Focus on: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Where There’s a Will, There’s an ‘A’ (For Effort)
Most of us have heard the saying “The third time’s a
charm.” In Albuquerque, they believe that it takes 32 trys to get something right.
That’s how many times a plan to revitalize the city’s downtown area has been
proposed. According to Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca, the 32nd plan is going to work because
it was developed by and will be implemented by a partnership between public and private
sectors.
“The first 31 plans were always led by the city,” Baca remembers. Then he asked
a friend, local attorney Pat Bryan, to head up the Downtown Action Team (DAT), which is a
nonprofit organization composed of local civic and business leaders. In the summer of
1998, DAT took responsibility for developing a community-wide strategy and implementation
plan for the downtown area.
The visionary view of a new downtown Albuquerque includes 12 blocks of initial mixed-use development with a 60-70,000-sq.ft. cinema, a 650-car parking garage, about 40,000 sq.ft. of combined retail/office space, and 90 housing units.
The group hired Robert Charles Lesser & Co. to facilitate a
strategic planning process and to organize the necessary information required for the
process. The data assembled included information from city studies spanning 50 years,
current information provided by the Albuquerque City Planning Department, market research
on numerous real estate product types and businesses collected by Lesser, consumer
research performed by Research & Polling, Inc., and interviews with numerous informed
individuals regarding the future of the downtown’s central core.
In September 1998, the DAT convened a representative cross-section of private, public and
civic sector leaders along with downtown stakeholders for two full-day strategy sessions.
The representatives were selected based on their collective ability to speak for the
majority of constituencies concerned about Albuquerque’s downtown and the community
at large. Despite their diverse backgrounds, the members of the group came to a consensus,
formulating an implementation plan for the city.
The stated mission of the process was to make Albuquerque’s historic downtown core
the best midsized downtown in the country, integrating all facets of the city into a
dynamic, pedestrian-oriented center for arts, entertainment, culture, business and urban
housing. The strategic plan addressed: defining the character of the downtown; the need to
create more employment; strategies to deal with the homeless population; developing
downtown housing; enhancing transportation and parking; initiatives to improve retailing;
the need to create an arts, culture and entertainment district; achieving a better
connection to natural elements; forming a Business Improvement District to provide
security and cleanliness; encouraging the location of education facilities; creating
regulatory reforms; developing a comprehensive outline of the financing sources available
for downtown and neighborhood projects; encouraging nonprofit implementation
organizations; and encouraging neighborhood outreach and input.
A master development consortium called the Historic District Improvement Company (HDIC)
was formed. The group consisted of the DAT, Santa Fe developer Arcadia Land Company, and
the McCune Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit group also based in Santa Fe. A master plan
was developed over three months and in a series of planning and design sessions, including
12 community input meetings with neighborhood groups, business owners and government
officials. Joint venture partners were pulled in to develop specific portions of the plan.
The Albuquerque office of Trammell Crow Company signed on to develop, manage and lease
retail space, and Century Theatres, based in San Rafael, California, made plans to develop
a 14-screen, state-of-the-art cinema. Housing Solutions of Santa Fe, headed by real estate
veteran Don Tishman, agreed to build a town house complex. Phoenix Property Company of
Dallas, Texas also joined as a joint venture partner.
After eight weeks of work, the HDIC organized a four-day public design charrette, where
the master plan was finalized through public comment and direct input by the mayor, the
city council, various city departments and commissions, and the community. It was
estimated that more than 1,000 people spent time at the charrette.
After the results of the charrette were gathered and organized, the HDIC worked closely
with each developer to arrive at a design definition for each project that made both
architectural and economic sense. All projects were coordinated with each other into a
complete plan for the Alvarado Transportation Center Project.
At the heart of the project is an intermodal transit center, being built by the city on
the site of the old Alvarado Hotel. Surrounding the transit center will be 12 blocks of
initial mixed-use development, including the 60-70,000-sq.ft. cinema, a 650-car parking
garage, about 40,000 sq.ft. of combined retail/office space, and 90 housing units.
Eventual plans call for 100,000 sq.ft. of retail, 350-500 housing units, 50-90,000 sq.ft.
of office space, a new arena, a new municipal market and several educational complexes.
Urban design and architecture was provided by Moule & Polyzoides of Pasadena,
California, and further architectural planning and services were provided by
Dekker/Perich/Sabatini of Albuquerque and Flatow Moore Schaffer McCabe, also of
Albuquerque. Additional consulting was provided by the Albuquerque Museum and the
University of New Mexico Department of Architecture.
In addition to financing provided by each developer, the McCune Charitable Foundation
offered $5 million in equity and low-interest loans. Other investors included Arcadia Land
Company and the City of Albuquerque, who agreed to provide $10 million worth of land,
parking and infrastructure. Pat Bryan, still president of the DAT, estimates that
approximately $60 million in financing came from the private sector and that it cost at
least $500,000 to foot the master planning process.
Bryan says it is instructive to compare the previous 31 downtown plans with the 32nd,
which is not only working, but has received broad public, private and community support
and has been approved by the city council. “The first 31 were in search of a
‘magic bullet,’ like a convention center or a civic plaza, that would be the
answer. But communities around the country said that any answer would be complex and
multi-faceted. The rest were all public based, but Plan 32 involved the private sector. It
came from the community. That was the real magic bullet.”
For more information, contact Pat Bryan, president, Downtown Action Team, 505-242-6922.
For retail leasing information, contact Larry Hawker, Trammell Crow, 505-830-6345.