The Albuquerque City Council on Monday night approved a $30 million industrial revenue bond (IRB) for a professional soccer stadium at Balloon Fiesta Park.
Yes: Joaquín Baca, Dan Champine, Tammy Fiebelkorn, Renée Grout, Dan Lewis, Klarissa Peña, Nichole Rogers, Louie Sanchez
No: Brook Bassan
Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn asked Christopher Chavez, a manager with the Economic Development Department, to clear up any misconception that the IRB would use city taxpayer dollars.
“Industrial revenue bonds are an incentive we use to provide a tax abatement to a project,” Chavez said. “It’s a 20 year abatement on real and personal property taxes. The company, or the team in this case, is responsible for the purchase of the bonds…there’s no city funds that go to this. The 30 million that is stated in the application, refers to the amount of investment that the team is making.”
City Council President Brook Bassan was the only one to vote against the bill, citing concerns with an existing appeal.
“I declined sponsorship of this bill,” Bassan said. “There’s currently a land use hearing appeal occurring on this matter, so I have some concerns… What is the urgency to get this IRB secured now, before the matters of an appeal are resolved?”
Chavez said, “there are a lot of costs associated with it.”
“The company has to hire a bond council and we go through this entire process,” Chavez said. “What we’re essentially getting to the point with this legislation, is that in the eventualities that it does move forward, everything is in place and then the company would be able to go to purchase the bonds and get everything all lined up. We’re just basically getting everything set up, and then once all the other issues get resolved, the team will be able to move at an appropriate pace.”
The council originally approved building a stadium at the balloon park in 2023, and since then the issue has bounced between the city’s Environmental Planning Commission, a hearing officer and the council. Professional soccer team New Mexico United has committed to pay the majority of building costs and the city agreed to use state capital outlay money toward infrastructure improvements, including new permanent bathrooms.