City baits lure for downtown grocery

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry unveiled a plan Thursday to bring a major grocery store to the downtown.

Berry calls it the Food Oasis Initiative and said the city has offered up nearly an acre of land at 2nd Street SW and Gold Avenue.

The city purchased the lot in 2000 for $575,000.

The Food Oasis could include other uses, but the proposal must include a grocery store.

Berry said there are plenty of people to support the store: 10,000 living downtown and 30,000 working there.

The lot is right across from the Silver Garden Apartments, 100 Gold Lofts and another townhome complex now in pre-sales. The proposals would be a public-private partnership and could come in many forms, according to the mayor.

"We may have one proposal that comes back and says, 'We need you (the city) to throw in the land,'" Berry said. "We may have another proposal that comes in and says we need a low-cost 10-year interest loan or a 100-year lease for a dollar a year."

It did take some time to prepare this property because there were six underground tanks that had to be removed. That happened in 2003, and the city says the property now has a clean bill of health.

The city will begin taking proposals next week for a four-month period.