The announcement of the Albuquerque Rapid Transit has had a lasting effect on the value of city building permits within five-eights of a mile stretching along the proposed ART corridor.
Following the initial announcement of the new transit line, residential and commercial building permits were valued at a little more than $23,200 between March 1st, 2015 to July 20th, 2015.
This summer, permits value at $28,478,182, amounting to an increase of 12 percent.
Joanie Griffin, official spokesperson for ART, said the team was aware of the predicted increase to come.
“Our consultants anticipated transit oriented development in the next decade to be in the $1 to $2 billion range,” she said.
Businesses on Central Avenue have been vocal of their support for ART, or lack thereof, but Griffin is confident in the transit’s future and the effects on Albuquerque.
“This means increased property values and increased business," she said. "We are anticipating increased transit usage once ART is finished next year. It should be great news for the local businesses."
The ART corridor, located between Coors and Louisiana Boulevards, is an area thick with pedestrians and, according to the “Mythbusters” packet recently released by the city to cast out false rumors, those pedestrians will be safer when ART is finished.
“When ART construction is complete, 97 percent of the sidewalks from Coors to Louisiana will be at least six feet wide, a significant improvement from current conditions,” according to the packet.
New Mexico is not the safest city for pedestrians, and not just those on foot as the state is currently ranked the second deadliest for bicyclists.
According to the packet, the ART line will provide improved pedestrian lighting and more landscaping adjacent to pedestrian areas along the corridor as well.
In addition, no existing sidewalk widths will be reduced while the removal of obstructions on sidewalks and ramp improvements will improve wheelchair accessibility, providing for a better pedestrian experience.
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Benny Perea, who works along the future ART corridor at Sachs Body Modification, said he has used local transit for years and understands the factors that affect a bus ride.
“Honestly, the bus system has always been the bus and you know its hit or miss sometimes,” Perea said. “Because you can get some crazy people on the bus, you can get like a bad driver, it just totally depends on the situation."
However, Perea is optimistic for ART and not worried about the year long construction in the heart of the city that is set to be completed in late 2017.
“Honestly, I feel like it kinda draws our clientele in,” Perea said. “I feel like a lot of time when people see construction they’re not, you know, they’re not diverted from it. They’re like, 'Oh what’s going on over here?' Then they see our shop. They’re like oh this is an eccentric tattoo body piercing shop. Let’s see what’s going on. They might want to get something done, tattooed or pierced.”
Closer to campus, even businesses with existing foot traffic are seeing negative impacts, including Larry Raimosek, who owns the popular Frontier Restaurant.
Raimosek said the loss of many left turn lanes has already begun to affect one of Frontier’s sister restaurants, Golden Pride, which relies heavily on drive-thru customers in an area with minimal pedestrian traffic.
“We have seen a decrease at our west central store Golden Pride. It’s been (down) to one lane of traffic a significant number of times. Periodically they open it up because we’ve had PNM there moving the electric lines and then we’ve had the water department working,” he said.
Since construction, Raimosek said the worst drop in business thus far has been 13 percent, with congestion anxiety leading to less customers in the area.
“So it’s significant and it’s because we do over half our business in the drive-thru at that location. Not having the vehicular access right now, even though we still have the left turn but people just get frustrated sitting in traffic,” Raimosek said.
There is currently a Rapid Ride bus stop right in front of Frontier at first, something that Raimosek was optimistic about upon its arrival.
“We signed up for that 12 years ago. We felt it was a good way to increase our business because all these people would end up unloading right there in front of our store, but we have not seen a benefit from it,” he said.
According to Raimosek, bus riders needing to use the restroom or loitering inside the restaurant cause negative impacts on paying customers.
“The only good thing I can see about this new rapid (line) is that it’ll take that bus stop away from our front door. It’ll be over on the west side of Cornell. That by no means is a good reason to be for it. I’m very much against the rapid in the center lanes,” he said.
Raimosek is also worried about the traffic that will divert to other neighboring streets.
“We in business bank on having those vehicles passing by our front door because that’s how locations are evaluated," he said. "The more traffic you have, the more accessibility to your business, the better your location is and the better chance that you’re gonna succeed.”
Raimosek and other local business owners along Central have a solution: improve the existing bus system.
He said It would even still be cheaper to replace the existing buses.
“They’re saying that on the new bus system they’re going to have security and they’re going to keep it clean. Well, why not keep the buses cleaner and have more security on the existing rapid? Then, more people will ride it," he said.
The city's chief operations officer, Michael Riordan, is pleased with the increase in value of building permits in the corridor.
“Seeing this type of growth along the Central corridor from Coors to Louisiana is representative of the continued transit-oriented development expected to come with improved transit options in the area,” Riordan said. “This growth spike correlates to what other cities have experienced when announcing bus rapid transit systems."
"Economic Development studies have shown that people choose to live, work, and spend money in areas more easily accessible by public transportation systems.”
