Kmart to be vacant no more

The empty Kmart building in Tucumcari soon will be empty no more.

Principals from the Fast TV Network announced at a news conference last week it will move from Albuquerque into the vacant Kmart and convert it into a television and movie production facility, plus a New Mexico Route 66 Association museum and welcome center.

In all, the $8 million project eventually will create between 30 and 70 jobs after its soft opening on July 1, 2023, said Mike Lee, Fast TV's president and CEO, during the briefing in the Tucumcari Railroad Depot.

Lee said his company is under contract to close on the purchase of the property at that time. He projected the facility would generate $300 million in revenue over 10 years.

Lee said if the facility draws other television or movie productions as expected, it will create another 30 to 250 jobs, depending on their budgets.

Johnnie Meier, owner of the Classical Gas Museum in Embudo, said he will move his collection into the building as part of the Route 66 welcome center he aspires to draw 50,000 visitors a year.

New Mexico Route 66 Association President Melissa Beasley-Lee, Lee's wife, said she is moving the nonprofit organization there.

The crowd of about 30 people, many of them city or county officials or local business owners, applauded the announcement.

"This is a monumental day for Tucumcari," said Connie Loveland, the city's MainStreet director, who played a significant role in landing the project. "There's nothing of this kind on this side of the state."

The Kmart store closed in April 2018 amid a long shutdown of the retail chain. As of this year, three Kmarts remained in the United States. At its peak in the mid-1990s, Kmart operated almost 2,500 stores.

The 42,000-square-foot Kmart building is owned by Mathew Billalobos of Rio Rancho, according to the Quay County Assessor's Office records.

Fast TV

Fast TV Network, founded in Colorado in 2014, produces original shows about racing, Americana and Route 66 for online and streaming platforms, including Roku and Amazon Fire Stick.

Fast TV programs typically gain 20 million views, Lee said. Its "Tucumcari Rising" program, one of several shot in the city, has attained 31 million views.

Lee said he first met Loveland and his future wife, Melissa, during a New Mexico MainStreet event at Tucumcari's Odeon Theatre in October 2019.

"We had no idea of the impact that day would have on our futures, especially me," Lee said.

Lee said he began to befriend business owners, city officials and Route 66 advocates in Tucumcari.

In 2020, Fast TV moved its operations to Albuquerque.

Lee said Melissa, seeking a permanent site for the New Mexico Route 66 Association, became a partner in Fast TV productions. He met Meier, who long had sought to move his Classical Gas collection to somewhere on Route 66.

Lee said that was about the time he began to look for a bigger site for Fast TV, and more.

"We decided by working together, we could find a facility to accomplish it all," he said.

Lee said Loveland had gently prodded him for months to look to Tucumcari.

"We drove past this ugly, boarded-up building at the corner of Route 66 and Route 54, and a blue light began flashing in our heads," Lee said, referring to Kmart's iconic Blue Light Specials.

He said he later received a text from the building's owner, asking Lee whether he still was interested in the property. He was.

Lee praised the "very positive environment" each time he visited Tucumcari. He cited Loveland, former city manager Mark Martinez, city manager Paula Chacon, Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield, Motel Safari owner Larry Smith, other city officials, Film Tucumcari and the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce for their help with the project.

Rob Wagner, chief operating officer of Fast TV Network, said sound stages, film and video-editing bays and sound-design and audio recording studios would be set up in 32,000 square feet.

Wagner said the equipment not only would be used by Fast TV, but by other television and film companies.

"We want this to be like Kmart - one-stop shopping," he said.

Lee said he would work with state, local and federal officials to help "put Tucumcari back in its rightful place as a legendary place on the Mother Road."

Lee said he aims to increase jobs, tourism, movie productions and business in the area in a cooperative manner.

"We're going to enhance your economy, not compete against what you do so well already," he said.

Lee said a half-acre lot on a corner of the Kmart property also would be used as a welcome spot for Route 66 travelers; details would be announced later.

After the briefing, Lee said the $8 million project would be paid for with existing money, plus funds from a group of investors. He said he also considered sites in Santa Rosa, Albuquerque and Gallup.

Route 66

Meier, a former president of the New Mexico Route 66 Association and the organization's preservation officer, said he'd looked for years for a place to move his Classical Gas collection of gas-station memorabilia, neon signs and other artifacts to Route 66.

Once he heard Lee's idea for the project, he was sold.

"The opportunity here I can't say 'no' to," Meier said. "I'm going to do it."

Meier said the building not only would receive his Classical Gas artifacts, but friends' memorabilia.

He showed one of his original Route 66 signs and a collection of old water bags used to cool automobiles as they crossed the desert.

Meier said when considering moving his collection to Santa Rosa several years ago, he surveyed other Route 66 museums. The most popular one, in Oklahoma, draws about 50,000 visitors a year.

"What we strive for is to be America's favorite Route 66 museum," he said. "It's going to be a tourism destination, no doubt about it."

Meier said he also would bring a Valentine diner to the property and staff it.

Asked about the New Mexico Route 66 Museum in the Tucumcari Convention Center, Meier said he would "like to see a merging" of that. City officials for years have sought an alternate location for the museum because it limits rentals of the convention center.

Beasley-Lee said the New Mexico Route 66 Association publishes a quarterly magazine and organizes events and meetings.

She said the building would serve as "the official welcome center to Route 66 in New Mexico" and be "a perfect location" for it.

Other comments

Kaisa Barthuli, director of the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, Tim Hagaman, a representative for the New Mexico Economic Development Department, and Chacon voiced their support for the project.

Another who spoke up was Martinez, who was city manager during much of the negotiation and planning for the project.

"I'm just happy because I don't have to keep it a secret anymore," he said, laughing.

"There's of lot of positive things to come out of this, and it will be a snowball effect," he added.