City of Albuquerque shuts down another problem hotel on Louisiana

A problem hotel in northeast Albuquerque is closing its guest books and boarding up its doors.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A problem hotel in northeast Albuquerque is closing its guest books and boarding up its doors. 

City leaders have officially shut down the Barcelona Suites Hotel.

“This place was drug infested and crime-ridden and full of all the problems that we see in Albuquerque,” said Mayor Tim Keller. 

KOB 4 first brought you this story Thursday when we got word city officials and law enforcement were inspecting the hotel located on Louisiana. 

Pictures showed holes in walls and some of the rooms in complete filth. Ultimately, Albuquerque police and Code Enforcement decided it was time for the hotel to shut down. 

City leaders made that announcement Friday. 

Keller talked about how heartbreaking it is to see this space reach this point, and why it took so long to shut down.

“They have told me for about a year, and they have written letters and all these other things about their own eyewitness accounts of watching drug dealing out the window, and their house getting broken into, and the getaway car pulling into this garage. So believe it or not, we read those letter, and we went to a couple of neighborhood meetings where these issues came up. The neighbors again would say it looks so much worse than from the outside or from the courtyard, and they were right from day one,” said Keller.

We spoke to people who live nearby who say they’re not sad to see the hotel shut its doors. 

In the past seven months, six other problem hotels or motels have been closed. It’s part of the cities initiative to clean up problem properties. 

They recently passed a law called the Distressed Lodging Ordinance, which gives the city stronger tools to address properties that have become a nuisance to their neighborhoods. 

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