Journal Staff Report
One of the major routes in and out of Mesa del Sol, a master-planned community that will be developed over the next 50 years, is now open.
Drivers can now access Journal Pavilion by way of an extension of University Boulevard.
Along the route, south of Rio Bravo Blvd., drivers will meet a giant serpent at the end of the extension. The serpents were part of a $2.1 million landscaping package, designed by Sites Southwest.
Over the next half century, Ohio-based developer Forest City Covington LLC wants to build a planned community on 9,000 acres that will include industrial, commercial and residential uses.
The Mesa del Sol master plan calls for construction of 37,000 homes enough housing for an estimated 90,000 people in addition to 1,400 acres of commercial development, said Mike Daly, the firm's chief operating officer.
"We hope for it to be a model project for Albuquerque and the United States," Daly told officials gathered at the road groundbreaking event a few months ago.