On December 3, 2024, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced plans to move the New Mexico State Fair to a different location and redevelop the 236 acre State Fair property into a mixed-use development. On March 21, 2025, the New Mexico legislature passed legislation creating the “State Fairgrounds District.” It is a board that has redevelopment funding authority over the existing State Fairgrounds area. The board has no authority to move the fairgrounds. It will be up to the New Mexico State Fair Commission to make the decision to move the fairgrounds.
The State Fairgrounds District Board is empowered to raise property taxes and issue up to $500 million in bonds to fund future development of the property, to make improvements to repurpose the property. According to the legislation, the board will govern the development of the district for six years.
Voting members of the State Fairgrounds District Governing Board are:
- Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, chairperson
- Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller
- Senator Mimi Stewart, Senate President Pro-Tempore, International District, #17
- State Representative Janelle Anyanonu whose district the fair grounds is located
- City Councilor Nichole Rogers whose district the fair grounds is located
- County Commissioner Adriann Barboa whose district the fair grounds is located
- Peter Belletto, President, District 6 Neighborhood Coalition
NM SENATE APPROVES $93 MILLION IN BONDS
On February 6, 2026 the New Mexico Senate approved Senate Bill 48 which would authorize $92 million in bonds for the Expo New Mexico fairgrounds redevelopment project. The legislation is sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart and Representative Janelle Anyanonu, both who are voting members of State Fairgrounds District Board. Senate Bill 48 requires approval from both chambers of the NM Legislature before the bonds can be issued. Senate Bill 48 will be forwarded to the New Mexico House for approval.
Since the project’s launch, the State Board of Finance has approved nearly $100 million in initial funding for land acquisition and infrastructure improvements, including a 10-acre public park with trails, play areas and pedestrian safety upgrades along the Fairgrounds’ boundary.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said this in a statement:
“Today’s Senate vote moves us one step closer to a historic revitalization of the International District and central Albuquerque. … This bonding authority in a neighborhood with enormous potential will create the kind of mixed-use development with housing, vibrant streets and the economic opportunity that this community deserves.”
The master plan for the Fairgrounds, currently under development by Stantec design firm, will be finalized in the next few weeks. The master plan will guide decisions about the site’s future, including potential mixed-income housing, a new exhibition hall and expanded green space as well as possibly moving the State Fair.
In December, the state’s design contractor, Stantec Consulting Services, unveiled three preliminary designs for the fairgrounds, all of which include a hotel and event venue, parks, retail space and mixed-income housing. One of the designs proposes relocating the fair, a topic that became a sticking point for some on the Senate floor.
During Friday’s debate, several Republican senators expressed concern about the possibility of the State Fair being moved from Albuquerque. Several Republican senators raised concerns on behalf of rural communities.
Minority Whip Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, questioned whether lawmakers were effectively ceding control to an unelected commission.
Sen. Candy Spence Ezzell, R-Roswell said this:
“I’m upset about what they’re planning on doing if this move does take place. … I’m really upset where a commission gets to make the decision for every person in the state.”
Ezzell also criticized conditions in the surrounding neighborhood, saying the state should “clean up the streets” before investing in beautification.
The State Board of Finance has already approved $89.35 million for land acquisition and a 10-acre public park with trails and pedestrian safety upgrades along the fairground’s boundary on the Southwest corner of San Pedro and Central.
Senator Stewart insisted a decision on whether to move the fair has not yet been made. She also said that decision will ultimately be made by the State Fair Commission, not the State Fairgrounds District Board. Members of the board include Stewart, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
A spokesperson for Lujan Grisham’s office said the master plan for the 236-acre parcel of land “will be finalized in the next few weeks.”
Links to quoted or relied upon news sources are here:
GOVERNOR MLG’s FUNDING REQUESTS
On December 22, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham released her $11.3 billion proposed budget for the fiscal year 2026 to 2027 which will commence July 1, 2026 and end June 30, 2027. The Governor’s proposed budget contains a proposed $100 million allocation to select, acquire and build a new State Fairgrounds. If also contains another $100 million for State Fairgrounds revitalization projects, including affordable housing, park areas and new entertainment venues.
