Albuquerque Development Thread

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A new take on residential security?

By Dan McKay
Journal Staff Writer

Albuquerque homebuyers looking for that safe, secure feeling might have a new option someday.

Local developer Douglas Peterson has offered to buy Bernalillo County’s old Downtown jail for $1,000 and redevelop it – perhaps turning those old jail cells into residential spaces.

Peterson acknowledges that crews would have to rehabilitate the building – a fortresslike structure at Fifth and Roma NW – so residents wouldn’t feel as if they were living inside the old Bernalillo County Detention Center. And the project is likely to be difficult because of the incredibly sturdy concrete walls inside, he said.

But the point is, it isn’t necessarily a lost cause.

“My company has experience with multistory buildings and bringing them back to life,” Peterson said. “… It’s all about the money and whether it makes sense.”

Peterson’s offer comes as Bernalillo County commissioners struggle with how to handle a prime piece of Downtown real estate – a property that also happens to have an obsolete jail sitting on it. The jail has been vacant since 2011.

The building has roughly 150,000 square feet, on about 1.3 acres.

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Relocation to bring 100 employees to Downtown Albuquerque

Damon Scott
Albuquerque Business First

About 100 state employees formerly working out of Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights are relocating to Downtown.
The District One Albuquerque Office of the New Mexico Environment Department will be moving during the end of the month from its current location at 5500 San Antonio Drive NE. The new Downtown location is in the Springer Square Building, located at 121 Tijeras Ave. NE, near Broadway Boulevard.

Allison Scott Majure, communications director for NMED, said operations should be up and running at Springer Square by July 1. She said the Downtown site will offer more space for operations. “Becoming a tenant in Albuquerque’s Downtown brings us closer to many commercial, retail and civic establishments,” Scott Majure told Business First. “We look forward to working Downtown and becoming an integral part of our new neighborhood.”

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Albuquerque bike share looks to expand

By Gabrielle Burkhart
KRQE News 13

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – About a month into Albuquerque’s pilot bike share program, and officials say it’s a success. Hundreds of people are using the system downtown, so much so, there could be more rental stations added soon.

The most popular bike share station so far, is the City Hall West location near 5th and Marquette.

What started as a small idea, is quickly growing. More and more people are avoiding traffic, and renting bikes downtown.

“We’ve had great success with the bike share so far,” explained Zoya Dixon, of the Downtown ABQ MainStreet Initiative. “Our memberships keep growing, and we’ve gotten a really positive response.”

Albuquerque’s pilot bike share program called ‘BICI,’ is being embraced.

“I like riding bikes anyway so I think it’s a great thing,” said Margi Ulibarri.

With 13 rental stations in downtown Albuquerque, and 65 bikes, in a month, people have taken more than 500 trips and counting. The rental website also has a map of all the locations.

The average rental time is about an hour and 20 minutes.

“There’s a lot of interest in making downtown a more walkable, pedestrian friendly environment, and so this really adds to that,” Dixon told KRQE News 13.

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Construction of the Imperial Building in downtown Albuquerque

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Molina's Downtown Albuquerque move drives new restaurant, retail, expansion possibilities

Stephanie Guzman
Albuquerque Business First

Molina Healthcare of New Mexico is in the process of transitioning about 800 employees from its North I-25 headquarters to Downtown's Plaza Campana office complex.
That's 800 people that will breathe some life into Albuquerque's urban core — spending money on restaurants and retailers. Molina is expected to be fully operating in its new digs by the end of July.

With such a large tenant — Molina is leasing 137,000-square-feet of space — Plaza Campana's owners are interested in adding more amenities to the massive 477,000-square-foot building at 400 Tijeras Ave. NW, such as a bank, restaurant and coffee shop. (See accompanying slideshow for interior and exterior images.)

CBRE New Mexico is marketing the spaces, including a 4,000-square-foot office space on the southwest corner of Tijeras and 4th Street. Tom Jenkins, a first vice president at CBRE, said the space would be perfect for a bank, but the building owners are also open to other uses, including retail or an eatery.
"Molina has created demand, and now there's an opportunity to create supply with retailers and restaurants," Jenkins said.
The building's cafeteria on the southeast corner of Tijeras and 5th Street is ready-made to be a restaurant, according to Jenkins. The 8,700-square-foot space can be leased to one user, or split up into three smaller restaurants. Jenkins said the cafeteria space already has a walk-in freezer, cooking vents, dish cleaning station and large outdoor patio.

