Duke City dimensions - Albuquerque, New Mexico economic development

New Mexico Business Journal, Sept, 1991 by Arlene Cinelli Odenwald, Bill Diven

ONE GOAL: DOWNTOWN as an arts and entertainment district built around art galleries, restaurants and clubs and theaters with names like Kimo, Sunshine, El Rey, El Madrid and Beyond Ordinary.

"We want to see some life come back to Downtown," says Dan Mourning of Capo's Ristorante Italiano. "The merchants, the people who have a vested interest down here, are ready to make a move.

"Too many times, people rely on the city to do this and that instead of relying on themselves."

There is a role for the city, though, which is managing a $1.1 million project called Central Avenue Streetscape. The city has contracted with Dekker & Associates of Albuquerque and Sasaki Associates Inc., of Dallas to redesign public areas on Central from the Santa Fe Railway tracks to Robinson Park at Eighth Street.

The effort includes physical changes -- landscaping, sidewalks and public art -- while also focusing on crime prevention, the surrounding residential neighborhoods and other issues.

"The city can do all we can to make sure the public right-of-way looks good," says Richard Sertich of the city planning department, "but the street is only as healthy as the private businesses."

Downtown continues to suffer from the misconception that parking is hard to find, according to Russel Hiller, project manager at Albuquerque Plaza. Parking garages dot the landscape, and once a shopper is parked, the area is totally pedestrian, he says.

"What we lack Downtown, and it will happen eventually, is higher-end retail establishments and more to do after 5 p.m.," Hiller adds. "I don't know if that comes before or after more mid- to high-quality basic housing in the Downtown vicinity.

"That's what makes cities like San Francisco work."

Residential construction

Albuquerque builders see some signs of improvement with the city planning department logging a 42 percent jump in building permits for single-family homes issued last June compared to June 1990.

However, home permits for the first six months of 1990 still lag behind the 1990 pace when 1,132 permits were issued, the lowest number since 1982.

"Right now there is a lot of interest in building," says Richard Estrada of Estrada Construction. "As far as actual construction, we're still waiting, but there is a lot of activity. I'm optimistic at this point."

Estrada, whose specialty is custom passive-solar homes, says he has designed 12 homes in the last three years, but hasn't built one. He's survived on remodeling and commercial projects.

"People get the plans and estimates and find it's cheaper to buy an existing home than to build a new one," he adds.

The Albuquerque Board of Realtors reports brisk sales of existing homes with the average sales prices dropping from last year. Sales were up 15 percent to 2,654 homes through last June with the average price down $200 to $98,400.

Ted Zmroczek, president of Roger Smith Home Builders, says his firm also has seen identifiable custom-home buyers lured away by bargains in the resale market. The Smith firm, which has built hundreds of homes in the Sandia Heights area since 1976, recently added lots in the Los Altos de Sandia subdivision to its inventory.