TIDDFACTS

Albuquerque Journal

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Council Approves TIDDs for Uptown Developments

By Tamara N. Shope

Journal Staff Writer

Concerns over increased traffic, developer "handouts" and a general feeling of being rushed to vote were not enough to stop city councilors from approving money for two Uptown-area mixed-use lifestyle centers.

The City Council on Monday night voted 6-3 to commit to a major public/private investment for the projects. Winrock Partners LLC and Hunt Uptown LLC, the groups behind the ambitious redevelopment of the areas immediately northeast of Louisiana Boulevard and Interstate 40, asked the council to make the area two tax increment development districts, or TIDDs.

Councilor Sally Mayer sponsored the measure, saying Albuquerque has a major opportunity.

"This is good for the city," she said in urging the councilors to side with her and the developers.

The Winrock redevelopment, by Winrock Partners LLC, covers about 83 acres. Quorum, by Hunt Uptown LLC, is about 7.5 acres. The two developments - which are separate from each other - will together cost $650 million, about $150 million of it for public infrastructure.

A TIDD allows a developer to sell bonds to cover upfront costs for infrastructure, then pay back the bonds with gross receipts and property tax revenues generated by the new development.

Developers of Winrock and Quorum - an extension of ABQ Uptown - will receive 75 percent of the future property tax revenue and 70 percent of gross receipts tax revenue spread over 25 years.

Those figures are slightly less than the original request of 75 percent for both types of tax revenues. The original figures would have given $22.5 million for the Quorum project and $124.8 million for Winrock. Adjusted numbers were not immediately available after the council meeting.

In addition to some councilors' concerns, a nearby neighborhood association spoke against the Quorum project. The Inez Neighborhood Association had filed an appeal with the Environmental Planning Commission on Sept. 29, concerned about the amount of traffic and parked cars that will be forced to use Indian School Road.

"I think it is contrary to standard practice to leapfrog simply getting approval of the EPC and suddenly finding it before the council," said neighborhood association president Evelyn Feltner.

The neighborhood's appeal had no bearing on Monday night's proceedings, however, because the TIDD issue is a financial one while the appeal addresses land-use. The TIDD could go forward regardless of the outcome of the appeal, but if the EPC agrees with the neighborhood, it could force Quorum developers to rethink the scope of the project.

Supporters of the redevelopments, including the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, said TIDDs are "an important tool in the land-use development toolbox."

Councilor Rey Garduño, who voted against the district formations, also voiced concern over giving TIDD approval to areas that are not in dire economic need. He said he was concerned that the city is putting a strain on the amount of money that would be available to help more blighted areas redevelop.

"The toolbox is getting pretty empty," he said.

The Quorum project is the third phase of the ABQ Uptown development. It calls for a high-end, mixed-use design that will include retail, housing, a hotel, office space and parking structures. The Winrock Center redevelopment will include posh office space, retail and restaurants, as well as an IMAX theater, public gathering spaces and a "miniature Rio Grande."

To build these projects as planned would require an enormous amount of public investment, said Gary Goodman of Winrock Partners. If the TIDDs had been denied, Goodman's development would have been scrapped in favor of a more traditional, big-box kind of development.

After the council voted for the project, developer Gary Goodman, who is working on Winrock, said his group will work hard to make the project successful.

"I'm very gratified," he said in an interview. "It makes us realize we have a lot of responsibility, and we're going to try to come through."