Municipalities Led the Kmart Adaptive Reuses in This Rural New Mexico Community
Shortly after the Kmart in Deming, New Mexico closed in 2016, City officials in the 15,000 person town located just 35 miles north of the border with Mexico hatched a plan to rejuvenate the vacated property.
And in 2020 - after its owner Seritage Real Estate Trust gave up trying to find higher bids - the City purchased the 95,000 square foot former Kmart building for $1.8 MM.
This week the City's vision finally becomes reality when the new Deming City Hall opens in approximately 1/3 of the 95,000 square foot former Kmart.
The renovated building features an open space layout, landscaped courtyard, large council chambers area and even an interactive child playspace.
It will also include drive-thru lanes for customers to pay bills without leaving their vehicles.
And the City is also taking its role as Landlord very seriously in an effort to fill the remainder of the building.
The Deming City Council recently rescinded an offer that had made to one potential tenant to take a portion of the space after months went by without it filing plans or taking any other action to potentially renovate and occupy the space.
It is now actively courting other tenants - with Harbor Freight named as one serious candidate - in an effort to fill the remaining 2/3 of the building.
City officials anticipate that the adaptive reuse of the former Kmart will not only result in a gleaming new City Hall but also create 100+ jobs in the local community.
And it is not even the area’s first municipal-led adaptive reuse of a former Kmart.
In the late 1990s - after Kmart relocated to the building that is now being repurposed as the new Deming City Hall - Luna County (where Deming is the county seat) acquired the original Kmart and converted into the Mimbres Valley Learning Center.
This former Kmart building has been put to productive use by the county and is now the home to Deming’s Early College High School, the Deming campus of Western New Mexico University (WNMU) and a special events center for the community.
And Luna County (population ~25,000) continues to invest in the former Kmart building to add new programs.
Just last year the County repurposed what used to be the former Kmart’s automotive center into a new welding shop facility to provide occupational training to students in the high demand trade.
WNMU-Deming has plans to add even more vocational trade programs at the property that would enable students to train as auto mechanics and electricians.
And the City of Deming and Luna County’s adaptive reuse efforts to improve their communities will not end with the repurpose of a second former Kmart:
Plans have already been drawn to complete an adaptive reuse of the former Deming City Hall into a new police headquarters.