Motel owner marking 10th anniversary

David Brenner is marking the 10th anniversary of the opening of his Roadrunner Lodge Motel along Route 66 in Tucumcari with several events to mark the occasion.

Looking to the future, Brenner said he plans to open a neon-lighting shop near his motel in 2025 after he acquired the contents of a shop in Midland, Texas.

The 10th anniversary falls on July 24. Brenner said family members and far-flung friends have booked all the rooms at the facility that night.

On Thursday, Brenner plans to hold an open house at the Roadrunner from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce also will hold a short ceremony marking the Roadrunner's decade in business.

On Friday, which coincides with a Down at the Depot event at the Tucumcari Historic Railroad Plaza, the motel will be packed with Route 66 enthusiasts.

On Saturday, the Odeon Theatre will hold a special screening of the gritty 1985 documentary "Route 66."

"It's been quite a trip, I'll tell you that," Brenner said in the motel's lobby during an interview before the anniversary, "with plenty of ups and downs for me personally as well as professionally, especially with the (COVID-19) pandemic in the middle.

"So, yeah, we're we're going to have fun."

Though 10 years doesn't sound like a lot for some, Brenner now is one of the elder statesmen of historic Route 66 motels in Tucumcari.

In the last five years, the Roadrunner has been named one of USA Today's top 10 roadside motels in the country, thanks to its highly favorable online reviews.

"I have people come in and say that they've never slept better than at Roadrunner," Brenner said. "Some people say they've stayed at four-star hotels that weren't as clean as mine. That's just a testament to the the job that my housekeeping staff does."

One staffer who's been with the Roadrunner from the beginning is maintenance man Jose Mares, who Brenner hired a couple of weeks before the 2014 opening.

The Roadrunner also is known as a pet-friendly motel, with a listing on the Bring Fido website. The motel features a fenced dog run for canines and their owners.

Lorri Kempton of Coolridge, Arizona, who had brought her Jack Russell mix to the motel's dog run, said she's a repeat customer. She said she appreciated the "adorable" decor and feeling of safety because she's a solo traveler.

"This is my place to stop," she said. "It is so cute here."

Brenner and his now-former wife Amanda acquired the closed property in April 2014. They spent months renovating it so they could open a few rooms.

"It took us about three, four months to get it occupiable," he said. "The wind would blow, the roof would go with it. There was no power. The first several weeks of renovation work here was run off of a single construction pole with two outlets before the full-blown 800-amp service was put in on the building."

On July 24, 2014, two travelers, Kevin and Julie, stayed at the Roadrunner on its opening night. They stayed in two upstairs rooms. The two autographed a dollar bill that's framed in the lobby.

"The very next day, we closed the property because we had a plumbing issue in one of the downstairs rooms," Brenner recalled. "Thankfully, we had Paul Lucero as our plumber at the time, and he came out and did a fantastic job for us. He got us going again by July 26."

Even so, it would take more piecemeal work for the Brenners to reopen much of the complex by 2015.

"The entire back half of the building, the property was dark," he said. "We didn't get power on there for a couple more months after that. If you drove up as a traveler, you would see our sign and you would see the front building lit up, but the back half would be dark."

Brenner credited his former wife for coming up with the motel's "Snazzy '60s" decor. Many Route 66 motels take on a 1950s theme, but the '60s and its Midcentury Modern design at the time was a largely untapped niche.

The '60s vibe fits with the motel itself, as Agnes Leatherwood opened it as the Leatherwood Manor in 1964 on a former site of an Esso gas station.

Brenner acknowledged low "personal" points during his motel ownership, including his divorce in 2019 and being arrested during the same year on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and deprivation of the property of a household member. The charges later were dismissed.

He also admitted to "scary moments" trying to keep the motel afloat during the early lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

He said his best year was 2022, and he's starting to see a large bump in business this year. He noted the July 4 holiday saw record numbers of air travel, and he's seeing similar rises with highway travelers.

Brenner believes the best is yet to come.

"We're ramping up to the 100th anniversary for Route 66 and 250th anniversary for the United States of America in 2026," he said. "Brand USA is ramping up advertising internationally to promote tourism. So I think 2026 is going to be an absolutely fantastic year from a business perspective."

Roadrunner Lodge Motel now has a total of 24 rooms for overnight travelers.

Brenner also owns the closed La Plaza Court motel next door, which dates to 1947. In recent years, he installed a new roof and performed other work on the property, but it probably won't reopen as a motel.

"I will most likely pivot that property to something more low-use, like gallery space or something," he said. "We have a growing artist community, so this would be a great opportunity for people to have a place to show art and have it available for sale. I'll have to figure out a revenue model for that."

Brenner said he plans to soon retire from his day job as a remote internet technology specialist with a global company.

He also plans to build a second structure behind the motel for a neon shop by 2025.

"I've acquired the contents of a neon sign shop from Midland a couple of years ago," he said. "What I need is some investment partners to help me get that going. We'll have our own little neon factory right here in Tucumcari."

Brenner served for several years on the Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board, for which he was honored in 2017 as an "exemplary board member."

"That was a very nice little feather in my cap, totally unexpected," he said. "All I was doing is just trying to serve the community of Tucumcari in my capacity on the Lodgers Tax Board, with an eye always toward increasing tourism."

That said, Brenner said he doesn't expect local governments to be hands-on in aiding businesses.

"If I'm counting on the city or the state or whatever to be able to be a thriving business, then I've got the wrong business model," he said. "The city has done nothing to hinder my progress."