County Council Hears Presentation On 1735 Central Avenue Redevelopment Project And High Level Terms For Proposed Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) Public Participation Agreement

An architect’s rendering of the results of the proposed multi-million dollar renovation of 1735 Central Avenue, (the former CB Fox) which was introduced to Los Alamos County Council Tuesday evening./Los Alamos Reporter Screenshot

A photo of the building from 1952. ‘We’re taking a shot at returning it to 1952…We’re looking to remove some of the extraneous kinds of things that have been added to the front of the building,; Phil Gursky said. Los Alamos Reporter Screenshot

BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Los Alamos County Councilors during their Tuesday session in White Rock heard from Phil Gursky on the proposed Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) Public Participation Agreement High Level Terms for the 1735Central Avenue Redevelopment Project (AKA Former CB Fox Building)

The anticipated Introduction of Public Hearing date is June 30 or July 7, 2026 and the Public Hearing for approval consideration will be on July 28, 2026.

Intrducing the discussion, County Manager Anne Laurent said as far as the LEDA high level terms the County has been working for quite a while on the idea of supporting re-development in the downtown area based on the Downtown Masterplans and based on a history of community surveys that say that residents really want to see more revitalization happen in the activity downtown.

“The CB Fox building has been vacant for several years and we’ve been working to participate from a perspective of return economic development in the form of gross receipts tax on an $18 million construction renovation project that’s going to renovate the existing building. It’s also going to have retail storefronts that will generate sales gross receipts tax, food that will also generate gross receipts tax and then a hotel that will generate lodger’s tax for those stays. In addition to that, because it’s a vacant building it’s also generating jobs,” Laurent said.

She said the project is kind of It’s kind of a partnership development.

“The partnership was put together for this proposal but for the County, what it would mean is a loan and a grant and LEDA, the Local Economic Development Act. It would be $4 million of a grant to help fund the project and make it pencil, and then $2 million of a zero percent loan that will be paid back in Years 4 through 10. The County will receive that money back but the benefit to the developer would be that they save on interest if they were to get that loan as part of their project financing,” Laurent said.

She said there is collateral in the project, that the County will escrow the money during the course of construction.

“Once they get the certificate of occupancy, we will restore the money and we will have equity in the improved building in the amount of the LEDA loan,” Laurent said.

To view the etire presentation by Phil Gursky, go to

https://losalamos.granicus.com/player/clip/4808?meta_id=324682

The video clip includes the slides showing the planned layout of the three floors of the building, and you can hear the questions and comments from Councilors. Below are screenshots of some of the slides.