New owners of Garrett’s promise responsible renovation
Winning bid for downtown hotel offers more rent, revenue to benefit UNM
The state land commissioner has awarded the 2.7-acre lease for the property occupied by Garrett’s Desert Inn to a hotel and property management team that is promising to renovate the business “with a sense of responsibility and respect” for the history and tradition of Santa Fe’s downtown.
GreenTree Hospitality of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Peak Hospitality of Albuquerque submitted the winning bid as a team, offering $300,000 in annual base rent, a one-time $100,000 bonus bid and 5 percent of annual gross revenues. The lease is for 20 years with two possible extensions until 2078.
The only other bidder, a subsidiary of HRV Hotel Partners owned by Richard Holland, offered a lower base rent and no revenue split.
The new owners will take over the property at 311 Old Santa Fe Trail on Jan. 1, with plans to spend $2.5 million on room upgrades and public amenities for the 60-year-old hotel — a favorite of state lawmakers and others looking for lowerpriced room options close to the Plaza.
The GreenTree proposal calls for using as much of the existing Garrett’s
footprint as possible without significantly increasing the building heights or density. The land is part of the city’s Downtown Historic District and had been a source of concern for preservationists who opposed a possible high-rise at the site adjacent to the Santa Fe River.
According to the State Land Office:
The 83 guest rooms will be completely updated with new electric work, paint, carpeting, bathrooms and 48-inch flat-screen TVs. There will be entirely new balcony seating.
The heating, air conditioning and lighting will be replaced with energy-efficient units.
The lobby will be completely redone with registration kiosks as well as public restrooms and new fitness and meeting areas.
The swimming pool will receive a new deck.
The parking lot will be repaved with islands to soften the look.
The proposal states that two detached buildings that are part of the lease will be renovated, one as an extended-stay suite and the other — an adobe on Old Santa Fe Trail — into a spa that can be leased separately for use by hotel guests and the public.
The hotel will remain open during renovations, bid documents state, and that the Santa Fe Bite restaurant, “has proven to be an asset to the property. We will work to retain their operation on a leased basis, and to enhance the physical aspect of their operation,” according to GreenTree.
Santa Fe Bite owners Bonnie and John Eckre said they have not spoken with anyone from the hotel partnership, but it would be good news if they could stay with reasonable rental terms.
“I think they were waiting to see if it was a done deal or not,” said John Eckre. “I hear it’s a good company, and we’re looking forward to working with them.”
The construction of Garrett’s, which stood out as a 1950s-style building at a time when preservationists and community boosters were promoting SpanishPueblo Revival and Territorial architectural styles, helped lead to the adoption of city-enforced design standards in historic neighborhoods that have come to be known as Santa Fe Style.
The hotel business was operated by Gene Garrett, who purchased it in 1973 with his first wife, Virginia. After Gene died in 2014, his third wife, Deborah Garrett, ran the business until she was unable to keep up on a loan that called for stepped-up monthly payments, which were required because the land lease under the motel expired in August 2017.
At about the same time, the Catron Family Trust listed the property for sale.
When Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn heard about the availability, he saw the property as a way to return 9,000 acres of ancestral lands, formerly Dixon’s Apple Orchard, to Cochiti Pueblo. Cochiti purchased the Garrett’s land from the Catron Family and transferred ownership to the State Land Office in September 2016.
The promise to return the orchard land, destroyed in the 2011 Las Conchas Fire, was made first by former Land Commissioner Ray Powell, a Democrat, and then reiterated to tribal elders by Dunn, a Republican.
“I welcome GreenTree and Peak to Santa Fe and appreciate their commitment to create a special destination for visitors and locals alike,” Dunn said in a statement Thursday. “I also want to recognize Cochiti Pueblo for being open to the land trade which returned their ancestral lands and allowed us to acquire income-producing property for the state land trust.”
Revenue from the property lease will benefit The University of New Mexico, which was receiving about $40,000 a year from the orchard lease.
With the renovation, one thing likely will change: The hotel’s offseason rates are $69 to $109 per night and jump to $139 to $179 per night in the summer season. One of the partners in the project, Walter Barela, said at the October bid opening that the room rates will have to be increased to cover the investments and will likely average about $150 a night.
Barela could not be reached Thursday.
GreenTree owns hotel properties under the name GreenTree Inn in Flagstaff, Ariz.; Sedona, Ariz.; Phoenix; Salt Lake City; Los Angeles; San Diego; and Pasadena, Calif. It also owns some medical and office complexes. Alex S. Xu is the chairman and chief executive. He graduated from the Beijing Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California.
Peak Hospitality has managed and restored several hotel properties in and around New Mexico, and it worked as a consultant with Gene Garrett in Santa Fe. It is owned by Walter Barela, Theodore Barela and Joseph Will.
Walter Barela also is on the board of the Latino Hotel Association, which works to increase the ownership of Hispanics in the hotel industry. He recently helped relocate the offices of the nonprofit from Houston to Santa Fe.