<\/p>\n
Since the beginning of Durango\u2019s history, the stretch of roadway known as North Main Avenue has been the bridge between Durango and the former Animas City, which was founded the same year Colorado became a state: 1876.<\/p>\n
Motels have been an integral component of the corridor\u2019s history and a mark of Durango\u2019s evolution from mining industry-focused to a tourism economy.<\/p>\n
Today, three motels and inns on North Main are on the market: the Budget Inn, Days End and Spanish Trails Inn & Suites.<\/p>\n
The owner of both the Budget Inn, listed for $2.15 million, and Days End, marked at $4.6 million, is giving up the properties for retirement, listing agent Todd Sieger said. They were both placed on the market last spring.<\/p>\n
Charlie Cole, representing the Spanish Trails owner, declined to disclose the owner\u2019s reasons for selling. Spanish Trails has lingered on the market two years and is listed at $3.7 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to disclose the motivation for selling, but we advise clients to sell at the top of their game,\u201d Cole said. \u201cI can tell you that business is trending up, and we\u2019re seeing 6 to 8 percent year over year annual increases in revenue.<\/p>\n
The owners declined to disclose their businesses\u2019 annual net income.<\/p>\n
The stretch of Main Avenue where the three properties sit, between the 1400 block and Animas View Drive, has been eyed for the past few years as a source of potential as city officials and business leaders discuss the next hub for Durango real estate and business development.<\/p>\n
When Animas City was still a community, albeit one on the decline, Durango in contrast was growing and advancing northward. As Durango\u2019s sprawl began to inch toward Animas City two miles to the north, the latter community was eventually overtaken and essentially became a suburb of Durango.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnimas City was bankrupt, but Durango continued to hang on until after World War II,\u201d local historian Duane Smith said. \u201cAfter the war, Durango then grew by leaps and bounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and regional sites like Mesa Verde became major tourist attractions, motels began to spring up on the town\u2019s northern side to accommodate the influx of new visitors. The three now on the market, smaller when originally built, date as far back as the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther than our historic hotels downtown, North Main was the base for travelers in the \u201950s, \u201960s and \u201970s,\u201d said Bob Kunkel, executive director of the Durango Area Tourism Office. \u201cThen about a decade ago, some were torn down, replaced with multi-use structures, and our bed base shrunk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four hotels built this summer and last have helped the lodging inventory bounce back. It was at 1,729 units as of September 2015, excluding the additional units of the new La Quinta in Mercury Village and the Fairfield Inn & Suites at the U.S. Highway 160 and 550 intersection.<\/p>\n
Through the years, some of North Main\u2019s lodging options have suffered ill reputations, particularly because some offer long-term rentals. Restaurants, which have come and gone over the years, have anchored North Main and helped drive visitors\u2019 interest in lodging there.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorth Main has gone through funky periods before, where even before the Great Recession, there was not a lot going on up there,\u201d Sieger said. \u201cNow, there is more going on at the fairgrounds, and restaurants have helped these hotels. I think the transformation has come in the past couple of years with places like Home Slice North and Nayarit finding its new location. It drives more traffic, and it\u2019s becoming a destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
With old hotels torn down and new ones added, Kunkel said Durango today has the same number of lodging properties \u2013 32 \u2013 as it did 36 years ago. Because demand is on the upswing, all Durango hotels have some staying power, and yet, Kunkel said, it\u2019s hard to predict the future for the city\u2019s older hotels that neither fit the historic mold nor tout an upscale brand name.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are much more brand-oriented now,\u201d Kunkel said. \u201cPeople come to town and look for the hotel brands they recognize or ones that belong to their point system, like the Marriott club, so there is loyalty to those. So the future of the old-fashioned, mom-and-pop one-off motel, I can\u2019t say.\u201d<\/p>\n