Rail Runner to begin abbreviated route Last Update: 06/28/2006 10:13:00 AMBy: Reed Upton The Middle Rio Grande’s commuter rail line is within weeks of beginning service, but it will have fewer stops than it will when full service begins. On July 14th the Rail Runner will begin offering service from downtown Albuquerque to Bernalillo with stops at Alvarado Station, Paseo del Norte and US 550 in Bernalillo. Missing will be stops in downtown Bernalillo, Los Lunas and Belen. “I would have preferred to have the whole corridor in place,” said executive director Lawrence Rael, “but construction schedules being what they are, negotiations with the Burlington Northern (railway) did not occur as quickly as we would have liked.” Officials estimate the train will make the run from downtown Albuquerque to northern Bernalillo in 18 minutes. When the trains initially begin running there will be no charge. Come October, a one-way trip aboard the Rail Runner will cost $2.

Report says Albuquerque hotels a bargain this summer New Mexico Business Weekly - 2:18 PM MDT Wednesday Albuquerque will have some of the lowest hotel rates in the nation this summer, according to a report by PKF Hospitality Research . The average room rate in Albuquerque will be about $67.95, according to the summer edition of Hotel Outlook by PKF and Torto Wheaton Research . This puts the Duke City behind markets such as Tucson, Ariz. and Columbus and Dayton, Ohio. New York will have the highest average room rate at $200.28, followed by Honolulu and San Francisco. Overall across the country, hotel rooms will be harder to find compared to last year and travelers will pay more for these rooms, according to the report. "Given the increasingly sophisticated yield management practices within the hotel industry, the high occupancy rates are enabling managers to more aggressively quote the highest room rates," said Mark Woodworth, president of PKF, based in Atlanta. That's...

Cashing in on the last of the hot spots. Spotlight: Albuquerque Keep your head during a boom and you'll keep more of your gains over the long run. By Amanda Gengler, MONEY Magazine reporter May 17, 2006: 4:27 PM EDT NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - In early spring a TV news report on KASA Channel 2 in Albuquerque noted that the housing market nationwide was slowing down, with mortgage rates and inventory rising and demand slackening. "Now with all that said, by all accounts here in New Mexico things are still red hot," quipped Greg Zanetti, a local financial adviser. "But we are usually a little behind national trends." The Archibeck family economized when renovating their 1961 Albuquerque home, maximizing their return on investment. Indeed, Albuquerque missed much of the great bull market in houses. Between 2000 and 2004, median prices appreciated no more than 5% a year. But as other sunbelt cities are cooling, Albuquerque has started sizzling. Call it the rollin...

Thu Jun 22 10:12:25 2006 Pacific Time Jacksonville, Albuquerque Have Largest City Park Systems; New Facts on City Parks Released WASHINGTON, June 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- The 56 largest cities in the United States have a total of 745,000 acres of parks, with Jacksonville, Fla., and Albuquerque, N.M., each leading the list of largest city park systems, according to a new study of urban parks released today by The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a nationwide nonprofit which works to protect parks and open space. For total size, Jacksonville is number one, with almost 98,000 acres of parks and preserves, including water preserves. In addition, when measured on an acres-per-capita basis, Jacksonville also ranks first with 126 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. However, when parkland is measured as a portion of the total size of the city, the leader is Albuquerque, with more than one-quarter of its land protected as public open space. The TPL study...

Real estate prices won't decline substantiallyFriday, June 23, 2006 By Glenn Roberts Jr. Inman News Delores Conway, USC's Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast SAN FRANCISCO -- Unless there are substantial job losses, the real estate market appears on track for a soft landing, said economists for University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate. "We don't believe the housing market is going to fall off a cliff. We don't really subscribe to the hard-landing story," said Stuart Gabriel, Lusk Center director, during a presentation Thursday at the annual PCBC event, a conference for home builders held at San Francisco's Moscone Center. This is, however, a time of "stagflation," or economic stagnation coupled with inflation, Gabriel said, and the real estate market is losing steam -- with a general slowing in price-appreciation and sales. Higher interest rates and energy costs, and reduced refinancing activity are also taking a to...

