RR apartments move forward

RIO RANCHO — The Sandoval County Commission approved a $30 million bond agreement with developers of the 550 Paseo Apartments project, the Rio Rancho Observer reports.

On Thursday night, at the Sandoval County Administrative Building, county financial advisor Rob Burpo and county bond attorney Daniel Alsup presented to the commission. In this agreement, the county is involved with the issuance of the privateactivity bond and will not incur any out-of-pocket expenses, Burpo said.

Private-activity bonds are also known as conduit bonds, according to the presentation. The bonds are tax-exempt and issued by a local or state government to provide financing for qualified projects.

Alsup said this is similar to when Intel was being developed.

“This is very similar to an industrial revenue bond; the county would be a conduit issuer. The county would not be obligated to pay any of its own revenue to the payment of the bonds. The project developer would pay those expenses,” Alsup said.

In this case, the developers — DBG Properties LLC — requested $30 million in private-activity bonds from Sandoval County for the facility construction. The 240-unit apartment complex would be along US 550, next to Enchanted Vista Apartments, another affordablehousing complex.

This is a tax-exempt bond because the complex will keep at least 40 percent of the apartments leased to people who make at or below the area median household income, Alsup said.

The target market for 550 Paseo Apartments is families or individuals who make $14-$20 per hour. The income limit is $29,040 a year for a household of one, $33,180 for a family of two and $44,820 for a family of five.

Developers close on the bonds the first quarter of 2021.

Commissioner Jay Block, District 2, said he is in favor of this project.

“I argue this will be very attractive to people who don’t want to stay living in certain parts of the state because I think they would want to come up here to Rio Rancho, where the schools are better, it’s safer, there is more opportunity up here, and I think it is a much better place to raise their families,” he said.

Serenity Stone opens Tomé site

TOMÉ — Serenity Stone has opened a location in Tomé after relocating

from Albuquerque earlier this year, the Valencia County News-Bulletin reports.

Serenity Stone is the only self-contained, full-service monument company in the state, meaning they do everything.

The business owners, Adam and Tiffany Edwards, work together to craft everything from small gravestones to war memorials for retail customers. They sell directly to the consumer instead of to funeral homes, which buy in bulk and can make up a company’s entire clientele.

“I’ve been making headstones for about 31 years now,” Adam Edwards said. “For many of those years, I just did private stuff, a lot of the high-end custom stuff. It did pretty well when I was younger. You could make a living just doing commissioned pieces.”

Edwards made the move to a more retail setup after seeing how funeral homes were up charging on relatively inexpensive markers, which helped him realize there was a market for it that would be suitable to help him take care of his family.

The process of carving a headstone is done through sandblasting, which Edwards does in booths he’s constructed in his shop. He handles the big projects, while Tiffany takes care of the smaller ones, which Adam admits he doesn’t have the patience for.

The sandblasting process they use to produce their monuments allows them to create photo-quality images on stones. Currently, the couple lives on site above the warehouse, but they have long-term plans to build a house on the property for their family.