City council passes bill incentivizing landlords to fill vacant Downtown properties

Monday night’s Albuquerque City Council meeting saw the passage of a bill that creates penalties for landlords who own vacant and dilapidated buildings in a select area of Downtown.

The bill, put forth by Councilor Joaquín Baca, passed on a 7-2 vote.

It states any buildings in the target area— bordered by Coal to the south, Slate to the North, Broadway Blvd to the east and 8th St to the west — must retain a tenant or sufficient upkeep, otherwise fines will be inflicted.

“Somewhere along the way, it became okay for the most visible part of our city, on the iconic route 66, to just sit there falling apart,” Baca said. “A lot of these empty buildings, it’s not just the fact that a vacant building almost always attracts the negative stuff. It’s also, this is a part of the city where they’re connected to the fellow buildings, I regularly have individual property owners saying, ‘I’m worried that thing’s gonna fall on me.’”

The bill is the newest piece of legislation to enable the sophomore city councilor to spur revitalization and development in the Downtown corridor, which he represents.

At the council’s last meeting of 2024, it approved legislation from the Keller administration to create a Downtown Tax Increment Financing district which is a public financing and economic development tool that cycles the generated funds back to the respective district.

And on Monday night another bill from Baca — co-sponsored with Dan Lewis — that passed, changed the process by which neighborhood association groups can appeal developments and aims to create more residential and commercial developments.

Dan Champine and Louie Sanchez were the two councilors who voted against the Downtown vacancy bill, with Champine voicing concern about the city crossing a line on telling property owners what to do. But at least one Downtown property owner is thrilled with the new legislation.

“I applaud Councilor Baca in full. That was no easy lift, he is really trying to make a change in Downtown,” Adam Silverman told the Journal Tuesday.

Silverman owns a few buildings downtown, including the new Ex Novo Brewing taproom and restaurant.

“The more tools in the toolbox we have citywide, the better we can do to clean up the blight, you know, and transform ourselves into a 21st century city,” Silverman said.

While receiving a pass at the Council’s first meeting of the year on Monday, Baca tried to get through a similar bill during the Council’s last September 2024 meeting and first October meeting that ultimately failed on a 1-8 vote. He was the lone vote in favor of the previous bill.

The previous version of the bill was criticized by his colleagues for being too broad and by members of the public, who showed up to speak against it, for having a no-obstruction clause barring people from lying or sitting on sidewalks. Critics said it targeted people experiencing homelessness in Downtown.

While the newly passed legislation does not include the obstruction zone clause the last one did, Baca told the Journal in a December sit-down interview that he plans to introduce a similar, separate bill in the coming months.