Gillian Barkhurst
Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
(TNS)
Oct. 24—Next week, construction crews will break ground on a new fire station at Coronado Park, once the site of Albuquerque’s largest and most visible homeless encampment.
“This place is at the confluence of three important stories that are in many ways symbolic of our entire city,” Mayor Tim Keller said during a news conference Friday.
Over the course of its more than 75-year existence, Coronado Park along Third NW, just south of Interstate 40, has housed a steam engine train, dozens of people with nowhere else to go and now, Fire Station 4.
“We’re excited to have a new home,” said Albuquerque Fire Rescue firefighter Chris Franklin as he stood beside the station’s fire truck, called the Dragon Slayer.
To celebrate the new station, Keller joined firefighters to splash water from two fire engines across the overgrown grass and clover. A spray of mist created a rainbow across the long-locked up lawn.
Coronado Park, which has been closed since August 2022, housed an estimated 120 people each night at the time of its closure, according to past Journal reporting.
Closing the park was controversial and former residents have leveled a lawsuit at the city for allegedly violating their constitutional rights. The class-action lawsuit said removing people from the park, without anywhere else to go, constituted “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Recently, the state Supreme Court denied the city’s appeal to intervene in the ongoing encampment case as it makes its way through 2nd Judicial District Court.
Homeless advocacy groups and one city advisory board also criticized Keller for abruptly closing the park. City officials said the decision was forced by escalating crime, including drug and human trafficking.
“We had trafficking that was happening here — all in this place where many of us used to play as kids,” Keller said.
Four people were killed at or near the park in the three years before its closure, according to past Journal reporting.
The new station will replace the aging Fire Station 4 that sits at the park’s southeast corner. The new station will cost $13.2 million and is expected to be finished by the end of 2026, said AFR spokesperson Lt. Jason Fejer.
The cost was covered by $8 million in city general obligation bonds and $5.2 million in capital outlay funds from the Legislature.
“A lot of suffering happened here,” said House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, who helped allocate capital outlay for the project. “There’s also a lot of hope and I think that there’s also a great deal of opportunity as we move forward in the city.”
© 2025 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.). Visit www.abqjournal.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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