The Village is moving along, even if it's behind the scenes

Governing body approves site plan for Blake’s Lotaburger

The city of Rio Rancho Governing Body approved the site plan for a new Blake’s Lotaburger location at 2100 Unser Blvd. at the July 27 regular meeting as part of the Village and Cabezon Communities Master plan. “I have looked at that parcel of dirt for many, many years. It’s all bladed and graded. Now […]

Construction begins on Unser

Construction to widen Unser Boulevard from Cabezon Road to Black Arroyo Boulevard began Mond…

Kroger, Albertsons merger won’t affect Rio Rancho project

Kroger’s massive deal to acquire Albertsons Cos. Inc. will have no impact on plans in Rio Rancho for an upscale, Market Street Albertsons, officials said. The companies announced a definitive agreement last week to merge in a deal valued at $24.6 billion. “Together, Albertsons Cos. and Kroger currently employ more than 710,000 associates and operate […]

The Village at Rio Rancho ‘cleared and off to the races’

You see homes in a 360-angle — everywhere you can see and a hospital behind it — that’s a good place for a grocery store — Sidney Hopper, president of The United Family It took about 15 years, but on Wednesday long-held plans came true when The Village at Rio Rancho groundbreaking took […]

The Village at Rio Rancho has been an exciting promise for months, and while it might seem like the development is slow, the developer says things are running smoothly.

Geringer Capital President Robert Geringer says the Unser Boulevard widening project in that area has had an impact on the pace of the project and that the Kroger merger has slowed down the Albertson's opening.

"We originally purchased this as a 141 acres, and we carved off — years ago — the piece for the hospital, Presbyterian Hospital, and that left us with about a 65-acre mixed-use piece which, if you've been out there recently in the last couple years, you see we've developed into various tracks, smaller parcels and have been selling those off. We currently have the Unser widening project underway. Traffic is a bit of a mess, but it's almost cleaned up. That'll all be done by first quarter next year. The Albertsons Marketplace concept is pretty far out of the ground. They have a first-quarter opening. I'm not sure exactly what date, but a first-quarter opening for store and their fuel facility," he said.

Blake's Lotaburger, which people may have seen is almost complete, is due to open soon, though a date has not been set yet.

Geringer also says the Furniture Row parcel is under way and is expected to open near the end of 2025.

"We have a number of other transactions that we're working through the process that'll bring some other food service and some other retail opportunities to the site, including most likely a hospitality extended stay kind of place to help support the hospital," he added.

He say that he thinks it is necessary to have hospitality for patient's families.

"They have a lot of patients who come from far distances. That's the part that kind of stuck to me, was you have a loved one who has some type of event that has to go in the hospital for an extended period of time. If you live an hour, hour and a half, two hours away from a husband and wife, a child, whatever it is, you need somewhere to be close, right?" he said.

Geringer explained that a lot of the development hangs on the finishing of the Unser Boulevard project and any horizontal work. The development involving building and improvements to future buildings is up to each individual business.

"We should be completely finished with our horizontal development work, including off-sites and on-sites here, first quarter next year. We're not building any of the vertical improvements on the property; we're selling off locations. So you know, if a food service comes to us and wants a site, we will negotiate a location and a contract and then the actual build out of that site is up to their timing," he said.

While some businesses have already staked their claim in the land, Geringer says it is common for others to wait until larger businesses have established themselves to figure out where they want to be situated. Interest in the land depends on a lot, and there are many hurdles to jump before establishing.

"It was pretty robust before interest rates moved and real estate slowed down. I think that it's starting to gain momentum again and, particularly when we get the work done, when Albertsons opens and there's X thousands of traffic coming into the site, then somebody looks and goes, 'How come we don't go over there?' Unfortunately, right now everybody's trying to avoid the site because of the traffic that's being created there with the Unser improvements. But there's a reason for that widening Unser and putting in turn lanes," he explained.

He anticipates the traffic will significantly increase when the businesses develop, and the improvements on that section of road will remedy that.

"We're in a little bit of 'the doldrums,' I'll call it. Albertsons has enclosed, everybody gets anxious when you announce something. They don't realize how long it takes. Once Albertsons opens early next year and we're done with the Unser work and all of the on-site work is done, I expect that we will see a pretty good wave of activity. That probably means that it's 18 months after that before a business gets to open," he said.

He expects the business interest will snowball as more develop.

"This doesn't happen overnight," he said plainly.

Many of these businesses are set to open in late 2025 and into 2026. Information on the project can be found at geringercapital.com.