City Council OKs renewal of contract with real estate company to manage city-owned apartments

The City Council unanimously approved a contract with Monarch Properties on Monday night for property management duties at eight city-owned apartment complexes — totaling 594 units.

The contract, approved by the Council at Mayor Tim Keller’s request, costs around $282,000 annually and is funded by revenue from the apartments. It was set to expire at the end of the year but has now been renewed until 2028.

Monarch Properties is a private company headquartered in Albuquerque that also manages and leases properties in Oklahoma and Texas. In addition to its traditional role as a real estate company, Monarch provides property management services to government-assisted communities.

While voting in favor of the legislation, City Councilor Nichole Rogers voiced concern about Monarch Properties being awarded the contract. She referred to a series of stories from a 2021 investigation by nonprofit news outlet Searchlight New Mexico that found over 200 tenants at more than 50 properties in Albuquerque were evicted illegally in 2020.

“Monarch was on the top of that list. My question is knowing that the thousands of Albuquerque residents were illegally evicted by this company, why would you choose to let them run our own rental properties?” Rogers said.

A story in the series says that Monarch had evicted the seventh largest number of people of any property management group in the state since 2010, but it does not tie Monarch directly to illegal evictions in 2020.

Monarch Properties did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

The company has had contracts with Albuquerque in some capacity for over 20 years according to the city’s Health, Housing and Homelessness Department spokesperson Connor Woods.

The eight city-owned complexes are The Beach Apartments, Candelaria Gardens, Glorieta Apartments, Manzano Vista, Santa Barbara, Tucson Apartments, Bluewater Village and Los Altos Lofts.

The unit’s rental rates range from income-based to market rate, according to Woods.

Concern was voiced over why some of the units are priced at market rate instead of an income-based rent by Councilors Klarissa Peña and Dan Champine.

“I didn’t know we’re in the business of market rent,” Peña said. She also called the $280,000 annual cost a “huge management fee.”

The current contract with Monarch began in April of 2020, costing $249,566 but did not include the recently renovated motel-turned-apartment complex, Los Altos Lofts, which added 90 units. The city awarded the contract to Monarch again in September after the company faced just one competing bidder, Rhino Realty Property Management.

The nearly 600 units across eight apartment complexes comprise the entirety of the city-owned housing supply.

Around 5,000 people are experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque, and more 15,000 units need to be added to its housing supply according to estimates from the city.