New owners of The Lodge look to reinvent, renovate longtime Santa Fe hotel

Apr. 29—When Jeff Burns' Bullwhip Capital, a Texas-based real estate investment firm, purchased The Lodge on St. Francis Drive in December, he had a vision for what he wanted the longstanding Santa Fe hotel to be.

Burns and business partner Matt Comfort have implemented that vision before — one that focuses on building a community — at their other Santa Fe property, El Rey Court. There, Burns said, they sell a swim club pass, "which is very popular." At The Lodge, they plan to do the same but also much more, which will include in the coming months a rebrand and renovations.

"What ended up happening was in the conversations that we had with a lot of locals, everyone had a story [about The Lodge] much like El Rey," said Burns, whose firm purchased The Lodge from Jim Long's Heritage Hotels & Resorts. "If you grew up in Santa Fe or grew up in New Mexico, there was a prom there; they used to sneak into the pool, or they used to go to the bar. It was the community hub. ... And we love that. That's what we build our hotels around, which is a community."

Burns, whose firm also owns or is partnered in hotel properties in other states such as Tennessee and Texas, said they plan to reopen some space at The Lodge shortly, including a bar and venue space later this spring heading into the summer.

"I think what people can expect in the interim is that kind of uniqueness we brought to El Rey," he said. "Our plan through the summer is to be a great value destination for guests."

In the long term, Burns said, the company plans to invest more than $8 million in renovations toward the hotel's 120-plus guest rooms, pool area, bar and restaurant, as well as in areas you might not see such as infrastructure upgrades. That may take several months or longer, however, as the company is still in the planning phase and will have to receive proper approvals from the city.

More notably, Burns said, The Lodge will undergo a rebrand — including to the name of the hotel — "to really kind of create this destination." He said with The Lodge, which is about a five-minute drive from the Plaza, the plan is for it to be the "gateway to people who want to go experience the beauty of New Mexico beyond the Plaza."

"We kind of like being Plaza-adjacent," he said. "One of the things that always kind of blew me away about Santa Fe is there's so much more to that town than shopping and eating."

While El Rey Court is a place for "the aging hipsters," Burns said, The Lodge could be something different.

"We felt like The Lodge can really be independent, and can be different from any other hotel on the market," he said. "It can be for the explorer — the person who wants to go out and see other things. We're the closest hotel to the opera ... and we've got an abundance of nature and outdoors that surround us."