Housing planned for vacant building at Central and San Mateo
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Two tall buildings on the edge of the International District stick out and have for decades. One tower, at the corner of Central and San Mateo, was once a bank. And the other tower to the north used to be an office building.
While they’re empty at the moment, one of them, the shorter of the two, could soon see new life. “Right now there’s a fence around it, it doesn’t serve any meaningful purpose other than to take up space, so putting it to use in some way, in terms of housing, that sounds nice.”
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Nick Hamill, the President of the Fair West Neighborhood Association, says he’s been in contact with the firm renovating the building and says they’re planning to transition it into 100 apartments.
While the city says the owner, Route 66 Multifamily ABQ LLC, hasn’t submitted any official documentation, there has been talk about a project at the site. “We’re waiting to see what the next steps are and we hope it comes to fruition because I have heard in the past there were efforts trying to convert this into some other use and they fell through,” Hamill said.
Hamill says he’s ‘cautiously optimistic’ and believes the neighborhood needs something like this in an area that has seen more closures than development over the last year. “We’re excited to see them put to good use because that’s so many units and so many people that could come into the neighborhood, it could really help a lot of things, the businesses, change the environment in a dramatic way.”
At a recent neighborhood meeting, Hamill said this was a topic of discussion and that many neighbors seem to welcome the idea of housing with open arms. “I would like to see some other reasons for people to have legitimate reasons and nice reasons to go into that area of Central and San Mateo,” said Hamill.