Today's home in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area is on 175 acres of scenic ranchland with the Ortiz Mountains in the background. The home is a nearly 14,000 square foot residence that is distinguished by a chapel. The property has a central plaza courtyard, guest and caretaker's quarters, carriage house, infinity-edge pool, hot tub, and cabana. There are also equestrian facilities that include twelve casita-style horse stalls and a large riding arena. The pueblo-style main house features dramatic barrel vaulted ceilings, custom light features, a stone spa shower area. This home is listed at $12.9 million.
Santa Fe, New Mexico is home to a lot of pricey real estate but this is the most lavish home I've seen in the area. Rancho Escondido is a large home on over 11 acres high in the hills of Tesuque with red rock box canyon cliffs and a waterfall as a backdrop. The home is also surrounded by a 40 acre conservation easement for open views of the mountains and plenty of privacy. The impressive property includes an equestrian facility, guest house, guest casita, pool cabana and an infinity pool with perfect mountain views. The home itself includes eight bedrooms and details like a handcrafted copper entry, indoor/outdoor fireplaces, limestone and oak floors, hand crafted tiles, custom cabinets. The home is being sold with all those dark brown furnishings for a list price of $21.5 million.
Auberge Resorts is set to unveil their latest resort, Encantado. The resort is set against the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico. The resort offers 65 casitas, a luxury spa, and a fine dining restaurant led by Executive Chef Charles Dale, who was named Best New Chef in America by Food + Wine Magazine in 1995 and twice nominated for Best American Chef in the Southwest by the James Beard Foundation.
The resort offers a variety of packages. The luxurious Too Much Of A Good Thing package includes three nights accommodation in a Casita or suite, a welcome spa gift, a couples Mountain Spirit Purification spa treatment, Moisture Drench facials for two, Encantado Classic Massage for two, private instruction in yoga, pilates or Tai Chi for two, a daily spa breakfast and a special turn down amenity. Rates start at $3380 for the package.
If you are a fan of Santa Fe style, this is the one for you. It's a newer Bob Ritter built stone and adobe home that took more than 500 tons of native moss rock and 53,000 adobe bricks to complete. This home is located in the Club Estates area and is on over 9 acres overlooking the 14th fairway of the Sunrise golf course. There are four bedrooms and over 7,000 square feet of space total. The details here, like the wood beamed ceilings, the smooth adobe fireplaces and the hallways rimmed with stone are nice but there is something about this home that feels off and chilly. Perhaps adobe does not lend itself to the vastness or perhaps its the ultra Southwestern staging job. This home is listed at $4.6 million, which seems a bit high.
Santa Fe in winter is beautiful. Not as cold as other places but still offering plenty of snow. La Posada de Santa Fe has a package to celebrate the season. The "Ski, Spa & S'mores" package includes two night accommodations, a daily lift ticket for two at Ski Santa Fe, one 60-minute massage per person, daily breakfast for two and a welcome amenity of hot cocoa and s'mores kit (including marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars) for using at the resort's outdoor fire pit. Rates start at $238 per person, per night, based on double occupancy.
Fashion designer Tom Ford's road to tranquility in New Mexico has been anything but smooth. A couple of years ago he had to fight for approval to build his Santa Fe home. Now he has bought mineral rights beneath his Galisteo ranch in order to protect his land from possible oil exploration in the region. Ford paid $84,000 for the rights on his more than 1,400 acres of land. In the region the state maintains the rights to sell leases to energy companies. Ford's team tried to persuade the Land Office not to sell oil and gas leases to Tecton Energy, a company which plans to drill eight exploratory wells on 65,000 acres, or 101 square miles, in the Galisteo Basin. The agency however is charged with using the state trust land revenues to help fund public education. Ford's attorney, Janet McKay offered this quote to the press: "We are protecting our land by holding these rights." Ford's ranch is home to a working cattle ranch and an Old West movie set that has been used for several films, including "3:10 to Yuma."
We first heard about the plans for Virgin Galactic and Spaceport America back in December 2005. The home base for space travel promises to bring space tourism to the New Mexico desert. Now the team of US and British architects and designers working on the project have released design renderings of Spaceport America. The design is from a US-British consortium of URS Corporation and Foster + Partners and shows a low-slung design which is tucked into the earth and uses passive energy for heating and cooling with photovoltaic panels for electricity and water recycling. Massive windows open out to the runway. People enter through a deep channel cut in the landscape. The terminal and hanger are expected to cost around $31 million and construction will begin in 2008 with late 2009 or early 2010 projected as a completion date. Big pics of the design drawings in the gallery.
The Sunrise Springs Resort is a quiet eco-friendly resort in Santa Fe, New Mexico which has been receiving rave reviews. The resort includes private casita rooms with kitchenettes, master bathrooms, computer alcoves, elegant gas fireplaces, and private patios (some also have a yoga/meditation studio) as well as pond-view and garden-view rooms. Megan Hill, the creator of the resort is a former gallery owner, and so there is plenty of art on display in public areas and the guest rooms. The resort has a Japanese Tea House which does traditional tea ceremonies and meals are served at the Blue Heron restaurant, which focuses on organic ingredients and slow food. The spa offers massages, facials and more New-Agey treatments like sound healing and holographic therapy. A three-night stay during the Santa Fe Fiesta, a celebration of Santa Fe history and culture, September 6-8, costs $899 for a stay in a superior casita plus daily breakfast buffet for two in the Blue Heron Restaurant.
