AURORA | Proponents of Aurora’s massive Gaylord Rockies Hotel and Conference Center say the group of hotels that sued them for using public subsidies from the Colorado Economic Development Commission have relied substantially on public funds.
Sage Hospitality, which operates five of the hotels that sued Aurora over the use of tax incentives, has used tax incentives to pay for three of its hotels listed on the lawsuit. Sage-owned Courtyard Marriott Downtown, Westin Westminster and The Curtis Hotel covered 17 percent or more of their project costs with public funds, according to data compiled by a firm working with the Aurora Economic Development Council.
According to that data, Sage’s Crawford Hotel, which will open in the historic transit building in July as part of a handful of restaurants and shops under the new Union Station Alliance, was also covered almost entirely by subsidies. Private money contributed to around 5 percent of Denver Union Station’s total project costs, with $537 million coming from public subsidies, according to the data.
The data also shows that hotel plaintiffs, Magnolia Hotel and The Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites, used tax incentives to cover over 25 percent of their project.
Gaylord’s incentives, which amount to nearly $400 million, pay for almost half a project that has been estimated to cost up to $850 million. At 1,500 rooms with 400,000 square feet of meeting space, the hotel would be the state’s largest.
The mostly Denver hotels sued the City of Aurora over Gaylord’s tax incentive in 2013, when the project changed developers. In that lawsuit, which was dismissed in Denver District Court last month, the plaintiffs argued they had a legally protected interest in the project, and that their businesses would be financially impacted by the Gaylord hotel, which is set to open near Denver International Airport.
The City of Aurora has long argued that Denver developers use the same tax incentives for most of their large-scale downtown projects, including the Denver Pavilions, Elitch Gardens, Larimer Square, the Hyatt Regency and the Colorado Convention Center.
“It was always clearly about limiting competition, and in a certain sense, making sure Aurora wasn’t getting what downtown Denver was getting,” Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said. “I don’t focus on the hypocrisy. I’m focused on getting the job done and making sure that next time, when there is a next time — it may it be in Thornton or Lone Tree or Jefferson County — that we’re being (regionally) supportive instead of in opposition.”