Railyard’s executive director to retire after sixteen years

Czoski negotiated 29 ground leases that led to many new buildings during his tenure

Richard Czoski thought he would oversee the Railyard for a few years and then move on to the next project.

Yet he has served as executive director of the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp. for 16 years, during almost all of the construction of the Railyard and the Baca District, both city-owned properties leased by the corporation to develop and manage.

“My goal all along was to stay as long as it took to complete the development,” said Czoski, 68, who will retire Aug. 31. “Here I am almost 17 years into it. The development part is what interests me the most.”

Czoski joined the corporation in 2004, two years after it was established, and became its executive director in 2005.

The Railyard opened to the public in 2008 and then the Great Recession hit, decimating the construction sector.

“I’m glad we had to endure the 2008 recession,” Czoski said. “It put projects back two to three years, but the result is more apropos to the way the city was going. We got a lot more residential. The Baca District was light industrial before 2008. Now there’s more retail and residential.”

Czoski negotiated 29 ground leases that led to 10 new buildings in the Railyard, including Market Station, Violet Crown Cinema and the Railyard Flats apartment building, and 20 buildings in the Baca District.

He has a letter of intent with a developer planning a 26-unit multifamily residential project on the last piece of undeveloped land at the Railyard, a 10,000-square-foot space next to Warehouse 21.

Keeping the Railyard filled with local businesses has been a goal since the city announced plans to develop the property in 1985. Other than REI, all of the businesses are local.

“The local business goal is one of the reasons it took so long to develop,” Czoski said.

Devendra Contractor and Steve Robinson have collaborated with Czoski since his first day on the job. Robinson has been president of the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp. since its establishment in 2002, and Contractor was involved in drafting the master plan and designed several of the Railyard buildings.

“Richard has just been an amazing ally in terms of representing the city and being a true steward of the master plan,” said Contractor, principal of DNCA Architects, based in the Baca District. “Richard has done a tremendous job with balancing out the master plan to make it financially feasible.”

Robinson said Czoski has stayed true to the 2002 master plan that was based on a 1990s community plan with input from 6,000 residents.

“He has by and large had the cooperation of city government and a whole series of mayors, councilors and staff,” Robinson said. “Richard has been brilliant in navigating the day-to-day issues with the city, tenants, developers and the board.”

Czoski was responsible for 565,000 square feet of development valued at $150 million, including $14 million in infrastructure.

The Railyard and Baca District are unique in Santa Fe because there is no adobe to be seen.

“Pueblo Revival architecture is prohibited,” Czoski said. “The community didn’t want faux Santa Fe. It was a desire of the community that this project look different.”

The Railyard is entering a new era with all but the one lot next to Warehouse 21 developed. Now the focus will be on managing the property and public events to regularly attract the community.

“This is the pivot point where I always intended to leave,” Czoski said.

Instead of a letting him be a journeyman developer moving from project to project, the Railyard became Czoski’s long-term project.

“It was a happy, unintended consequence,” he said.