Albuquerque Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency

Albuquerque Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency promotes redevelopment (both housing and commercial) in distressed neighborhoods. This is accomplished through strategic planning, creating Metropolitan Redevelopment Areas, working with community groups and leaders to establish their priorities, purchasing property for projects that can act as an anchor for other new development in the area, issuing Requests for Proposals to develop the City owned property and then setting up public/private partnerships where the private sector is the developer.

Metropolitan Redevelopment Areas -

For access to detailed, interactive, on-line information for designated Metropolitian Redevelopment areas please check the City of Albuquerque's GIS website.

The Near Heights Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Plan, home of the Talin International Market, Chinese Dragon, and tiled artwork depicting world cultures recently received Albuquerque City Council approval to expand the MRA area. The expanded Near Heights MRA zoning and land use area maps and redevelopment designation [pdf 4049 kb] can be found at the preceeding links. Contact Ralph Mims for more information or 924-3472.

Albuquerque's Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency is responsible for infill development in established Metropolitan Redevelopment Areas (MRAs), and in accordance with the Centers and Corridors approach to development outlined in the Comprehensive Plan and the City of Albuquerque's goals. The Centers and Corridors concept provides a rational framework for the efficient allocation of public and private resources, concentrating on land uses for greater efficiency, stability, image, diversity and control. MRAs and Centers and Corridors are the areas where problems caused by lack of investment and deterioration have created the need for special intervention on the part of the City. The Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency promotes the development of neighborhoods through housing and commercial revitalization. To accomplish these goals, we work closely with community organizations, neighborhood organizations and developers. The Agency utilizes resources of the Metropolitan Redevelopment Fund and Federal Community Development Block Grants, as well as other funds that include local and state capital funds.

A major impediment to restoring sites to their former economic usefulness can be environmental issues. Whether real or perceived, older neighborhoods suffer from blighted conditions caused by properties that have deteriorated to a point that they are too costly to redevelop. The City's Brownfields program is aimed at identifying and remediating environmental contamination on project sites, such as Old Albuquerque High School, the Bell Trading Post and the Hyder Property, as part of the redevelopment process. The program is ongoing and funded by grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Contact Cynthia Borrego at (505)924-3335 or carchuleta@cabq.gov.