Innovate ABQ sent out a Request for Statements of Interest and Qualifications last week, hoping to get private companies to submit proposals for contracts to build on the new campus. They will be accepting statements of interest until Feb. 20.
Perkins and Will, the Atlanta-based firm leading the development of Innovate, is currently working on its master plan for the site and wants to begin making partnerships with private sector developers.
“We want to start getting developers lined up, so that as approval happens there is a line of developers there to get the work started,” UNM President Bob Frank said. “Remember, this whole Innovate idea is a public-private partnership. Now this is the private part coming to bear. This isn’t University money being spent on these projects, it’s private money.”
A significant amount of public money has already been secured for the project, including $2 million from the city, a $3 million gift from the New Mexico Educators Credit Union, a $1.4 million economic development grant and $800,000 from UNM. Frank said he does not anticipate UNM spending any more of its own money on the project.
The private developers Innovate is looking to partner with would be building specific businesses and facilities on the Innovate campus, such as restaurants, coffee shops, and a large privately managed residence hall similar to Lobo Village.
The campus may also be split up into distinct blocks with different specialties, like food, music and other focuses.
Perkins and Will still needs to present their master plan to the Innovate ABQ board and to the Board of Regents, and a site manager still needs to be selected before construction can begin, Frank said.
“Building this project is a synergistic thing. It all comes together because all these people interact with each other. It’s a moment to moment thing, and we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen,” Frank said. “There’s a lot of things that need to come together that haven’t happened yet.”
The Innovate ABQ board originally consisted of nine members, but after receiving criticism for not being diverse enough, UNM decided to expand the board to 11 members. The remaining board members still need to be selected and approved as well, Frank said.
One aspect of the Innovate project is already underway. The Innovation Academy, which is the academic arm of the project, is scheduled to launch in the fall. The faculty is still working on curriculum and hammering out all the details, but essentially it will consist of a program of ongoing classes across many different majors, with a focus on entrepreneurism, Frank said.
Students would take some classes on campus, some classes at the Innovate ABQ campus, and would be set on a track toward small business internships. Students might graduate with a sort of entrepreneurism minor, and by the time they graduate they would have developed their own small business plan and would be connected to resources to help make their vision a reality, Frank said.
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“We want to create opportunities to create knowledge and keep that knowledge here and apply it to business opportunities,” Frank said. “If they stay here and grow in New Mexico, it’s great for our economy. We want to create an environment that keeps these businesses and their intellectual property here in New Mexico and grow our economy.”
Frank said that Innovate ABQ will be an important way for UNM to become even more vital to the local economy, by bringing together the state’s brightest students with public and private resources in order to grow the small business economy in Albuquerque.
“It’s all about making this a broader intellectual environment that creates this rainbow of jobs,” he said. “One knowledge job creates about five regular service jobs around it. It creates a wealth of opportunities.”
Jonathan Baca is the news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com, or on Twitter @JonGabrielB.
