Destined for luxury

Bob Quick | The New Mexican

11/6/2007 -

Gencom Group, the new owner of La Posada de Santa Fe, has big plans for the downtown hotel that will elevate the property to a new position in the Santa Fe hotel market.

"We will be spending about $5 million on the rooms to take them up to the luxury level," said Aly-khan S Merali, Gencom Group's director of acquisition and development.

Soft furnishings, bedding and carpeting will be replaced, and new armoires and closets will be added. Gencom also plans to completely redo the hotel's bathrooms.

Gencom will reposition the hotel's restaurant and "cater to the local market," Merlai said. "We also want to create a more varied a la carte menu."

Gencom also plans to redo the hotel's popular library bar, off the lobby.

Neighbors of La Posada who remember the large construction projects back in 1998 and 1999 shouldn't worry.

"There won't be any major construction projects," Merali said. "If anything, we might redo the spa."

Merali emphasized that Gencom Group "is not the kind of company" that makes quick changes to a property in the expectation of selling it.

"This is not a quick-flip situation," he said. "We like to hold on to properties."

RockResorts, the current management group at the hotel, will remain in place as will the hotel's employees, Merali said. RockResorts "has been a partner of ours in other deals. We worked with them in the past. We think they will be able to achieve the level of service we have in mind for this luxury asset."

Gencom Group acquired La Posada de Santa Fe for an undisclosed amount from New York-based Trinity Hotel Investors, which bought the property in 2005.

Trinity acquired La Posada from Olympus Real Estate Partners, which itself had purchased the hotel in 1997 and spent millions renovating the lodging in 1998 and 1999.

Renovations included the addition of 40 new rooms and suites, for a total of 157, a three-level parking garage, a 5,000-square-foot spa and 4,500-square-foot meeting room.

La Posada, which is on six acres of land off of East Palace Avenue, opened in 1934.

Miami-based Gencom Group, started in 1987 by Karim Alibhai, focuses on acquiring and developing mixed-use hotels, including The Ritz-Carlton and Hyatt properties, with ancillary residential components in key resort and urban, markets, the company Web site states.

The company works with such investors and lenders as Lehman Brothers, Whitehall Group, Credit Suisse and Jamestown investors.

Since 1997 Gencom has been involved in more than 10 luxury hotels and resorts with a total investment value of $1.5 billion.

Among Gencom Group's notable deals are those involving The Ritz-Carlton, Rancho Mirage, Palm Springs; Molasses Reef, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in the Turks and Caicos Islands; and The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek, Colo.

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com