ABQ uptown

September 25, 2006
The stylish retail phase of ABQ Uptown has won its first award by being named Project of the Year by the New Mexico Chapter of Certified Commercial Investment Members, a national organization.

The 225,000-square-foot center, designed by Dekker Perich Sabatini, will have its grand opening on November 1 with about three-quarters of its eventual 50-plus retailers ready to go.

The award, which is a first by the CCIM chapter, was presented September 6 at the annual Virtual Tour, a video presentation of 83 commercial project in the metro area over the past year.

“It’s particularly nice to get that (award) from Albuquerque’s CCIM chapter,” said Gary Sapp of El Paso based Hunt Building Corp., the project’s developer. “These people are the leaders in the commercial real estate industry.”

The shops at the corner of Louisiana and Indian School NE are the opening phase of the development of a “lifestyle center” with a mix of uses to include 196 upscale apartments and a hotel.

“Projects like that take years of planning,” said chapter president Tim With of Grubb & Ellis New Mexico. “ABQ Uptown was a unanimous selection (for the award) because of its economic impact and large scope.”

More than 500 people attended the 2006 Virtual Tour at the Marriott Pyramid North, by far the biggest crowd ever for the event, according to Keith Meyer of Maestas & Ward Commercial Real Estate, chairman of the tour committee.

“The star of the show was the properties,” he said. “We wanted to make sure everybody in that room came away with a sense of what’s happening in Albuquerque and the scale.”

The 83 featured properties were almost entirely private-sector projects with a total of 2.8 million square feet of space and $393.6 million in construction value. The time period for the projects was the 12 months ending in July.