Author
By Jesse Jones, The Paper. — The long-promised Uptown Connect housing project at Albuquerque’s Uptown transit hub is finally moving toward construction, with $31.2 million in new financing approved this week. But the project looks different on paper than it did last year, with fewer apartments, a lower price tag and a different financing package.
The Paper.’s City Desk reported last September that Uptown Connect was expected to cost about $120 million and include 239 apartments, with 203 affordable units. The latest plans on the city’s Uptown Connect webpage show the project has been scaled back to 198 apartments, including 176 affordable units and 22 market-rate units. In August 2025, we reported Bernalillo County had authorized up to $46 million in project revenue bonds for Uptown Connect. On Sept. 22, the Bernalillo County Commission unanimously approved up to $23.8 million in project revenue bonds, down from the $46 million previously authorized for the project and its current cost is about $111 million.
The city announced the project secured $31.2 million in new financing. The New Mexico State Board of Finance approved $23.8 million in private activity bonds Sept. 15 and the Housing New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority Board approved $7.4 million in loans Sept. 16. The financing will help close a funding gap and secure tax-exempt financing, while the county also approved a 17-year property tax exemption. Replacing the ABQ RIDE transfer station, Uptown Connect will include two five-story buildings, a parking garage, a public plaza and more than 18,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The city previously listed a summer 2026 groundbreaking, but the county now expects construction to begin in the first quarter of 2027. County documents estimate construction will take two years.