Westin has been selected to build a hotel at Denver International Airport, Mayor John Hickenlooper said Wednesday.
Westin Hotels & Resorts will build a 500-room luxury hotel at the southeast corner of the DIA terminal. The hotel, scheduled to open in 2010, will include nearly 26,000 square feet of meeting and conference space, restaurants, a health club, a swimming pool and a parking garage.
The hotel will enhance the airport’s capacity to accommodate business and leisure travelers, Hickenlooper said in a written statement. Customers have consistently requested an on-airport hotel, according to DIA manager Turner West.
DIA issued a request for proposals for the project last April. Eight groups submitted proposals in June, and Hyatt and Westin were chosen as finalists for the $200 million, 15-story hotel.
Now that Westin has been selected, the next step will be to negotiate the operating agreement with Westin, a process that could take a few months, said DIA spokesman Jeff Green. Construction would take about two years.
Wednesday marks the second time a Westin hotel has been announced for DIA. Westin, owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts, committed in 1998 to building a $125 million DIA terminal hotel.
But in 2003, the city shelved plans to sell bonds to finance the hotel, due to financial turmoil at United Airlines and an economic downturn. The airport resurrected the idea as United left bankruptcy in 2006 and the local economy rebounded.
DIA had wanted to get private companies to finance the hotel, but did not get a deal that would work, so it decided to finance it with hotel revenue bonds.
DIA said last year it would seek proposals from Wall Street firms Citigroup, Bear Stearns, JP Morgan and Piper Jaffray on ways to structure the hotel financing.
“We’d like to see construction begin as soon as it can,” Green said.
DIA would have to take the Democratic National Convention this year into consideration, Green said. “To the extent that we can begin construction and not disrupt operations at the airport . . . we would be able to do some work even during the DNC, provided that negotiations have concluded by that point.”
Kelly Yamanouchi: 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com
