SF City Council Approves St. Kate’s Resolution

With little fanfare, the Santa Fe City Council agreed on Wednesday to move forward with a plan for the city to potentially buy the old St. Catherine’s Indian School campus and lease it to the New Mexico School for the Arts.

The council passed the resolution on its consent agenda along with several other items. Councilors later discussed the city’s “status of communications” with the property’s owner, New Mexico Consolidated Construction, in an executive session barred to the public.

A recent appraisal paid for by the School for the Arts has pegged at $1.9 million the 10.7 acres the city would acquire.

City Manager Robert Romero has previously said the city is bound, with some leeway, to pay the appraised price.

But Coss said Wednesday that New Mexico Consolidated Construction, owned by businessman Max Tafoya, has told the city it won’t accept a $1.9 million sale and disputes the appraisal.

An attorney for New Mexico Consolidated Construction said in September the property is on the market for $8.6 million, although that includes several additional acres the federal government is interested in acquiring for expansion of the nearby Santa Fe National Cemetery.

A detailed financial discussion is scheduled for the city’s next Finance Committee meeting on Monday.

New Mexico Consolidated Construction bought the campus several years ago from the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who closed the school in the late 1990s. The historic school dates back to the 1880s.

In 2006, the City Council designated 13 of St. Catherine’s 19 structures as city landmarks. The buildings had been named to the State Register of Cultural Properties in 2001.