On wintery days like these the New Mexican posts a blog for people either wanting information regarding road conditions, or people wanting to tell/show others about current road conditions.  It’s pretty handy, and people will often post photos of specific trouble spots. It can be found below:

Santa Fe New Mexican Road Condition Blog

Don’t despair though, in the past few days you could start to see the first signs of spring.  Daffodils, tulips, and Iris’ were starting to poke through the ground, and grasses were starting to green up a bit. Heck, even the buds on my apricot tree were starting to perk up. After the significant amount of precipitation that we have had this year (Santa Fe’s normal average amount of precipitation by March 10th is 1.68 inches, whereas this year we are at 2.65), it’s sure to be a green spring.  And in a month all will be abloom and spring will have arrived.

Contact Ryan Bolton and Matt Desmond

The New Mexican published a great article today about the resort and all of the recent attention that it has received. Check it out, and then set up a tee time!

By: Bob Quick in The New Mexican
 
Hilton Santa Fe Golf Resort and Spa at Buffalo Thunder has received three awards from industry publications that have recognized the Pojoaque Pueblo development as a top meetings destination.

“Receiving recognition from our readers — who are ultimately our customers — and industry leaders is an honor and a fitting way to celebrate our success,” said Timothy Booth, general manager of the resort, in a statement. “We hope we can continue our track record … in the years to come.”

In a recent meeting with a reporter, Allen Mosley, chief executive officer of Buffalo Thunder, Inc., and Gov. George Rivera of Pojoaque Pueblo discussed the awards and Buffalo Thunder’s performance as a local business.

The three awards were the 2010 Elite Gold Certification from Elite Meetings International, publisher of Elite Meetings magazine; a 2009 Platinum Choice Award from SmartMeetings magazine, and a 2009 Gold Key Award from Meetings and Convention magazine.

“The Elite Gold award represents a new level of endorsement from the Elite Meetings Advisory Board,” said Travis Hodge, spokesman for Elite Meetings. “This recognition — which cannot be purchased — is granted only to upscale and upper-upscale hospitality providers offering an exceptional group experience.”

The 700,000-square-foot Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino previously received the Project of the Year award from the American Subcontractors Association of New Mexico.

The hotel and casino, along with Pojoaque Pueblo’s other business interests in the area, employ about 1,200 people, making it one of the largest private employers in Northern New Mexico. The pueblo’s annual payroll comes to $28 million a year, Rivera said.

Buffalo Thunder has 395 rooms, a golf course and spa, 13,000 square feet of retail space and 66,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.

Pojoaque Pueblo doesn’t disclose its profits or losses, but for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2009, the pueblo reported a net win from its gaming operations of $12.2 million. That compares with the same time period in 2008, when the net win was $12 million, and 2007, when it was $6.3 million.

That information is from the New Mexico Gaming Control Board, which monitors the gaming contract signed by 14 tribes with gaming operations in the state. The net winnings are deposited in the state general fund.

Buffalo Thunder’s current traveler percentage is about 30 percent group business and 70 percent individual travelers.

A key to increasing that group business at Buffalo Thunder is working together with Santa Fe businesses, many of which benefit from the patronage of Buffalo Thunder’s guests.

“Everybody recognizes the name of Santa Fe,” Rivera said, who added that the pueblo did $3 million in group business last year and hopes to increase that amount to $6 million or $7 million this year.

Buffalo Thunder, like other hotels in the U.S. and elsewhere, has been impacted by the downturn in travel. “The economy is having an effect on our business, People are still traveling, but they’re spending less,” Mosley said.

To cope with soft sales, “we’re not sitting back and waiting for things to happen,” Rivera said. “We’re shaking the trees for visitors. We know we’re competing with Las Vegas and other prime destinations.”

The faltering economy resulted in a drop of both group and individual travelers and resulted in Buffalo Thunder’s not being able to make payments on the $245 million in bonds used to finance the project.

Rivera is confident the financial problems can be dealt with.

“We’re in constant communication with the bondholders as to a possible restructuring of the debt,” Rivera said. “It’s a very long and complicated process.”

A restructuring could include reset bonds, Mosley said.

Reset bonds are issued with a provision that on specified dates, the initial interest rate is adjusted so that the bonds trade at their original value, Mosley said..

That would happen if the economy improves and people begin traveling again, creating more revenue for tourism businesses.

