Good news on housing from town of Moriarty
Longtime Santa Fe builder and developer John Reeder is one of the good guys. He may be even better at connecting other good guys. So, when his friend and next-door neighbor, former Gov. Toney Anaya, asked for his help, he didn’t hesitate.
Virtually every New Mexico builder and trade contractor recognizes Anaya’s name because it’s affixed to the glass and steel structure on Cerrillos Road housing the Construction Industries Division. The building’s modern design is a little out of character for Santa Fe’s brown, rounded shoulders, but then Anaya was a bit of an anomaly himself.
Born and raised in Moriarty before rural demographics equaled conservatism, Anaya, now 82, was among New Mexico’s most progressive governors. He served from 1983 to 1987, when progressives were proudly known as liberals.
Anaya advocated for high-speed mass transit before the Railrunner Express, commuted death row sentences, and was an outspoke proponent of resource conservation and affordable housing.
Anaya and his older brother Mike, who recently celebrated his 94th birthday, invested and developed a 112-lot subdivision in Moriarty more than 25 years ago. After 51 homes were built, the housing collapse of 2008 stopped production.
The Anayas are a bedrock Moriarty family. Mike opened Mike’s Friendly Store on Route 66 in 1949 and ran it until 2011. He also opened El Comedor de Anaya and welcomed thousands of hungry travelers on America’s Mother Road from Chicago to Santa Monica. Mike also is father of Steve Anaya, longtime former director and lobbyist for the Realtors Association of New Mexico.
So, when Gov. Anaya decided it was time to resurrect the family’s subdivision with new blood, he sought advice from Reeder, someone he trusted to keep the Anaya vision intact. Reeder interviewed likely Albuquerque builders with capacity for volume and reputations for quality. He introduced Toney and Mike to Scott Henry, owner of Stillbrooke Homes. The simpatico connection was evident from the start.
Henry was bullish on metro Albuquerque’s eastward trend and noted Moriarty is closer to the Big I interstate interchange than the bedroom community of Los Lunas. The small-town feel and neighborliness of the area were appealing. Less than 10 minutes from the booming commercial areas of Edgewood, it will be home for many working commuters heading west with the rising sun at their backs in the morning and setting sun in the afternoon, but area weekend shopping and dining options are numerous.
Henry has built in Albuquerque for more than 35 years and formed Stillbrooke Homes 25 years ago. With a reputation for quality and awards to back it up, Henry was an early earner of sustainable building tax credits for the company’s green building achievements.
The Moriarty project, called Villa Encantada, was inspired by modest, cottage-style homes built in the ‘40s and ‘50s near downtown Albuquerque. Now, some of that city’s most precious and sought-after neighborhoods, they, too, began as affordable work force housing. With pitched roofs, generous front porches and rear-set detached garages, they hark to a simpler era.
A major factor in project affordability, homes starting under $200,000, was 25-yearold infrastructure.
Costs then were a fraction of todays and the Anayas had long since written off those expenses. Being the good guys they are, they didn’t need to soak Henry and enthusiastically supported his affordability vision for their hometown.
Henry recently closed on an adjacent Anaya property platted for 84 additional lots. Unfortunately, for maximum affordability, it’s undeveloped, which means infrastructure and utilities will go in at today’s inflated prices, adding substantially to costs of the modest twoto four-bedroom homes.
In other words, better get in while the getting’s good.
Contact Kim Shanahan at kimboshanahan@gmail.com.