Eldorado Hotel rooftop pool, bar receives approval

A new rooftop pool and bar on the second floor of the Eldorado Hotel & Spa won approval Tuesday night from the city’s Historic Districts Review Board.

Board members acknowledged the hulking five-story downtown structure is “despised” by a wide swath of Santa Feans, as board Chairman Frank Katz put it, but in a unanimous vote accepted that the proposed pool above a ballroom on the building’s east side would not be additionally obtrusive.

“My sense is the proposal is not going to be visible at all,” Katz said.

Applicants said “95 percent” of the proposed new amenities would not be visible.

The Eldorado Hotel & Spa already has a fifth-floor outdoor pool.

The proposed pool would be constructed above a part of the building that faces Palace Avenue. Board members imposed a handful of conditions, among them that poolside pergolas, or crossbeams erected atop posts, be made of wood and not metal.

The pergolas will be visible from the street, plans show.

Adrian Perez, president of Heritage Hotels and Resorts, which operates the Eldorado, defended the hotel against disparaging remarks from residents.

“For every penny this hotel makes, we give a percentage back to the community to keep heritage and tradition alive,” Perez said. “That’s the whole reason we do what we do. I’m a 13th-generation New Mexican.”