Get over it already. A host of Downtown Denver hotels and a couple of other swank inns across the state are at it again trying to squelch the planned Gaylord hotel and conference center in Aurora.
This time, hotel officials have signed a petition sent last week to the state’s economic development chief demanding that Gaylord proponents reapply for $81 million in state tax incentives because the project has changed dramatically since it was awarded incentives last year.
No it has not. What happened was that almost immediately after the state and $300 million in Aurora incentives were awarded to Gaylord to build the 1,500-room hotel and conference center south of Denver International Airport, Marriott hotels bought the Gaylord business. Since then, the Marriott hotel behemoth has made clear its support of the project, even though it remains the region’s largest and most influential hotel company. The project details are being refined as developers look for financing, but the scope of the project is intact.
Marriott, which is not a seat-of-the-pants company, nor is this their first rodeo, strongly believes that the unique Gaylord project in Aurora will not suck the business out of Downtown Denver nor anywhere else in the state. In fact, just as backers of the project proved to state economic development officials, this project will net new tourism dollars to the entire region.
The Gaylord project, an extravagant destination hotel and conference center, will bring tourists to the region for conferences who would not, could not, come here otherwise.
Not only will Gaylord serve clients that other area hotels cannot, those tourists coming to Gaylord in Aurora will almost certainly spend time and money outside of Gaylord, in Downtown Denver restaurants, Downtown Denver hotels, Colorado ski areas, Colorado tourist towns and everywhere in between. The reason why Marriott officials are convinced of all of this, is because that’s how it happens at Gaylord’s other four properties, also crowded with other Marriott brands.
Rooms at the Gaylord center in Kissimee, Fla., just south of Orlando, go for about $300 a night and up — way, way up. Rooms at Downtown Denver hotels, go for about $150 a night, and often for much less. Even Denver’s swankest hotels such as the Brown Palace and Ritz Carlton have rack rates of about $260 a night. And these hotel properties are much, much smaller than the Gaylord proposal.
The shortsighted paranoia of these hotel officials not only hurts themselves, it hurts all of us. All of Colorado will benefit from the Gaylord project, just as everyone in the state benefits from Denver International Airport, the ski industry and Rocky Mountain National Park. Tourism is a critical part of our economy, and the Gaylord project will strengthen that.
If you don’t believe Gaylord proponents, or Aurora officials or even state economic development experts, believe in the people who own and run more hotels than anyone in Colorado: Marriott. They’re backing the project more than anyone else . And so, too, should Downtown Denver hoteliers. Rather than fighting Gaylord’s construction, they should be working on ways to ride the wave of new tourists when it comes in, and it is coming in. So move on.