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Adam's Mark sale done

Downtown hotel will become a Sheraton

By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 9, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Plans for the Adam's Mark Hotel call for a $70 million renovation.

Photo by Linda McConnell / Special to the Rocky

Plans for the Adam's Mark Hotel call for a $70 million renovation.

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Downtown Denver is getting its first Sheraton, now that the San Francisco-based Chartres Lodging Group and the Whitehall Funds have completed the purchase of the 1,225-room Adam's Mark Hotel.

The hotel at 1550 Court Place is the largest in the state and will be renamed as a Sheraton later this year.

The new owners also plan to spend $70 million renovating the hotel, or an average of $57,143 per room.

The hotel was built in 1960 as a Hilton and later renamed as a Radisson. In 1997, St. Louis-based HBE Corp., headed by Fred Kummer, re-branded it as an Adam's Mark.

"Sheraton is a really strong brand and should help the hotel bring in groups and increase its room rates," hotel consultant Robert Benton said.

He said Sheraton, owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, is a better-known national brand.

"It's hard to see any negatives to this deal," said John Montgomery of Horwath Horizon Hospitality Consulting and Montgomery and Associates.

"As a Sheraton, what it needs to do is position itself to work closely with the new Hyatt hotel across from the Colorado Convention Center," Montgomery said. "That way, when people attend conventions in Denver, they will have two large, first-class convention hotels to choose from."

Tom Curley, area managing director for Starwood, said the company will renovate "every guest room, every suite, every bathroom, as well as the lobbies, meeting rooms and open space in the hotel."

He said the majority of the work will begin near the end of the year.

Mike Ehmann, the new general manager, said the $70 million investment, along with the Sheraton name, will allow higher room and occupancy rates.

The sale is part of a larger transaction in which Chartres acquired the 4,867-room Adam's Mark portfolio from HBE Corp. of St. Louis.

Hotel guests will be eligible to receive Starwood Preferred Guest Points immediately.

rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5207

Comments

  • February 8, 2008

    11:23 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    AC writes:

    This is a historic hotel, built as the Denver Hilton by New York real estate tycoon Bill Zeckendorf in 1958. He built the Hilton and across Court Place built the new May-D&F store for when May Co, took over Daniels and Fisher department store. The old May D&F is now part of the Adams Mark rooms, and Zeckendorf Plaza, the old skating rink, is now the drive-up for the hotel. That's where the old Arapahoe County courthouse used to be, torn down in the 30s after the City & County Building opened. Gene Amole used to write about how his grandpa had planted elm trees around the empty block that became May D&F and he was upset when Zeckendorf came to town and took over the park.

    Zeckendorf also built the Mile High Center at 17th and Broadway in the 50s, designed by IM Pei. Still looks like a new building, to me, and still distinctive even though it's been incorporated into the glass plaza for the cash register building.