ROOMS WITH A VIEW
Downtown’s One Central opens for occupancy this weekend
The first residents will be moving in this weekend at One Central, the Downtown mixed-use project that broke ground over a year ago.
Nearly one-fourth of the 68 apartments have been leased, said David Stroud, One Central’s director of operations and marketing. With a ribbon-cutting slated for today, construction workers were busy Wednesday with myriad tasks: installing lighting, vacuuming construction dust and making the apartments ship-shape for the new tenants.
Studio apartments, which feature floor-to-ceiling windows, are the most popular units so far, said Stroud, especially ones with views of the
Sandia Mountains and the train tracks of the Alvarado Transportation Center across the street. The tenants are a good mix, and include UNM professors, hospital workers and young professionals working Downtown. The building comes with a fitness center, gaming space and media room.
On the ground level, several tenants will soon be setting up shop. Stroud said one is Deep Space Coffee, which will relocate from its current site at 504 Central SW. Two other tenants will be restaurants, he added.
When the project was approved almost two years ago, developers said One Central, in addition to the apartments, would include 44,000 square feet of street-level entertainment and retail space. A bowling alley/pub on the ground level is still in the works, Stroud said. With thick concrete floors and insulation, residents on the top floors won’t hear a thing below, he said.
One Central cost an estimated $40 million to develop. The city chipped in $17.5 million — most of it coming from lodgers’ tax collections — plus land valued at $1.4 million, accounting for just under $19 million. Bernalillo County also approved an industrial revenue bond package that includes property and gross receipts tax breaks.