Uptown undertaking: New food hall, office space and park planned for Winrock

Apr. 2—Dirt is being turned over at Winrock Town Center. Behind Dillard's, cranes roll up and down hills, developing Winrock's new 2.5 acre park, which is expected to open in the coming months.

But a new park isn't all that's in the works for the town center at 2100 Louisiana NE. Long known as a retail hub, the amount of office space in the center is minimal. But over the next 2 1/2 years, the amount of office space is expected to skyrocket to almost 100,000 square feet as Winrock developer Goodman Realty embarks on two new office developments — one of which will include a new food hall.

"It really feels like we're at a tipping point," said Darin Sand, senior vice president of Goodman Realty Group, the developer behind Winrock.

First on the agenda is the Portland building, a three-story, mixed-use office building. The company requested construction bids on March 21, and the overall cost is yet to be determined. Goodman Realty hopes to start construction in May and finish the project by spring 2024.

The Albuquerque metro area has long suffered a shortage of office spaces, particularly Class A office spaces — which are located in prime areas and offer the most amenities to tenants.

"I don't know when the last time a new office building was built here," Sand said.

At the end of 2022, office vacancy in the city hit a record low of 10.7%, according to a Jan. 25 report by real estate company CBRE, rounding out seven years of declining vacancies. According to the report, there has been no new office construction since 2018.

The 30,000-square-foot building includes a strip of retail on the bottom that could house up to six tenants. The remaining 20,000 square feet will be earmarked as office space and would be able to house between three and four companies.

The building will neighbor the former Montgomery Ward building, which now houses New Mexico Orthopaedics and will be filled with additional retailers.

The Portland building will look a bit different from the other buildings around Winrock. In fact, it will look different from New Mexican architecture in general. The design is based off of Pacific Northwest design architecture with wood elements — hence, the name Portland. Sand said the design was inspired by Goodman Realty CEO Gary Goodman's love of Oregon.

"That's really where it comes from, Gary's love for the Northwest," Sand said. "We don't have anything like that here that I know of, architecture-wise."

About a year after the Portland building is completed, Sand said, Goodman Realty expects to open a second, larger office space which will include a food hall on the bottom floor.

"This is just the start of the office at Winrock," Sand said.

The second building, which has yet to be named, will include three stories of office space, totaling about 64,000 square feet. The food hall will host about 20 restaurants, and include a mezzanine and outdoor beer patio, facing the planned amphitheater in the park.

The Portland building and the second office building will straddle the parking garage, bridged together by the patio.

"Picture: While you're typing, looking out big windows, then coming downstairs for a meeting or two at the food hall, or meeting people in the park," Sand said.

The food hall will be kitty-corner to Park Square Market, the Uptown new food hall announced last week by Sawmill Market developer Heritage Hotels & Resorts. The two new projects would join a growing portfolio of food halls in the Albuquerque metro area, including Green Jeans Farmery, Tin Can Alley and Central 505 Food Hall.

Winrock Town Center opened in 1961. By the early 2000s, the shopping center was nearly vacant, with the notable exception of anchor tenant Dillard's, which has remained open since the Winrock location opened in 1992. Goodman Realty bought the property in 2007 from the longtime owner PruWinrock LLC.

Sand says Goodman hopes the new focus on office space, as well as other amenities, will draw in large out-of-state corporations.

"With the central location, tremendous access right off of I40 ... and all the amenities here, if they're seeking a place where their employees would really desire to come to work and attract them," Sand said, "I don't know where else you would want to go."