It is understood that Senate Bill 48 for $92 million in bonds for the Expo New Mexico fairgrounds redevelopment project is broken down to include $14 Million for land acquisitions of the 8 acres of land on the Southwest corner of San Pedro and Central with the balance of $78 million for infrastructure repairs and improvements to the existing fair grounds. The $100 million allocation requested to select, acquire and build a new State Fairgrounds will be in the capital improvements bill still pending.
CONCEPT PLANS RELEASED
On December 8, 2025 the Governor’s Office released to the public three concept plans prepared by Stantec for the development of the State Fair property. All three Concept Plans call for major redevelopment of the Southwest corner of land now privately owned and with existing business at San Pedro and Central Avenue.
The state is already moving to acquire for $22 million the property with the issuance of bonds to finance the acquisition of the properties either by negotiations with the property and business owners or by litigation and adverse condemnation. Confidential sources have confirmed that letters inquiring about the acquisition of the property have already gone out.
Two of three designs keep the fair where it is but on a reduced footprint, and they share many of the same amenities, though they differ in size and quantity.
Concept One maintains the midway, using it as a large parking lot for the rest of the year, but adds a new exhibition space, a 10-acre park, affordable housing, an event center and a hotel to the grounds’ south side.
Concept Two significantly reduce the midway while new amenities like an event center would take up more space. The second design also includes space for a museum.
Concept Three is the most draconian of the three plans. It would require the fairgrounds to be completely relocated. On top of the amenities present in the previous designs, this design would include “hundreds” of housing units, a school, workforce development center and two parks that would add 20 acres for park areas.
Regardless of which of the three concept designs the state chooses, all three share similarities, including a hotel, event venue, a new park, mixed-income housing and retail space. The tree-lined Main Street is preserved in all three designs.
All three of the concept plans place a major emphasis and dedicate large portions of the State Fair property to affordable housing and large park areas. The mixed used housing would include apartments, condominiums and town homes for low income or subsidized housing.
On November 11, after the State Fair District Board meeting, Governor Lujan Grisham was interviewed by KRQE News 13. The governor said she favors the third Concept Plan, which is the most aggressive concept plan that proposes moving the state fair. The Governor said she is still waiting for cost estimates before making a final decision. The governor said this:
“I want a whole new footprint in the middle, the center of historic Albuquerque. I prefer option 3. …This state needs and deserves a robust state fair property.
Governor Lujan Grisham said she shares frustrations about crime in the area and criticized what she called a “lack of leadership and inadequate response from local officials and first responders.”
The Governor said this:
“When I look at the outcomes here, I am feeling very frustrated by the lack of progress. … I think this community should demand that we are all working together. … I think redevelopment has a real impact. … Prosperity makes opportunity.”
The Governor argued that redevelopment could help shift the neighborhood’s trajectory.
STRONG OPPOSITION TO MOVING STATE FAIR IGNORED BY GOVERNOR
Governor Lujan Grisham’s proposal to moving the state fair has been met with strong opposition and resentment from area residents of Albuquerque’s International District, which has dealt with rampant and rising drug use and homelessness in recent years. The proposed redevelopment has proven controversial with residents in the International District who say that they are concerned the funding will do little to help the neighborhood, will uproot the historic annual State Fair and will, like past efforts at fairgrounds redevelopment, be a flop.
On February 26, 2025, Bernalillo County Government held meeting to discuss and provide information on a proposed Tax Increment Development District (TIDD) for the New State Fairgrounds. Upwards of 200 residents attended. Most if not all of the public present for the February 26 meeting were very hostile to moving the state fair and spoke out against moving the state fair to another location.
Audience members were given the opportunity to speak after the presentation on the proposed Tax Increment District (TIDD). Audience members said that the City and the Mayor Tim Keller Administration have been a total failure in cleaning up Central and the city has failed to address crime and the homeless crisis on Central. Audience members argued that before anything is spent on improving or moving the Fair Grounds, money would be better spent cleaning up Central, dealing with the homeless, drug addicted and mentally ill and providing them with services to get them off the streets.