Link To Original Article Here

Contact Matt Desmond and Ryan Bolton

Registration
You can register at Active.com or on the Sante Fe Century Website. You may also register at the Century venue before the ride on either Saturday evening or Sunday morning. A Confirmation Receipt w/ your Ride Number will be mailed to all pre-registered riders. You must bring the Confirmation Receipt w/ you to the registration area to pick up your ride kit. Ride Kit contains a Santa Fe Century Water Bottle, rider number, & route maps.

If you ordered a Santa Fe Century T-shirt, it will be with your ride kit. Ride kits can be picked up on either Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

Course & Routes

Course- All rides start from the Century venue at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center (corner of St. Michael’s Dr. & Hospital Dr.) in Santa Fe. Ride Kits have detailed route maps with ride instructions and mileages to the Food-Stops. All routes are carefully marked with signs along the entire distance.

Century Loop- This is a medium difficult Century with rollers, ascents and descents, but with a major stretch of flats and easy rollers.

Half-Century Loop- This 50 mile loop is more difficult than the 50 mile Out & Back ride.

Other Rides- Out & Back: 25, 50, & 75 miles out & back to Eldorado, Galisteo, and Stanley respectively. One-Way: Starting from the Food-Stops: 79 miles from Madrid, 66 miles from Heart Break, 56 miles from Cedar Grove, 47 miles from Stanley, 25 miles from Galisteo. There is no transportation from the Century venue for the One-Way rides. You’re on your own to get there.

Click Here For A Course Map
 
Support

SAG Wagons patrol the routes to help the riders. In addition, volunteer mechanics will help with repairs, small parts, tires & tubes at the Food-Stops. In case of injury, medical assistance is available from the fire districts along the routes. Phone 911.

 
There are 6 FOOD-STOPS w/ snacks, fresh fruit, energy drink, & water staffed by Volunteers at Madrid (25 miles), Heart Break Hill (38 miles), Cedar Grove (48 miles), Stanley (62 miles/75 mile turn around), Galisteo (80 miles / 50 mile turn around), and Eldorado (92 miles / 25 mile turn around).

We hope to see you there!

Contact Matt Desmond and Ryan Bolton

The New Mexican recently published a great article discussing the project and other thoughts about New Mexico life with Redford.

ARTICLE

Screen legend Redford speaks on New Mexico, film and social change

By: Robert Nott | The New Mexican

Robert Redford speaks of New Mexico as if it’s his home. And in a way, it is. Though he was born in California, he first visited the state some 65 years ago, has lived here part-time in the past, shot one of his most memorable movies here — the 1988 film adaptation of John Nichols’ novel, The Milagro Beanfield War — and he just moved into a new house in Tesuque.

On Friday, Redford announced that he — in conjunction with Gov. Bill Richardson, the New Mexico Film Office, and the state Department of Cultural Affairs — is launching Milagro at Los Luceros, a training venue for Hispanic and Native American filmmakers. Modeled after The Sundance Institute, which Redford founded in Utah in 1981, Milagro will offer free screenwriting, directing and acting workshops and labs as well as media-related discussions relevant to independent film.

Speaking over lunch at Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen in Santa Fe, Redford recalled the first time he visited New Mexico in the early 1940s when his mother was driving from California to Texas to visit family members.

“We’d pass through these reservations and it was so different,” he said. “Native Americans on the streets, in blankets, the streets were muddy, no pavement, lots of artifacts around. I got fascinated by that.

“Years later, when I was 17, 18, and I had my own car, I was able to drive into these areas and explore on my own. I would camp out, spend time on the reservations, and the more I learned the more I realized there was a value here, and if we didn’t honor it, it’d be gone. So it became part of the fabric of my life.”

His was a troubled adolescence, he said. He was bored in school and wanted to either express himself artistically or “get my education on the streets.” His academic pursuits led him to study art at the Pratt Institute in New York City. That didn’t quite work out.

“There was a lot of anger that I couldn’t manage. I was very undisciplined,” he said. That changed when he began attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

There, “I was forced to focus, and I was forced to develop discipline in order to maintain the focus. And I took it so seriously that I developed my own work ethic.”

He graduated in 1959 and immediately got work both on the stage and on the small screen, guesting on many television shows including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason and The Twilight Zone (“a great training ground”) before he acted in his first film, War Hunt, in 1962. He had his share of star vehicles in the 1960s, including Barefoot in the Park (1967) opposite Jane Fonda, but said real celebrity didn’t kick in until after the release of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969. After that, he racked up a steady string of critical and commercial hits, including The Sting (1973), All the President’s Men (1976), and his directorial debut, Ordinary People (1980).

It was around the time of Ordinary People that he conceived Sundance.

