A development plan is in place for 86 apartments and town houses on Fields Lane.
Chas Curtis, a member of the LKS LLC partnership that owns the property about 540 feet south of Airport Road, doesn’t have a developer, architect or general contract lined up yet. However, his development plan for a narrow strip of 6.165 acres passed muster Feb. 2 with the Santa Fe Planning Commission.
“We’re shopping for someone who would like to develop the project,” said Curtis, a native New Mexican who was raised in Alamogordo and has lived in Santa Fe for 20 years. “We put it on the market. We’re looking for the right partner who is looking for a smaller project.”
Curtis has conceptual plans that call for 70 apartments and 16 townhomes in six buildings. Two two-story buildings will have three-bedroom townhomes with front and back yards. Two two-story and two three-story buildings will have 42 one-bedroom and 28 two-bedroom apartments with front and back balconies. Construction likely would take two years, he said.
“I think this year is very reasonable for construction to start,” said Curtis.
Fields Lane is two blocks west of the 296-unit Talavera Apartments and South Meadows Lane. It is a dirt road, but Curtis said the LKS LLC partnership intends to pave it.
“We are improving Fields Lane to a full city street,” he said.
The apartment project sits on a thin strip 1,504 feet long and just 250 feet wide. The southern 3.19 acres has a public trail crossing it and will be preserved as open space, he said.
He envisions Los Alamos employees with easy access to N.M. 599, professionals and families as the likely tenants.
Curtis estimates the one-bedroom units will be about 800 square feet, the two-beds about 1,000 square feet and the three-beds about 1,200 square feet. He doesn’t have any rent estimates.
Curtis follows some 31 other apartment projects in Santa Fe built, under construction or in planning in the past four or so years.
“I think it’s a great place to do it,” he said. “It’s a good time to do it.”
