Downtown Albuquerque News reported on Tuesday that the city is in negotiations with a company to put a new roof and solar array on the largest structure at the Rail Yards, the Machine Shop. It says that the company will agree to do this in lieu of rent, which I take to mean that it will be a tenant in the structure. If so, this would be huge for the redevelopment of the Rail Yards!
https://downtownalbuquerquenews.com/
Quote:
The city is in negotiations with an unnamed firm to install a solar array on the largest building at the Rail Yards, according to Lawrence Rael, a top deputy to Mayor Tim Keller. Under the deal, the city would accept a new roof on the building in lieu of rent.
"That's what I'm trying to negotiate with them right now," Rael said, adding that "this is all very preliminary."
Rael did not specifically name the machine shop in his remarks, but Ed Adams, who oversees the day-to-day renovation work for the city, said the roof in question was just under 150,000 square feet, which fits the dimensions of that building. No other structure at the Rail Yards comes close to its size.
...
Rael hinted that the arrangement was made possible by the Community Solar Act, a law passed by the state legislature earlier this year that allows utility customers to band together to build solar projects away from their actual properties and receive credits on their bills in the process.
He said to expect an update on the deal in about a month.
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The only other thing I can think of with that wording, especially the bit about the Community Solar Act, is that perhaps this is a company that is wanting the solar array solely for energy generating purposes and won't be a tenant of the actual building. I guess we'll see what exactly this deal might entail early next year.
The city has been renovating and rehabilitating the structures at the Rail Yards in order to get them ready for possible tenants. That includes recently putting new roofs on many of the structures and even getting some to a warm shell state. It has also included environmental remediation of the site, which has things like creosote soil contamination to deal with.
Below are pics of the work done so far from Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVgjOZHPqkh/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVgiszTPEz8/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVB16gUrY08/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUXtJihrss-/
The city is seeking public input on the design of the Rail Trail. They've released renderings and a map showing the vision of what the trail could end up like.
https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/albuquerque-looking-for-input-on-rail-trail-design/
https://www.cabq.gov/mra/rail-trail
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