On June 3, 2010 the Colorado Urban Land Institute hosted an Explorer Series that focused on recent hotel and hospitality trends. They had a great panel discussion and it was interesting to listen to everyone’s thoughts on the current trends and what they’re seeing in the market today. Following the discussion we took a walking tour of the recently completed Sheraton, the ongoing Four Seasons, and the upcoming Colorado National Bank project. Here are some photos I took during the tour:

The Panel Discussion was made up of 2 developers, a builder, and a hotel analytics expert:

- Navin Dimon with Stonebridge Companies talked about their exciting new hotel development taking place at the old Colorado National Bank builidng at 918 17th Street in Denver. It was great to hear that they’ve protected this building and have pushed to get this building added to the National Register.

- Ken Geist from Sage Hospitality also provided some uplifting news when he reported that their Colorado hotels had better than expected numbers last month. I also thought it was interesting to hear him discuss the benefits of being aligned with larger hotel brands in this economic down turn.

- Christopher Day with Swinerton Builders talked about their recent hotel work in Denver, specifically the Four Seasons which will be wrapping up sometime near the end of October 2010. He also discussed LEED Certified buildings and getting builders on-board early to reduce and eliminate the green building premium, he also mentioned how their hotel clients have been leveraging “Green Buildings” in their marketing material.

- Greg Hartman with STR Analytics also put together some great charts showing different trends in the hotel industry here in Colorado over the past 20 years. It was eye-opening to see how the hotel industry has reacted to the economic highs and lows over the past few years.

Overall it was a great event, lots of good information, good networking, and I know we all enjoyed the reception at Tamayo.

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