Plans are in the offing in Albuquerque for the combined renovation and building of a new $22 million fire rescue station in the 300 block of McKnight Avenue NW.
The project will see the updating of the existing one-story Albuquerque Fire Station #4, which was originally constructed in the late 1960s, and building of a centralized special operations facility and training site.
The new construction will go up within the confines of the nearby Coronado Park at Third Street and Interstate 40. That more than 70-year-old park was closed last summer due to several public safety issues centered on the large number of homeless people who had set up camp there.
“That situation is absolutely unacceptable, so we’re going to stop it,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said last summer in announcing the closure of a public space that was seeing upwards of 120 people living in the park.
The fire station upgrade and operations facility construction will take place in phases, with the planning and development expected to move forward over the next several months.
Funding for the project is coming from a variety of sources, including some $5.2 million as a capital outlay recently approved by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, and an anticipated $8 million in 2023 General Obligation bonds.
By Garry Boulard
