two new hotels proposed for colorado springs airport site

A hotel developer has submitted plans for the construction of two new hotels that would go up inside the more than 900-acre Peak Innovation Business Park.

That city-owned park is located at the entrance of the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport and is designed to facilitate businesses needing the services of a commercial service airport.

The new hotels, to be developed by the Atlanta-based Hotel Equities, will prove especially useful for “those from more distant communities that want to stay overnight before an early morning flight,” said the airport’s aviation director Greg Phillips in a statement.

Each hotel will have up to 120 rooms, with construction set to begin by early next year. The two hotels are expected to be completed by sometime in 2021.

According to plans, the hotels will be branded, respectively, as a Courtyard by Marriott and a Residence Inn.

Hotel Equities, with more than 120 hotels in both the U.S. and Canada of varying sizes, has agreed to purchase the land needed to build the two new Colorado Springs hotels for $1 million.

Because the property in question is located within a defined Opportunity Zone, the purchase deal will have to be completed by the end of this year in order for Hotel Equities to qualify for federal tax incentives related to the two projects.

With the Airport Advisory Commission recommending that the Colorado Springs City Council sell the land to Hotel Equities, members of that council are expected to take up the question sometime this month.

If approved, the hotels will go up on a 6-acre parcel just south of the Milton E. Proby Parkway that runs to the front of the airport’s passenger terminal. 

Hotel Equities properties are primarily located in the South and West. It currently has five hotels up and running in Colorado, two in Arizona, and one in New Mexico.

By Garry Boulard

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