DENVER, Colo.
Denver’s Regional Transportation District board approved plans for redeveloping Denver's Union Station with a new 130-room hotel. The hotel will be affiliated with the 80-room, historic Oxford Hotel, which is located across the street and run by Sage Hospitality. The hotel is projected to open in the spring 2014. In addition to the new hotel, the redeveloped station will feature retail stores and restaurants.
The station already serves as a downtown stop for light rail lines heading south to the Denver Tech Center and Littleton. A new light rail line will open west to Golden in 2013, and in 2015, there will be direct rail service from Union Station east to Denver International Airport. Union Station is also the northern terminus for the free, electric shuttle buses that run up and down Denver’s mile-long 16th Street Mall and is an Amtrak station.
The new hotel will join the Oxford Hotel as the only accommodations in Denver’s hip historic district, known locally as “LoDo.” This 26-square block area is home to more than 90 brewpubs, restaurants, rooftop cafes and music clubs. It contains one of the largest collections of Victorian and turn-of-the-century brick warehouses in the nation, as well as being home to Coors Field, the 50,000-seat stadium for the Colorado Rockies. The hotel is a 15 minute walk, or quick ride via the free 16th Street Mall hybrid shuttle, from the Colorado Convention Center, and will bring the total of downtown hotel rooms within walking distance of the center to 8,550 rooms.
The new hotel will also have easy pedestrian and biking access to LoHi, or Lower Highlands, a booming area of downtown Denver that is filling with chef-owned restaurants, breweries, one-of-a-kind galleries, rooftop view bars and boutiques. The neighborhood is accessible to Union Station by a series of pedestrian bridges and bike paths.
