MARCH 2016 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
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WORDS:
Eric Peterson
W
hen the 135-room Hyatt House Lakewood/Denver at Belmar first opened for
guests this month, the slick $22.9 million hotel filled a need for the mixed-use
development in Lakewood.
Located near the intersection of Alameda Avenue and Wadsworth Boule-
vard on the former site of the Villa Italia Mall, Belmar now includes more
than 80 retailers, including Whole Foods and Target, and a 16-screen movie
theater, intermingled with office space and apartments. The Hyatt House is its first lodging,
and it looks like an apt match.
The mindset behind the project aligned with the overarching mindset of the broad-
er vision for Belmar, where developers have taken a forward-looking approach since
Day One. When it opened in 2004, the $850 million project featured some of the first
LEED-certified buildings in Colorado, and it’s since earned national accolades as a model
of New Urbanism.
Today, more than 2,000 people live in the 22-block redevelopment area, and another
3,000-plus work there. It’s safe to say that Belmar has exceeded expectations in its first
dozen years, as it emerged as Lakewood’s new downtown.
The extended-stay Hyatt House, featuring apartment-like rooms and suites with
fully equipped kitchens, is similarly on the leading edge, from the high-tech ameni-
ties to the construction process itself.
“Hyatt’s very concerned with the details,” says Albert Haller, project manager for
general contractor Alliance Construction. “I’ve done 23 hotels for Alliance and this is
the cleanest, most upbeat and most modern one I’ve done.”
With a hip bar, 24-hour fitness center, and 21st century sensibility, it’s squarely
aimed at a certain demographic, Haller adds. “As far as look and appearance, it’s
designed for the younger business traveler,” he says.
But to get to the future, Haller’s crew had to deal with challenges from the past:
There were 40 remnant caissons from the site’s Villa Italia days. With plans for
60 new caissons to be drilled about 20 feet down into bedrock, Haller says he
was pleased there were very few issues with overlaps for all 100 caissons. “We
mapped them out and only had two conflicts, which is amazing for that many
caissons.”
There were also space constraints to deal with. “It was a tight site,” says
Haller. “We had stores on all four sides.”
Some of the spatial and underground challenges were balanced by an ag-
gressive timeline of about nine months after groundbreaking in May 2015.
The 100,000-square-foot hotel’s main floor is a concrete podium, with five
steel-framed levels built on top of it, and the installation of the framing