Have you ever wished a real estate agent would write a book telling you how to sell your home? Well, I'm doing it - and it will be available later this year. If you would like to reserve your free copy (to the first 50 people who request it!) please email me at Linda@RealEstateInABQ.com or call me at 505-271-6328 and leave your name and phone number - I will get back to you right away. It has lots of helpful hints about what helps, what doesn't, and little "secrets of the trade". I look forward to hearing from you!

Last Update: 06/21/2006 3:51:24 PMBy: Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Regents of the University of New Mexico have inked a deal selling more than 3,000 acres for Mesa del Sol. That’s a long-planned development of nearly 13,000 acres in southeast Albuquerque. The university sold its acreage for $9 million to Forest City Covington, which is developing Mesa del Sol, which could be home to up to 80,000 people in 50 years. In the next few years, Mesa del Sol is forecast to have 500 to 800 houses by 2008. About $7.5 million of the sale signed Tuesday will go to a scholarship fund. UNM also kept 280 acres in Mesa del Sol for its own uses. (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Forest City to co-develop N. Mexico project Linked articles » Retail growth in store for Forest City » Forest City unit buys out N.Y. project partner » Forest City to develop Virginia 'lifestyle' center Related Links Forest City Enterprises Inc. By LESLIE STROOPE 2:09 pm, June 21, 2006 A joint venture between Cleveland-based real estate developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: FCEA) (NYSE: FCEB) and Covington NM LLC has spent $9 million to purchase 3,000 acres in Albuquerque, N.M., from the University of New Mexico.Forest City Covington NM LLC’s land buy comes as part of a mixed-use development agreement the entity signed with government and university officials in 2005 to develop 9,000 acres at the Mesa del Sol site over “several decades,” according to a Forest City Enterprises statement. Forest City Covington has the option to buy the remaining 6,000 acres of land from the New Mexico State Land office, according to the statement."Mesa del Sol demonstrates our c...

America's Smartest Cities 10 Albuquerque Here is the biggest surprise in the top 10. Albuquerque doesn't get the credit it deserves for brainpower. It's the home of the University of New Mexico, and it's less than 100 miles from Los Alamos National Laboratory, a center for nuclear, biomedical and energy research. Percentage of city adults who stopped at each level: Earned a graduate and/or professional degree: 13.4% Earned a bachelor's degree: 18.4% Earned an associate degree: 5.9% Went to college, but didn't earn a degree: 24.2% Graduated from high school: 24.1% Dropped out of high school: 14.1% Summary of results Rankings for 53 biggest cities Bottom cities Previous

New Mexico Business Weekly - 2:43 PM MDT Monday NTS Technical Systems , a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Technical Systems Inc. , has acquired B & B Technologies Inc. in Albuquerque. B & B designs and integrates test, measurement, automation, data acquisition and control systems. Over the past 14 years, it has developed relationships with defense, aerospace and commercial companies such as Sandia National Laboratories , Honeywell (NYSE: HON) and General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). National Technical Systems (Nasdaq: NTSC) is an engineering firm based in Calabasas, Calif. Lance Butler, CEO of B & B, says his firm's services are complementary to those of NTS. The two companies work for many of the same customers, Butler says, doing adjacent services but not overlapping. "We build test systems and they do testing," he says. B & B, which has been in business for 14 years and has 13 employees, will stay in Albuquerque, Butler adds. The acquisition by NTS was ...

Green-built homes come into their own By NANCY SALEMScripps Howard News Service 31-MAY-06 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- In home building, green is the new black. No more weird architecture, clunky solar panels and wacky materials. Green building has been ushered into the mainstream by a construction industry and public concerned about energy conservation and health. "It's the right thing to do," says Jim Folkman, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico. "We're responding to the marketplace, which is demanding more green products and a healthier environment." Albuquerque raised its profile in the national green scene last week when the board of the Home Builders of Central New Mexico voted into place a green building certification program that follows new guidelines set by The 230,000-member National Association of Home Builders unveiled new guidelines for its green building certification program at the association's Nati...