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Downtown's grocery store development planning pharmacy and clinic

Sal Christ
Albuquerque Business First

Downtown Albuquerque's first grocery store in decades is under construction now, and the other concepts will join it on the ground level of the Imperial Building development are taking shape.
If the the grocery store developers — Geltmore LLC — has its way, the Silver Street Market will have neighbors that include a pharmacy and a clinic. According to David Silverman, a principal at Geltmore, the pharmacy and clinic idea have been on the wish list from the beginning.

"Most neighborhood shopping centers have a pharmacy-drugstore component, so it just makes sense. It's definitely one of the uses that we're very interested in bringing into the building. It could be the service provider for the Downtown area — particularly with all of the offices there. From the start, a pharmacy and clinic has been at the top of our priority list," he said.

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Developer: 'In five years you won't recognize East Nob Hill'

Stephanie Guzman
Albuquerque Business First

Kenny Hinkes remembers sitting in his car, at the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Carlisle Boulevard in Albuquerque, thinking the lot with a tattoo and body piercing shop, was underutilized.
As a developer, Hinkes said he thought nobody in the business would touch the property, because anything east of Carlisle has often been considered the less desirable and profitable sector of Nob Hill. But he'd finished a Nob Hill's condo project — One Ten Richmond — in 2009 and was looking for a new one. So in 2013, he decided to "cross the Nob Hill divide" and make plans for the lot at 3600 Central Ave. SE.

Hinkes project is named The Carlisle. The former building that housed Ascension Body Modification has been torn down and in its place a three-story building will rise, featuring 36 condos and retail spaces. Hinkes’ company, Carlisle Condominiums LLC, is the lead of the development team. James C Lewis Architects is the architect, HB Construction is the general contractor, land planning was done by Consensus Planning and financing was provided by Southwest Capital Bank and First Mortgage Co.

Hinkes believes The Carlisle will encourage the private sector and investment community to look at East Nob Hill. He envisions the entire neighborhood will be transformed, from Carlisle to Washington Street SE.
"In five years, you won't recognize East Nob Hill," Hinkes said during a ribbon cutting at The Carlisle site Tuesday.

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Innvoate ABQ board leaning toward 'innovative,' not property-minded, developer

Dan Mayfield
Albuquerque Business First

The votes are in, but the decision hasn’t quite been made on the new developer at the Innovate ABQ site.
Jeff Apodaca, vice president and general manager of Entravision (NYSE: EVC), and a board member, said Tuesday that the board has received and reviewed three responses to the request for proposals that was put out this spring for Innovate. The RFP decision 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.

Apodaca said the board interviewed the three bidders and he’s expecting an announcement will come soon.

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Innovate ABQ Selects Developer

by innovateabq

Innovate ABQ has entered into a 90-day due diligence agreement with Signet Development, Goodman Realty Group and Dekker Perich Sabatini for the development of Innovate ABQ at 101 Broadway NE in Albuquerque.

After 3 years of thoughtful and collaborative planning by UNM and STC, the City of Albuquerque, Nusenda Credit Union, and Bernalillo County, the Innovate ABQ board launched the RFP process April of this year. Submissions, due June 1st, were received from a number of developers and after several rounds of discussions with the finalists, the board unanimously chose the developer group lead by Signet, The Goodman Group and Dekker/Perich/Sabatini.

The Signet group was selected because of their strong balance of local and national talent and experience with this type of project. They demonstrated an understanding and enthusiasm for the vision of Innovate ABQ, which was a significant factor in their selection:

their vision for the property as true mixed-use; with an emphasis on incubator, lab and maker space for innovators, entrepreneurs and researchers,
their commitment to a plan and construction choices that will result in an environmentally sustainable and green environment and footprint, and
their financial abilities and commitment to helping startups coming out of the Innovate ABQ ecosystem through possible financial and in-kind support and resources.

