Tony Sherman figured his hotel property was more valuable without the hotel at all.
“It was really more profitable and more valuable as raw land,” he said.
The Aspen resident and hospitality investor sold the former American Motel property for $16.5 million last week. The deal came after he rezoned it and knocked down the longstanding spot off Interstate 70, known for its large, red sign displaying rooms at $32.95.
The buyer, Dallas-based Trinsic Residential Group, is planning 335 apartments on the 5.8-acre site at 10101 W. I-70 Frontage Road North.
Sherman bought the site and prepared it for a future buyer who could do something bigger and better with it. Before Trinsic went under contract, Sherman was in talks with another group to buy the property, just off I-70’s Kipling Street exit.
“I didn’t think there was much risk,” he said. “The city was very supportive of the rezoning and the city of Wheat Ridge was really, really great to work with throughout, and it sailed through the rezoning process.”
Besides assisting with the rezoning, Wheat Ridge chipped in financially. Its urban renewal authority earmarked $9 million for the demolition and future development of the property.
But a single line in the zoning code tanked the deal. More headaches ensued.
“I could spend an hour telling you all the quirks and problems,” he said.
The investor explained that a “quirk” in the code required retail to be built on the site. But the property is off the highway in the suburbs – not exactly ideal for mixed-use development.
Sherman got the issue corrected and the site was again primed for an apartment complex.
But then came the asbestos. The company doing the work did a “horrible job,” Sherman said.
He had to remediate the site a second time to ensure all of the toxic material was gone.
Then, Sherman had to battle with Xcel to ensure there was enough power to support an apartment complex. The Colorado Department of Transportation also got in the way, with some of its staff telling him that he couldn’t build on the property due to a supposed moratorium on highway construction in the area, he said.
Sherman said both delays were due to the agencies’ errors. The hiccups cost him months – and leverage.
“As things kept changing and the market was falling and interest rates were rising, they had a lot of leverage on me,” Sherman said of the buyer, Trinsic, who required him to demolish the building as the delays piled up.
“It was iconic. But to me, it was a money pit as an owner, a real money pit.”
Sherman bought the property in January 2023 for $9 million. At the time, he considered rehabbing the motel into a Marriott. But the hotel brand wasn’t interested, so he explored converting the 50-year-old building into apartments.
“Then it dawned on me that maybe if I was going to rezone out for apartments, it may be worth more as vacant land,” he said.
The motel was once a key asset to the Denver suburb. It even hosted Elvis Presley for a visit back in 1976. But by the time Sherman got his hands on it, the property’s heyday was long gone.
“The city of Wheat Ridge did not like the American Motel,” Sherman said. “It wasn’t horribly maintained, but the clientele there paid in cash, it was very transient, there were a lot of police calls to that site.”
The business closed for good in the summer of 2025. Sherman said all of the complications with the deal delayed the sale of the property by two years. But he did still turn a profit, he said.
“It went from a great deal to a good deal,” he added.
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