Executive Tower Inn

Originally constructed in 1974, The Executive Tower Inn was a 30-story high rise with a three-story podium, hotel rooms on floors 4 through 16, and office space on floors 17 through 30.  After 20 years of successful operation, the office portion of the tower was vacated in 1994.  That space remained vacant for more than a decade, and by 2004 the building had numerous structural, design, and cosmetic issues and was badly in need of rehabilitation.  Its location across from Denver’s Performing Arts Complex made it an attractive redevelopment opportunity, but efforts were hampered by extraordinary costs, including life safety problems; deficient and outdated structural, mechanical and electrical systems; structural and aesthetic façade problems; and inadequate and undersized elevator systems.

In order to enable rehabilitation of the blighted structure, DURA provided Sage Hospitality Resources (Sage) with $21 million in assistance through TIF financing.  Completed in 2007, the fully rehabilitated property is now home to the 336-room Curtis Hotel and the Inn at Auraria, a 450-bed student housing facility serving the nearby Auraria Campus. Previously vacant street level retail spaces at the property are now occupied and active and include the Oceanaire Restaurant, Starbucks Coffee Company, Corner Office Restaurant and Bar, as well as the entrances to the Inn at Auraria and the Curtis Hotel.

The completed project not only renovated and reactivated a long blighted downtown high rise, it also helped activate a critical stretch of 14th Street across from metro Denver’s premier performing arts center. This was a key goal of the City’s 14th Street Initiative, a public-private partnership whose goal is to revive 14th Street from Civic Center Park to lower downtown and create downtown’s “Ambassador Street” where tourists, visitors, workers, and residents can easily navigate to destinations along and adjacent to 14th Street.