Plans are proceeding for the repurposing of a downtown Santa Fe building that will have a new life as a research facility for the Los Alamos National Lab.
The high-tech startup Descartes Labs moved out of the 28,000 square foot building at the intersection of N. Guadalupe and W. Alameda streets last year.
That facility, informally known as the old Firestone Building, will also now be used for teleworking, LANL meetings, and conferences.
LANL is additionally moving into two large office buildings previously rented out by the state government at the intersection of St. Michael’s Drive and Pacheco Street.
Those structures will be utilized for both lab and office space.
It is expected that up to 600 LANL employees will be working in the three facilities.
Two years ago, LANL proposed setting up new facilities on the more than 60-acre Midtown Campus that once belonged to the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
That proposal was ultimately declined by the City of Santa Fe.
Although some community and anti-nuclear activists have responded negatively to the idea of LANL establishing new space in Santa Fe, Mayor Alan Webber has welcomed the project.
Regarding the LANL facilities as a source for economic development, the Mayor told the Albuquerque Journal: “Importantly, we’ll also see more long-term entrepreneurial connections between LANL and the Santa Fe startup community.”
In a virtual community meeting two weeks ago, Thom Mason, the lab’s director, noted that LANL will officially be moving into its new Santa Fe offices “over the course of the next year.”
LANL’s footprint in Los Alamos currently comprises nearly 900 structures, as well as just over a dozen nuclear facilities, making up nearly 8.3 million square feet of building space.
By Garry Boulard
