lots in West Old Town have long since been subdivided into more compact shapes, but the long/skinny variety is still fairly common in Duranes and other parts of the valley.

The skinny lot that the city now owns was once the property of Cornelio Murphy, a former deputy sheriff based in Old Town whose career included at least one run-in with Elfego Baca and Billy the Kid. More recently, the property featured a house fronting Rio Grande with adobe walls "so thick you could just sleep on the window sill," recalled John Sais, a descendant of Murphy's who still lives in the area and has researched the property's history.

The house was demolished in 2011.

Below are some graphics from a post by the branding agency for the Rail Trail, Ripe, Inc., on LinkedIn. The city and the branding agency have noted the route's heart shape and are now expanding upon that theme for its outreach and branding efforts.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7264416526827417600/