The City of Las Cruces is continuing their downtown revitalization efforts with the new Amador Project, which hopes to bring new restaurants, and retail space to the Downtown area.
The new Amador project is a development that will be located next to the Historic Amador Hotel, at the current location of My Brother’s Place Restaurant and Billiard’s Parlor.
Max Bower, Vice President of GMB Development New Mexico, says this will be the largest development project downtown in decades.
“The plaza work has kind of gotten the ball rolling,” Bower said. “And there has been more and more interest in doing things downtown, what’s unique about the Amador Project is that it combines a lot of goals in one shot. We’re taking care of office space needs for the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, we’re doing work on the historic Amador Hotel, which will bring that building back into productivity if you will. Then of course adding services and venues downtown for everybody.”
The new development will have space for restaurants, retail space, and a live event venue. City Councilor Greg Smith says this is an important project because this is the gateway to downtown.
“We will see the excitement downtown,” Smith said. “We’ll see the opportunities, we’ll see the Amador Hotel appropriately rehabilitated and historically preserved, and we’ll see other activities down there, so it all ties in with things that we’ve been wanting to happen, and certainly it will sort of link in with the two-way conversions that we’re doing on Water St. and Church St., and the completion of the plaza and several other things.”
Mayor Ken Miyagishima says the new restaurant and retail space can help draw more business and development to the downtown area.
“Well one of the things that our developer was telling us and the consultants that they work with,” Miyagishima said. “Is the 10-10-10 rule, about having different venues of the same type, 10 different restaurants, or ten different pubs to draw from, 10 different retail stores. So, it’s important that the public have a variety when they come downtown. It’s not just one or two things.”
The city is spending $6.5 million dollars that will be paid to GMB in stages as construction work is completed, at completion the city will own the property.
Max Bower says they have already heard interest from businesses looking to rent space.
“We have several tenants that are already issuing letters of intent,” Bower said. “To essentially, be in a position to take the space once it’s complete. We’re still working on the plan, so we have to get through the balance of the plans first, so they can see what they are leasing, but there is a lot of interest. I think that the leasing of the space is actually going to happen a lot quicker than originally anticipated.”
The project is still in the planning stages, but Bower says they are hoping to have the project completed by October 2017.
