Year in Review: 2014's Top Publicly Funded Commercial Construction Projects

The city funded or pitched in on a multitude of high-profile commercial construction projects all across the metro this year. Yes, there was the Paseo del Norte/I-25 interchange project; the city funded about $50 million of that massive $93 million project in north Albuquerque. But it was the Central Avenue corridor, particularly in and near Downtown, that reaped much of the activity and planning for future projects.
Here we look at projects that were completed and others that are in the pipeline in 2014. Click on the accompanying slideshow to see images of the projects.
Albuquerque Convention Center
This year, Bradbury Stamm Construction completed the $25 million renovation of many areas inside and outside the Convention Center. The hope is that the updated look will spur more activity in its 270,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space. It was the first overhaul of the complex since 1991.
4th Street Mall
Downtown’s 4th Street Mall, from the its intersection at Central Ave. to the south end of Civic Plaza, had long been considered a blight. The city entered worked with Wilson & Co. on designs and then tapped RMCI to do the work for a total reconstruction in 2014. The multimillion-dollar project began in earnest in late June and was completed this December. The once bleak stretch is now a two-lane street with pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly features.
Historic Rail Yards
New life emerged just south of Downtown at the city’s historic Rail Yards in 2014, where, beginning in May, tens of thousands of visitors embraced a new Sunday market. That was made possible by the $1 million city-funded clean up of the Blacksmith Shop at the almost 30-acre site. The Rail Yards have huge potential for development in the coming years, and the city finalized its master development plan with California-based Samitaur Constructs.
Downtown/EDo barrier, Entertainment District
In 2014, the city pursued a $15 million grant that would have helped remedy one of Downtown’s most pressing problems— the physical and psychological barrier between it and East Downtown. It didn’t get the grant but has said it will go after other funding to raise the pedestrian underpasses that now exist at 1st Street and Central Ave., bringing them to the surface and erasing the barrier. The project would leverage connections between the future Innovate ABQ site at Central and Broadway and the Convention Center, First Plaza Galeria and the proposed Entertainment District, which is now city-owned land at the northeast corner of 1st Street and Central Ave. City officials are looking at the ideas they have received on the Entertainment District.
Albuquerque Rapid Transit
This came closer to fruition in 2014. If all goes as planned, the first phase of ART could be in place and running along Central Ave. by 2017. ART is modeled on other similar projects across the country — a system of sleek buses with dedicated lanes that stop at raised platforms, subway style, where riders have pre-purchased tickets for quick on-and-off access. The city would be responsible for securing 20 percent of its approximate $100 million cost.
De Anza Motor Lodge
Another developer dropped out, and another request for proposals was issued by the city to redevelop East Nob Hill’s city-owned De Anza Motor Lodge in 2014. A new developer is being identified now, and mixed-use proposals for the site run the gamut from restaurants to hotel rooms, apartments and a Route 66 museum.
El Vado
Palindrome Communities was approved by the city in 2014 to redevelop the former El Vado Motel site on the western end of Route 66. Redevelopment costs could be almost $16 million, with a proposal calling for a food court, amphitheater, boutique motel, small events center and workforce housing.
By: Damon Scott (Albuquerque Business First)
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