AURORA — With financing lined up, the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora will start coming out of the ground by the end of the year, requiring 10,000 workers over the three years it will take to complete it.
RIDA Development Corp. president and CEO Ira Mitzner on Thursday said the 1,500-room hotel near Denver International Airport will employ 2,500 permanent workers once it opens.
As for being able to fill 10,000 jobs over three years, Mitzner said his company and contractors have been working with local subcontractors over the past 1½ years to get the word out about the labor demand for the Gaylord Rockies project.
“We have made sure that the community knows the magnitude and needs of the project, and as a result, we have received excellent support from the subcontractor community,” Mitzner said after a Thursday news conference.
Filling the jobs is doable, said Michael Gifford, president and CEO of the Associated General Contractors of Colorado.
While the Denver metro area has added 10,000 construction jobs over the past 12 months — the highest gain of any metro area in the country, Gifford said — several big projects, including one in Salt Lake City and the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Aurora, are nearing completion, freeing up more workers.
Also, the oil and gas industry has seen layoffs in recent months, adding more people to the labor pool.
“It’s a challenge, but I would not say that one project is a concern,” Gifford said of Gaylord Rockies.
Mitzner on Thursday said eight banks, led by Wells Fargo, have committed to Gaylord Rockies. Other banks involved include Bank of America and Scotiabank.
Aurora Economic Development Council CEO Wendy Mitchell said she expects Gaylord Rockies to attract 450,000 new visitors annually and contribute $273 million in new money to the state’s economy each year.
Many of those visitors, Mitzner said, will be led to Aurora by large companies that might have chosen another popular convention city, such as Las Vegas, with hotels big enough to handle major meetings. When complete, Gaylord Rockies will be one of the largest non-casino hotels in the country.
“The state of Colorado doesn’t have large-meeting hotels,” Mitzner said.
A group of Denver and Colorado Springs hoteliers sued the state over $84.1 million in Regional Tourism Act funds awarded to the project,
. This month, the group filed a writ asking the Colorado Supreme Court to accept its appeal to the state’s highest court.
But Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, who spoke at Thursday’s news conference, said 90 percent of those requests are denied and that finally, after several years of litigation, all systems are go for the hotel and convention center, which will also include a water park.
“This hotel will be built and it will put the region on the map and it will be in Aurora, Colo.,” Hogan said.
Gaylord Entertainment initially proposed the $750 million to $850 million Western-themed hotel. But Nashville, Tenn.-based Gaylord sold the operating rights to its hotels to Marriott International and converted to a real estate investment trust called Ryman Hospitality Properties.
A spokesman for the hotel group challenging the Gaylord Rockies project could not be reached for comment.
But Mitzner said Denver hotels shouldn’t worry about losing customers to Gaylord Rockies.
“This is not about cutting the pie,” Mitzner said. “This is about expanding the pie.”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175, cillescas@denverpost.com or @cillescasdp
