01-04-2025
Owner of historic Las Vegas hotels puts properties on market
Purchasing and renovating historic properties is nothing new to Allan Affeldt, as the Arizona-based entrepreneur has spent decades breathing new life into distressed buildings across the Southwest.
But the latest chapter in Affeldt's career will serve as a departure for him, as he has made the decision to sell two landmark properties he owns in Las Vegas, N.M., The Plaza Hotel and the Castañeda Hotel.
'This is the first time I've sold [any] of my major properties,' Affeldt said, referring to the many hotels, restaurants and buildings he has bought and restored.
'It's bittersweet for us, of course, because we've spent so much time and effort on them,' he said, referring to his wife, Tina, and himself.
Affeldt said he has owned the two properties for approximately 10 years and has completed the renovation work on both of them. It was always his long-term plan to sell the hotels when that task was complete, so this decision is simply the manifestation of that intention.
The Plaza and the Castaneda both are debt free and are money-making propositions, Affeldt said, so he doesn't anticipate they will stay on the market long.
'It's a good time for a transition,' he said.
Both properties are more than a century old. The Plaza Hotel was constructed in 1882, while the Castañeda was built in 1898. Affeldt poured millions of dollars into their reconstruction, returning both hotels to their former glory. The Plaza was bankrupt when he bought it, Affeldt said, while the Castañeda effectively had been abandoned for 70 years and was in danger of collapsing.
Both properties are widely regarded as historic treasures now. The 70-room Plaza Hotel is located directly north of the Plaza in Las Vegas, its Victorian facade having borne witness to nearly a century and a half of daily life in the city. Dubbed 'The Belle of the Southwest' upon its opening, The Plaza was considered the grandest hotel in the New Mexico Territory for many years.
The hotel is perhaps best known as the site where several pivotal scenes in the 2007 Coen Brothers crime drama No Country for Old Men were shot. The film captured four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
The Castañeda, built in the Mission Revival style, came along 16 years later, becoming the first trackside hotel for famed developer Fred Harvey. The sprawling, 30,000-square-foot structure is highlighted by a 500-foot arcade on its east side, while the tracks of the main line of the Santa Fe Railway ran just a few feet from the hotel's entrance on the west side.
'The properties are much beloved in their community, and it was the daily thank-you's from people' that was the most enjoyable part of the experience of owning them, Affeldt said. 'People understand what a labor of love it is to save these buildings, and that gratitude is very rewarding.'
When he purchased the two hotels and began work on them, Affeldt said he was very pleased and surprised to find a large community of highly skilled, old-world tradesmen already living in Las Vegas, including plasterers, glaziers and woodworkers. That allowed him to remain largely faithful to the original style of both properties when he was restoring them, he said.
The plaster walls alone are a significant touch, he said, noting that, in most communities, he would have had no choice but to tear down the crumbling originals and replace them with drywall.
'It has an organic feel to it that is virtually unique,' Affeldt said.
Those authentic touches are important in a historic project, he said.
'They are to me and, I think, to our guests,' he said, adding that while there is nothing wrong with the use of contemporary materials, the restoration of original materials often generates an aesthetically and emotionally pleasing response among patrons.
Affeldt, who resides in Sedona, Ariz., said at one point a few years ago, he was spending half his time in Las Vegas helping manage the two hotels, though he has whittled that down to one week a month in recent years. His plan to sell the two properties reflects his larger desire to simplify his life and focus on other projects, namely those related to social justice issues and philanthropy, he said.
In particular, Affeldt said he is committed to focusing on the idea of building affordable workforce housing projects for parts of the country where working-class people have been priced out of their communities.
'This is a national crisis. This is the kind of thing I hear from my own staff,' he said, noting that even people who are making $20 an hour often cannot find decent housing in the communities in which they work.
The reason for that, he said, is that housing has become commodified in the United States, he said, with too many homes winding up in the hands of investors.
'There's no place for working people to live,' he said.
Affeldt said he hopes to find someone who is as passionate about historic preservation as he is to buy the hotels. He indicated a handful of potential buyers already have expressed interest in the properties.
Affeldt said he intends to retain his ownership of his other historic Southwestern properties, which include the Legal Tender Saloon & Eating House in Lamy and La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Ariz.
