More Local

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
• Former Marine to serve two years in jail for killing Albuquerque robber
• Wilson-Pearce battle for U.S. Senate exemplifies party's disparity

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Albuquerque Old Town
• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

hand out photo

Among features planned for the Park Plaza Hotel & Conference Center's renovation are music videos projected onto a sheet of water, fluorescent, glow-in-the dark water slides and this river that becomes rapids at night.

hand out photo

This drawing shows the water-tube feature of the $14 million water park planned for the Park Plaza Hotel & Conference Center, 2500 Carlisle Blvd. N.E. San Diego-based American Property Management Corp. expects to have the massive renovation project open by next fall.

Michael Gallegos' challenge is to turn a stagnant, 30-year-old hotel in a market filled with shiny new models into a standout attraction.

His solution: Make it an indoor water park and let people from the high desert surf.

"I thought, well, this all works," said Gallegos, a Las Vegas, N.M., native who is chief executive of San Diego-based American Property Management Corp. "New Mexico is in dire need of this type of recreational entertainment venue."

The company is renovating its 360-room Park Plaza Hotel & Conference Center near Interstate 40 and Carlisle Boulevard.

In doing so, one of the hotel's four buildings has been demolished to make way for a $14 million, 23,000-square-foot indoor water park to feature a 34-foot-high, 325-foot-long water tube ride; a 275-foot-long water slide; a lazy river feature that turns to rapids at night and a bucket that dumps 700 gallons of water onto eager patrons.

It would be open to the public, holding around 650 customers at once with an admission cost of $28 per person, Gallegos said. The project would have a system that would recycle and filter the water, he said.

The plan also includes a so-called FlowRider feature that will, within an adjacent 6,000-square-foot building, allow patrons to surf like they're on a Southern California beach. Gallegos said customers would likely pay extra to access to the FlowRider, though he hasn't determined a price.

In addition, the Park Plaza will receive $6 million in upgrades and turn into a four-star Radisson, Gallegos said.

Designs for the Radisson Resort & Waterpark, as it would be called, are now under review by the city. Gallegos believes the project should be on track for an opening in fall 2007.

If so, it would bring a new attraction to a city saturated with mid-sized hotels but lacking a major water feature after the Beach Waterpark closed in 2004.

"I think what's being proposed for the Radisson is really kind of a unique concept," said Art Bouffard, president of the New Mexico Lodging Association. "I can't think of a single property in Arizona nor can I think of a property in Colorado that is undertaking such a venture that is so different from what we're normally accustomed to providing a guest."

The Park Plaza was built in 1972 featuring, among other things, two swimming pools and 30,000 square feet of conference space, Gallegos said.

At the time, "it was the jewel of the entire state," Gallegos said. "But we've lost that luster."

The former Four Seasons hotel lost much of its local market share recently thanks to the emergence of newer, mid-rise products from AmeriSuites, Hilton Garden Inn and Embassy Suites, he said.

"I had a couple of things I was struggling with," said Gallegos, a former student body president at the University of New Mexico. "How to regain our market position and strength, how to bring back the luster and the cachet of the property and, at the same time, how to make it a viable economic entity."

The water park idea is modeled after similar properties in the Upper Midwest, specifically Great Wolf Lodge, the Madison, Wis., company that operates 20 water park resorts mostly in the Midwest.

The Park Plaza property's 11-acre size, horizontal layout and easy interstate access gave him ample space to embark on a different concept, he said.

By demolishing a building to make room for the water park, the hotel's room count drops to 314. Those rooms will be will be upgraded to include new furniture and carpets, flat-screen TVs and iPod docking stations, he said.

Bouffard of the New Mexico Lodging Association believes Gallegos' concept has the potential to be a big draw.

"I think it will bring people in, for reasons of not only having an activity that is enjoyable, but because it's so unique people will want to try it out and see what it's like," he said.