"That's cool that people are just doing that, and feel comfortable."
Darin Sand, senior vice president of development for Goodman Realty Group, said that to the Albuquerque Journal in early September. He was describing an informal use of Winrock's empty amphitheater stage on a slow Monday morning. In the same interview he described the opposite end of the scale. Last November, thousands of people filled Winrock Park for the Christmas tree lighting outside his third-story window.
Both scenes happened in the park. Kylie Garcia's Sept. 6, 2026 Journal story made the same case: the debut of Winrock's 2-acre park, with its pond, children's play area, amphitheater and food truck park, was the key catalyst that brought a long line of new local and national tenants to the property. Look at what opened this fall, what's on the calendar through Thanksgiving and what's planned for the next few years, and the same pattern keeps showing up. Each new piece at Winrock is placed to face the lawn.
From seven tenants to a waiting list for space by the pond
The baseline matters here. Goodman bought the property in 2007, when it was a vacant indoor mall. According to the Journal, Winrock has gone from an empty shell with seven tenants outside the mall to more than 90% occupied, with 57 tenants as of September 2026. Sand said activity has "increased substantially" but declined to share revenue figures or Goodman's total investment.
The tenant mix shows where things are heading. The Journal's list of recent arrivals includes FarmaKeio, Ethan Allen, RS21, StretchLab, Hyena's Comedy Club, Chicken Salad Chick, BODYBAR Pilates and Homebody. Several national tenants picked Winrock for their first New Mexico location. That's a fitness studio, a comedy club, a data science company and a compounding pharmacy alongside the restaurants. A property that once depended on department-store traffic now has reasons for people to come at 9 a.m., at lunch and after dark.
Homebody is the clearest example
If you want one story that shows how the park works as a business pipeline, it's Homebody.
Owner Janna Manalo was working as a patient care tech in the neuroscience unit at University of New Mexico Hospital when she bought a cart off Facebook Marketplace for $500 and started selling Japanese matcha at pop-ups. Her second pop-up ever was Winrock's fall festival, where people lined up across the park for her drinks. That's where Sand first noticed her. He invited her to test the concept in a space at Winrock. Homebody opened in December and, per the Journal, served 6,400 customers in the month before the September story.
The next step is still ahead. Albuquerque Business First reported in June that Homebody was moving from its temporary storefront to a permanent Winrock location later in 2026. The Journal's Sept. 6 story said Manalo was getting ready to move into a larger space at Winrock within six months. As of early October, there's no public confirmation that the move has happened, so for now go to the current storefront.
A festival on the lawn led to a storefront, which is leading to a bigger storefront. That puts this fall's park calendar in a different light. These events are also how Winrock finds its next tenants.
The fall calendar, in order
Everything below takes place at Winrock Park, according to Winrock Town Center's own event listings.
- Thursday, Oct. 8, 7:30 to 10 p.m.: Family Movie Night. Free screening of Pixar's Up, with food trucks on site.
- Friday, Oct. 9, 6 to 9 p.m.: Winrock Night Market. A curated set of local artisan and craft vendors in the park and a free concert at Sunward Amphitheater, presented by Presbyterian Health Plan.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Harvest Fest. Pumpkin patch, artisan market, petting zoo, family activities, food trucks and live music.
- Nov. 27 and 28: Winrock Wonderland. The Nov. 27 program runs 2 to 6 p.m. and includes a tree-and-park lighting ceremony, a market with more than 100 vendors, live music, Santa and family activities.
The Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 events fall on back-to-back nights, so families can see a movie Thursday and come back Friday for the market and concert. The Wonderland lighting on Nov. 27 is the successor to the event Sand watched draw thousands last November.
You can eat in the park between events too. The Campground food-truck park opened at Winrock on July 2 with five trucks.
What's actually open right now
85°C Bakery Cafe is the confirmed 2026 opening. Business First reported a Sept. 9 soft launch for the Taiwanese chain's first New Mexico location. Back in March, the Journal reported the café would take the 2,978-square-foot former Slapfish space and named chain founder Cheng-Hsueh Wu. Winrock's directory lists it at Suite 806, open daily from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., serving coffee, tea, international desserts and breads. Those hours make it a morning and lunch stop. It won't work as a pre-movie stop on Oct. 8.
Homebody is operating in its current Winrock storefront while the bigger space is prepared.
The Campground gives the park a regular food option on days without a festival.
What's scheduled but not yet confirmed
Plenty of recent coverage reads as though these are already open. They aren't, at least not yet.
- 85°C's grand opening. The Journal reported the grand opening was planned for October. As of Oct. 5, no date has been confirmed publicly.
- The Boathouse. Goodman is opening its own sports bar in an existing building at Winrock Park. It has a nautical theme and a patio built out over the park's pond. Business First reported an October opening timed around Balloon Fiesta. No opening day, hours or menu had been announced as of early October.
- Milan Laser Hair Removal. It signed a Winrock lease, and Business First reported in May that it expected to open by the end of 2026.
The Boathouse fits the pattern. Goodman is putting its own money into a bar whose main feature is a patio over the pond.
What's still a plan, and how long plans take here
The longer-range projects are built around the park too. Goodman plans to tear out Winrock Loop and build a new road just north of BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse, leading directly to a food hall and office building Goodman will develop on the north end of Winrock Park. The new layout opens up pad space north of BJ's for one or two more buildings, possibly restaurants. The park itself is also set to get a new restaurant once Goodman finds the right tenant.
Goodman aims to break ground on the new road and food hall, slated to have up to 18 vendor spots, sometime next year.
That sentence ran in the Journal on Sept. 6, 2026, which puts the target in 2027. The same story said Goodman hopes to break ground within two and a half years on a hotel with condominiums west of Winrock Park. Sand also said that "some of these timelines are still up in the air."
So treat those dates as targets. Goodman bought the property in 2007, and the occupancy story was only possible after the park opened, nearly two decades later. In Sand's words, "I just love seeing all these things come together, even though they take years and years." The food hall, the road and the hotel are all planned to sit next to the same 2-acre park where a matcha cart drew a line last fall.
Many of the Albuquerque homeowners Misty K Strickland works with live near places like Winrock while weighing a second home in Alto or Ruidoso. If you're one of them and want to know how your Uptown home fits into that plan, call or email Misty for a personal market consult.
