Empty Sky Ride carriers travel over fairgoers on opening day of the 2025 State Fair on Sept. 4. Designers with the firm Stantec offered some examples of designs that the firm wants to include in a massive State Fair redevelopment project that is now moving into a planning phase. (Patrick Lohmann/Source NM)
People living around the New Mexico State Fair grounds in the heart of Albuquerque should start imagining the 236-acre state-owned site, now mostly covered in asphalt and concrete and surrounded with tall stucco walls, with open green space, an inviting entrance, a park and a pond.
Those stood among the common elements of early design concepts for the site during a presentation by design firm Stantec Thursday to a newly created state board that the Legislature endowed with up to $500 million in bonding capacity for a fairgrounds redevelopment project…