31-05-2025
Barcelona Suites closed by city, 68 residents forced to relocate
May 30—Barcelona Suites hotel has hosted countless proms and visitors to the nearby fairgrounds over its decades in Northeast Albuquerque. But for the last four years, it's been 76-year-old Virginia Harkes' home for about $700 per month.
That ended Friday when city officials kicked everyone out and shut down the hotel.
"I'm here all by myself," Harkes told the Journal as her family packed away her things and moved them into a rented truck. "My kids are all working. I have no ride. I need to pack. I got stuff, but I wouldn't know which way to go."
Harkes was one of 68 long-term residents swept up in the city's latest closure of hotels deemed problematic. At a news conference, Mayor Tim Keller said the once-esteemed establishment had become "drug-infested and crime-ridden and full of all the problems that we see in Albuquerque."
The Barcelona Suites, in the 900 block of Louisiana NE, just north of Lomas, is the seventh lodging establishment shut down by the city as part of the crackdown. Keller hosted a news conference Friday in the sweltering lobby of the hotel.
There was no air conditioning, officials said, because the system was clogged with pigeon carcasses.
Keller ticked off a list of some of the conditions: "Toilets don't flush, overflowing with waste. Waste in bathrooms, bedbugs, fentanyl everywhere, stolen goods stored in rooms throughout this facility.
"That's what this place was. It was a nest for the worst of the worst in Albuquerque."
For residents like Harkes, a notice of closure came approximately 24 hours before they had to vacate.
The city stated that officials had been working with the properties' Texas-based owners since April 2021. They made almost no progress, Keller said, adding that it appeared ownership sought to keep the facade of a respectable business while problems festered within.
"The facade on Louisiana looks pretty good. It looks like it's the same as it always has been; that could not be more opposite than what was happening inside this place," Keller said.
Jeremy Keiser, deputy director of the city's Planning Department, said the decision to force people out stemmed from a review of the building's condition. He said the parking garage below the building had concrete pillars with significant damage. He added that many of the 163 rooms had issues with sewage, electricity and heating.
Albuquerque Police Department Commander Josh Richards, who leads the Southeast Area Command, said Barcelona Suites was the site of many arrests as well.
"We've had three shootings with injuries in the last year," Richards said. "One took place right outside the back of the hotel."
Over the last year, the city reported 151 calls for service at Barcelona Suites, including 10 incidents involving assault or battery, 30 disturbances, 29 suspicious persons or vehicles, 10 family disputes and nine arrests.
But not everyone or everything at the hotel was tied to criminal activity.
The 68 residents in long-term living situations were spread across 41 households, said Jodie Esquibel, director of the Albuquerque Community Safety department. The city supplied vouchers to 30 of the households. The rest were able to lean on family or had other means of housing, Esquibel said.
Harkes was one of the recipients of a voucher. She was planning to stay at a nearby hotel for a week. Harkes' daughter, Jeannie Delaware, said the biggest problem with her mother's eviction was what might come next.
"She liked the rent," Delaware said. "It was to where she can afford it. But now, it's going to be like $1,000. And for what?"
