New hotel is slated for Grants

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — An $11 million Hampton Inn and 24-hour travel center owned by the Pueblo of Acoma will start construction in March in Grants and be completed by October.

The hotel and travel center will be located adjacent to Interstate Highway 40, on the southwest corner of Exit 85, near the Grants Senior Center and the Lavaland RV park, said Charles Schmidt, chief operations officer for Acoma Business Enterprises.

The Hampton Inn will be a franchise operation owned by the Pueblo of Acoma and managed by Acoma Business Enterprises, the business arm of the tribe.

The hotel will have 70 rooms on three stories, an indoor swimming pool, hot tub, exercise room, meeting rooms and breakfast for hotel guests.

The travel center will be the third such center the tribe owns, the first two being the travel center at Sky City Hotel Casino on Interstate 40, Exit 102; the second being SkyWay, at Exit 89, which used to be the local Stuckey’s franchise. It is currently being renovated, and when it reopens sometime next month, will have a Subway restaurant as well as a convenience store and gas and diesel pumps for traffic.

The new travel center will include an Arby’s restaurant, convenience store, automatic in-bay car wash, self-serve car wash bays, and gas and diesel pumps.

The hotel and the travel center are part of Acoma Business Enterprises’ expansion and diversification plans to develop businesses off the reservation, for the tribe, Schmidt said.

The two new businesses will provide about 50 jobs for area residents an tribal members, he said.

“There will be management and supervisory positions as well as entry level positions available,” he said.

The hotel and travel center will be constructed on two pieces of land owned by the tribe, totaling nine acres. The businesses will not be placed into Indian Trust lands or operations because the land is not contiguous to the reservation, he said.

In addition to wages and salaries, all full-time employees will receive health benefits and have the opportunity to join a 401k retirement plan, he said.

Gross receipts taxes will be paid to the state and county and lodger’s taxes to the city of Grants.

The hotel will be on a 6.5 acre site immediately south of the senior center and adjacent to West Santa Fe Avenue and Jurassic Court, which leads to the senior center.

The travel center will be located adjacent to W. Santa Fe Avenue on a 2.5 acre side facing the road just southwest of Lava RV Park.

Eileen Sandoval at the Grants Senior Center welcomed the news saying the jobs will help.

“We are not worried about the seniors coming here for lunch and the new Arby’s taking them away,” she said.

“They can’t compete, because we ask for $1 donation for lunch from the seniors and if they don’t have it, then we feed them anyway,” she said.

The office at Lavaland was locked and dark and no one answered the door. No one returned calls seeking comment on the new developments.

City of Grants Bob Horacek said he welcome the hotel and travel center, because, “We always welcome economic development.”

He said he city knew the tribe was looking at developing the two businesses and an Arby’s was penciled in on preliminary plans but those plans did not show what type of hotel or motel group for which the franchise would be affiliated.

“The gross receipts taxes will go into our general fund,” he said. The city’s general fun is between $5-7 million per year,” he said.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.