San Mateo Towers redevelopment stays on track despite stalled look

Overgrown weeds and broken, boarded windows still ring 300 San Mateo Blvd. NE, but San Mateo Towers has not stalled. Blythe Metz, CEO of Metz Kelly, said, “Floors one through eight have been cleared and to a point in which we are now working through our mechanical systems and our delivery systems.”

Crews broke ground on the redevelopment in January, and the project is being branded by the City of Albuquerque as Park Central. The goal is to create more affordable housing and re-beautify the long-vacant towers near San Mateo Boulevard and Central Avenue.

The redevelopment is expected to include 313 units and a memory care facility, adding a mix of housing and care uses to a site that has sat visibly empty for years. On Dec. 19, 2024, the Albuquerque Development Commission approved $2 million in gap financing for the Park Central Apartments project, giving the plan a formal public-finance backstop as it moved through the city process.

Neighbors had good reason to view the property as a problem site before construction began. Katherine Turner, vice president of the Fair West Neighborhood Association, said the windows had been broken, the buildings had been occupied, and there had been fire at the tower. Albuquerque Police Department and special operation teams later cleared the San Mateo towers after reports of squatters, crime and drug use inside the building slated for affordable housing.

From the street, the towers still look unfinished, but the work inside has moved past demolition and into the building systems.