ABQ: Copper Square

ALBUQUERQUE

Old El Fidel Hotel/Copper Square

View the drawings of Copper Square.


Copper Square is an office complex converted from the El Fidel Hotel. The building has purchased in the mid-2000's with the intention of being upgraded from an office complex into modern high-tech office condos. However, the developer Vincent Garcia was later convicted of fraud and the building went into foreclosure.

The building is currently for sale.


According to the Albuquerque Journal in 2010:

While he was sucking cash out of some $24 million in construction loans intended for projects such as the mixed-use Anasazi Downtown and Copper Square, developer Vincent J. Garcia was living the life of a "high roller," according to court documents.

He went to Mexico every other month. He bragged about his trips there and elsewhere, like the Las Vegas trip to see Oscar de la Hoya in a boxing match. According to statements from four confidential witnesses, his office manager would pull money from one or another loan account before he left on a trip, and at least one source believed the loans were probably his sole source of income.

It got so bad, one source told agents, that one of Vincent Garcia's sons, Josh Garcia, accused him of being a crook and dropped out of a condominium project he was involved in with his father.

To get the draws on their construction loans, the Garcias created fake invoices themselves, the affidavits say, but also "coerced" subcontractors to create fake invoices for them. Another tactic, they say, was to submit legitimate subcontractor invoices but pocket the money and tell the subs that the bank had rejected the subcontractors' bills.

 

Anasazi and Copper Square were 75 percent to 85 percent complete when work ground to a halt.

History from Zia Rising Construction Management:

Originally designed and built in 1931 as the El Fidel Hotel, the building comprised a basement and five additional levels. The entrance level served as the hotel lobby, kitchen, dining room and coffee shop, with additional offices and retail space. Upper levels housed guest rooms and meeting rooms. The basement was devoted to laundry, boilers and storage areas.

Forum Limited purchased the property in 1979 from the Fidel family, and in 1981 began renovation to create the current Copper Square. Because of the historic nature of the building, 75% of the building exterior was restored to its original condition. The building frontage on both 5th Street and Copper Avenue retained the 1930's era facade. The exterior remodeling focused on the creation of a five-story garden atrium in the southwest corner of the building, replacing the former ballroom.

 

The resulting conversion created a five-story atrium office building with basement area. The gross building area with The Copper Square is 99,900 square feet; net rentable area is 67,784 square feet; and usable area is 58,941 square feet. Each office floor has 12,736 square feet of rentable space, and forms an "L" shape facing the atrium with the common corridors being open balconies.

 

Picture of the original hotel.