The old RV park that longtime residents fondly recall amid a bunch of ponderosa pines and within earshot of the bubbling Rio Ruidoso is gone. In its place to open soon: River Crossing, an $85 million condominium-retail project. Meet New Mexico's newest boom town. Daily flights between Ruidoso and Dallas-Fort Worth are expected to start in 2006, care of American Airlines. And a $200 million rebuild of the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino seems to be almost single-handedly attracting previously unlikely tourists.
For a town of about 12,000 year-round residents, these are Texas-size changes, involving big money. Some believe such shifts are capable of shaking Ruidoso's reputation as a blue-collar Aspen. In fact, this small southeast New Mexico ski town once marketed as Billy the Kid country, with all its cowboy kitsch, has already begun to smell of boutiques and bath oils.
Californification
"Instead of the small community type of thing, it's big business coming and huge, million-dollar homes," said John Chappell, owner of West Texas Retail Golf in Abilene, Texas. "It's California. That's the word going round. ... It's a lot of that California money." He was eating a late dinner on the patio of the Pasta Cafe in Ruidoso's "Midtown" with his wife, Carol. Though the couple lives in Abilene, his family has had a condo here since the 1980s and has been visiting regularly since the '70s.
The village of Ruidoso, in so many ways, is like the rest of the country. Real estate investors, primarily from the Southwestern states, have spotted it as an area prime for growth but still a good buy. The average price of a house within the village limits this year is $179,000, compared with $127,111 in 2001, according to the Ruidoso Board of Realtors. While a house can still be purchased for less than the nation's median sales price of a little more than $200,000, a motel room can be had for under $100 a night, and T-shirt and knickknack stores outnumber day spas, the economic landscape is noticeably shifting.
Residential explosion
"Applications for new subdivisions have skyrocketed," with eight subdivisions, ranging from 20 houses to 230, somewhere in the pipeline of approval as of September, said Charles Rennick, planning director for the village of Ruidoso. "It's just explosive growth. We're having a lot of trouble keeping up with it. There's so many applications pending that require review and modification. We've got proposed new subdivisions coming in regularly," he said. Some of the largest include Rainmakers: A Golf and Recreational Community, developed by Utah-based Bridge Investment Group, and the gated Copper Canyon and Copper Ridge residential subdivisions, developed by R.D. Hubbard. All are located just outside the village limits in Lincoln County. Only Rainmakers is within the village's jurisdiction.
Selling like hot cakes
Copper Canyon, with 23 lots listing for between $180,000 and $250,000, sold out last year in 120 days, said Bill Hirschfeld, owner-broker of A+ Realty Services Inc., the listing agent.
The sites there and in the brand-new Copper Ridge are 10 acres minimum. Half of Copper Ridge's 40 lots have already sold, at between $200,000 and $300,000. "We have a large group of Californians that bought into these (subdivisions), but really it's people from all over," mostly the Southwest, Hirschfeld said. Rainmakers, which has begun building roads and installing water and electric on just more than 525 acres, will offer homes, country club amenities and an 18-hole championship golf course. Townhomes, the first to be built and the only residences with estimates on pricing, are expected to list from the low $300,000s to high $400,000s. Lot prices range from $90,000 to $150,000, but that could change.
Michael O'Brien, general manager and partner in the development, said out of an inventory of 226 residences, 165 were already reserved with refundable checks as of early September.
"I've seen houses listing in Aspen and Vail (at these prices) and seen them sell in one or two days. I'm not so sure Ruidoso is not getting ready to get there," he said. Carol Lester, executive officer for the Ruidoso Board of Realtors, said the average length of time a house is on the market in Lincoln County, outside Ruidoso, is 221 days, with an average price of $217,400. Inside the village limits, it's 180 days and the average home price is $179,000. "Our listings on the (Multiple Listing Service) in the last two years have gone from 1,300 to 1,800 (as of Sept. 8). It's gone wild here," she said. The commercial real estate development, too, is unprecedented here.
Take River Crossing, a first for Ruidoso and a gamble, some suggest. The project, developed by Houston-based Option 1 Realty Group, is on the village's main drag and includes 102 mid-rise condominiums starting at about half a million dollars, 66,000 square feet of boutiques and shops, restaurants, including a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (the first in the state), a 4,400-square-foot grocery (it has a wine and cheese bar), a three-level parking garage, and a landscaped river trail.
