El Rey Inn in Santa Fe, New Mexico, ended 80 years of family ownership when a Texas real-estate investment company recently bought the historic Route 66 motel.
The Santa Fe New Mexican had the scoop Wednesday night:
Terrell White, who had owned El Rey since 1973, sold the 5-acre complex to a company called Behringer, formerly known as Behringer Harvard. The Addison, Texas, business, which in the past has focused on office and apartment properties, launched a hotel investment division last year.
The sale on El Rey Inn closed in late June, reported the newspaper.
Among the reported changes are higher room rates — now $169 a night — and a bar (with a margarita-tasting area) will be built where the breakfast area was. El Rey Inn also will allow pets for the first time, with a $50 nonrefundable deposit. A desk manager also said that a couple of fountains will be replaced with fire pits.
A construction manager told the newspaper the changes will begin sometime in September.
Daniel Murphy built the 12-unit El Rey Court, as it was called, in 1936 along Cerrillos Road, the original path of U.S. 66 until the highway was realigned about a year later. Murphy also built El Vado Motel on Route 66 in Albuquerque, which is scheduled to be redeveloped into a boutique hotel and other businesses in the next 15 months or so. El Rey Inn was altered and enlarged during the 1950s through the 1990s.
El Rey’s website considers White a savior of motel, which was struggling when he bought it in 1973:
He worked diligently to survive the early years. The ‘74 oil crisis had a profound impact on travel, and Mr. White began the expensive and laborious project of replacing all the hotel’s eroded gas and sewer pipes.
El Rey Inn became one of the destination hotels in Santa Fe and all of Route 66. Let’s hope White enjoys his apparent retirement; he’s earned it.
(Image of El Rey Inn in Santa Fe, New Mexico, via Facebook)