Mar. 6--No new hotels are under construction in Santa Fe as the 2001 tourist season approaches, but multi-million-dollar renovations are planned, under way or have been recently completed at several properties. 

The most ambitious overhaul is at Tesuque's Rancho Encantado, which is projected to start in early May and to cost between $35 million and $40 million. The hotel will reopen in May 2002 as one of "The Leading Hotels of the World" with rooms starting at a little more than $500 per night ranging to suites priced from $650 to $3,000 per night. 

Hotel Santa Fe is in the midst of $8 million addition with the construction of a 29,000-square-foot addition that will add 35 rooms and suites. The Hacienda, as the addition is called, will open in August. 

And The Bishop's Lodge, also in Tesuque, has spent several million dollars building 21 new rooms, renovating other parts of the property and adding a conference center to open in July. 

On the budget side of the lodging market, the Barker family has completed gutting a former office complex on Galisteo Street and plans to open the Old Santa Fe Inn later in the year with rooms priced in the $80 to $100 range. 

And although no new property is under construction, a spokeswoman for Fairfield, N.J.-based Prime Hospitality said the firm is negotiating with a franchiser to build an Amerisuites hotel in Santa Fe. 

The construction follows a generally soft 2000 for Santa Fe tourism, harmed as it was by a lack of snow in the winter, the Cerro Grande fire in the spring, summer drought and an economic downturn later in the year. 

For the year 2000, Santa Fe's hotel/motel occupancy rate was 67.7 percent compared with 1999's rate if 68.3 percent. And total reported gross-receipts paid by hotels and motels in 2000 was about 2 percent below those paid in 1999. 

As for prospects for the 2001 tourist season, "It's hard to tell this early in the year," said Art Bouffard, director of the New Mexico Hotel/Motel Association and the Santa Fe Lodgers Association. "I'm guessing we will probably see a little improvement over last year, but I don't think it will be a blockbuster year." 

Bouffard said a weak national economy may have an effect on Santa Fe's visitor numbers, especially if it seems the country is slipping into a recession. 

"People are waiting to see what's going to happen," he said. 

The waiting is over at Rancho Encantado, which was purchased in October 1999 by The Acacia Group, a worldwide hotel group. 

"We're anticipating putting a shovel in the ground by May 1 and an opening in the spring of next year," said William Anderson, president of Acacia. "Construction will take about a year." 

Anderson said that because the property "has really been let go," it will require a completely new infrastructure. "It's almost the same as if it's raw land." 

Anderson estimated the cost of the renovation, which will include additional rooms, a spa, fitness center and a conference center, to be between $35 million and $40 million. 

An internationally known interior design firm, Yabushellberg, has been contracted to create a new version of Santa Fe-style for the property, he said. The firm has done the interior of a new Tiffany's in New York and hotels around the world, Anderson said. 

Rancho Encantado is already included in "The Leading Hotels of the World" 2001 directory, with daily rates starting at $370 and ranging up to $3,000 for a suite. Those rates will put the property at the upper end of the Santa Fe lodging market. 

"On the high end, it's not so much about the rates as it is about the superb experience," Anderson said. 

Hotel Santa Fe, which was a collaboration between Picuris Pueblo and developers Joe Schepps and William Zeckendorf, opened 10 years ago. The project involved an $11 million loan guaranteed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

Under the terms of the BIA loan, Picuris Pueblo owns 51 percent of the hotel, and members of the tribe are given preference in the jobs created at the hotel. 

With the new $8 million addition, Hotel Santa Fe will have 163 rooms and suites. According to Paul Margetson, partner and general manager, the 29,000-square-foot addition will have 35 rooms and suites, each with a corner fireplace. A Dallas firm, Vivian Nichols Associates, will do the interior design. 

The addition, which is scheduled to open in early August, also will feature a lounge and breakfast room on the third floor, Margetson said. Room rates at The Hacienda will range from $249 to $349. 

At The Bishop's Lodge, 21 new rooms opened in November in an addition on a hillside high above the rest of the property. That gives the Tesuque resort a total of 111 rooms in 15 lodges. 

The new rooms and other construction at the resort "was supposed to have been done by June (2000)," said The Bishop's Lodge manager Robert O'Hearn. Instead, "We had construction all through the summer and into the fall." 

The construction included remodeling the kitchen, construction of a new bar and cafe, a new lobby and the addition of a gift shop. 

A 3,200-square-foot conference center that can be expanded to more than 4,000 square feet is expected to be open by July 4th, O'Hearn said. 

With all of last year's construction, combined at one point with a broken gas line that meant no hot water for some rooms, "It was a difficult summer," he said. "The guests toughed it out for the most part." Helping them do that were some drastic reductions in room rates, with $400 rooms cut to $99 at one point. 

Now that the renovation is soon to be complete, "We're looking forward to a great summer," O'Hearn said. 

Back in downtown Santa Fe, "We finished this week with the demolition," said John Barker of work on an office compound that is being renovated to become the Old Santa Fe Inn. 

"We've gone through and gutted the interior," he said. "Now we're just waiting for the building permit to get started on construction." Barker estimated the new inn will open around Oct. 1. 

With rooms expected to cost between $80 and $100 per night, the Old Santa Fe Inn will be the first new budget hotel in downtown Santa Fe in years. Most downtown properties have room rates starting at $200 or more per night. 

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(c) 2001, The Santa Fe New Mexican. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.