Innovate ABQ May See Changes to its Ground Game

In a move to continue development and construction of a 7-acre downtown Albuquerque site, the leaders and thinkers behind an ongoing business innovation hub are updating its master plan.

The public-private Innovate ABQ, at the corner of Central Avenue and Broadway Boulevard NE, was launched more than 5 years ago and has since seen the construction of a number of structures including the Lobo Rainforest Building, and a 13,000 square foot community center that belongs to Central New Mexico Community College.

From the start, the project’s goal, besides fostering economic development, has been to build compact, technically-wired structures on a campus dominated by walkable space.

At the same time, Innovate ABQ has been challenged with what to do with perhaps the most visible structure at the site, the 80 year-old former First Baptist Church, a 71,000 square -foot brick building that includes a 400-seat chapel.

According to reports, the one-time church may now be redeveloped over time in phases.
Meanwhile, the larger site may be expected to see the building of 4 to 5-story multi-tenant structures.

Those structures, notes the Albuquerque Journal, “would be scaled to need, with perhaps 5,000 square-foot spaces created for different tenants rather than a huge, 100,000 square-foot facility for one agency or institution.”

Plans are also emphasizing the need for the site to be more of an integral part of City of Albuquerque’s efforts to develop a kind of downtown hub with retail and entertainment space on the west side of the Innovate ABQ site.

The updated master plan for the site is being handled by the internationally known architectural firm of Perkins & Will, which put together the original master plan in 2015.

Initially, it was thought that the vast majority of new development and construction at the site would be completed by 2024.

​By Garry Boulard

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