Downtown Albuquerque News had a story this morning about the proposed hotel in the Sawmill Area that went before the Albuquerque Development Commission last month for an industrial revenue bond in the amount of $40 million. The ADC ultimately approved the IRB for the project, with a lone dissenting vote.
The story below also gives more information about the project, including that it will actually be a dual-branded hotel. It will be a 5-story, 135-room Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites hotel.
https://downtownalbuquerquenews.com/
Quote:
New hotel slated for Sawmill advances, but not without a fight
Developers behind a combination Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites planned in Sawmill are running into opposition that alternately argues the project would lead to an unacceptable level of local traffic congestion or diminish the tourism-dependent area's hometown brand.
Sun Capital Hotels plans to open the five-story, 135-room hotel on Eighteenth Street north of Explora in 2028 and is seeking a $40 million package of city industrial revenue bonds to help pay for the project. CEO Deepesh Kholwadwala told the Albuquerque Development Commission - which is charged with vetting the application for the bonds - that the property was set to play a key role in supporting the economic development of the area and beyond.
"Albuquerque and New Mexico in general has a large tourism economy that we need to keep growing," he said in remarks before the panel last month.
But the idea did not sit well with Commissioner Maria Griego-Raby, who said the hotel would make an already-congested area worse.
"One hundred thirty-five guest rooms with the current situation of traffic would be awful," she said, venturing into a line of argument that the ADC usually treats as outside of its scope.
Griego-Raby further complained that the area was being blindsided by the project: "I have to tell you that the greater neighborhood has not been consulted and that is problematic," she said. "I live in that community and I was not made aware of anything."
Last year, the project won special permission to add five feet to the standard building height for the zone (DAN, 9/15/25), and as part of that public process, developers notified immediate neighbors, the Sawmill Community Land Trust, and the Sawmill Area Neighborhood Association. They also posted a sign on the property.
As for the current application, Economic Development Director Max Gruner told the ADC that the developers had met all of their prerequisites.
"Everything that was required to be done … was done," he said. "That is different from saying 'are the requirements, as they currently stand, appropriate?"
Gruner nevertheless argued Griego-Raby's point about traffic while maintaining as much deference as possible: "I think the Sawmill District is becoming a more and more desirable place for people to live, work, and create," he said. "Do I believe that a mid-level hotel is going to be a strong driver of that traffic? I actually don't necessarily believe that."
Commissioner Len Romano, who is leaving the panel to take a day job in economic development, said that while he was not deaf to the traffic situation, a new hotel would also bring tangible benefits.
"More feet on the street, more bikes on the street - [it] reduces crime, increases local businesses," he said. "For me, that takes priority over the other things."
This was not the first time that Griego-Raby leveled what for the economic development-focused commission are fairly unorthodox arguments against a project. Last year, she filleted a housing at Third and Mountain - among other locations - on aesthetic grounds (DAN, 9/15/25).
Some of the hotel project's neighbors - and competitors - leveled a different argument against issuing the bonds last month: that the Old Town and Sawmill area does best when it showcases a distinctly New Mexican personality rather than throwing its lot in with imprints of the Hilton empire.
"What this space does not need is a major brand," said Adrian Perez, the president of Heritage Hotels and Resorts, the company behind Hotel Chaco and Hotel Albuquerque. "We do not need an eyesore in our community … Let it happen without [industrial revenue bonds]."
Heritage has for years leaned into New Mexican history, identity, and landscape as it built up its brand in Sawmill, including by rechristening the Sheraton Old Town as Hotel Albuquerque. In Downtown, it renamed a Hyatt as "The Clyde," after former New Mexico governor and Albuquerque mayor Clyde Tingley.
J.J. Mancini, the president of the Historic Old Town Association and the chief information officer at Heritage, seconded Perez's argument and added that the substantial franchise fees the hotel would pay to Hilton would essentially siphon money out of the area.
"There's plenty of other places and opportunities for [the project]," he said.
Responding to the criticism from his fellow hoteliers, Kholwadwala stuck to a dollars-and-cents argument.
"We need to find a path toward growing the tax base," he said, adding that whatever he saved on franchise fees by going independent would likely be spent advertising on Google in the absence of Hilton's marketing coattails.
The measure before the ADC formally recommending the project to the City Council passed 4-1, with Griego-Raby casting the lone "no" vote. The legislation is slated to be heard at the June 15 council meeting.
Sun Capital Hotels owns properties in Gallup, Farmington, and Roswell, as well as the Hyatt Place Albuquerque in Uptown and the Holiday Inn Express and Suites at Twelfth and Indian School. Kholwadwala is on the board of Visit Albuquerque and the city's Lodgers Tax Advisory Board.
Industrial revenue bonds are a complex class of private loan in which the creditor's payments flow through a government, thereby yielding some tax advantages. The instrument is often deployed for large-scale developments and has been used on such projects as the Hotel Chaco, the Hotel Andaluz, and the Arrive Albuquerque hotel.
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The idea that this project came out of nowhere and that people in the area were "blindsided" by it is completely absurd. This project has been known about and been before the city in various ways since early last year.
I must also say that it's really disgusting and very disappointing to see Heritage now opposing projects in this area. Especially after they have faced opposition themselves. And also to see them denigrate the quality of this project by calling it an "eyesore" etc.
This is a normal hotel with normal quality, of the kind that's being built in desirable areas all across the city. It may not be as architecturally distinctive or as high end as most of Heritage's properties, but that doesn't mean that it's gonna be some cheap motel that will bring down the area, either.
Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites aren't exactly known to be 'roach motels' but instead are rather average, mid-scale brands.
Heritage should remember that people have also had problems with and called their projects and proposals eyesores, "grotesque monstrosities" and otherwise inappropriate or out of place in the Sawmill Area and elsewhere like Nob Hill and Santa Fe.
The Sawmill Area and its land trust was created to develop affordable housing and keep the area affordable in perpetuity. More-affordable options for a wider range of people to be able to book accommodations and enjoy the area should never be characterized as a bad thing, as far as I'm concerned.
The quote below from the supporting documents for the city council's upcoming consideration of the project IRB really gets to the appropriateness and need for this particular project even if doesn't live up to Heritage's and some people's standards.
Heritage pretty much has a monopoly on accommodations in the area. Remember that they are proposing two more high-end hotels in the area as well, for a total of four properties by them. Competition and a range of accommodations is never a bad thing.
Trying to put a stranglehold and stifling competition is never a good look, especially by casting aspersions on those other projects and competitors.
But this really only is competition in terms of bringing in more price points for accommodation. People who want unique, high end and upscale accommodations on the level of Hotel Chaco aren't suddenly going to switch to the Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites.
However, people who would like to stay in the area and enjoy things such as the Sawmill Market, Old Town and the museums and the area's overall ambience but who don't have several hundred dollars going into the thousands to afford a weekend or a few days stay at the existing hotels will now be able to do so.
It's more about expanding and broadening the appeal of the area. How anybody could be against that is beyond me.
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