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Thursday, August 23, 2007
Kirtland to Get 92-Acre Project
By Richard Metcalf
Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
A large mixed-use development of office buildings, a hotel, restaurants and an assisted-living center is planned on 92 acres of Kirtland Air Force Base-owned land along Gibson SE.
The mostly vacant site is on the south side of Gibson, extending from San Mateo west to Carlisle SE. The project would envelop the existing Truman Gate.
The park will give an economic boost to an area of the Southeast Heights that has not seen much commercial development.
"It's going to happen in significant chunks," said Gary Sapp, president of Hunt Development Inc.'s southwest division, estimating that from 1,000 to 2,000 people could end up working there. It will consist of up to a million square feet of office buildings.
A team headed by Hunt, builder of lifestyle center ABQ Uptown, is expecting to complete the $390 million project in four to six years.
Called Kirtland Technology Park, the project would be unique to the base in that many of the buildings would be open and accessible to the public. The base's security fence, which now runs along Gibson, would be moved back from the boulevard.
"We'll be working with the Air Force on the placement of the fence," said Jim Dobbie, senior vice president for Hunt's southwest division.
"A key component of this is a military contractor can have a public presence with pedestrian access through the fence to a secure facility," he said.
Plans for the public portion of the project call for three parking structures, a limited service hotel, restaurants and some retail. Office buildings would be in both the public and secure areas of the park.
An assisted-living facility is planned at the east end of the site. Sapp said it would be privately run "but marketed to retired veterans because of its proximity to the VA Hospital and base."
City Councilor Martin Heinrich, who represents the area and once worked on the base, said the park will be a big boost for local businesses.
Tightened security has changed the way the base, with its 23,000 workers, relates to businesses along the Gibson corridor, he said.
"People used to leave the base for lunch and to run errands," Heinrich said. "Most of the economic activity is now inside the fence.
"A technology park that faces outward to Albuquerque will be an enormous benefit to the retail environment in the area."
The mixed-use park is made possible through an "enhanced use lease," which means Hunt's development group rents the land from the Air Force.
Enacted into law about two years ago, the enhanced use lease program enables military bases across the country to lease attractive land to private developers on a long-term basis.
"The Air Force is able to capitalize on underutilized assets, and the private entities that lease the land can address the Air Force's needs" for additional buildings and services, said Col. Robert Suminsby, commander of the 377th Air Base Wing at Kirtland, in a statement.
Hunt Development is no stranger to Kirtland Air Force Base. Although best known locally for the retail phase of its ABQ Uptown development, the El Paso-based company completed a $156 million housing project on the base last year.
The project involved construction of 868 housing units to replace older homes that had given Kirtland the reputation of having some of the worst on-base housing in the country.
Hunt has $1.5 billion in contracts to build housing on military bases around the country, Dobbie said.
The company's familiarity with the federal procurement process helped it win the competitive bidding process to secure the enhanced use lease, Sapp said. It was awarded to Hunt's group last week.
Hunt's group, called Kirtland Development Partners, includes several prominent local companies, such as Titan Industrial Development and Dekker Perich Sabatini architects.
Hospital Project in Works
Lovelace Health System has decommissioned its 559,000-square-foot hospital on Gibson, immediately east of the proposed technology park.
Lovelace still occupies a substantial portion of the building as a health care center.
Sale of the building and its 16.2 acres is still pending to Bethlehem, Pa.-based Ashley Development Corp., which plans to redevelop the property into a medical mall.
Ashley is reported to be having problems securing financing for the purchase in the current tight credit market. Lovelace spokeswoman Susan Wilson said, "We are continuing to work with them on setting a closing date."
With a mix of health care-related uses, the proposed medical mall could one day be home to upward of 1,100 jobs.
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