Courtesy sfrailyardcc.org
Before the city redeveloped the Santa Fe Railyard it was in a state of disrepair. Now it’s a center of activity.
The fate of Midtown Campus seems as uncertain as ever. In January, the city of Santa Fe and master developers KDC/Cienda Partners mutually terminated an exclusive negotiation agreement after the developers said the needed improvements to the site would cost more than they were willing to pay.
Now debate centers around how much the city should invest in infrastructure and other upgrades on the 64-acre property and how to re-engage residents to make sure community objectives for affordable housing, educational facilities and community spaces are met. Meanwhile, each year the city spends $1.7 million on debt payments, and operating expenses budgeted for the current fiscal year are an additional $3 million.
Leah Cantor
This is not the first time Santa Fe has embarked on a high-stakes redevelopment project aimed at creating a new focal point for city activity.
Just 3 miles north of Midtown, the redevelopment vision for the 50 acres of city-owned land at the Santa Fe Railyard is finally nearing completion after decades of work overseen by the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation, a nonprofit created in 2002 for the explicit purpose of managing real estate, infrastructure and economic development of the site on contract with the city. The city retains ownership of the land and five buildings on the property, while the nonprofit leases out 42 individual land and building parcels.
"We operate as if we were a private-sector real estate company but we have a public purpose. So it's very unique," says Richard Czoski, the executive director of the nonprofit. "All the profit we make goes back to the city to pay off the debt the city incurred."
The completion of the Railyard has been a long time coming, it's been expensive, and it hasn't always felt like a success. But now, despite COVID-19, it seems close to a full realization of the vision espoused by residents who took part in an intensive community engagement process in the late '90s.
Could the Railyard's nonprofit model work at Midtown?
The city bought the Railyard property for $23 million in 1995, after public opposition led the City Council to reject a plan by the rail company to create a new commercial area with buildings up to six stories high.
After months of public meetings, the city brought in a team of national and local architects and planners through the American Institute of Architects' Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team program to create a community plan based on the values expressed by residents: celebration of local art and culture, a focus on local businesses, walkability, parks and community spaces and ongoing community governance.
The city spent an additional $14 million to build out infrastructure on the site and celebrated a grand opening in 2008, just before the economy tanked. Czoski says the ill-fated timing was a serious setback to the success of the redevelopment. While previously the Railyard Corporation had been able to lease 92% of the space to businesses and artists, that number dropped to 72% during the recession. For years, empty storefronts and high turnover plagued the project.
These problems haven't been entirely overcome, but the Railyard as it exists today is pretty darn close to the vision of the original community plan: Before COVID-19, it was the place to go in the summer for outdoor concerts, art and science festivals, or to grab a beer and a movie at Violet Crown. El Museo Cultural and SITE Santa Fe hold down the art scene while the farmers market building hosts the thriving market on Saturdays and occasional quinceñeras at night.
Czoski says the site is once again 95% leased, and the nonprofit has paid off nearly half of the city's debt on the property. Despite many businesses grinding to a halt during the pandemic, he believes economic recovery will be fairly swift for the Railyard.
"I think one of the reasons that the project has been successful is that the master plan has endured and we've stayed true to it," says Czoski, attributing much of the organization's ability to stick to its original vision to its nonprofit status, which frees it from the whims of politics and much of the bureaucracy of government, while resisting the pull of development just for the sake of profit.
Czoski says when the city bought the Railyard, the site shared many of the problems master developers cited at Midtown, such as lack of modern infrastructure and environmental contamination, though there were not nearly as many buildings in disrepair as exist at the old university campus.
Still, he says, he thinks the Railyard model could work for Midtown if the right people were in charge, even though the city has not so far considered it as a serious option and not all councilors are convinced it would work.
"It was a good idea for the time when the Railyard Corporation was created…with the goal to be more transparent and take politics out of the development," says Councilor Joanne Vigil Coppler in an interview with SFR.
However, she says, it also moved the course of development outside of the control of the governing body and she thinks the issues with attracting businesses to the Railyard go beyond the impacts of the recession.
"I do believe that it's been real difficult for attracting permanent businesses because they don't own the land underneath it, and the vacancies are cyclical," she says.
"For the Midtown campus, I would like the framework to be set up by the governing body and then let it take its course within those parameters."
The city has created multiple teams of city staff to assess the problems raised by KDC/Cienda Partners. These teams report every two weeks about their progress. Most recently, staff presented the City Council with three options: sell now "as is" to the highest bidder; make some basic primary investments and sell within the next year; or hold onto the campus for the long term and make major investments that will help guarantee the outcomes the city is looking for.
The city has already invested $50,000 to conduct a new community engagement process led by a group from UNM that will last at least a year. The group plans to give small grants of up to $5,000 each to local community organizations for special engagement projects and policy recommendations by the end of the year.
For now, at least, the city seems committed to the long haul. Staff will present the latest update about Midtown at the City Council meeting that starts today, Feb. 24, at 4pm. Watch the livestream on the city’s Youtube channel.
