downtown denver building to be reconverted into hostel

Plans are underway to convert an existing three story industrial building in Denver’s Arapahoe Square neighborhood into a new hostel inn.

The Austin-based Native Experiential Hostels has announced its purchase of an 11,000 square foot structure located on a less than one-acre site at 2235 Arapahoe Street.

The building is 130 years old. In purchasing the property for $2.6 million, the company also bought an adjacent parking lot.

Although the exact repurposing plans for the building have not been revealed, reports indicate that a 10,000 square foot addition to that structure will be built in the existing parking lot.

Work on the building is expected to begin later this year, with the hostel opening for business sometime in the first quarter of 2021.

Native Experiential Hostels launched its first location in Austin nearly three years ago, offering a boutique-style operation with half a dozen beds per dorm space, as well as a restaurant and bar, at greatly reduced prices for travelers.

The new hostel operation in Denver will open in a city that already has at least four such businesses up and running, with prices ranging from $25 to $52 per night.

The Arapahoe Street property was built in 1889 and was most recently used as office and warehouse space for a plumbing and heating company. Before that, the building served as the home to the Utility Novelty Manufacturing Company.

In opening its first location in downtown Austin, Native Experiential Hostels transformed a more than 100 year-old structure and next-door warehouse space into a hostel with a 4,000 square foot communal space.

The company earlier announced plans to also open similar properties in Nashville and New Orleans.

By Garry Boulard

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