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International firm ready to work with Albuquerque development vets on Innovate ABQ

Dan Mayfield
Albuquerque Business First

The next 90-days will be busier than normal at the offices of Signet Enterprises in Jacksonville, Florida. That's the time frame the firm has to develop the first plans for what Innovate ABQ will look like, how it will be paid for, and when it will be built.
The board of directors for Innvoate ABQ announced Wednesday that Signet, along with with Albuquerque's Dekker/Perich/Sabatini and Goodman Realty Group, will perform due diligence for the next three months on an agreement to design the seven-acre business and entrepreneurship center just east of Downtown on the southwest corner of Central Avenue and Broadway Boulevard.

Jason Perry, senior vice president of Signet, told Business First that his group is “Sitting down with stakeholders and the committee and really understanding what this first project wants to be. It could be mixed-use and incorporate several elements.” At best, he said, dirt would start moving in about six-to-nine months.
The project, he said, will undoubtedly have new ground-up construction associated with it, but at least some of the former First Baptist Church structure would be used.
“We’re going to look at that as part of the overall 90-day period. What’s the best use? Is it a community space? Is it a presentation area? I think part of that is to understand what it wants to be,” Perry said.

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Goodman, Dekker optimistic about Innovate ABQ

The two local partners in the Innovate ABQ project say it won't be built tomorrow, but it will get built soon.
"Hopefully the project will be done in my lifetime," joked Dale Dekker, a principal at architecture and design firm Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, who with Goodman Realty Group are the local partners in the development being spearheaded by Florida-based Signet Enterprises.

"I think there are some pretty immediate opportunities," said Gary Goodman, president of Goodman Realty.

Goodman said he was inspired to become a partner in the team by the potential of innovation, technology commercialization and the inventions that can come from the development.
"The reason we're interested is that we think Albuquerque's probably as poised as any city in the country to take advantage of the technology business revolution," Goodman said. "It's really transforming the workplace. We like the idea of creating an environment that attracts the millennials and attracts the startups."
Innovate ABQ is a partnership between the city of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, Nusenda Credit union and the University of New Mexico on seven acres Downtown. The project is designed to be a business and research park where people can live and work.

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Imperial Building taking shape Downtown

By Jessica Dyer
Journal Staff Writer


The Imperial Building — home to Downtown’s forthcoming grocery store — continues to rise at Second and Silver SW.

The four-story structure should be mostly completed by early 2016 and then will require a few additional months of interior construction, according to David Silverman of Geltmore, one of the project’s developers.

The grocery store, Silver Street Market, is expected to open by next spring.

And it shouldn’t be alone.

Silverman said negotiations continue with other retailers, restaurants and service providers for the rest of the building’s street-level shop space. He expects to start inking deals in the next month or so.

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Next big steps for Albuquerque Rapid Transit happen this summer

Stephanie Guzman
Albuquerque Business First

Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry had one question when he first considered bringing bus rapid transit to the Central Avenue corridor: "Is this going to be a private sector investment that drives public sector investment?"
The Federal Transit Administration said yes, and now after years of public outreach and planning, the Albuquerque Rapid Transit Line is getting ready to take its next big step this summer — submission for a capital grant through the government's Small Starts program.

Should the FTA provide the grant, it would cover 80 percent of the cost of the project. Berry said if the funding is a go, construction could begin soon and service might start as soon as the fall of 2017.

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DiGregory wants to develop East Downtown block

Stephanie Guzman
Albuquerque Business First
[IMG]digregory-development-1-750xx1273-716-272-0 by mgs11, on Flickr[/IMG]

Vince DiGregory and his restaurateur brother Matt DiGregory opened Standard Diner in 2006. The two saw clearly the emergence of the East Downtown corridor that had been anchored for many years by Artichoke Cafe, but that also featured the emerging Lofts at Albuquerque High development.
Almost 10 years after opening Standard Diner, activity hasn't slowed in the community known as EDo.

The Lofts at Albuquerque High completed its last phase in 2009 and Hotel Parq Central, a former hospital at EDo's east end, was renovated and reopened as a boutique hotel in 2010. The corridor is perhaps most known for its restaurant scene. Including the aforementioned Standard Diner and Artichoke Cafe, there is also Farina Pizzeria, Holy Cow, Gravy, Hartford Square, A&B Lunch Box and The Grove Cafe & Market. Yoga studios, salons and boutique retailers dot the stretch from Broadway Boulevard to I-25 on Central Avenue. A new coffee and taproom concept is coming soon, too.