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
It’s downright laughable and pathetic that Governor Lujan Grisham requested $100 million dollars in her proposed 2026-2027 budget for moving the state fairgrounds. There have been at least two prior studies on the cost of moving the State Fairgrounds that have found that the cost would be $1 Billion to $1.1 Billion dollars, but the Governor simply ignores both.
PATHETIC REQUEST FOR $100 MILLION
What makes Governor Lujan Grisham’s $100 Million request of the 2026 Legislature to move the fairgrounds so very pathetic is no one has actually studied nor proposed exactly where the state fair would be moved nor determine the actual cost. On December 3, 2024 when Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced her plan to move the State Fair, no new location was announced but she suggested that keeping the State Fair centrally located such as in Bernalillo, Valencia or Torrance County would be beneficial due to the interstates. Governor Lujan Grisham said this:
“We have made the decision preliminarily to ask for folks to focus on the center of the state … but there are a lot of spaces. Though Albuquerque is a bit constrained, there are still plenty of opportunities in Bernalillo County. Imagine, if you will, that Valencia County could offer up some interesting proposals, that the South Valley right here in Bernalillo County [could do the same]. Bernalillo County ought to think about where would a new developed platform in space be. Maybe Torrance County, maybe Edgewood and Santa Fe.
Governor Lujan Grisham has embraced Concept 3 as her preferred plan which calls for moving the State Fair. It is painfully obvious that Governor Lujan Grisham is simply ignoring the public opposition to moving the State Fair knowing that she is a lame duck with less than a year left before her term ends to accomplish a legacy project she wants and to be rubber stamped by her appointed State Fair District Board and State Fair Commission.
Concept Plan 3 is the most draconian of the 3 Concept Plans with the ultimate goal of moving the State Fair ground. Governor Lujan Grisham said she would like to see the project break ground before she leaves office at the end of this year.
The Governor’s words and her budgetary request for $100 million confirm what she has said and what she has known all along and that is the Governor is hell bent on moving the state fair over strong public opposition and is rushing the project to have a legacy project before she leaves office in a year.
A POLITICAL SHAM OF A BOARD
The biggest sham is that Governor’s appointed State Fair District Board and Stantec are going along with the Governors efforts to move the State Fair so that all of its property can be dedicated to reviving and benefiting the International District. The Governor and her board have essentially ignored the needs and concerns of neighborhoods and businesses to the West, North and East of the Fairgrounds. Five out of the seven State Fair District Board members are elected officials of the International District with the President of the District 6 Coalition of Neighborhoods all in the International District.
GOVERNOR BLAMES LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
What is so very offensive is Governor Lujan Grisham blaming local law enforcement and local leadership for failing to deal with crime and the unhoused crisis in the International District. She then turns around in the same breath to argue that there is a need to “re dedicate” the state fair property to solve those problems.
It is clear the State Fairgrounds redevelopment is being promoted by the Governor and her appointed State Fair District Board as being some sort of a great panacea to solve the problems of crime, the homeless, lack of affordable housing and lack of economic development in the International District. It will not.
The Fair Grounds cannot be characterized as the cause or as a magnet for crime within the International District. No statistics have been presented to the State Fair board on the extent of crime that occurs on the State Fairgrounds itself. No discussion has been held or proof offered as to what extent the State Fair grounds is responsible for crime in the International District.
The International District, which is bordered by Central South of the State Fairgrounds has had for decades some of the highest violent crime, property crime and drug offense rates, so much so that it was at one time referred to as the WAR ZONE until it was officially renamed the International District, but the renaming had no impact on the trajectory of the area. The International District continues to be plagued by high crime rates and now has become a magnet for the homeless with encampments constantly popping up and cleaned up by the city only to pop up again.
Crime and the unhoused is what is destroying private investment, job growth and small business development within in the International District. After all the millions are spent to redevelop the fairgrounds, to improve infra structure and traffic flow, building a park, adding public spaces and allowing businesses and low-income housing, the problems of high crime rates and the unhoused will remain the same in the International District because they have never been solved for decades. No businesses will want to relocate to the State Fair grounds after it is developed into commercial property, and it will become a magnet for crime and for the homeless, especially with parks.
