Business, Resident Plans Take Root at Massive Mesa Del Sol
By Diane Velasco
Journal Staff Writer
Albuquerque's most complex development project, Mesa del Sol, will be a series of business parks and neighborhoods complete with schools and open space, said the developers of most of the 12,500-acre site.
Plans include:
1,400 acres for business parks with 3 million square feet of commercial buildings;
4,400 acres for residential and retail use;
3,400 acres for open space;
800 acres for schools and universities.
First on the agenda is a 200-acre industrial park at the "front door" to the development, which is in the southeast corner of Albuquerque.
A 100,000-square-foot commercial building being designed by local architects Dekker Perich Sabatini will offer flexible space for tenants.
"We are planning a beautiful industrial park that will be the front door to our community," said Michael Daly, with Forest City Covington, a joint venture between Forest City Enterprises Inc. and Covington Capital Corp. The companies were selected by the State Land Office to be the master developer of the site.
Development of the park will start as soon as University Boulevard is extended, which is scheduled for next year.
Daly is planning to ask the city to approve zoning for the industrial park before the master plan is finalized.
"We want to get a jump start on the employment area of our plan," he said.
The company has five people in five major cities trying to recruit businesses to Mesa del Sol. Daly also is working closely with the Albuquerque Economic Development Corp. on recruitment.
Neighborhoods will have community centers and about three houses per acre. A portion of the residential area will include "work-force housing," affordable housing for those making 80 percent of the median income, Daly said. The plan calls for "reasonably priced, high-quality homes throughout the mesa," he said.
The project will use city water, while the company will put in the pipelines, sewers, roads and other utilities.
Phase one of Mesa del Sol, consisting of 3,000 acres, may take between 10 and 15 years to build, depending on Forest City's success in attracting jobs and on Albuquerque's population growth, Daly said.
Future Mesa del Sol
In addition to the 9,000 acres Forest City Covington is developing, Mesa del Sol has three other planned major components:
La Semilla, a 2,800-acre environmental education and research center that will also provide a buffer between the development and Kirtland Air Force Base;
The 600-acre Bernalillo County Recreational Complex that eventually will have 44 soccer, football and baseball fields in addition to the existing Journal Pavilion amphitheater; and
480 acres owned by the University of New Mexico that will be developed for campus uses.
Mesa del Sol, made up mostly of parcels of state-owned land, has withstood previous attempts at development.
The State Land Office is exchanging parcels with the University of New Mexico to create contiguous properties for the project. UNM, which already is a beneficiary of 84 percent of the land, will get 14 percent of the appraised value once development begins, as well as a 15 percent partnership interest with Forest City Covington without putting in any capital.
"Finally the big boys came to town," Jerry King, State Land Office assistant commissioner, said of the developers.
Daly called his company's plans for Mesa del Sol "a piece of art on canvas."
Work to extend University Boulevard is expected to begin this summer. And land exchanges are expected to be complete by July.
City expanding
Forest City sees Albuquerque as the next major growth area in the Southwest, said Gregory Vilkin, who headed up the company's redevelopment of the former Stapleton International Airport in Denver.
"Both Phoenix and Las Vegas (Nev.) were sprawl developments— it was jobs at any cost and the cost was the quality of life," Vilkin said. He does not see Albuquerque duplicating that sprawl, he said.
Vilkin touted his company's success at Stapleton to about 200 people gathered at the Albuquerque Marriott for a seminar and luncheon of the New Mexico Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Forest City has been unable to attract major employers other than retailers to Stapleton since redevelopment started in 2000, because of Denver's massive job losses, primarily in the telecommunications sector, Vilkin said. Office vacancies skyrocketed from 7 percent to 27 percent; Forest City has not built more office space there yet.
But the company is confident Albuquerque's renewable-energy research and technology-transfer capabilities will help attract companies here. This month, Forest City will ask national commercial real estate company CB Richard Ellis to help find companies that may want to locate here, Vilkin said.
AED 
...go to bookmarks
E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