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Up next for Winrock Town Center: 'The Corner'

Stephanie Guzman
Albuquerque Business First

If you've driven in the Uptown corridor by Winrock Town Center lately — the view of the 83-acre mixed-use development is partially blocked by a mountain of dirt.
The dirt, 500 football fields worth, according to Jaynes Corp., has been piled into a hilltop to make room for the center's forthcoming parking garage.

But despite the dirt, construction crews are busy preparing space for the center's retailers, including Sports Authority and other announced retailers like Nordstrom's Rack, DSW and ULTA Beauty.
Brokers are now focusing on recruiting tenants for 10 storefronts at the southeast corner of Indian School Road and the yet to be opened Uptown Loop Road. The retail strip will be called The Corner at Winrock, and will face ABQ Uptown and be adjacent to restaurants Genghis Grill and Garduños.
Anthony Johnson, president of Pegasus Retail who represents retail leasing at Winrock, said the 10 tenants will take up 22,000 square feet of space. The stores, each between 1,100 and 8,000 square feet, will be a mix of food and retail tenants.

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Imperial Building construction in downtown ABQ
[IMG]20150721_123252 by mgs11, on Flickr[/IMG]

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Urlacher team moves closer to building entertainment district near Pit

Dan Mayfield
Reporter
Albuquerque Business First

The University of New Mexico’s proposed entertainment district crossed a major hurdle toward becoming a reality Friday, with Lobo Development Corp. approving a new letter of intent to develop a slew of amenities on its south campus.
54 Development LLC, named after project partner Brian Urlacher’s football jersey number, is planning to build a microbrewery, 10,000-square-foot sports bar, coffee shop and feature sports-related retail on the southeast corner of University Boulevard and Avenida Cesar Chavez. Urlacher is a former UNM football star, who later played in the National Football League.
Albuquerque's Marble Brewery had previously been tapped in a partnership with UNM to develop the entertainment district.
“We have a general concept of what we want to achieve, which we believe is feasible in the market,” said development partner Paul Silverman of Geltmore LLC to Business First on Friday. Another partner is Steven Chavez, who is one of the founders of WisePies, which now owns the naming rights to the WisePies Arena, formerly The Pit.
“We haven’t gotten down in the weeds to really define the project, but we think there’s even more potential than what we offered in the letter of intent,” Silverman said.

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New apartments to rise in the city’s Sawmill area

By Richard Metcalf
Journal Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at 2:59 pm
[IMG]sawmill by mgs11, on Flickr[/IMG]

Construction is expected to begin as early as next week on the 57-unit Madeira Crossing apartments in what has been one of the metro’s biggest ongoing infill developments.

The latest joint venture between Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCap Properties Corp. and the Sawmill Community Land Trust, Madeira Crossing will be a mix of 34 market-rate and 23 income-restricted apartments in the Sawmill area just north of Old Town.

The city building permit gives a construction cost of $5.5 million for the 68,500-square-foot building. The units are mostly two and three bedroom.

“When these 57 units are completed, we’ll have more than 200 units there,” PacifiCap’s Chad Rennaker told the Journal. “It continues to surprise me how well these units absorb. The income-restricted properties are at full occupancy all the time. The market-rate properties have exceeded expecations.”

Located at 1741 Bellamah NW, Madeira Crossing is across from The Artisan, a pair of buildings completed in 2011 with commercial space on the ground floor and 60 apartments on the upper two floors. The Artisan was also a joint venture between the land trust and PacifiCap.

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Boese Brothers Brewery pours its first Downtown beers

Juliana Vadnais
Digital Producer
Albuquerque Business First

Downtown Albuquerque's Boese Brothers Brewery held its soft opening Tuesday night, welcoming a small crowd to taste the brewery's first pours.
Located at 601 Gold Ave. SW, the rehabilitated building was once a car dealership and later an indoor parking structure. After months of work and a major makeover, the brewery is ready to open.
The building was tough to turn into a brewery, but the Roswell-born brothers said it was worth it.
"It's been a nightmare readying this place," George Boese said. "We could've gone to a new warehouse, but it just didn't feel right. We love this building."

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Fourth floor construction on the Imperial has begun
[IMG]20150818_122816 by sandovalmgs11, on Flickr[/IMG]