durango, colorado may see hotel construction blitz

Responding to the growing number of tourists who stay for a little while or longer in Durango, tourism officials have expressed support for a plan to build six new hotels in the southwestern Colorado city.

Ultimately, those new hotels would add 450 new rooms to the current 2,000 rooms that are available in the city.

The Durango Area Tourism Office, which represents both Durango and the larger La Plata County, says that the new rooms are particularly needed to serve visitors who come to see and study the Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites at the Mesa Verde National Park some 36 miles to the west.

According to one estimate, as many as 30,000 people in a given season stop in Durango on the way to that park.

Of the six hotels proposed, two six-story structures have already won the approval of the Durango Planning Commission.

Those hotels are set to be built on East Second Avenue, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, and will also include restaurant space and a parking garage.

Work on the two hotels could begin later this fall, with a general completion date of spring 2020.

Planning for the remaining four hotels is still in the development stage.

By Garry Boulard

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