FDIC looks for new owner of Anasazi

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Tuesday ended a bidding process for the Anasazi building in downtown Albuquerque.

The partially built downtown condo project was abandoned since its developers were charged with money laundering and bank fraud several years ago. The FDIC took over control and let the building sit for some time until Mayor Richard J. Berry started getting things kicked into gear in the spring.

“We had to get off dead center with this building,” Berry said. “My interest is getting the building completed in a quality fashion to make sure it’s an asset that adds to downtown rather than detract.”

The FDIC will announce later this week if any bids were received or awarded.

The bid is for the note to the building, but either way it will need to go through foreclosure in court to clear up all the debt and liens on the building. The foreclosure could take up to two years.

Local commercial real estate properties don’t believe the outlook for the Anasazi is as prosperous as the mayor.

“Our thoughts are that it’s a negative property value,” said Steve Coe with Peterson Properties, a firm which manages about 100,000 square feet of commercial and residential space in downtown Albuquerque.

“It’s probably a tear-down to start over again, which might be cheaper,” Coe added. “And for the amount of money loaned on it, it just doesn’t make sense for an investor to go in there and take it in this market and try and make money off of it.”

There are hundreds of liens on the property from subcontractors who were never paid for their work. The Anasazi $9 million, 90,000 square feet condo-to-be highrise was about 85 percent complete when it was abandoned.

The mayor believes there could still be a quick, successful outcome.

“If somebody buys it for multiple millions of dollars, and they're a private-sector firm, as a profit motive, I would tell you that I don't think they'd let it sit around for very long and made some move on it," said Berry, a former contractor. “My initial take on it when I walked in was, this building can be completed, I don't think it's going to be technically difficult to complete."