28-04-2025
Shanahan's death, major mall addition and Guadalupe Street update top busy week in business news
It was a busy week on the business front in Santa Fe in recent days, with several noteworthy developments taking place.
To begin with, there was the death of green-building and affordable-housing advocate Kim Shanahan, who also wrote a popular weekly column for The New Mexican. Shanahan managed to remain one of the more important figures in the Santa Fe homebuilding community even after moving to Costa Rica a few years ago, and to hear his friends and admirers tell it, his death is likely to leave a significant leadership void in that arena.
Everyone I spoke with about Shanahan for the story I wrote about his passing expressed respect and admiration for him, making me regret the fact I never got to meet him. The task of resolving Santa Fe's burgeoning affordable-housing crisis likely has become more difficult now with his passing, and the loss of his experience and perspective.
On the positive side, there was the news of a large national retailer, Dunham's Sports, taking up residence at Santa Fe Place. The Michigan-based company will open a store occupying nearly 60,000 square feet at the mall later this year and already has been holding hiring events to staff the enterprise.
The addition of such a large company helps the city offset the loss of a handful of other national retailers earlier this year. It also comes at a time when there are increasing fears of a national economic slowdown because of the effects of the Trump administration's tariffs, so that makes the entry of Dunham's into the local market doubly important.
Finally, there is news that city officials hope to have work on the Guadalupe Street corridor done this summer. That comes as welcome news to anyone who has tried to drive through the area since work on the $11 million project began a year and a half ago and especially to the merchants who are trying to survive the disruptions caused by the undertaking, which city officials have promised will result in a major improvement to the streetscape. With the start of tourist season just weeks away, it seems like every day counts in terms of how soon the work wraps up.