AFFORABLE HOUSING
Efforts to address “affordable housing” continue to be a major target and goal for the State Fairgrounds District Board and is a very big part of the presentations made to the State Fair District Governing Board by Stantec. The three redevelopment Concept Plans for the property propose to commandeer a good portion of the Expo NM State Fair Property for affordable housing and it is as absurd as it gets.
The term affordable housing is about as misleading as it gets. It is a term often used by politicians, elected officials and developers to promote their own personal or political agendas. Simply put construction costs are consistent when it comes to housing and in today’s market are extremely high as are existing housing costs. When the term “affordable housing” is used by the politicians, elected officials and developer’s, what is meant is “subsidized government housing”.
Affordable housing or subsidized housing for low-income income earners is not the highest and best use of any portion of the 236 acres of prime property for development in the center of Albuquerque. It would put a small dent in the shortage of housing.
The highest and best use of the 236 acres of property is the State Fair itself and keeping it as Expo New Mexico and developing a year-round Entertainment District and to preserve the New Mexico State Fair and Expo New Mexico where it is now.
Efforts for affordable housing use for the State Fair grounds should be abandoned in that it would impair the overall goal and development of the property for projects that benefit the entire community as a whole and for public use.
PARKS WILL BECOME MAGNETS FOR CRIME AND THE HOMELESS
All three of the concept plans place a major emphasis and dedicate large portions of the State Fair property to park areas with access from Central or San Pedro to the parks. Concept One provides a 10-acre public park. Concept Two provides a 9-acre public park. Concept three provides for a 22-acre public park.
The reality of the city’s homeless crisis is that parks are notoriously magnets for crime and the unhoused. At this point, the State Fairgrounds, does not have a crime problem with the New Mexico State Police having primary law enforcement responsibility to calls for service. The lack of crime on the state fair property will no doubt change with parks.
Area resident Dave Kailer was absolutely correct when he was questioned whether a proposed park could thrive in the area and he said this:
“You know what is going to happen to that park if you put it in the war zone? It will turn into a homeless park, let’s face it. … I don’t want to be ugly about it or negative about it. I’m just being realistic.”
History tends to repeat itself over and over again especially when it comes to the homeless crisis. Governor Mitchell Lujan Grisham might as well dedicate any park on State Fair grounds property with public access as Coronado Park 2 in remembrance to Coronado Park which was closed by the city as a result of more than 125 unsheltered people taking over the park to camp and it becoming a hot bed for narcotic usage, trafficking illicit drugs and violent crime, including homicides and rapes. Coronado Park became a “de facto” city sanctioned homeless encampment thanks to Mayor Keller’s reluctance to do do anything about the unauthorized use of the park by the homeless and costing the city $50,000 to clean it up each month. Eventually, Keller declared Coronado Park as the most dangerous place in the state to be and ordered the park closed.
FINAL COMMENTARY
The Governor and her appointed State Fair District Board is attempting to use the State Fair property to solve all the crime, economic problems and lack of affordable housing of the International District. Until you reduce crime and homelessness on Central itself and in the International District itself, redevelopment of the State Fair property as envisioned by the Governor and Stantec will fail and Governor Lujan Grisham will go down as the Governor who destroyed the State Fair for the sake of her ego.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, Senate Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart, State Representative Janelle Anyanonu, City Councilor Nichole Rogers and County Commissioner Adriann Barboa who are the elected officials and politicians on the “State Fairgrounds District Board” need to keep their greedy little hands off the State Fair grounds and abandon any effort to move it or dedicate it for affordable housing and parks. Simply put, the surrounding neighborhoods, businesses and their constituents want the State Fair to remain where it is. They need to listen for a change and knock it off pretending to be developers.
The New Mexico Legislature, and especially all State Senators and State Representatives from Bernalillo County, need to VOTE no on any all funding to move the New Mexico State Fair.
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