“When we started Sundance there was no independent film,” Redford said. “Independent film, in 1980, was a dead category. It was pretty much relegated to National Endowment grants. In fact, I started Sundance with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for $25,000.”

Sundance’s goal was to develop new voices in cinema by giving independent filmmakers an arena to develop projects and established mentors — directors, writers, cameramen, etc. — to guide them. Milagro, Redford said, will work the same way here in New Mexico.

“There won’t be any classroom stuff, no sitting in chairs and having someone stand up and lecture. I’m not big on that. To me it’s all about working, about getting up on your feet. You can sit around and read all day, but it’s when you get it on its feet that it all happens.”

The Sundance Film Festival was a natural, progressive step from the institute itself, Redford said, in that it provided a venue to screen the films made by participating filmmakers. He said Sundance needed four or five years to prove its success.

By that time, the independent-film bandwagon was picking up passengers. “A lot of other people came on starting with Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh’s 1989 drama),” Redford said. “Then people starting coming to Sundance who hadn’t come before, from Hollywood. And then they began to develop their own independent subdivisions: Fox Searchlight, Focus (Features), Miramax. Now they’re all folding. But when they started building those divisions, it was a sign that something was going right with independent films.”

Redford’s latest directorial effort, The Conspirator, is an independent in the sense that it has no distributor in place. It’s the story of Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), one of eight accused conspirators charged with aiding John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It represents Redford’s desire to use film as a force for social change.

“She was the first woman put on military tribunal trial for Lincoln’s assassination, and the secretary of war at that time (Edwin M. Stanton), who engineered the whole thing, wanted the conspirators erased,” Redford said. “He couldn’t erase John Wilkes Booth, but he wanted the others, including Mary Surratt, erased. The question is not whether she was guilty or not. That’s not what the film deals with. It deals with how she was treated as they broke down the Constitution just to satisfy legal expediency because the war was only five days over when Lincoln was shot, and there was such fear that it was going to break everything loose again and the South would resurge.”

Redford hopes to finish editing the film within a month, and then — “Well, there’s no distributor. Who knows whether it will be released. Talk about living your own life.” He praised the cast, including Wright, who, he said, has “a very rich quality.”

Redford also spoke of his quest to educate himself so he could speak clearly on protecting the environment and other political topics. “They were always going after me. The argument was, ‘What does he know — he’s an actor!’ And that stuck until Reagan got elected and took that argument off the table,” he said with a laugh.

He also listed some of his favorite leading ladies (it turns out all of them are his favorites), his prediction that more and more films will be made away from Hollywood — hence his outspoken defense of New Mexico’s film incentive program, which draws production companies here — and his belief that actors must continue working out via classes and refresher training.

And how does he define himself? He doesn’t.

“There’s so many people doing that — particularly the press,” he said. “I got accustomed to that early on. As soon as you have success, you’re being defined. The media needs to find a place for you, so they create a definition. I resist it.

“What finally will define me will be the work — what I’ve done, and not what I say about it.”

Link to Original Article Here

Contact Matt Desmond and Ryan Bolton

A Classic Betty Stewart Home nestled in the lush Tesuque valley, this home with plaster walls, brick floors, a two-way fireplace, & vigas truly exudes charm & elegance. The wrap around portal provides venues for entertaining or relaxing in this serene setting. With a detached artist’s studio, the home is perfect for artists in residence or accomodating visiting guests. Recent updates to the kitchen, bathroom, and electrical system make this home move in ready. All of this conveniently located close to the Plaza, miles of hiking and biking trails, and the Tesuque Village Market.

When sitting in any one of the portals you feel as if you a entrenched in the beautiful country setting,  yet you are only 3.5 miles from the Plaza and everything Santa Fe has to offer. Within walking distance from this home is the Windsor Trail (a favorite running/hiking/biking trail for Ryan and Matt) and the many other trails leading into the National Forest. The Tesuque village center is also very close to the property, providing a great place to grab a pint of ice cream late at night, or a great dinner close to home.

This home is in immaculate condition, and would be suitable for a full time residence, a manageable Santa Fe reteat, or for use as a short term rental. 

Check out a video tour of the property below.

Give us a call if you or someone you know would like a personal tour of this exceptional home.

Contact Ryan Bolton and Matt Desmond

The United States Commerce Department announced that national housing starts rose in January to their highest levels in 6 months.  Starts were up 3% for the month, seeing increases in 3 of the 4 nationwide regions.  The only region that did not show increases was in the Midwest. Here in the West starts were up 9%, whereas in the South they were up 1%, and in the East, 10%.

