albuquerque mayor renews push to develop downtown block

A currently vacant downtown Albuquerque block in a neighborhood of newer residential and retail development may see new life as home to a mixed-use project.

The office of Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, working with the city’s Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency, has issued a Request for Proposals asking for redevelopment ideas for the property officially located at 101 Silver Avenue SW.

In announcing the RFP, Keller noted that although Covid-19 “dealt a deathblow to our momentum downtown,” the city is “stepping up in a variety of ways to help our state’s only urban center recover that momentum and come back from this ordeal better than ever.”

Should the lot between 1st Street SW and 2nd Street SW finally be fully developed, said Keller, it will “add a vital thread to downtown’s urban fabric.”

With an idea to seeing a mixture of residential and retail development on the block, the city, which owns the site, is amenable to offering the property through a long-term lease or actually selling it.

More than two years ago a bid to build an estimated $24 million mixed-use project on the site never gained traction.
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The RFP has a submission deadline of November 5.

By Garry Boulard

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