Tucker Sharp, Principal and CEO of Ocean Rock Capital Partners
John Rizzo, Founder and CEO of New Mexico Innovation Triangle, LLC
BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Big news in Los Alamos this week is that Ocean Rock Capital Partners of Malibu, Calif. and New Mexico Innovative Triangle (NMIT) have formed a new joint venture called Grand Mesa Partners, LLC and are ready to proceed with the development of the former Hilltop House property at Trinity Drive and Central Avenue.
Ocean Rock principal and CEO Tucker Sharp and NMIT founder and CEO John Rizzo met virtually Monday afternoon with the Los Alamos Reporter to formally announce their plans. The $1.3 million lien placed on the property by Los Alamos to cover demolition expenses has been paid off. The gas tanks that were located underground at the convenience store have been removed. The lawsuit filed against NMIT by Enterprise Bank & Trust has been resolved.
Sharp said Ocean Rock is very excited to be part of improving the site to assist Rizzo and bring the initial ideas to life.
“We are pleased that we able to get the liens cleared on the property and startsome of the work that you have seen going on, such as the gas tank removal. We are beginning our work to bring the site to a quality indicative of its prominent location in town,” Sharp said. “We will probably have a little different configuration to what was originally planned. With our joint venture, we’re going to be developing the site into a hotel-style property.”
He said Grand Mesa Partners is still working on the plans and going through their process.
“We ultimately hope that the property will be able to serve visitors and Los Alamos National Laboratory visitors and temporary employees like students, and really help alleviate some of the demand for permanent housing,” Sharp said. “We’re looking primarily to develop a hotel property with the aim of being able to serve the kind of visitors that tend to be Lab-related, temporary visitors.”
He noted that Grand Mesa Partners, given their understanding of Los Alamos and what they have learned through their work with Rizzo about the housing challenges being faced in the County, including the finite amount of land and available housing, is hoping to take some of the pressure off some of the more long-term housing stock.
“We are hoping that we can help create a solution and some resources for the community to help with making the existing housing stock available for more permanent residents,” Sharp said.
Sharp hopes that sometime in the next 36 months the company will be able to “deliver the project”.
“Our development certainly will require the planning process, the design process, the development process, the period of construction and we’re still working through the final plans for the property. We’d love to be able to contribute to this kind of transformative part of Los Alamos and do something that’s aesthetically pleasing and representative of the town,” he said.
In addition to the liens being taken care, Sharp said the lawsuit filed by Enterprise Bank and Trust in First Judicial District Court has been dismissed and the bank was paid in full.
“We have come in with a goal to ‘really right the ship’ as they say and get things moving in the right direction and deploy some resources to effectuate some of the cleanup that’s been done,” he said.
Asked if the development would resemble plans originally discussed by NMIT, Sharp said Grand Mesa Partners is aiming at a lower-density project.
“It will probably be something that’s a mix of one and two stories across the building. It may get as high as three stories but we’re looking at something that can fit well within the site. We’re still working through the design process but our focus is going to be on trying to create some landscaping that would be representative of the local environment with earth-tones color palettes to try and pay our respects to the New Mexico aesthetic,” Sharp said.
Sharp has been to Los Alamos and Santa Fe several times already and is looking forward to future visits.
“I’ve met with the County folks a few times. They are lovely people. I wish I could take them back to California with me,” he said.
Rizzo said he and Sharp met about 19 months ago.
“Doing development in Los Alamos is challenging just because of the cost and the lack of comps and so on. Finding a developer who had not only the capital but the expertise was challenging and took time. Tucker is now the majority owner of a new joint venture to develop the site,” he said.
Jones Lange Lassalle (JLL) represented the parties in the transaction.