The most recent quarterly report (4th quarter 2009) for existing home sales and condos showed a 14% increase in sales over the previous quarter. Trasactions increased in 48 of the 50 states, with double digit increases in 32 of those states.  Promising numbers, indeed. Once again, here in the West some of the highest numbers were seen, with a 16% increase over the previous quarter.  Contrary to the housing start data, the Midwest showed a sales increase of 15%. The South showed a 14% increase in sales and the Northeast, 11%.

Of the 151 housing markets followed by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 67 showed higher median prices. 16 of the metro areas in the survey actually showed double digit increases in median prices. Another sign of a recovering market.

Here in Santa Fe the market seems abuzz with activity. We are seeing buyers in all price ranges, but particularly people looking to cash in on the first time home buyers credit which ends on April 30th (unless it gets extended). Hopefully, the market will continue to recover and thrive.

Contact Ryan Bolton and Matt Desmond

Santa Fe New Mexican Article:

Culinary crescendo: Restaurant Week to debut in Santa FeEvent featuring lower-priced meals, cooking demonstrations and workshops puts spotlight on food industry

Arin McKenna | For The New Mexican

It’s no secret that Santa Fe’s restaurants have been looking for ways to boost business in the late winter months.

In fact, last September they agreed to work toward holding a winter fiesta in 2011. But that was before Michele Ostrove, president of Wings Media Network, a public-relations and marketing firm, and her husband, Lucien Bonnafoux, stepped in and advanced the timetable.

A month after the meeting, the couple pitched the idea of New Mexico Restaurant Week to local restaurateurs, hoteliers and representatives from key tourism agencies.

“We had been talking about a winter/spring event that would feature the restaurants of Santa Fe and promote them at a time when typically it’s not very busy,” said Jeff Jinnett, president of the Santa Fe Restaurant Association.

The idea took off. Next week, about 40 restaurants in Santa Fe — and the week after, some 20 in the Albuquerque area — will be offering lower-priced meals to diners, as well as cooking demonstrations, workshops and wine and beer tastings.

In Santa Fe, the event lasts from Sunday through March 6 locally and from March 7-13 in Albuquerque.

Ostrove and Bonnafoux, co-founders of Wine Adventure, a wine magazine for women, moved to Santa Fe in 2008 from San Diego, where they said Restaurant Week was so successful that it’s now a twice-a-year event. “They started with 60 restaurants and they’re now up to 180 to 220, depending on the season,” Ostrove said. “It just seemed like it was a natural to bring to New Mexico.”

The key players agreed. “I thought it was a hot idea,” said Restaurant Association Secretary Michael O’Reilly. Officials at the Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta, whose goal is to promote Santa Fe as a culinary destination, also signed on.

The boards of both organizations promoted the event to members and agreed to subsidize them. Participating restaurants pay $500 to cover the cost of organizing and marketing the event. The fiesta offered to pay $250 of that cost for all its 2009 participants. And the Restaurant Association contributed $50 toward the entrance fees of its members.

“My hope is that events like this will get the restaurant community more united,” Jinnett said. “There are 200-plus restaurants in Santa Fe, and together we have a very powerful voice, but it’s been difficult to organize. I think the more of these types of events that we can do to get the restaurateurs to unite for a common cause is good for any type of organization.”

Simon Brackley, president and CEO of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce, which is distributing information about the event to members and visitors, called Restaurant Week “a good example of a collaborative effort to create something new in challenging economic times.”

Although there are fewer participating restaurants in Albuquerque, that city is also trying to build culinary tourism, according to Tania Armenta, vice president of marketing for the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We hosted our first culinary press trip in November and had journalists come out specifically to cover the area from the culinary aspect, and we talked about Restaurant Week,” she said.

Gov. Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Tourism Department also are backing the event. “Offering something new and fresh and bringing people during a time when they typically aren’t coming in droves” is important to the state’s economy, said Jennifer Hobson, deputy secretary for the New Mexico Tourism Department. Tourism, she pointed out, is a $5.5 billion business in the state, second to oil and gas.

The Tourism Department is supporting Restaurant Week through a link on its Web site, www.newmexico.org, which gets about 150,000 hits per month. (Hobson is blogging about the event there as well.)

Launching a new event when the economy is depressed might seem risky, but Michel Darmon, director of food and beverage for Terra at Encantado, said, “I think that when we look back at it in the next few years we’ll go, ‘Wow, this is one of the great decisions of Santa Fe.’ ”

Although many anticipate limited success the first year, they expect to see the event’s popularity grow rapidly. “If it works as well as we believe it will, I think everybody will want to be in on the next one,” Ostrove said. “And I’m really grateful for the people who did take the leap of faith this time and come aboard.”

