AURORA | Aurora officials say the Gaylord hotel project is back on track after a petition to overturn state tax incentives was quashed.
In mid-August, the Attorney General’s office rejected a petition to revoke $81.4 million in state tax incentives that was awarded to the project by the Colorado Economic Development Commission last year.
“It was the right thing to do,” said Wendy Mitchell, president and CEO of the Aurora Economic Development Council. “We’re really pleased with their decision and we’re continuing to move forward and focus on finalizing financing and getting the hotel done.” Construction is still expected to begin later next year or early 2015, and the 1,500-room hotel and conference center is slated to open during the second half of 2017.
About 12,000 construction jobs will be created during construction and 2,500 permanent jobs will be created when construction is complete, Aurora economic development officials said.
At a July economic development meeting, a lawyer for 24 Denver hotels and lodging groups said state money should be pulled from Aurora’s Gaylord hotel project because current plans for the project are significantly different from last year.
For example, weeks after the Colorado Economic Development Commission awarded the Gaylord hotel project state tax incentives last year, Marriott International Inc., bought the Gaylord Hotels brand, said attorney Trey Rogers. Now, the hotel project will be developed as a Gaylord-branded hotel but owned by Houston-based RIDA Development Corp. And, according to documents leaked to the media in June, the estimated cost of the project has decreased from $824 million to $735 million.
“Circumstances have changed; they have changed pretty dramatically, and we think those changes warrant reconsideration,” Rogers said at the meeting.
Hotels that signed on to the petition include the Four Seasons Hotel in Denver, the JW Marriott in Denver, the Ritz-Carlton in Denver, The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. The Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association and the Metro Denver Hotel Association are also petitioners.
When they applied for state funding last year, Aurora officials said the hotel could not be built without public assistance. For that reason, Aurora City Council members agreed to give the project up to $300 million in tax incentives on top of the state’s incentive.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.