New owners plan to revive historic Wild Westera hotel in northern New Mexico
Nov 15, 2024
CIMARRON, N.M. (KRQE) – It's been three months since the historic St. James hotel closed its doors in Cimarron, leaving a big hole in that small community. However, next month, new owners are ready to revive the place and reopen to visitors.
The new owners are a father-daughter duo, who run lodging businesses in Red River and Taos. They plan to keep the St. James mostly the same.
Chad Mantz discovered the closure of the St. James along with thousands of other people through Facebook. Back in September the previous owners, the Funk family, decided to close the business and put the hotel on the market, leaving its future up in the air.
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Now, three months later the Mantz family with their company M Vacation Properties and Resorts, have purchased the property.
"It was very much an interview process the Funk family was very much proud of this place as the town is and everything. They wanted to make sure it's going to someone who was going to maintain the history of it," said Chad Mantz, owner of M Vacation Properties and Resorts.
The Mantz family said they plan to keep the hotel's interior design the same and have reached out to past employees to help run the operations but are still trying to get fully staffed.With opening day just, a month away the Mantzes said they are getting things in order.
"A lot of coordinating . . . we're getting all rooms up on the website, getting the menu for the restaurant put together, drink menu. There's just a lot," said Chad Mantz.
The Mantzes said they are excited to keep the history alive, while also drawing even more visitors than before.
"We wanna keep doing live events like that, have live music here and especially in the summer time. We wanna have more of an event scheduled to bring in more people and have something they could enjoy while they are looking around and enjoying the history as well," said Alyse Mantz, daughter of Chad Mantz.
The Mantzes said the restaurant attached to the hotel will have a new menu, now offering Mexican cuisine. The official opening day will be December 20.