The Luna Lodge and the Sundowner Motel along Central Avenue (aka Route 66) in Albuquerque are going to be renovated in the coming months and converted into apartment complexes, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
According to the newspaper:
The Sundowner Motel at 6101 Central NE, just west of San Pedro, would be transformed into a 71-unit apartment complex with a community room, laundry room, gym, library, community garden, business incubators, and office and retail space. […]
The Luna Lodge site at 9119 Central NE, east of Wyoming, would include 30 “affordable” apartments: 14 units, an office and community room with a kitchen in the existing motel and 16 units in a new two-story building.
The Sundowner is most notable as a place where Bill Gates and Paul Allen stayed in the 1970s when they worked on BASIC computer language for the Altair computer. Their efforts culminated in the formation of Microsoft.
The Luna is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is considered a prime example of a vintage Route 66 motel.
Renovations on both properties were approved by the city’s Environmental Planning Commission. Because Central Avenue suffers from a glut of cut-rate motels, any adaptive reuse of such historic properties should be applauded.
Good to hear and wish them well.