A board the New Mexico Legislature created in 2025 to transform the 236-acre State Fairgrounds property in the center of Albuquerque voted Monday to move forward with the first phase of that project, with the help of more than $100 million the Legislature approved in the session earlier this year.
Under the new master plan the board adopted Monday, the southwest corner of the fairgrounds property will make way for new housing, a multi-use stadium and a public park, as well as pedestrian safety improvements at two nearby intersections.
Senate Bill 481 in 2025 created a new tax district board, composed of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other local and state elected officials, and entrusted it with up to $500 million in bonding capacity to transform the fairgrounds. The Legislature approved $92 million in bonds and added an additional $100 million from the state budget in the 30-day session in November.
Marty Chavez, a former Albuquerque mayor who is spearheading the project for the governor’s office, told Source NM on Monday after the meeting that the board’s vote obligates $114 million for the project, including both the $100 million the Legislature approved this year and $14 million from last year’s session that was allocated to the State Fair but never spent.
Designers with Stantec, a firm charged with developing a master plan for the site, revealed its recommendations for “phase one” of the project Monday, following a series of public meetings. The firm estimated that “phase one” will cost $240 million in total.
The firm did not make a recommendation on one possibility that has loomed over the process since it began last summer: relocating the annual State Fair from its home of nearly a century.
According to Stantec’s presentation, the new construction the board approved Monday will enable the fair to stay at its current location for the foreseeable future. Under a timeline the firm presented, the earliest a decision could be made regarding the fair’s future is 2031.
In the meantime, the firm described the project’s first phase as a series of “early wins” that will provide more than 430 units of new housing amid a statewide shortage, as well as a new stadium and pedestrian safety improvements at two of the state’s most dangerous intersections.
The board ultimately voted 6-1 to accept the master plan. The lone “no” vote came from Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, who tried unsuccessfully to postpone the vote until the board received information about the new housing.
“I am not against a stadium. I want due process. I want community and I want things that are binding. So I would have voted yes on this in a month when we had those things,” she said.
The board’s next meeting, scheduled for May 7, will feature more-detailed presentations on new housing and the new stadium, as well as a broader framework for how nearby neighborhoods.
While the plan is approved and the funding obligated, it’s not clear when construction will begin. The state’s General Services Department first needs to acquire a handful of privately owned parcels on the southwest corner of the fairgrounds, which officials said Monday was still in process.
After the vote, Lujan Grisham congratulated board members for what she described as a necessary investment in a long-neglected area.
“Even if we don’t always agree on the nuances, we agree that this is an area [that] for decades has been promised that we would do something here, and nothing has happened,” she said.
