Developer to spend millions revitalizing retail center
By Jessica Dyer / Journal Staff Writer on Tue, Apr 30, 2013
A mostly vacant shopping center in Northeast Albuquerque is about to get some new life.
Accelerated Development has announced plans to remodel and revitalize the shopping center near the intersection of Interstate 40 and Eubank NE.
The center – known as Market Center East – is already home to Target but had gradually emptied in recent years to make way for a planned Lowe’s development, Accelerated Managing Principal Dave Cheatham said.
But Lowe’s changed its course, and Accelerated partnered with Q Real Estate to buy the 143,557 square feet of space from the home-improvement giant earlier this year. Terms were not disclosed.
Cheatham said the remodel would likely feature three big-box spaces and three to five smaller shops. He declined to say which retailers would be pursued but that the mix would complement Target – which owns its own parcel – and the Best Buy, Conn’s and Babies ‘R’ Us.
John Sedberry of Sedberry and Associates will handle leasing.
This is the first New Mexico development project for Accelerated, which has locations in Phoenix and Dallas.
“We think Albuquerque is a good solid market and it’s relatively healthy compared to some of its neighbors like Arizona and Vegas,” Cheatham said. “A lot of those markets have a lot of big boxes that are available – for example Phoenix has a glut of big boxes – and Albuquerque has done a good job of absorbing a large percentage of the vacancies that were created during the recession.
“And after you get Winrock (redeveloped), it’s really going to be a pretty tight market in regard to large spaces.”
Accelerated’s time frame for the redevelopment is 12 to 24 months, Cheatham said, and will include “several million dollars” in capital improvements such as new landscaping, storefronts, parking lots and signage.
The center will also get a new name: Market Center Crossing.
“We wanted to have a name that reflected that it’s a new project – we’re doing something updated from the old, tired, worn-out-looking project,” Cheatham said.
The thriving retail landscape in the center’s vicinity made it an attractive project, Cheatham said, citing the nearby Walmart and Sam’s Club.
“We’ve had pretty strong tenant interest,” he said.
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