Residence Inn hotel planned for Santa Fe Place

Teya Vitu, The Santa Fe New Mexican
·2 min read

Nov. 15—A 127-room Residence Inn by Marriott is in the works for Santa Fe Place.

PEG Companies of Provo, Utah, intends to develop the four-story, 90,329-square-foot structure just northeast of JCPenney on what is currently parking lot, agent Jennifer Jenkins said Thursday at a city Early Neighborhood Notification meeting.

PEG already owns the other Residence Inn in Santa Fe near Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. The intention is to covert the existing Residence Inn into lower than market-rate rental housing, which in prior interviews PEG officials described as "attainable" rent rather than affordable.

"PEG is looking for an alternative location for the Residence Inn," Jenkins said.

PEG in 2019 told The New Mexican it wanted to replace the existing Residence Inn with a new Residence likely near Christus St. Vincent or Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center.

In the depths of the pandemic in December 2020, PEG potentially backed away from building a new hotel as the hospitality industry around the world was in shambles.

PEG had acquired the Residence Inn by Christus St. Vincent in September 2018 in an eight-hotel deal with Blackstone, a New York City alternative asset management firm described as "the largest real estate private equity firm in the world.

The 120-room Santa Fe property was part of a Blackstone portfolio with seven Residence Inns and one Courtyard by Marriott in Sacramento, Calif.; St. Louis; Chicago; Tampa, Fla.; Mesa, Ariz.; and Charlotte, N.C.

All of them were under consideration for conversion into affordable housing.

As of December 2020, PEG had 11 attainable housing hotel conversions that they branded under the name Aria Apartments. The Santa Fe property was placed under the Aria brand.

PEG intends to submit the project to the city Nov. 21 with a potential city Planning Commission hearing on Jan. 5 and construction possibly starting in May, Jenkins said.