By Pat Davis and Devin O’Leary, The Paper. — Instead of prepping french fries and warming up the grill for a hungry weekend crowd, vendors at the ABQ Food Park in the Far Northeast Heights spent last weekend looking for a new home.
On Sunday, May 3, vendors began posting notices to social media that they were blindsided by the news that the Park, located at 6901B San Antonio Dr NE, would be shutting down operations at the end of May. Many had been vendors since the park first opened in October of 2022 as the Pacific Rim Food Park.
As The Paper. reported back in 2022, the food park was originally the brainchild of Judy Chiang, owner of the nearby Rising Star Chinese Eatery, who approached Grace Church ABQ, the owners of the then-empty lot on the corner of Louisiana Blvd. and San Antonio Dr. The restaurant owner wanted to open a food truck park in the Northeast Heights that concentrated heavily on Asian- and women-owned businesses. Electricity was installed, grass was grown, shade structures were erected, and Pacific Rim became home to a number of popular food trucks.
Pacific Rim Food Park eventually closed and was relaunched as the Albuquerque Food Park about five years ago. The Paper. profiled the location and interviewed the new operation managers, Alex Chavez and Xavier Quintero, in February of this year. Despite holding popular community events over the years — from a lowrider showcase to a Power Wheels racecourse to a fried foods fest to a Labubu night — the venue is now going dark permanently, leaving multiple vendors scrambling.
“To say we’re devastated is an understatement,” owners of the Tokoroto Food Truck wrote on Facebook. “We’ve been at the park for almost two years now, and the love and support you’ve shown Takoroto during that time has meant everything to us. So many of you started as customers and quickly became friends, and that’s something we’ll always be grateful for. The food park wasn’t just a place of business for us it also became a place where our family would come together to celebrate so many special moments. We’ve also built amazing relationships with 143 Snacks, langbiang, and No Mames Chicken & Smash which made the food park feel like a true community. This situation has been especially difficult with the short notice, and we wish we had more time to prepare or find a solution.”
143 Foods, another popular truck in the park, shared similar concerns about the lack of notice and uncertain future. “It is with heavy hearts that we share that the food park will be closing. We have been given until the end of this month to leave, as the land has been sold. Unfortunately, we were not provided with further details or an opportunity to weigh in on the decision.”
The Paper. reached out to Pastor Aaron Giesler from the neighboring Grace Church, which owns the lot on which the Food Park sits. He said the church has decided to pursue other development options for the site and confirmed that they had given vendors until the end of May to vacate. He said that the lot has been sold to a developer, but was “not at liberty” to share further details about the buyer.
“We opened in October of 2022 with great fanfare,” Giesler said of his church’s connection to the Food Park. “Grace Church initially operated the park, but over time it required more staff capacity than we could sustain, so we outsourced management to a park manager. Our agreement related to the space was month-to-month, while vendors worked through arrangements with the park management. While the Food Park was never intended to be a profit-generating venture — and ultimately was not — it was a meaningful learning experience for us. We had the opportunity to build relationships with small business owners, watch some businesses grow and thrive, and also walk alongside others through the challenges of getting started. There was a real human element to it that we valued deeply.”
Devin O’Leary and Noah Gollin contributed to this story.