Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Downtown & Hotels

If you read the Coloradoan or frequent downtown Fort Collins then surely you know of the mad rush we have been feeling to get a full service hotel in the Downtown area. Currently the only hotel servicing the heart of our city is the three story, 41 room Armstrong Hotel built in 1923:
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Grow Fort Collins should also note the many bed & breakfasts that are scattered threw out downtown and well they are a great asset to our community we are in desperate need for more rooms. Sadly this winter we saw the demise of the extremely ambitious hotel proposal by the Downtown Development Authority & Corporex:Photobucket
This gorgeous proposal would have been located on the Remington street parking lot and included a nine story hotel with 150 rooms and 15,000 square feet of residential space as well as an 80,000 square foot office building, retail space, a restaurant and bar, two levels of underground parking, and the now defunct conference center that Corporex put the kibosh on early in the planning stages. Personally I was very saddened by the demise of the project but I am extremely happy to report that the DDA is now in negotiations with at least eight different hotel developers. Hopefully we will hear some concrete plans soon. In other news, local developer Mike Jensen is actively courting hoteliers in hopes of developing his property at the northern edge of downtown. This past week Grow Fort Collins even spotted a rendering of what the project could look like: Photobucket
Grow Fort Collins wouldn't be the least bit surprised if more than one hotel is developed downtown in the next couple years. Let the race begin!