Daniel Hernandez, director of the City of Santa Fe’s Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency, presented the MRA’s FY26 goals to the City of Santa Fe Finance Committee during the seventh day of budget hearings, saying the office expects to finish negotiations on development agreements and set infrastructure work schedules that will allow private projects to move forward.

Hernandez told the committee the MRA has finalized a disposition and development agreement for Aspect Studios Village and is completing Phase 1 work, with plans to finish initial studio improvements in time for the Santa Fe International Film Festival in October. “We wanna have 100% of the parcels, engage with developers or in predevelopment, by the end of this year,” Hernandez said.

Why it matters: Midtown is the city’s largest single redevelopment site in Northern New Mexico and a focal point of the MRA’s work. Finishing infrastructure plans and securing disposition and development agreements are prerequisites for private investment and for capturing public financing tools such as tax increment financing (TIF), which the MRA said it will analyze as part of the metropolitan redevelopment area plan.

Hernandez summarized several parallel tracks: (1) finish master-plan infrastructure design so projects are shovel-ready, (2) complete negotiations and bring a redevelopment plan for the Midtown Visual Arts Center to the governing body within roughly two months, and (3) prepare and support capital campaigns and operating-model work for legacy cultural buildings including the Greer Garson studio building, the public library and the public theater. He said the MRA intends to use an incremental approach to financing and implementation and to “leverage our government dollars with private dollars.”

Councilors pressed on specific items. Councilor Faulkner asked who would pay to bring utilities to private parcels; Hernandez said public works is leading a plan for a central trunk main paid and constructed by the city that developers would tap into. Councilor Cassett asked about the $122,000 budgeted for contracted services; Hernandez said the line mostly covers project management and urban planning consultants and some payments tied to the fall activation event.

Hernandez also described an outreach plan: an activation event in October (a multi‑day concert near the Bandshell area), an updated website and a newsletter to keep the community informed. He said the MRA commissioners — a five-member panel the presentation identified as Dion Silva (chair) and Jenny Parks (co-chair) among others — are currently advising on dispositions and the MRA designation process and will make recommendations to the governing body.

On financing, Hernandez said the combined cost for major infrastructure and legacy-building work could range “anywhere between $35 and $45 million,” and that much of the infrastructure would be public cost. He described rounds of outreach to developers and planned “roundtables” with financial institutions to explore private debt and equity as part of a financing mix that could also include capital campaigns led by community partners.

The committee voted to approve the MRA item on the agenda; a roll call was taken and the motion passed.

Looking ahead: Hernandez said the MRA will bring developers’ proposals to the governing body during the summer and expects to begin negotiating additional DDAs in 2026 once predevelopment work advances. He also said neighborhood stabilization work focused on the Hopewell Mann area is underway and that MRA planning will consider adjacent neighborhoods in the Midtown district.