AURORA, Colo.
Marriott International, together with the owner and development partnership led by RIDA Development Corp. and Ares Management, L.P., announced the closing of a $500 million construction loan from Wells Fargo Bank as lead agent for construction of the two million square foot and 1,500 room Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colo., scheduled for completion in late 2018.
The eight bank consortium included co-lead agents Bank of America and Bank of Nova Scotia, as well as Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Credit Agricole, CIT Financial, MidFirst Bank and US Bank.
Simultaneous with the closing of the construction loan, a $530 million guaranteed maximum price construction contract was entered into with Mortenson Construction and WELBRO Building Corporation. The loan closing and entry into the construction contract will allow the project to begin vertical construction, which is expected to result in the hiring of more than 10,000 construction workers.
Marriott will manage the hotel and convention center, under a long-term contract, which is expected to lead to the hiring of approximately 2,500 permanent direct and indirect employees of the hotel. The economic impact of the project is estimated at more than $7 billion of economic activity for the State of Colorado, with more than 80 percent of guests expected to be net new visitors to the state.
Michael Kofsky will serve as the Director of Sales and Marketing for the Aurora, Colo., hotel and will lead a team with the goal of pre-booking more than 1.25 million room nights prior to opening.
"We are thrilled to welcome the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center," said Dave Grissen, Group President, Marriott International. "Adding a western group destination of this scale to Marriott's portfolio allows our sales teams to leverage existing group business demand into the property and create new demand in the market with meetings customers who have never considered Colorado.”
Luke Charlton, chief operating officer of RIDA Development Corp, added, "The Gaylord Rockies is designed to attract out-of-state visitors to our Colorado Convention Center for particularly large-scale corporate and association meetings, as well as be a dynamic leisure destination."
There were no specifics given at this time on the total amount of on-site meeting space.
