The Albuquerque-based Fast TV Network and the Classical Gas Museum of Embudo, New Mexico, will relocate to a vacant Kmart building along Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico, by summer.
Mike Lee, CEO and president of Fast TV, made the announcement today during a news conference in Tucumcari, as did Johnnie Meier, owner of the museum.
Melissa Beasley-Lee, Mike’s wife, said the New Mexico Route 66 Association also will relocate there. She is president of the association. The couple also plans to relocate to Tucumcari; they reside in Elephant Butte, New Mexico.
It’s all part of an $8 million project for the former Kmart store that closed in 2018. It will house television and movie production sound stages and equipment, a Route 66 museum and welcome center, and the state’s Route 66 association.
Lee estimated the facility would generate $300 million in revenue over 10 years.
More details can be read in a breaking-news story by yours truly in the Quay County Sun and in the newspaper’s next edition.
Mike and Melissa had been hinting for weeks at a big announcement in Tucumcari on social media, as did Fast TV’s website.
Fast TV has produced a number of Route 66-related programs in Tucumcari. Mike and Melissa first met several years ago during a movie showing in the city’s historic Odeon Theatre.
As for Meier, he had been looking for years for a location to move his Classical Gas collection of gas-station and neon-sign memorabilia. At one point, he was eyeing nearby Santa Rosa as a site, but that never came to fruition. Meier also is a former president of the New Mexico Route 66 Association and is its preservation officer.
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