Hunt Companies Inc

New Mexico Business Weekly - by Tom O'Connell NMBW Staff


The foundation is being poured for the second phase of Hunt Development Group's ambitious ABQ Uptown lifestyle center at Louisiana Boulevard and Indian School Road NE.

Phase II, called Uptown Village, broke ground in August on Uptown Loop Road on 6.5 acres just to the east of the outdoor retail site. The Village will consist of 198 luxury apartments in seven two- and three-story buildings.

The all-rental complex will include a variety of one- to three-bedroom floorplans, covered parking and a "resort-style" pool. Many of the units will be loft style and will feature wood and concrete floors and granite counters. Units will range in size from 603 to 1,671 square feet. Lease rates will be $850 to $2,250 per month.

Hunt is developing Phase II with Centro Partners, an Austin, Texas, firm that specializes in mixed-use developments and urban living. This is its first Albuquerque project. The complex was designed by Albuquerque architects Dekker/Perich/Sabatini.

An on-site leasing office headed up by Terri Brown, president of Southwest Real Estate Advisors Inc., will open next April. The first units should be ready for occupancy by late next summer, says Hunt Vice President Trent Stafford.

Uptown Village is "going to be a totally different product than what the market has seen before," says Brown. "It's not your typical garden merchant builder product."

She says the complex will have wireless Internet, an Internet cafe, and business and fitness centers. She says she has already taken calls from prospective renters. A Web site for the complex will go up in December.

The new complex will be a welcome addition to a slender rental market.

Albuquerque's multi-family absorption rate is up to 1,300 units per year, and only a third that many units are being built, on average, per year, according to Steve Smith, executive director of the Apartment Association of New Mexico.

Smith says the occupancy rate in greater Albuquerque has increased one percentage point to 94 percent in the past year. In the past, he says, overflow tenants have opted to purchase single-family homes with the help of subsidies. That option is not as readily available in the current mortgage-crisis climate.

"The lack of apartments could inhibit [economic] growth," says Smith, "but I don't see that happening. I don't think we're going to see as much carnage, fortunately, as in other markets."

Barriers to new multi-family builds include the lack of available land and high construction costs, says Smith.

The developers believe the Uptown Village units will fill up quickly.

"Most of the rental property that has been developed in Albuquerque has done fine," says Kent Collins, a partner at Centro. "I think most of the empty lofts that have been built are for sale."

The Hunt Development Group describes its entire ABQ Uptown project, retail and residential, as "a unique urban community" that, when completed, will be "Albuquerque's newest live-work-play hub."

Hunt will break ground on Phase III, on a now vacant plot of land across the street and to the south of the outdoor shopping center, in early fall 2008, says Stafford.

Phase III will consist of a hotel, for-sale condominiums, offices and what Stafford refers to as "special-purpose retail" -- restaurants and more high-end shopping options for Albuquerque consumers.

toconnell@bizjournals.com | (505) 348-8321