Mayor Tim Keller said Thursday he wants to take another shot at giving the power of Downtown Albuquerque back to Downtown.
In a press conference at the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce with Councilor Joaquín Baca, Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency Director Terry Brunner and others, Keller announced plans for a new Downtown business improvement district (BID) and a tax increment financing (TIF) district designed to use money generated in the city’s core to pay for improvements there.
He said so far Downtown revitalization has not materialized because city leaders have failed to seek input from those with the most at stake.
“Part of the problem has been politicians,” Keller said. “The way we have looked (for) a singular, magical person or idea to save downtown is the problem; that attitude is the problem. Downtown has to save itself, but we’re going to help and we’re going to put skin in the game, and we’re going to be there because we’re part of downtown.”
The business improvement district, Keller said, will allow downtown business owners to help decide what programs are enacted in the area. State law gives business improvement districts the power to make and finance improvements within their boundaries.
BIDs are funded by an assessment on participating property owners and governed by a board of directors. The city could enter agreements with a BID to put it in charge of services such as parking, security, and street cleaning, according to the news release. City officials say that would give property owners the autonomy to manage those services according to their needs.
Keller said Albuquerque adopted tax increment financing more than 20 years ago, but never implemented a program.
“Starting this week, we are going to implement that old law, which means we’re going to start gathering property tax for downtown,” he said, adding that the Bernalillo County Assessor’s Office has already confirmed the city can implement a property tax-based TIF district immediately, and another based on gross receipts tax revenues in early 2025.
A Downtown TIF district could produce $200 million over 20 years, officials said at the press conference. That money can be reinvested in Downtown properties, businesses, and other activities.
Keller said his administration will ask the City Council for the authority to create the improvement district. Keller said that’s has been tried in the past, but the city took a hands-off approach and left the community to run things for itself.
“Now we’re going to do this again, but the city is going to be a member of that as well,” Keller said. “This is going to help in all sorts of things with respect to how we beautify and invest in downtown, and how we also keep it clean and safe, because the city is gonna be a partner, truly a partner. We are not going to be just telling everyone what to do.”
Keller said. The last part of the new effort will be stepping up the city’s approach to holding absentee landlords accountable.
“This has been a long-standing issue Downtown,” he said. “We are going to be proposing a host of changes specifically for Downtown to deal with these buildings that have been owned by folks from out of state for generations and are not doing their part to lift up Downtown — or frankly to fill that vacancy, or even just to sell the property, which has been an issue. I mean, sometimes they don’t even answer the phone.”
Any more details on how the administration intends to solve the absentee landlord issue? It seems that to truly revitalize downtown, we need both carrots and sticks. The TIF may lead to funds that buy a bunch of crunchy carrots. I’ve long wanted to see a vacancy tax placed on buildings in the core as a meaningful stick to drum up activity.
Like the Mayor says, we’ve tried this before. One of the reasons is the imbalance of property taxes. There is only a handful of major, privately owned properties which produce a meaningful level of taxes. Excepting those, probably a majority of the remaining land is off the books. Albuquerque City Hall, the Plaza, Bernalillo County government building, all the Court houses, and more. Is Jim Long on board with this?