Santa Fe to sell property with eye to job, housing opportunities
The city of Santa Fe has begun the process of selling various pieces of city-owned properties — one with an appraised value of $4 million — according to a release issued by the city Thursday.
Elizabeth Camacho of the city’s Office of Economic Development told the Journal the city plans on selling the properties with the intention of developing them into new job and housing opportunities for Santa Feans.
The properties include the old Boys and Girls’ Club on Alto Street, part of the city-owned space at 500 Market Street in the Railyard District, the Warehouse 21 teens art center that closed in 2019 and 228 acres of undeveloped land of the Las Estrellas at Santa Fe Estates valued at $4 million.
“We’re thinking about how to forge a future for Santa Fe, particularly our young people, and create a future for them here,” Camacho told the Journal.
Las Estrellas, located in the city’s Northwest
Quadrant near the Thornburg Investment campus, has long been held up as a prime opportunity to develop housing in Santa Fe, where there’s a severe housing shortage. However, the property has been noted as a difficult place to develop because of its hilly terrain.
City officials said in a news release that selling government-owned property would “raise revenues for city coffers,” a vital need given the city’s financial woes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Camacho said the reasons behind the property sales were “multi-faceted,” but Economic Development Director Rich Brown had told the Santa Fe New Mexican in April the city was considering selling the same properties due to what was then a $46 million budget shortfall.
A meeting between city officials and interested developers will be held Feb. 18 to discuss the Las Estrellas property. Members of the public interested in viewing the meeting can register at www. sfpublicassets.org.