Downtown Albuquerque Hotel One of Several New Nationally Designated Historic Places

The developers launching a plan to update a well-known downtown Albuquerque hotel may be eligible for both federal and state tax credits due to its new status as a historic structure.

Last year Arrive Hotels and Restaurants, based in Los Angeles, announced its purchase of the former Hotel Blue, a six-story structure built in 1965 and located at the intersection of Central Avenue and 8th Street.

The company said it would likely invest around $22 million upgrading the hotel, which was originally a part of the Downtowner Motor Inn chain, before subsequently becoming both a Quality Inn and Ramada Inn property.

In announcing the historic status of the 75,000 square foot hotel, the National Park Service, which oversees the historic places list, said the former Hotel Blue represented an “exceptional example of a mid-20th century motel on Route 66 in Albuquerque.”

More than 95,000 historic structures and properties have now been listed with the National Register of Historic Places.

This month the agency also declared the Sam Hughes Neighborhood in Tucson, known for its early 20th century bungalow architecture, as a historic district.
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At the same time, The First Avenue Hotel in downtown Denver, an example of Italian Renaissance Revival architecture completed in 1907, was also added to the historic places list.

​By Garry Boulard

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