The first of four residential buildings is expected to be ready for occupancy by June. Contracts with several retailers are pending, so names of potential occupants remain secret. "Projects like that are coming in that 10 years ago were unheard of," Rennick said. Some residents wish they weren't having to hear about it now, much less see the walls going up. "A lot of the locals were sad to see (the $85 million River Crossing development) happen because it changed the flavor of the town," said John Daniels, who with his wife, Helen, owns Cornerstone Bakery Cafe. When developers cut down a swath of pine trees to make room for it, "a lot of people had a heart attack," added the Austin native, who moved here permanently three years ago.
One sure bet
Though River Crossing's future success remains unknown that of the reconstructed Inn of the Mountain Gods has proven a sure bet, bringing to the area a wealthier clientele. The massive modern structure, decorated with hulking bronze sculptures and wall-size paintings by local Mescalero Apaches, looms spaceship-like over its former 28-year-old cedar-shingled self. Its 273 rooms have been booked almost every weekend since the opening in March. Rates range from a low of $130 per night during the week to more than $300 for a suite on the weekend. The resort's casino has 1,000 slots and 34 table games. There's an 18-hole championship golf course, piano bar, privileged pets program and indoor pool. And the resort just received a four-diamond rating from AAA, said chief operating officer Brian Parrish. Brad Treptow, executive director of the Ruidoso Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the resort "has put Ruidoso at another level."
Though a new breed of business seems destined for the area, much of the retail activity remains seasonal. Entrepreneurs who open shops and restaurants with high expectations of success are sometimes forced to close within the year. Those that are established make it by planning for the off months. "We do fine in the summer. We don't do fine in the winter," Daniels said of the bakery, which caters to an upscale breakfast crowd. "We could actually just close the door during ski season. Skiers tend to be a 'grab an Egg-McMuffin and run' type of crowd." However, Daniels, who is also an associate broker for the Ruidoso Realty Group, said seasonal airline flights could turn Ruidoso into a year-round destination.
A nonprofit group of about seven local businesspeople, called Fly Ruidoso, has been leading the charge since February to get American Airlines' American Eagle regional jets to provide seasonal daily service between Dallas-Fort Worth and the Sierra Blanca Regional Airport, about 18 miles northeast of Ruidoso. In late August, the Federal Aviation Administration agreed to provide a $600,000 grant. The goal is to have service in the summer and winter, approximately Memorial Day through Labor Day and mid-December through March, said Doug MacAlister, a Ruidoso developer who spearheaded the Fly Ruidoso committee. Flights are expected to begin in May or June 2006. "Now that we're offering services available at larger areas, we need to match those services with a means to get here," said the chamber's Treptow. "Folks that can afford a $750,000 condo rarely want to drive," he added.
Population shifts
Right now, most tourists still visit on weekends. Treptow estimated that they more than triple Ruidoso's population, to between 35,000 and 40,000. Full-time residents number between 10,000 and 12,000 (Lincoln County's population is 23,000), though no one, not even the Census Bureau, seems to know for sure, he said. That the year-round population is increasing is a certainty. It's expected to double by 2025, Treptow said.
Ruidoso's mild climate at 7,000 feet, mountain vistas and activities, such as golf courses, ski runs, the neighboring Ruidoso Downs race track and the casinos, have caught the eyes of retirees as well as families choosing lifestyle over urban bustle. Mike Jones, owner of Picture This Gallery for about 18 years, said, "It's really not just tourism that's picked up, but people moving to Lincoln County" from all over the country. He said he has already noticed an increase in automobile traffic. On a weekday morning now, pedestrians trying to cross Ruidoso's main street suddenly have to wait it out. "We want it to be the way it's always been. That's what people say. But you just can't keep it that way. Not with the population growth," said Rennick of the Planning Department. "We try to make it smart growth, but you're still gonna have more cars on the street and neighbors where you previously saw just a forest. That's unavoidable." Carol Chappell of Abilene said Cloudcroft today is more like the old Ruidoso. "That's what people are saying— if it starts getting too crowded (in Ruidoso), let's just head to Cloudcroft." With that, Ruidoso one day could actually live up to its name, which means noisy in Spanish.
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