The Boathouse, a nautical-themed sports bar planned for Winrock Town Center, has missed its original October opening target and is now expected to open sometime around Thanksgiving, with no firm date yet announced.
The bar was originally supposed to open during Balloon Fiesta season, but that window has come and gone, according to The Business Journals. Developers had previously said the bar would occupy an existing building at Winrock Park and arrive in October, per earlier reporting from abqjournal.com, which described plans for a nautical theme and a patio hovering over the park's pond.
Winrock Town Center sits at 2100 Louisiana Blvd. N.E. in Albuquerque, according to a visitalbuquerque.org listing for the property. The shopping center has been climbing back from years of decline, and the Boathouse was meant to be one of its more eye-catching additions.
A Redevelopment Years in the Making
Winrock's turnaround has been a long one. The center has gone from an empty shell with just seven tenants outside the old mall building to more than 90% occupied with 57 tenants, per the same account from abqjournal.com. That steady climb has unfolded over nearly two decades, even as individual projects like the Boathouse have slipped on their timelines.
This is not the first schedule shift at Winrock. Development plans at the site have shifted multiple times already, Albuquerque's KRQE has reported. The outlet's reporting on the broader Winrock plan noted that flexibility has become something of a theme for the property as new pieces get added to the mix.
Food Truck Park Swapped In, Food Hall Still Pending
Part of that flexibility showed up when developers converted a planned restaurant pad into a food-truck park, expanding the park rather than waiting for restaurant interest that hadn't yet materialized. One developer told KRQE, “we decided to make it into a food truck park and expand the park a little more.”
A food hall is also still on the way for the north side of Winrock's park, according to KRQE, though the developer declined to share a groundbreaking date, saying only that it's on the way. Combined with the Boathouse's slipped timeline, it underscores how much of Winrock's remaining build-out remains fluid even as the center fills up with tenants.
For now, Uptown diners hoping to grab a seat on the Boathouse's planned pond-side patio will have to wait a bit longer, with Thanksgiving standing as the next target on the calendar.
