Allaso High Desert: Award-winning apartments

It was a titan of a project.

With 16 acres, 281 units and an indoor golf simulator among other amenities, all in the shadow of the Sandia Mountains, Allaso High Desert apartments was recognized by NAIOP New Mexico with an Award of Excellence in 2024. It received a Merit Award in the residential category.

Titan Development built the residential complex after overcoming geological and governmental challenges to meet the demand for new housing in Albuquerque, said Josh Rogers, a partner at Titan Development.

Allaso is a facility that provides townhomes and one- to three-bedroom apartments, as well as resort-inspired amenities, such as mountain bike rentals. It was built right next to the Sandias, providing a beautiful view but also placing it in a flood zone.

“As one of the last remaining large tracts available for development in the Northeast Heights, it was an incredible opportunity,” Rogers said.

To address the flooding, Titan built a $4 million box culvert — think of a road with a hollow underneath that lets water pass through without pooling on the street above.

“The box culvert also needed to be completed prior to the start of the monsoon season, leaving a short timeframe to build the infrastructure,” Rogers said.

Titan worked for years with the city of Albuquerque, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, to plan and design the needed infrastructure.

There was an additional complication to the site being shovel-ready — there were no major Public Service Company of New Mexico power lines traversing the site.

It cost more than $1 million to get the power infrastructure ready, Rogers said.

Altogether, the project cost $77 million.

“Allaso High Desert represented one of the most challenging developments in Titan’s history,” he said.