LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) - It may be a recession, but the Plaza Hotel is having good fortune with its recently completed $5 million renovation of the adjacent Charles Ilfeld Building.

"We have our first wedding in the new ballroom Saturday night, and we have bookings already into August 2011 for the ballroom," Troy Denison, director of sales and catering, said recently.

General manager Janine Duncan said the project, which had its grand opening last week, had been in the works for six years. "It wasn't a recession when we started," Duncan said.

Considered a product of Las Vegas' boom days, the Ilfeld building was originally one of the first department stores in the West, built in 1883.

The Plaza Hotel opened the year before, on the heels of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway reaching Las Vegas in 1879. Las Vegas became part of the rail link with the East and a crucial mercantile center for the Territory of New Mexico.

The Plaza Hotel underwent a historic renovation in 1982, with a budget of about $2 million, and like that project, the work on the Ilfeld building was concerned with preserving historic architecture.

The building's Italianate facade was restored using period photographs.

Pointing out the old Victorian-looking wooden staircase in the Ilfeld annex, Denison said: "That staircase used to be a straight shot to the second floor. We took it down, reconfigured it ... for brides and grooms to make grand entrances to the ballroom. It's not a public staircase."

With an audiovisual system and a computerized lighting system, the new 3,200-square-foot ballroom created in the Ilfield wing is more than just a place for weddings. It's also designed for business meetings.

"We can computer-link a meeting with people in another state," Denison said.

The Ilfeld building more than doubles the size of the hotel, with an additional 30,000 square feet, including three floors and a basement. It adds 35 new guest rooms, including a bridal suite.

Antiques are used throughout the building. Even original glass, to the extent possible, was retained in the windows.

"We didn't think we could afford antiques, but our designer made it work,'' said Duncan.

On the third floor, accommodations were made to preserve the huge historic sign that reads "Charles Ilfeld Company Wholesalers of Everything" painted on the east side of the hotel.

"We couldn't cut into it, so we put in skylights," Denison said.

The building is also known for its elaborate stonework.
Sixth-generation Scottish stonemason Scotty Cramb was working in a basement area where the building's old coal furnace used to be - under the street.

When he was hired for the job, Cramb recalled, "They said they needed help for a month, six weeks. That was in August."

Cramb, who lives in Boulder, Colo., pointed out the different stonework in the basement, deep quarried stone on one wall and on the other, "shot rock" - stone that has been blasted out of the ground.

Cramb's work is in the area of the basement where "Dirty Gerdi's Rathskeller" will be located.

"Gerdi was a longtime bartender here who died recently, and it's named in her honor," Duncan said. "She was so excited about this new building."

Denison said rathskellers are basement bars popular in Germany, and the one in the Ilfeld annex will have a stage and band area.

Upstairs, on the main floor, an old cabinet holds memorabilia found during work on the building, including an Ilfeld's Supreme Quality President cigar box. The new area will also hold a store.

Neita Fran Ward, who has an art gallery called WarDancer Designs not far from the Plaza, will run the gift part of the operation. The hotel will offer high-end packaged liquors and wines, including many from New Mexico.

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AP-WS-05-18-09 0500EDT