GLORIETA, NM (BP) - Volunteers and staff of LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center broke ground June 29 for the first major building project at Glorieta in nearly 25 years.

The Hall of States lodge, built more than 40 years ago, will be razed and replaced with a new 60-room hotel, which will be completed in time for the 2006 summer conference schedule.

Extensive renovation projects over the last three years have updated many of Glorieta's buildings, including all of the youth dorms. But as one of the oldest buildings, "the deficiencies of the Hall of States make it impractical to simply renovate," said Mike Arrington, LifeWay Christian Resources vice president for corporate affairs.

Determined to make the retreat center a reality, the leadership of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico in the 1950s boldly put up their Baptist building as collateral for the land.

At its fall 2005 meeting, LifeWay's board of trustees approved spending $27 million during the next four years to update and enhance the facilities at LifeWay's two conference centers - Glorieta and Ridgecrest, located near Asheville, N.C.