ALBUQUERQUE – The monthslong process of demolishing Bernalillo County’s long-closed old jail has started in downtown Albuquerque.
A construction company’s crews are working inside the building to remove fixtures and other items for recycling or for safety reasons, KQRE-TV reported.
Demolition and creation of a parking area is expected to take about 10 months at a cost of about $2.4 million.
The plan is to use the property for a 150-space parking lot for county vehicles, as least until a better use surfaces.
The building had not been used as a jail for about a decade. A private company leased the property to house federal inmates until 2011 after the county moved its inmates to a then-new facility in 2003, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
A study concluded that rehabilitating the building for use as a jail would have been too costly.
