In mid-August, after months of waiting, Albuquerque COO Lawrence Rael gave Theia Group Inc. a choice: commit to the Orion Center and sign the project lease by Aug. 30 (pending further review by the city) or abandon the development.
The deadline — posed in a letter that was obtained by Business First through a public records request — went by without a signature.
But, "due to [Theia Group's] cooperation in this developing process, the timeline has changed," Ava Montoya, a spokeswoman for Mayor Tim Keller's office, said in an email to Albuquerque Business First on Oct. 19. As to whether Theia Group still intends to develop the Orion Center, Montoya wrote, "there has been no update, we’re still in the information gathering process."
Theia Group planned to assemble and test satellites at the Orion Center. With ambitions for more than four million square feet of space and thousands of jobs, the startup's proposed mixed-use campus had been one of the city's leading economic development initiatives. The development is set to be located at the Aviation Center of Excellence, where the Sunport's decommissioned north-south runway lies.
Publicly, the aviation department maintained that the Orion Center is still in the works and "cannot be rushed," according to an Oct. 15 statement from Sunport spokeswoman Stephanie Kitts. In contrast, the letter from Rael to Reid Gorman, Theia Group's CFO, shows the city urged the company to finalize the deal months ago. (The document was obtained by Business First after Kitts's statement was issued.)
Rael's letter, dated Aug. 16, was sent by aviation department counsel Peter Pierotti nearly four months after the Albuquerque City Council unanimously approved a proposed lease and development agreement for the 114-acre plot of land where the Orion Center would be built. The letter gave Theia Group until Aug. 23 to advise the city whether it was still moving forward with the project, and until Aug. 30 to sign the lease agreement and make the first rent payment.
The city wanted Theia Group to sign the lease after city council gave its approval with commencement on June 1, but the company wanted to wait until after the Federal Aviation Administration provided preliminary approvals, Rael's letter states. The FAA approvals came between April and August, according to aviation department spokesman Jonathan Small, but the signatures on the lease did not.
And there was another issue to address.
In June, Theia Group advised the city that it planned to change its name to "Thorian Group" due to a pending trademark suit, Rael's letter states. Both parties then held a meeting in July.
When asked to update the city on the Orion Center "in light of the recent developments and issues," Theia Group attorney Jenica Jacobi of Albuquerque-based Rodey Law Firm "advised that [the company] was unable to comment whether recent events would affect the status of the project," according to Rael's letter. A representative for Theia Group did not respond to an Oct. 19 request for comment.
Additionally, Theia Group's letter of intent for the Aviation Center of Excellence land has expired, and the city has "other prospects and options for use of the property," Rael's August letter states. Furthermore, Rael's letter says that if Theia Group does want to execute the lease, "the city will require additional information from [Theia Group] to establish that [the company] is ready, willing, and able to proceed."
Since Rael's letter was sent, Theia Group has been sued by a New York City lender and two individuals (in three separate suits) with all alleging they are owed money. The most consequential of those suits came from FCS Advisors LLC, which claims it is owed nearly $290 million.
FCS is also attempting to have Theia Group's Federal Communications Commission license taken from the startup. The license allows the startup to launch a constellation of earth-imaging satellites, and without it there may be little need to build them. In late 2020, Gorman told Business First that "we have to get the full approval of the project in order to unlock financing which is lined up."
Meanwhile, certain funding agreements were put "on hold" due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a September declaration of Gorman filed as part of the FCS litigation. Another agreement, with Barclays bank for the sale of at least $300 million worth of debt securities, fizzed out, according to a memorandum of law that Theia Group filed in the same suit.
The Orion Center would be massive in both scale and expense if it proceeds as outlined. As part of the lease approved by city council, Theia Group would pay the city $2 million to cover rent for the first four years of the lease. Monthly rent payments totaling $1.24 million would begin in 2025, and rent would increase at 2% per year for four years until being set by appraisal.
The company would have to develop about 95 acres by 2029 and the remaining acres by 2031. If the city determined those milestones were not met, it could reclaim any undeveloped parts of the site and adjust the cost of rent, according to the lease.
