ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – After almost two decades of talking about redeveloping the Uptown Transit Center into shops and housing, the city is pushing again to get something done there. Environmental studies are in the works and, if all goes well, the Uptown Transit Center could be home to two new apartment towers.
Bobby Sisneros is the Albuquerque Transit Deputy Director. He explains, “What makes this project so unique is that we’re bringing people to transit. Currently, the Uptown center is a parking lot for folks where they can come and park their vehicle, jump on several of our routes. We’re actually going to combine housing units so people can live there and have their motor transportation available to them.”
The city bought the land in 1998 and built a bus station on part of it, but the plan has been to build housing here. According to the city’s Transit Department, about 13,000 people work in the area but they have to commute from all over the city. They believe the project would make it easier for people to live, work, and play in the area.
The three-part plan includes a new $25 million transit facility and more than $100 million to construct north and south towers for residential housing. Sisneros says, “In fact, it’s roughly 215 affordable housing units and 194 market rate, so that puts us at over 400 units that otherwise are in a housing desert. We don’t have anything in that area.”
The buildings would be anywhere from five to seven stories high and would have underground parking. The city would work with a private developer on the project.
There’s no timeline for when all this could get done. The city tried to redevelop the transit center in 2014, and again in 2019, with similar but smaller projects. Those didn’t go anywhere.
