The University of Denver today will officially dedicate its new School of Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Management building, an $18 million structure that has been functioning as a student-run conference center since January.
The 46,000-square-foot building was designed as a hands-on learning facility that caters to small meetings and private events such as weddings.
“We built a management laboratory where students can practice the skills they’re learning in the classroom,” said hotel school dean Peter Rainsford.
Equipped with wireless Internet throughout, the DU center boasts features such as an executive boardroom, a full-production kitchen and a 126-person grand dining hall.
“We’re not a culinary school, we’re a management school,” said Rainsford. “Every single course will be involved in the running of this center.”
Demand is high for smaller, non-hotel meeting space, according to Michele Nichols, chief executive of Vail-based Unique Venues, which runs a database of 7,000 meeting sites.
“There are a ton of meetings out there for under 100 people,” she said. “People like to go to college campuses because it’s something different, and they usually have all the hot new technology.”
Colorado Executive Real Estate Roundtable began holding its monthly breakfast meetings at DU’s new building in January.
“It’s an impressive facility. They have all the bells and whistles,” said Mike Harrison, the group’s executive director.
While colleges and universities across the country have long profited from hosting meetings, DU is joining a prestigious group that offers dedicated, student-run conference facilities, including Cornell University and the Florida Institute of Technology.
Several universities also run student-staffed hotels. Denver’s Johnson & Wales University is currently spending $16.2 million to renovate its historic Treat Hall into a 52-room student-run boutique hotel.
To help fund its operations, DU is soliciting naming rights donations from businesses and alumni. Prices range from $15,000 for a small conference room to $1.5 million for the atrium.
DU’s hotel school is part of its Daniels College of Business. Daniels was recently ranked 49th in Business Week’s list of the top 50 U.S. undergraduate business schools.
Approximately 40 percent of the hotel school’s graduates go into lodging, 40 percent take jobs in the food and beverage field, and 20 percent enter related careers, such as club management and event planning.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or at jdunn@denverpost.com.