The Rainmakers Golf and Recreational Community is located at 7,000 feet up in Ruidoso, New Mexico. The $30 million community will include an 18-hole Robert Trent Jones II championship golf course, a theater for the performing arts, walking trails, a trailhead center with spa, fitness and swimming facilities, a clubhouse with a restaurant and lounge and a 135-acre wildlife habitat and conservation easement. The grounds include ponderosas, pinon pines and juniper and views of Sierra Blanca and the Sacramento and Capitan mountains.
Real estate options include townhouses, patio homes and estate home sites. The development is also making a green effort with energy-saving construction, environmentally-friendly soil technology and property-wide water conservation initiatives. The golf course is the only Audubon Signature Member golf course in New Mexico. In order to be an Audubon Signature course the management had to demonstrate environmental management practices in areas like water conservation and wildlife habitat management. Townhouses will be priced from the mid-$300,000's to the low $500,000's and 186 building lots have an average price of $110,000.
This home on historic Bishop's Lodge Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico manages to update an abode home without robbing it of its charm. The home is in the Tesuque Village area and has 5.7 acres of space that include a pool, spa area, koi pond and a waterfall off the master suite. There are six bedrooms, five bathrooms and 13 fireplaces all in smooth adobe. The home is a good melding of the modern with the traditional. Weathered rugs and the rounded adobe walls and exposed rustic beams speak to the past, while the stainless steel kitchen and updated contemporary bathroom fixtures provide a modern touch. It is listed at $4.675 million. After the jump, just what is that large wooden structure in the center of the room?
Travelers to Santa Fe desiring an authentic and luxurious New Mexico experience can now look to Casa de Estrellas. This new boutique hotel located in the heart of the city is designer Jay Payne's vision of high end, low key pampering.
With an emphasis on privacy and service, the Casa de Estrellas, or House of the Stars, offers guests private villas instead of rooms, complete with gourmet kitchens and the availability of a personal chef, butler and host. Originally built in the 1930's, the one and two bedroom villas feature mediterranean inspired, adobe style architecture, filled with ancient antiquities from around the world. The property also boasts a full service salon and spa as well as a wedding garden inspired by the work of Kadee Strickland, star of the TV series Wedding Bells. The one bedroom villas start at $195 per night. For larger parties, the 1,200 square foot Aria Townhouse will soon be available starting at $500 per night.
This Santa Fe, New Mexico home has already had its Architectural Digest cover moment. The home sits on a 4.5 acre knoll that has views of the city and mountains. There is a 7,535 sq. ft. adobe main residence, a gatehouse, guesthouse,very long pool, spa, putting green & nature trails. The interior is decorated in muted earth tones that match the landscape. It is listed at $9.5 million. After the jump, does anyone else think the pool and putting green look a bit out of place with this desert home?
Summer is a great time to be in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There is the famous Santa Fe Opera and the nights are often cool and star-filled. The Inn and Spa at Loretto is offering a nice four-night vacation package that highlights Santa Fe's rich traditions. The package includes a four night stay in a Vista Grande guestroom, a Native American blessing, walking tour of the Loretto Art Collection throughout the Sculpture Garden, property grounds and the galleries at Loretto, a tour of the Loretto Chapel, a private painting class with your own artist's toolbox, clay classes and a manicure and pedicure at Spa Terre (presumably after the hands-on claymaking). The inn is a 134-room hotel that has kiva fireplaces, earthen-tile terraces and adobe walls. The four-night package begins at $785 per night.
Arizona is becoming packed with golf resorts
but adjacent state, New Mexico is just beginning to jump on the golf bandwagon. Ute Lake Ranch is a 25,000-acre lakefront resort community being built in
Logan, New Mexico. To drum up interest in the project they are inviting the public to submit names for the
development's Nicklaus Design golf course. If you choose the winning name you will get a lifetime membership to
the golf course. Ute Lake Ranch will also have a a full clubhouse, 26 navigable miles of water, a Mariner Village and
beach club, an equestrian center and a gated community with as many as 12,000 homes once completed. Prices for houses
in the first phase will range from $360,000 to $500,000,which is pricey
for the area but reasonable compared to much of the real estate in Arizona or California.
Want to marry a millionaire? Or, if you are already one, find some other millionaires to hang out with? Move
to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where one in five households claims millionaire status, making the town the area with the
highest concentration of millionaires in the country, according to a study in Kiplinger's
Personal Finance. Many residents in Los Alamos work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where, as one would
expect, salaries for nuclear researchers aren't too shabby. Coming in behind Los Alamos is Naples/Marco Island,
Florida, as well as the Bridgeport/Stamford/Norwalk, Connecticut region.
