Colorado Real Estate Journal - May 6, 2015
The transformation of a highly visible corner in Boulder has begun with the groundbreaking for a pair of hotels and a fourstory office/retail building. NAI Shames Makovsky and Sage Hospitality will build some of the first new hotel rooms in the city in many years on the former Golden Buff property at the northwest corner of 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard, right across from the Twenty Ninth Street shopping district. The Embassy Suites and Hilton Garden Inn hotels will share a two-level underground parking garage with C28, a 43,280-squarefoot office/retail building being developed by Lou DellaCava of LJD Enterprises Inc. “We have been looking for a project in Boulder of this type for an extended period of time,” Michael Everett, Sage Hospitality’s chief investment officer, said of the hotels. “The diversity and predictability of demand in that market is pretty special and pretty unique. You could regard it as one of the most predictable, dynamic submarkets in all of Colorado,” he said, citing demand associated with the University of Colorado, existing businesses and new generators like the planned Google campus. The five-story hotels will have a combined 375 guest rooms. The Embassy Suites will offer 203 rooms with 7,000 sf of meeting space and a full-service restaurant, while the Hilton Garden Inn will comprise the remaining 172 rooms. “They are two distinct brands, and they are two distinct buildings. At the same time, we wanted to have every efficiency we possibly could of operating the hotels together,” said Everett, explaining there will be some shared operations and amenities, such as a swimming pool. The hotels and office building also will share a plaza that will serve as a common outdoor space. “Boulder wanted us to have an open space that was reflective of the local community,” Everett said. There will be a pedestrian access point off of 28th Street between the office building and Hilton Garden Inn that creates a connection through the property. Besides the high-end St. Julien Hotel & Spa, Everett said most of Boulder’s existing hotel rooms are in older select-service properties. “What they don’t have much of is higher-quality, newer hotels that serve the select-service and upper upscale segments,” he said. “It’s really hard to get anything built there. Land is expensive. The entitlement process can be challenging,” Everett said, noting those barriers to entry make projects that are completed very attractive. The partnership intends to own the hotels “for a long period of time.” Milender White Construction Co. is building the hotels, which were designed by JG Johnson Architects. DellaCava has owned the office development site since 2002. Shames Makovsky approached him about buying it, but he was not interested in selling. “It’s a hard corner. It’s a legacy corner. It’s a good asset to keep in my portfolio,” said DellaCava. They are partnering to develop the two-level parking garage, which will have 418 spaces, 107 of which will serve the office/retail building. DellaCava, who co-owns Canyon Gate Plaza at the southwest corner of 28th and Canyon, said C28, named for Canyon and 28th, will offer retail space, but is likely to draw financial services, insurance and real estate companies because the parking will be underground as opposed to out front. Designed by Erik Hartronft, “The building is contemporary, but it uses materials (such as sandstone) that keep it solidly in the Boulder legacy realm,” he said. Wyatt Construction will build the building, which is expected to deliver along with the hotels in the second quarter of 2017.