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podcast
It's one of the most iconic building in Downtown Albuquerque, and it's got new owners.
The guests on this week's edition of the Business Outlook podcast were Adam and David Silverman of Geltmore LLC.
The Silvermans recently inked a contract for the Wells Fargo building at 200 Lomas NW — the green building that gets lit up at night.
"We're continuously looking for opportunities, not only in Albuquerque, but around the state, but a project that has been near and dear to our heart, that we've actually been working on for about two years now," Adam Silverman said.
The plan is retail space on the first floor and housing on floors two through 13.
The Silvermans own several properties in Downtown Albuquerque, including the Imperial Apartments building at 205 Silver SW. They were also behind the renovation of the new Ex Novo tap room at 701 Central NW.
Here's a preview of the conversation, which has been edited for clarity.
Business Outlook podcasts are released on Monday afternoons and are available on YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud and Apple Podcasts.
Tell me about your ties to Downtown and some of the big projects that you've been involved in?
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David Silverman: "So our father, throughout the '90s, was involved in many of the efforts to change Downtown. It was in the 1970s, it was gutted when the department stores left Downtown to move to Uptown into Winrock and Coronado. The main street of Central Avenue was totally gutted.
I think in the 1990s, Paul (Silverman) got very involved in trying to help revitalize it, bring a grocery store down there. It had its fits and starts. When I moved back in 2012, literally the first week I came back, the city issued a (request for proposals) for a development on land that they owned at Second Street and Silver for the purposes of a grocery store and other uses. And so he was like, 'you know, let's give this a shot.' So we did.
And it's a very long story, but it got done with, and it's a pretty keystone piece of our Downtown."
I live on the top floor and shop at the grocery store every day.
DS: "It was supposed to be a catalyst for more residential development to come to the core and allowing people the ability to not have to leave the center of the city to go get their daily needs met, that was the whole point of it."
Your offices are Downtown. Why is it important for a city to have a downtown core?
Adam Silverman: "We've had the opportunity all of our lives to travel. My dad loves travel. He loves going and seeing other cities. He loves exploring other cities. And he doesn't do it by car. He always has to do it by mass transit or walking. And so at a very young age, we got accustomed to riding subways and bus systems. We didn't know we were learning real estate at the time, but we did.
But David and I, growing up, we always came Downtown. My dad has an office Downtown, So Downtown was a place that we always were. So moving away, we realized, 'Gosh, all these other cities that we've been to have these wonderful downtowns.'
And so once David came back and he started working on the Downtown project, we realized we really wanted to help change our city. We really need to help change our Downtown.
That all started with the Imperial building that we just talked about that finished in 2016. We decided, look, if we're gonna talk the talk, we need to walk the walk. So we bought a building; we moved our offices Downtown in 2017. I moved Downtown with my wife and my kids, and David was already living Downtown. And then eventually we convinced my dad he needed to move Downtown too. So now we're all living Downtown, so we're all downtowners.
Albuquerque is very segmented. It's all over, and our walkability in our town isn't very good. And so when you go to a place, you don't want to rent a car; you want to experience it. And so we see Downtown as the heart of our city, and without our heart beating regularly how are we going to be a thriving city? We haven't had a skyscraper built in over four decades in our Downtown."
The new Ex Novo taproom is a happening place.
AS: "We were the developers on that project, and what a fun project that was.
When I moved back to Albuquerque in 2015, one of the things I immediately noticed is that we didn't have any chef-driven concepts. And so as I started to research why don't we have chef-driven concepts — well, liquor licensing is really expensive. And so when you think about how you run a restaurant, a significant portion of the income that you make in a restaurant comes off of alcohol sales. So we started to really try to understand how do we create that culture, and how do we help these entrepreneurs that are in that hospitality space grow their businesses.
And my brother actually had a relationship with the family, Joel and James Gregory, who own Ex Novo. And Joel was moving back from Portland. He wanted to raise his family in New Mexico. And when he came back to town, David and I went and had beers at their Corrales location. And, we were like, 'Joel, this is amazing, but we really need to do something in Albuquerque.' And Joel said, 'Look, I'm interested, but I'm not moving into one of your shopping centers. I need something cool, and it needs to be something with the vibe.'
Fast forward to 2020, in February, and David drives by the Firestone building at the corner of Seventh and Central, and it's closed. And we were like, 'Whoa, that thing is really neat.' It's on Route 66. It just oozes authenticity.
And so a month later, we have COVID-19 hit. We research who the ownership was, and we just started to dive in. I mean, that's really the only way you can do real estate, is you have to pour yourself into it and figure out all the pieces. So after working through the ownership and going through a bunch of stuff during the pandemic, we were finally able to get it under contract. ... And after about three years of hard work, we finally opened the unit Aug. 9 to the public, and it's just been a great outpouring from not only the Downtown community, but everybody in Albuquerque."
Why is it important to have entertainment Downtown that's not solely about drinking alcohol?
AS: "Oh gosh, it's extremely important. If you go to other cities, especially in the Southwest region, we're really moving away from this idea that, 'Hey, downtown is this place where people go out from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and it's just totally wild,' right? Our Downtown isn't an 18-hour downtown. And so our vision is, 'How do we make Albuquerque Downtown 18 hours?' And we've always heard from friends who fly in on late flights, they're like, 'Well, where do I eat? I got in at nine o'clock.' It's imperative that we make our Downtown family-friendly. It's not clearly focused on just bars. We need to have restaurants, we need to have retail spaces. We need office, we have residential. You have to do all that stuff cumulatively.
DS: A lot of people have put their livelihoods into a lot of businesses that are down there for a long time. And I think they deserve some credit for having been there long enough. I think they're doing some stuff to try to promote the Downtown growers' market ... which is a strong cornerstone at that end. But the entertainment piece is critical. I think we're ready.
