Santa Fe Plaza Property Swings to Mixed Use

SANTA FE, NM-A trio of first-time partners has acquired the five-story, 39,000-sf Dos Mundos de Santa Fe office building in the historic Downtown plaza. The $2.75-million, off-market acquisition is being primed for an $11-million conversion into residential, retail and office space.

The development trio consists of Parks Construction of Santa Fe, Storico Development LLC of Albuquerque and Allegiance Realty Corp. of Charlotte, NC. The vacant office building at 142 Lincoln St. will be retooled into 10 three-bedroom condos, ranging from 1,500 sf to 2,800 sf, and priced at $700 per sf to $1,000 per sf. The project will include 7,000 sf of retail space and 4,500 sf of office space. According to Allegiance president and CEO Chris Smith, the conversion process should take about a year.

The partners bought the 24-year-old building in a direct deal with local company DLM Investments LLC. Smith says the appeal for Allegiance and its partners is the high barrier to entry for similar types of developments, limited supply especially on the condo side and Santa Fe's designation as a top tourist spot.

"In looking at similar markets like Vale and Telluride, Santa Fe doesn't have a whole lot of residential condos, especially in the plaza area," Smith tells GlobeSt.com. "We felt like we found a niche there, where we could offer some high-end residential on the plaza. We're going high-end in terms of finishes and they'll be similar to single-family residential. That's important to us." The plan is to outsource condo sales plus the office and retail leasing to local third-party firms.

Lorn Tryk Architects of Santa Fe is the project architect. The general contractor has not been selected.

Smith says Allegiance will hold true to its MO of entering a market and following it up with more investments. "We have great operating partners out there," he says, "and we definitely see doing more business out there with them."