ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – New Mexicans didn’t mind the Saturday afternoon heat while sitting in Albuquerque’s newest amenity. 

“We’ve been waiting for this park to open for three years, and it’s hard for me to articulate just how exciting this is,” said Jasmine Jett, district manager of Stretch Lab. 

The ribbon cutting of Winrock Central Park has been in the works for decades. 

“We’ve owned the site here since 2007, so it’s been quite a few years. It’s been under development since then,” said Darin Sand, senior vice president of Goodman Realty Group. 

Jett says she was getting tired of watching construction. She’s glad there’s finally grass outside their front door.

“When we first started talking about this location, it was somewhat desolate in that we were the only business front on this side, this northwest side of the building,” Jett said. 

Stretch Lab has been at Winrock for three years. Jett says she welcomes the growing business park.

New apartments are set to come later this year, along with a food court and beer garden. Mayor Tim Keller says he expects this to make a major impact on the local economy. 

“ABQ Uptown and Albuquerque Downtown are the single biggest revenue generators, other than our laboratories. And so that’s awesome, because that money goes to our schools, and it goes to parks all over the city, and it draws everyone for the 1,000 square miles,” said Keller. 

State leaders at Saturday’s ceremony say Winrock has been self-sustaining for the past two decades, and that will continue. 

“This ended up being a public private partnership where a lot of the infrastructure is sustained by tax dollars that are generated from this location itself,” said state Sen. Daniel Ivey Soto. 

There were no complaints coming from neighbors of the grand opening.

“I know it’s been dead for quite some time. So to be able to bring in some new health, some new people, some organizations, definitely brings out a lot of excitement to the community,” said Caleb Hamm, a Winrock opening attendee. 

Making Winrock one phase closer to the neighborhood hub everyone wants to see.