new colorado springs hotel project may get tax advantage

Plans have been underway for some months now to build a new eight-story hotel in downtown Colorado Springs.

The structure would go up in the 400 block of South Tejon Street on a 1.5-acre site that was once the home to an auto repair shop.

Because the more than 50 year-old building that housed that shop is categorized as being in a deteriorating condition, the new hotel may qualify as an urban renewal project.

That, anyway, is what members of the El Paso County Commission have determined, voting in favor of using tax revenue from the hotel, once it’s opened, to pay for necessary utility and street infrastructure at the hotel site itself.

The matter is now on its way to the Colorado Springs City Council for a final vote.

The November commission vote stipulated that El Paso County will return all sales and property tax revenue secured from the new hotel to the City of Colorado Springs’ Urban Renewal Authority for a 12-year period.

After that time expires, the county would then send half of the tax revenue to the renewal authority for another 13 years.

If built, the project, which is being spearheaded by the Olive Real Estate Group in Colorado Springs and Hotel Operation Services, of Monument, Colorado, will be branded as a Marriott hotel.

As planned, the hotel will have 261 rooms, two restaurants, meeting room space, and an underground parking garage with room enough for just over 200 vehicles.

The hotel, which could see construction next year, will be going up in a neighborhood of small retail stores and offices.

By Garry Boulard

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