“I’m hoping that when the dust settles at the end of the week, the overall feedback from the restaurants is, ‘I’m really glad that I participated. It was fun, the staff enjoyed it, we had a lot of people who had not been to our restaurant before that are now exposed to it and we can’t wait for next year,’ ” Jinnett said. “And my hope is that the restaurants that didn’t participate because they were skeptical go, ‘Wow, we really missed out, and we’re not going to miss out next time.’ ”

Bonnafoux said the next Restaurant Week could be as early as November. “I like to let the train get going down the tracks before we pull the switch,” he said. “We want to get the statistics first, but we believe this one will be so successful that it will warrant another in early November.”

Link To Original Article Here

Contact Ryan Bolton and Matt Desmond

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is designed to help homeowners in states where home prices have fallen at least 20% statewide.  The five identified states are: Arizona, Nevada, California, Michigan, and Florida.  All of these markets have notoriously taken a big hit in the past few years due to previous rapid appreciation, speculation, and the weak economy.

Obama has blamed irresponsible lending practices for much of the problems, and is trying to make sure that the money is properly spent by state and local finance agencies. A very specific application process for lending institutions has been designed to create oversight for the program.

The program seeks to aid troubled homeowners by modifying their mortgage and lower their monthly interest rates through participating lenders. The lender then lowers the interest rate, and the feds provides subsidies to the lender and borrower. According to Herb Allison, assistant secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, the program should help approximately 3 to 4 million Americans before it terminates at the end of 2012. Currently, about 1 million homeowners have had their mortgages amended due to the plan.

Unfortunately, New Mexico isn’t currently part of the program, which does cause some concern.  Sure, our home prices haven’t dropped as a whole by 20%, but unemployment is high, and many homeowners are teetering on the edge of default. As with all governmental programs, this one may be ammended to fit more states, particularly if the money isn’t being spent in the currently eligible states.  Time will tell.

Contact Matt Desmond and Ryan Bolton

When I awoke this morning I heard this terrible news. Our heart felt condolences go out to the Trujillo Family.

Police: Las Campanas man drowns in golf course pond
By Dennis J. Carroll | For The New Mexican

2/21/2010

A 62-year-old Las Campanas man apparently drowned Sunday when he fell through the ice as he was trying to retrieve his two young dogs that had run onto the pond at the luxury development’s golf course, state police reported.

Joseph B. Trujillo was walking with his wife, Marcelle, 62, and their two terrier pups along a cart path above the pond shortly before 11 a.m. when the dogs took off and headed across the frozen water, said Lt. Eric Garcia.

The couple called out to the dogs but they did not respond, and Trujillo pursued them for about 25 yards onto the pond. However, a large section of the ice gave way, and Trujillo fell through.

“He was completely engulfed in the frigid water,” Garcia said.

A state police search and recovery diving team pulled Trujillo’s body from the pond about 3 p.m.

Garcia said the water was about 8 feet deep and 36 degrees.

After seeing “only a glove floating on the water,” Marcelle Trujillo also stepped onto the ice, Garcia said, but she turned back because of the risk from the cracking ice. She called 911 from a nearby home, and she and the neighbor returned to the pond, but there was no sign of her husband other than the glove.

Marcelle Trujillo was taken by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, Garcia said, adding that she was suffering from trauma but was expected to recover.

He said the dogs, believed to be Jack Russell terriers or similar dogs, returned from the pond and were safe at a neighbor’s home.

Garcia said the Trujillos were Las Campanas residents, but their street address was not disclosed.

Joseph Trujillo’s body was taken to the state Office of the Medical Inspector in Albuquerque to rule out foul play, but none is suspected.

Here is the link to the Original Story from the New Mexican

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One of the greatest attributes of this home is its location. The South Capital district is a cozy nieghborhood located within walking distance of nearly everything Santa Fe has to offer.  A two minute walk will get you to Kaune’s market, Ohori’s coffee, the State Capital, and the Guadalupe Cafe.  Walk another two minutes and you will be in the historic Santa Fe Plaza and all of the restaurants, galleries, museums, and shops in the vicinity.  The attractions of Canyon road are only a five minute walk from the house, and the Railyard district is only about seven minutes away. If you’re looking for a centrally located house, this is it.

This property also has income potential.  You could live in either house and rent out the other. Or, as an investment property, you could rent both. At a list price of $525,000, this house is a great buy.

For a full video tour of the property, check out the video below.

Contact Matt Desmond and Ryan Bolton