Monday, June 16, 2008
Council to Decide Whether to Spend $700,000 on Downtown Arena Study
By Dan McKay
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
Plans to revive a massive Downtown arena and hotel project face their first critical test today when city councilors consider allowing a development team to start preliminary work on the proposal.
The council will weigh approval of up to $700,000 to study the project's viability, design, possible financing packages, traffic impacts and other questions.
A team led by Garfield Traub Development and the Hunt Development Group, the highest-rated bidders who expressed interest, would handle the work.
They proposed an 11,000-seat events center/arena that would sit just north of Central Avenue and east of the railroad tracks. The historic, all-brick First Baptist Church nearby would be renovated into residential units.
A 450-room "headquarters" hotel would sit on a parking lot just west of the Convention Center, at Second and Tijeras NW.
A canopy would cover the railroad tracks, and a rising walkway would allow people to walk east from Downtown into the event center's main entrance by the tracks.
It's expected to cost $330 million altogether if the city moves forward. [...]
