For Midtown Campus, ‘We don’t Want a Place that is “Them” and “Us” ’

Teya Vitu
Santa Fe New Mexican

If there was a critical moment in the search for a midtown campus master developer, it might have come in September.

That’s when officials from KDC Real Estate Development & Investments/Cienda Partners met Mike Loftin, CEO of Santa Fe’s Homewise.

As executives with the Dallas-based company and Loftin visited the onetime college campus during city-sanctioned tours of the 64-acre property in the fall, a critical connection was made. Before long, the two entities — a major national real estate and investment firm with its footprint in major markets and a small, local nonprofit that for years has been central to affordable housing discussions in Santa Fe — decided to team up.

Days after the city’s governing body decided to enter into exclusive negotiations with KDC/Cienda as midtown’s master developer, it’s increasingly apparent housing — and perhaps Homewise’s expertise in local market-rate and affordable housing — were important to the selection.

Though Mayor Alan Webber stressed the specifics for affordable housing and all other aspects of the project will be hashed out in the year or so of negotiations with KDC/Cienda, he acknowledged the affordable housing component had long been critical.

“My guess is we will probably have 20 [percent] to 30 percent for lower income people with needs and probably the next 20 [percent] to 30 percent for lower middle income,” Webber said of a midtown housing component that could offer anywhere between 1,200 and 1,700 units. “More than 50 percent will be for people working hard to make ends meet.”

Webber acknowledged KDC/Cienda’s alliance with Homewise and Loftin may have been important to the 11-member committee that recommended the selection of the Dallas firm. Homewise is part of a 17-member team of all-New Mexico partners that KDC/Cienda assembled to carry out the project.

“I was very impressed by the local representation the master developer [KDC/Cienda] put together,” Webber said. “They are really aware that housing is the glue that keeps the other uses together.”

Loftin said Homewise was among 14 applicants to submit ideas for smaller projects within the campus site, initially “pushing to do 30 [percent] to 40 percent affordable,” he said. But while affordable homes will be important, he said creating mixed-income possibilities will add financial feasibility and social diversity.

“Market-rate homes can help pay for affordable homes,” he said. “If we do mixed income, we can get more units of affordable housing. The mix of income is really important. We don’t want a place that is ‘them’ and ‘us.’ ”

Loftin said he doesn’t have a template the midtown project could follow, but he did mention he drew inspiration from Pike Place Market in Seattle, which features a senior center, a neighborhood health outlet, child care, a preschool and several housing structures with affordable-housing and market-rate residents.

“They really got a diverse mix of uses,” Loftin said. “People live there, shop there.”

Mixed housing does not get universal applause, however.

University of New Mexico School of Architecture professor Renia Ehrenfeucht said the city would be wise to back an all-affordable housing concept.

“We should be thinking of what we need,” said Ehrenfeucht, chairwoman of the community and regional planning department at UNM. “There’s no fear that we are creating a ghetto. I don’t think there is a danger of that. Santa Fe needs affordable housing.”

But others point to the trend that indicates mixed-income housing has become a 21st-century beacon to raise the quality of life for low-income residents by mixing affordable units with market-rate dwellings. Generally, affordable housing built with low-income housing tax credits looks just like market-rate housing.

“If you do it all 100 percent affordable, you won’t get a cross-section of what Santa Fe is all about,” said Jeff Branch, CEO of Columbus Capital, which built Santa Fe’s market-rate San Isidro Apartments and affordable housing-rate San Ignacio Apartments next to each other.

Still, the debate over mixed-use marked Monday’s City Council meeting.

Tomás Rivera, director of economic and social justice organization Chainbreaker Collective, said he was pleased City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler advocated for affordable housing rather than mixed rate during her opposition to the negotiation agreement with KDC/Cienda.

“The reality is, we need to see the whole spectrum of housing, but we need to address the greatest need, which is for deeply affordable housing,” Rivera said.

Orange County, Calif., developer Steve Semingson said high-end and low-end neighborhoods in Southern California both tend to oppose affordable housing projects.

“I think a lot of it depends on the constituents in neighboring areas, the folks not just benefitting by the housing but also those affected by it,” he said. “Sociologists will tell you 300, 400, 500 affordable units in one spot doesn’t work that well, either.”

John Rizzo, who led one of the master developer teams that was not selected for the 64-acre midtown campus, observed there probably is room for both options.

“You get diversity in the community and you get the ability to meet people in all walks of life,” he said. “There’s plenty of room for both in something the size of midtown.”

The New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness also favors mixed housing, said Executive Director Hank Hughes.

“It’s not such a good idea to have one income group living there, so it’s not just a ghetto of one type of people,” he said.

Daniel Werwath, chief operating officer at New Mexico Inter-Faith Housing, a Santa Fe affordable housing developer and property management firm, said he wants to see affordable housing at the midtown campus that exceeds the city’s “inclusionary zoning program” requirement of setting aside 15 percent of new housing developments as affordable housing.

Werwath noted the city continues to face $2.2 million in annual debt service on the campus through 2036 or whenever the note is paid off. He said he believes a key component in the next phase of negotiations between the city and KDC/Cienda will be over which entity carries the debt. The outcome, he said, could determine exactly how much affordable housing will be built.

“With the city’s debt on the property, the midtown campus is not leveraged well for affordable housing,” he said. “The city hasn’t really signaled whether they are willing to invest their debt into affordable housing.

“The city needs to say we need to carry the debt forward if it means more affordable housing,” Werwath said.