Santa Fe School Building May Be Repurposed

A former one-story public elementary school building in Santa Fe may see new life as a mixed-use development.
The former Alvord Elementary School at 551 Alarid Street was built in the early 1930s and added on to at least four times between 1963 and 2004.
It was closed by the Santa Fe Public Schools district in the spring of 2010 as part of a larger effort to reduce district operating costs, and has remained vacant since. A subsequent attempt to have the building used for City of Santa Fe offices was abandoned when the estimated $1.5 million cost of renovating the structure was deemed too high.
But the structure was finally purchased last November by real estate developer David Barker, who has now announced plans to transform the 31,000 square foot building, which sits on a 2.9-acre site, into a property that will include a restaurant and both residential and commercial space for artists.
An exact timetable for the repurposing, which will have to be approved by both the Santa Fe Planning Commission as well as the Santa Fe City Council, has not been announced.
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