2016 Project to Watch: Innovate ABQ Campus

August 17, 2016December 8, 2016 School News 2492 Views Arizona Autism Charter Schools, Central U.S., Concord General Contracting, Empower Collegiate Academy, Esperanza Elementary School, Lake Mills Elementary Schools, MetroHealth System of Cleveland, Sky Ridge Medical Center, Westwood High School

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — University of New Mexico Albuquerque officials and local leaders broke ground July 12 on what will eventually be the 160,000-square-foot, six-story Lobo Rainforest Building. The groundbreaking marks the beginning of Phase I of the four-phase, seven-acre InnovateABQ campus project, envisioned to be a multi-dimensional, integrated work, live and play community.

The $35 million Lobo Rainforest Building will provide high-tech research and development facilities for University of New Mexico programs as well as five floors of student housing. This will include the offices of STC.UNM, a nonprofit corporation formed and owned by the University of New Mexico Board of Regents that is currently located on UNM’s South Campus at the Science & Technology Park. The Cecchi VentureLab, an incubator for STC.UNM, and the UNM Innovation Academy, which supports student entrepreneurial training, will also take up residence in the new facility. These offices will be joined by Innovate New Mexico, a statewide technology commercialization program; an Air Force research lab; a credit union branch office; and a café. Floors two through six of the new facility will be reserved for 155 upper-level undergraduate and graduate student suites as well as a fitness area.

“We are planting the first ‘economic tree’ in our desert rainforest,” Robert Frank, president of the University of New Mexico, said in a statement. “This is the result of an idea — a seedling — that took root three and a half years ago, has been nurtured and cultivated by our partners, and will grow into a future harvest of innovation for our state.”

“The Lobo Rainforest Building is an extraordinary opportunity and a catalyst for our city, higher education and downtown,” said Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, who joined in the groundbreaking festivities, in a statement. “This project will help the revitalization of downtown Albuquerque by bringing UNM’s Innovation Academy and student housing to the InnovateABQ site.”

Lisa Kuuttila, CEO and chief economic development officer for STC.UNM, added in a statement issued by the university that working with the Innovation Academy will bring together students, entrepreneurs and researchers, while providing students in particular with “a nurturing environment to test their ideas and start companies.”

A master plan approved by the UNM Board of Regents shows the site could eventually house approximately 824,000 square feet of business and administrative spaces, student housing, research laboratories and possible commercials spaces such as a hotel or retail shops. Such proposed development for the InnovateABQ campus includes renovation of parts of an existing church building located on the site to provide space for offices, community gatherings and event space; parking structures; retail space; and pedestrian-friendly green space, according to a statement by the university.

While, full development of the site could take between 10 and 20 years, university officials anticipate completion of the Lobo Rainforest Building by August 2017.

The development’s project team includes Signet Development with offices in Akron, Ohio and Jacksonville, Fla.; Goodman Realty Group of Albuquerque; the Albuquerque office of Deker/Perich/Sabatini; and Perkins + Will of Atlanta.