Max Q, a mixed-used development planned on 70 acres of vacant land at Kirtland Air Force Base, has been the subject of political focus and business interest since word broke of the project in late 2018.
Pitched by its developers as a blend of the Sandia Science and Technology Park and the Albuquerque Uptown Mall, the project's plans include close to 1 million square feet of space for offices of large defense contractors, retail shops and lodging establishments.
On Thursday, Northrop Grumman unveiled its new 27,000-square-foot Albuquerque facility — the first to be completed as part of Max Q. Representatives from the Virginia-based company, alongside state political and business leaders, spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, including U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), who said work on Max Q "is going to be incredibly important for years to come."
Thunderbird Kirtland Development LLC, a joint firm made up of Yearout Companies, WBY LLC, local investors and Texas-based Infinity Development Partners, is the developer behind Max Q. Kevin Yearout manages that firm and told Albuquerque Business First in April 2022, after Northrop Grumman first announced plans for its new facility, that Max Q would be built out in separate phases.
That's still the plan, Yearout told Business First this week. After wrapping up the Northrop Grumman facility, Yearout said work continues on both phase one and phase two of the four-phase development.
"We did pull the trigger on both phase one and phase two for a couple reasons," he said. "One, is to get the infrastructure in kind of a halfway efficient way. And two, was because we had some interest early on in some of those pads and some buildings there."
Part of that interest has come from "two or three very large users" that Yearout said could be a part of the second phase. He didn't disclose the names of those potential users, however, he said "they're all defense contractors."
Infrastructure for phase two could be complete by the middle of July, Yearout said. That includes redoing the intersection of Gibson Boulevard SE and Maxwell Street SE to form a new entrance to Max Q; construction on that intersection could start in late May.
Alongside those potential defense contractors, Yearout said his firm is working with a banking partner for a credit union as well as a few coffee and food vendors for space at the development. Thunderbird Kirtland Development LLC also has a letter of intent with a hotel developer.
Yearout said Max Q will start building a multi-tenant strip center on the development for small space leases in July.
Albuquerque firm Dekker Perich Sabatini will be the architect behind Max Q's design. That firm, alongside Wilger Enterprises and Bohannon Huston, completed work on the Northrop Grumman facility.
The U.S. Air Force and Thunderbird Kirtland Development signed a 50-year enhanced use lease to develop Max Q in October 2020. All 70 acres of the planned development are part of Kirtland Air Force Base but sit outside the base's security perimeter.
"This is really what we consider a little bit of a gateway for the community and Kirtland Air Force Base to just become a little more familiar with each other," Yearout told Business First after Northrop Grumman's ribbon cutting. "I think that's what I'm most excited about."
Northrop Grumman, which announced plans in April 2022 to set up its new facility as part of Max Q, is the development's "anchor tenant," Yearout said. He compared Northrop's spot in Max Q to the popular restaurant chain In-N-Out Burger coming into a retail establishment.
"The quality of the tenant, Northrop Grumman, starting out with us is really, really exciting," Yearout said. "It is the exact tenant we had in our minds when we came up with the idea."
Matt Verock, vice president of Northrop Grumman's space security systems, said on Thursday that the company's employee population in Albuquerque could increase more as customer demand grows. Northrop currently employs around 100 people at its new Albuquerque facility.
