ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Mayor Tim Keller and other cities leaders signed the new Downtown Vacant Buildings ordinance. That ordinance will hold owners of vacant buildings, specifically those who are out of state, accountable.

It forces building owners to pay to register properties every year if it has been unoccupied for more than nine months. The goal is to make the area safer and bring more opportunities to downtown.

“Everybody asks us when we do our work downtown, how are you going to get at that building or how are you going to get that building that looks awful or needs to be bought and renovated redeveloped by the city, we don’t have those tools, but now we have an additional tool to get at that,” said Terry Brunner with the Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency.

This includes buildings from First to Eighth street between Gold and Copper.

The law encourages properties downtown to be used for something that will better our community.