New Mexico OK's 12,400-Acre, Mixed-Use Plan

ALBUQUERQUE-The New Mexico State Land Office has approved plans to construct a mixed-use, master-planned community on 12,400 acres of state trust land, the largest undeveloped parcel under single ownership in a North American city.

Forest City Enterprises Inc. of Cleveland, in partnership with Covington Capital of Aspen, CO has been named master developer for 9,000 acres, which will eventually become Mesa del Sol. “With a project of this consequence, there will be hundreds of acres of employment centers, business parks and retail uses,” Dean Wingert, vice president of Forest City Land Group, tells GlobeSt.com. “The size is just overwhelming.”

Wingert says ground-breaking on the multi-million-dollar community is still at least two years away as the development firms work though the permitting process with city officials.

The cost of the project should stretch into “hundreds of millions of dollars” and take decades to complete, Wingert added. “What we have here is just the beginning of a very long process,” he said. “We still have to get consultants and engineers and take the conceptual planning work that the state has done through the approval process with the city.”

Preliminary plans for the development call for the creation of community employment centers, business parks, retail space and residential uses to be located within close proximity of each other and linked by open space, parks and trails, he states.

Located 10 minutes from Albuquerque’s CBD, Mesa del Sol will be bordered by Albuquerque International Airport, Sandia National Laboratories, Kirtland Air Force Base, Interstate 25 and the Pueblo of Isleta.