Feb. 18–LAS CRUCES — Las Cruces businessman Bob Pofahl has teamed up with the owner of the former Doña Ana County Courthouse in an effort to remake the downtown landmark into a five-star hotel, conference center and complex with restaurants and boutiques, he said.
“The vision for the hotel is to create something similar to La Fonda or La Posada in Santa Fe or the Hotel Parq Central in Albuquerque, where the building’s history is preserved during the redevelopment progress,” said Pofahl of his plans with owner John Hoffman of El Paso.
Pofahl, managing partner for Las Cruces Community Partners LLC, is no stranger to re-imagining large projects. He also is working with investors to redevelop the former Las Cruces Country Club property into a medical campus complete with a hospital and mixed use development.
Pofahl said the $20 million to $30 million courthouse project could be a major boost to downtown Las Cruces revitalization efforts.
Empty since 2008, when county government moved into new facilities on Motel Boulevard, the courthouse retains its designation on the state’s historic registry. Construction of the building began in 1936, and it served as an active public building for 70 years.
In 2008, Hoffman bought the building at 251 W. Amador Ave., which included the former Do?a Ana County jail, for $1.5 million. There were plans to renovate the building into apartments and office space. While some demolition and restoration work was done, the building has never been fully restored.
Pofahl said Hoffman has “done environmental mitigation on the entire structure, as well as adding a new roof.” Pofahl’s investment group plans to hire architect Stefanos Polyzoides of Moule & Polyzoides of Pasadena, Calif., to supervise the project, he said. “And LCCP is in discussions with LaTour Signature Hotels by ResortCom International of San Diego, Calif., as the operator for the hotel and conference center.”
He said talks with investors are ongoing “as we finalize marketing plans, complete studies and continue with preliminary designs and planning.”
Future plan
Pofahl and Hoffman first made their announcement public Saturday during a tour of historic properties hosted by the Mesilla Valley Preservation Inc.
“Plans call for the restoration of the existing courthouse as a conference center with several restaurants. The addition of approximately 70 rooms on the west side of building will maintain the current architecture of the courthouse,” according to Pofahl and Hoffman. “We’re beginning a process that could take two or three years. When you’re renovating a building like this, you have only one chance to get it right,” said Pofahl.
“Public spaces will feature artifacts and exhibits of local history. Rooms and public spaces will also feature photos, art and artifacts about the history of the building, and we would like the name to reflect the history, something like the Courthouse Hotel and Conference Center.”
Reaction
“A downtown hotel is definitely needed,” said city councilor Miguel Silva, whose district includes the former courthouse. “It would be nice if some longer-term housing could be incorporated, too. I’ve heard about some of the plans, but not about the addition of 70 rooms. I thought of La Fonda in Santa Fe and a hotel in Taos when I first heard about (renovation) plans. The ideas have potential.”
“It’s extremely important for us to have a hotel downtown,” said Carrie La Tour, executive director of Downtown Las Cruces Partnership, a nonprofit program not connected to Pofahl’s investment group.
“We’re very happy that this is starting to take shape,” she said.
“It was always in the downtown plan to have a hotel or a boutique hotel,” said Heather Pollard, president of the nonprofit Amador Foundation, which is restoring the old Amador Hotel, just across the street from the courthouse, as a museum and a multiuse community gathering site. “To have it in a historic building is just a plus because it will be an economic driver for tourism. And if we can partner with the Amador to have dining and a bar and cocktails at the Amador, it’s a win-win for the entire downtown revitalization,” Pollard said.
Plans for the proposed 70-room addition should be ready to submit for approval soon, he said.
Building history
The Pueblo Revival courthouse was built with $150,000 in municipal bonds and $100,000 from a Depression-era Works Progress Administration grant. The 37,000-square-foot building was dedicated on Feb. 22, 1938, and was designed by architect Percy McGhee, a prot?g? of renowned architect Henry Trost. McGhee was also the architect for the first Thomas Branigan Library, now the Branigan Cultural Center.
Throughout its history, the building has been lauded for its pleasing design, according to Las Cruces historian Christopher Schurtz, who wrote in the 2014 Casas de Antaña tour guide that famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle was a fan of the courthouse.
“Pyle was critical of ugly government buildings, but wrote the Doña Ana County Courthouse had ‘thrown off the old square monstrosity of a courthouse and built something that didn’t look like a courthouse … you might take it for a fine private mansion.’ In its early days, especially, when the old acequia wound visibly across the property, the site was noted for its fine landscaping, and its modest, manicured law, trees and surrounding shrubbery,” Schurtz wrote.
S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at 575-541-5450.
