New Mexico Retail Roundup

Mixed-Use Projects Overcome Hurdles to Development

By Neal Singer

There have been hiccups, minor and major, in the progress of some central New Mexico construction projects, according to local architects and builders.

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Winrock Market Center

The $140 million redevelopment of the Winrock Market Center (formerly the Winrock Mall) in the Albuquerque Uptown area is on hold, said Karen Marcotte, an owner of Albuquerque-based Consensus Planning, a planning consultant and landscape architectural firm employed on the project.

"Our plans are in place but in stasis because of rising construction costs and flattening lease rates," she added. The project was to start this fall. >>

"We had taken a fair majority of building drawings to 100 percent completion and had submitted them to the city's building permit office," Marcotte said.

"Bids from subcontractors were coming in."

No construction for the market center has taken place, nor has there been any demolition of the older shopping center, she said. The site is owned by PruWinrock LLC, a subgroup of Prudential Real Estate Investors headquartered in Parsippany, N.J.

The company had filed plans in May 2005 for a redevelopment to include 66 multifamily housing units, 174 hotel rooms, new retail and restaurant space, a movie theater and office units. Anchor tenants were to remain in place. Other buildings were to be razed to build the outdoor shopping center.

But Marcotte said all the planning "was not all-for-naught. The work can come back when the owners and markets are ready."

Bricklight Courtyards

Moving slowly ahead is the $5 million redesign and reconstruction of the Bricklight Courtyards in the area just south of the University of New Mexico on Harvard Southeast. The shopping area for years has relied on the ambience of its brick walkways and small, individual residences-turned-shops to bring university customers and other locals to the area.

The new plan is to raze the buildings on five residential lots and build four modern, still-small buildings that would keep the individual store ambience yet provide second-story apartments.

"We've gotten planning approval but we're not yet in construction design," said Doug Heller of Albuquerque-based Mullen Heller Architecture, PC. Because of rising construction costs, "We've had to value-engineer the project to keep costs down and within budget," he added.

Design elements that have changed include the substitution of less costly materials. The plans for exteriors formerly to be built entirely of brick now have only one brick wall. The other walls will be wood/stucco.
Construction should start early this year and be completed in eight months, Heller said.

Nob Hill on Hold

After a series of more serious delays, Jason Daskalos of Jaspeg Properties has put a $15 million redevelopment project on hold in Albuquerque's trendy Nob Hill area.

The project's troubles involve a continuing series of objections from at least one local resident who questioned whether the project met zoning restrictions.

Jaspeg's plan at the outset was to take over a vacant lot and a defunct restaurant and install 30,000 sq. ft. of retail and 44,000 sq. ft. of condominiums. But the plan was found roughly 30 parking slots short of what the city now says is required for the projected use, Daskalos said.

"We're providing 144 slots - more than any business in Nob Hill," he added.

"We applied for a conditional-use variance."

Daskalos said a series of municipal decisions and appeals have put the company in "a holding pattern."

The contractor has progressed to digging "a hole in the ground" to begin preparation for the structure's foundation and is permitted to shore up Central Avenue, which borders the property, but that's as far as it can go, Daskalos said.

"This project will go forward," he added. "If necessary, I'll make the retail smaller and eliminate 19 powder rooms (condominium half-baths)."

The amount of parking required is based on the size of the project.

ABQ Uptown Opens

The architect of the troubled Nob Hill project, Albuquerque-based Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, is also the architect of the recently opened $55 million first phase of the ABQ Uptown project, a retail and mixed-use project filling in 20 acres of formerly vacant land on a brownfield site in Albuquerque.

The low buildings of the project sit on narrow, well-lit streets constructed to resemble a small town. Tenants include a mix of restaurants, offices and upscale retail, including Pottery Barn, Borders, Chico's and Jared.

Phase one includes 229,000 sq. ft. of retail space in 10 separate buildings.

Future plans will broaden the mixed uses of the project, adding a hotel, residences and offices built above existing stores. Parking structures will extend below-grade so that their several stories do not visually dominate the urban landscape.

A site along a loop road to the east will be developed into 198 two- and three-story apartments. Construction could start as early as January, with some units available by the fall, according to Kent Collins with Austin, Texas-based Centro Partners, developing the project for Hunt Building Corporation.

"Uptown is the geographic center of Albuquerque, so there's always been a strong body of retail in that neighborhood," Collins said, regarding why the site is appealing for residential development. "Now with ABQ Uptown you have the lifestyle tenants that haven't been in Albuquerque before. It's unusual in Southwest cities to have retail, restaurants and employment right across the street from living space."

Rio Rancho Rising

Meanwhile, in the nearby Albuquerque suburb, Rio Rancho, Jim Palenick, city manager, said that construction should start in the spring on a facility for a Lions Gate Entertainment facility equipped to produce complete motion pictures.

"We closed on 52 acres for the project," of which the city donated 20, Palenick said. "There'll be a $15 million soundstage and production facility."

The facility, and others around it, will include a film and digital entertainment cluster that would "anchor the northern end of the city," he said. The buildings would include special effects and a postproduction capability, he added.

Unlike most cities, Rio Rancho's future is being extensively planned rather than the usual bursting out of an existing population into new subdivisions.

Palenick cites impressive current statistics on the preparations the city is making for future development: over $100 million already committed on water, sewer, and streets. The Santa Ana Star Center recently opened, and a new city hall is under construction for the city of 76,000 people.

Other future Rio Rancho projects that will contain retail components include a central business district and a full service 214-acre campus of the University of New Mexico.

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