You can now spend a whole day on Santa Fe's Midtown campus. Start with a morning espresso, have a wood-fired pizza dinner, then take an aerial fabrics class or catch a 6:30 screening. Each stop is a short walk from the next, off St. Michael's Drive. All of it sits on the six parcels one private developer bought in late 2024.
The parts of Midtown the City of Santa Fe controls are moving more slowly. The central park and plaza are still in the planning stage. The next housing building, which would include a corner grocery, needs a connector road that belongs to a package of city streets, utilities and stormwater work. The City is still working out how to pay for that package, which was recently estimated at about $54 million.
Seventeen Years Empty, and Now Lit After Dark
The City bought the former College of Santa Fe property in 2009. For most of the years since, the campus sat unused. Change started in December 2024. That month the City Council unanimously approved selling six parcels to Phillip Gesue for what he calls Aspect Media Village, and KSFR reported the vote at the time.
The pace since then has been quick. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that Sky Cinema Midtown and Tender Fire Kitchen both opened this year. Garson Studios, Benildus Hall and Driscoll Hall have been renovated and are fully occupied. Art House Apartments at 1001 Midtown Calle Central broke ground in March 2025 and received its certificate of occupancy in late August 2026. Its first residents moved in in early September. The New Mexican called them the campus's "first around-the-clock occupants." By late September the building of roughly 130 units was half leased.
Those residents matter for everyone else. Gesue told the paper that more housing on site gives the businesses enough foot traffic to thrive. The places below are what that foot traffic supports today.
A Weeknight on Midtown Calle Central
- La Rana Coffee at Sky Midtown. Open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily for coffee, espresso, organic teas and ceremonial matcha. Sky's own site says you don't need a movie ticket.
- Tender Fire Kitchen, 1025 Midtown Calle Central. Chef-owner Ben Crosky cooks Mediterranean food with Mexican influences around a wood-fired oven. Its site lists a café Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and dinner Thursday through Monday from 5 to 9 p.m. Reservations are recommended and walk-ins are welcome. In its March 2026 review, the Santa Fe Reporter singled out the skillet cornbread with whipped butter, honey and sea salt, the citrus-and-beet salad with stracciatella, the sausage and fontina-kale pizzas, and a Basque cheesecake.
- Nuckolls Brewing taps at Sky. Eight Santa Fe-made craft beers on draft.
- Wise Fool New Mexico in the Garson Building. The circus-arts nonprofit moved its studio to Midtown. Its last session of 2026 runs October 12 through December 6. The lineup includes aerial fabrics drop-ins five times a week, Foundational static trapeze and lyra, and two new conditioning classes, Strength Lab and Flex Lab.
- Renesan lectures at Sky. Mark Tiarks gives talks on film, theater, classical music and opera.
Dates Worth Writing Down Before December
From the week this post publishes through November, the calendar looks like this. These dates come from the venues' own pages, and programming can change, so check the listing before you go.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Thu., Oct. 22, 10 a.m. | Pre-Code Classic Film: I'm No Angel | Sky Midtown |
| Thu., Oct. 22, 6:30 p.m. | Dog Day Afternoon | Sky Midtown |
| Sat., Oct. 24, 2 p.m. | Elizabeth Holmes/Nathan Fielder lookalike contest, then You Can See Everything at 2:40 p.m. | Sky Midtown |
| Sat., Oct. 24, 3 to 4:30 p.m. | Free beginner Aerial Discovery Lab | Wise Fool |
| Sun., Oct. 25, 2 p.m. | Clean and Sober with an introduction from Michael Keaton; 75% of sales benefit a local nonprofit | Sky Midtown |
| Mondays through Nov. 9, 7:15 to 8:45 p.m. | Intro to Stilt Walking, $84 | Wise Fool |
| Sat., Nov. 14, 3 to 6 p.m. | Stilts: Movement & Acrobatics workshop, $70 | Wise Fool |
| Sat., Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m. | An Evening with the Emshwillers, with Susan Emshwiller presenting work by Carol and Ed Emshwiller | Sky Midtown |
| Thu., Nov. 19, 6 p.m. | burn, scar with director Hillary Bachelder and a community conversation | Sky Midtown |
The stilt series begins Monday, October 19, so by the time this post publishes on Thursday, October 22, its first session will have passed. Ask Wise Fool about joining late. The November 14 workshop expects you to already walk comfortably on stilts.
Two more tenants are on the way. Dirty Laundry Movement is still at 2019 Galisteo St., and its site gives a tentative Midtown move-in at "the beginning of November." Second Street Brewery plans a 2,050-square-foot taproom at 1025 Midtown Calle Central with a bar, a pool table and a patio. The New Mexican reported a February 2027 target.
The Public Pieces Run on a Longer Clock
All of the places above are privately run, on land Gesue now owns. No single master developer runs the whole campus. The City keeps the overall redevelopment and planning role, Aspect develops its own parcels, and a separate arts group holds its own lease. On the City's side, the schedule stretches years further out:
- The park and plaza. The City's Midtown page describes a central park, a plaza and nearly eight acres of open space as planned features. None of them is open yet.
- The Greer Garson Theatre. A 2026 city-commissioned study looked at ways to run it. The New Mexican reported that the City leans toward a nonprofit-run, multidisciplinary performing arts center but is years away from seeking an operator. Until then, live theater on campus happens in temporary spaces. Exodus Ensemble, for example, staged Cyrano inside Aspect Media Village this year.
- The visual arts center. On June 10, 2026, the City Council approved a ground lease and development agreement with MADA, the group SFAI organized for the project, through Ordinance 2026-15. The plan renovates about 50,000 square feet in three phases. Work on the Marion and Tipton buildings is scheduled for 2027, Tishman for 2027 and 2028, and the barracks for 2028 and 2029. Phase 1 still needs full financing, plan review and permits, and The New Mexican reported that construction is hoped for in early 2027.
The Road That Decides the Next Building
The next private project depends on the City too. Gesue has proposed a four-story building with 98 studio and one-bedroom apartments, north of Art House, with a small grocery on the ground floor. He told The New Mexican the market idea comes from New York corner bodegas and from Santa Fe's own neighborhood stores, such as the former Johnnie's Cash Store on the east side. No grocery operator has been chosen yet.
Because the site falls inside the Midtown Master Plan area, city staff can approve the project without a Planning Commission hearing. Once approved, construction would take about 18 months. The holdup is a connector road to Midtown Calle Central, which the building needs for access to its parking lot. That road is part of the spine infrastructure the City must build, and the City has not yet found a way to fund it.
"That road is the key to this development. This development can't happen without it."
Gesue said that during the neighborhood meeting The New Mexican covered. Aspect is working with the City's Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency on a timeline for the road. Gesue has pitched the grocery as the piece that makes the campus walkable and less car-dependent, as the master plan intends. Because it sits inside the building that needs the road, the grocery can't open until the road is built.
Until that road is funded, Midtown on a weeknight means coffee at La Rana until 3, dinner at Tender Fire from Thursday through Monday, and whatever is on Sky's screen at 6:30.
At Maestas Real Estate Services, we track Midtown's road funding, phasing and approvals as part of our redevelopment and land work across New Mexico. If you'd like to talk through how Midtown's next phases could affect property in this part of Santa Fe, Let's Connect.
