Downtown Albuquerque News reported this morning about Jim Long's plans for another hotel and two market-rate apartment buildings in the Sawmill Area on the northern edge of Old Town. The hotel would have 120 rooms and the apartment buildings combined would have about 220 units. All three structures would have ground-floor commercial space. He hopes to begin construction on the projects early next year.
https://downtownalbuquerquenews.com/
Quote:
Heritage Hotels and Resorts, the company behind Hotel Albuquerque, Hotel Chaco, and the Sawmill Market, plans to build two new apartment complexes and a new hotel in what would be a major new set of developments in an already-booming Sawmill neighborhood.
The apartment complexes, which combined would add an estimated 220 market-rate units to the area, are to be located on the southeast corner of Bellamah and Twentieth. Some 100 of them would come fully furnished and targeted at short-to-medium-term renters, with the rest designed for traditional long-term leases, possibly up to ten years in length, Heritage CEO Jim Long told a gathering last week at which he gave a first look at the projects.
The 120-room boutique hotel, located just west of the Sawmill Market, would take on a different vibe in its architectural style and decor than Hotel Chaco: "This will be a little bit louder, a little bit more interesting," Long said.
All three structures would feature ground-floor retail - but no national brands - and "self-contained" parking lots or structures that would not border the street, he added.
The past two years have not been kind to the hospitality and tourism business, but Long is clearly bullish on the Old Town and Sawmill area. He said that Hotel Chaco, which opened in 2017, "has become very successful," and that Sawmill Market, which opened just a few days before the 2020 lockdown began, has been "a really fantastic addition to the district."
"This is the place people want to be," he said. "They want to experience Old Town."
The plan is to begin construction of all three buildings during the first half of 2023, staggering the groundbreakings into two-month intervals. Each is expected to take two years to build. The businesses that presently occupy the apartment complex construction zone - Mama's Minerals and Spur Line Supply Co. - will be moved to other spaces for the duration, Long said.
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This is really exciting! Especially if all the other projects in the area pan out. Remember the plans for the Sawmill Arts Center and the affordable apartment building just east of these new planned apartment buildings. Also the Explora early childhood learning center that is planned just to the southeast of this area.
Jim Long has always said that he had plans for market-rate apartment buildings in this area. Below is a master plan for the area produced by Moule and Polyzoides a few years ago. It showed the potential for new structures in the area. The hotel site west of the Sawmill Market wasn't yet envisioned.
https://www.mparchitects.com/site/projects/20th-and-bellemah-master-plan
Here's a nice recent aerial pic of the Sawmill Area from the Sawmill Market's website. The apartment buildings would go on the lower right corner of the pic over the parking lot. The hotel structure would go to the left side of the view, west of the Sawmill Market itself.
https://www.sawmillmarket.com/
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