Hotel Blue renovation in limbo as parent company is sold

July 15, 2021

Ryan Lowery

After 18 months of construction delays, the future of Hotel Blue remains as opaque as ever even as new corporate parents assume ownership of the building.

Los Angeles-based Arrive Hotels and Restaurants purchased the six-story hotel on Eighth and Central in 2018, and the following year unveiled its restoration plan, a $24 million project backed by $1.1 million in tax breaks approved by the city.

Plans called for a complete renovation of all 135 rooms and a restoration of the exterior facade that would return the building to its original 1965 look. The company also promised other amenities, including a coffee shop on the ground floor, meeting and event rooms, and regular food trucks in the adjacent parking lot. (Though they pulled back on the idea of a full restaurant.) Ground was to be broken by 2020, and Arrive was hopeful the new hotel would open sometime in 2021.

Last year, Arrive blamed some delays on a drawn-out permitting process and then on the pandemic, which disrupted its financing package.

Then, last November, a Los Angeles-based company called Palisociety acquired Arrive and Hotel Blue, according to a press release that did not disclose the terms of the purchase. Palisociety announced the purchase in January.

So far, the new owner isn’t saying much about the renovation’s progress: “They are still very much in pre-development mode on the hotel so don’t have a ton of confirmed detail to share quite yet,” a representative for Palisociey’s PR firm, Raluca State Public Relations, told DAN. “Construction is hopefully slated to start again in the coming months. All pending some COVID-related delays and outside factors.”

City spokeswoman Sarah Wheeler, who works with the same Economic Development Department that helped organize the $1.1 million tax break, said the department believes Palisociety still plans to proceed.

“The city wants to support this project and all projects that benefit the residents of Albuquerque, and we understand that the pandemic has required many businesses to alter their plans,” Wheeler said. “We evaluate each project individually and work with the company to reach the best path forward for everyone.”