By Cooper Metts, Albuquerque Business First
September 24, 2024
Sol Housing will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for a senior apartment community in east Albuquerque on Central Avenue.
The Farolito Senior Community will be a 80,310-square-foot complex located at 10501 Central Ave. NE. The City of Albuquerque issued a $6.5 million permit for the 82-unit development Sept. 19.
Jaynes Corp. is the contractor, and Dekker is the architect for the four-story building that will offer one- and two-bedroom apartments. Planning for the project began in late 2022, Sol Housing Executive Director Felipe Rael said.
Construction is expected to begin by the end of September and finish in 17 months with leasing getting underway in the fourth quarter of 2025, Rael said. The project will cost $27.3 million in total.
Rents for affordable housing units, which comprise 85% of all the community’s units, will range from $442 to $1,108, Rael said. Rents for market-rate apartments will range from $1,200 to $1,350.
Amenities will include a community room, dog wash, dog park, on-site property management and a multi-purpose space.
The Farolito community is being built in response to continued demand for senior housing, Rael said. For example, Sol Housing has 456 people on its wait list for Luminaria Senior Community, which has just 92 units. Sol Housing built the Luminaria Senior Community at 10600 Central Ave. SE in 2022.
And New Mexico is on track to have one of the the highest percentages of people 65 years old and over in the country by 2030, according to census data referenced in a Sol Housing news release.
Sol Housing received a 60-year lease for the Farolito Senior Community site from the New Mexico State Land Office in December 2022. Its lease payments are expected to generate $1.9 million for New Mexico public schools, according to the news release.
The Farolito Senior Community will employ a maintenance worker and manager with wages ranging from $63,000 to $69,000, Rael said. Hiring is expected to begin in about a year.
It will also be a work site for the YouthBuild Program, a pre-apprenticeship program that provides occupational certification for youth ages 16-24 facing barriers to employment. The U.S. Department of Labor awarded Youth Development Inc. $1.5 million to administer the program over the next three years.
This article orignally appeared in Albuquerque Business First.