On my last post we covered the Colorado National Bank hotel conversion. Today, we are covering another hotel conversion where Xcel Energy used to have their offices. 550 15th Street may not be the most attractive building, compared to Union Station and the Colorado National Bank building, but it brings something to Colorado that we’ve never seen: a dual-brand hotel. Let’s take a look!
First we’ll start off with some renderings courtesy of Visit Denver. On the second picture you can see there will be two separate entrances. One for the Homewood Suites and the other for the Hampton Inn & Suites. They will also have a hotel bar with an outdoor patio which is shown in the first rendering.
How are these two hotels going to stack up in the building? Well, Hampton Inn will have 120-units taking up floors 2 through 5, and the Homewood Suites taking floors 6 through 12 with 182-units. The amenities however, such as the pool and fitness room, are shared in the basement. This goes for the housekeeping as well.
Here are some site photos at street level of the renovation. This is helping 15th Street become a more engaging, pedestrian-friendly environment. We all know 15th Street needs a lot of work, but it’s projects like these that help immensely.
This unique dual-brand hotel is expected to open April 2013. There are a very limited number of dual-brand hotels in the country so this could possibly be a new trend in the future.
Thanks for publishing these photos and this blog about the Dual Brand Hotel. In addition to what you’ve stated, the building will also have a valet-controlled parking level at the 2nd sub-basement level, with two automobile lifts for entry and exit. Another unique feature is the hotel bar, not typical for either hotel brands, with an exterior patio.
You noted that it will have an entry for each hotel brand, but your photos are incorrect. The image on the left shows the bar on Welton Street; the image on left shows the shared porte-cochere with both hotel entry locations – both face 15th Street.
The two rendering also appear to show that the corner of the building at 15th and Welton is getting an exterior treatment as well…maybe some kind of slats, or lighting improvements. Hard to tell, but anything will be a giant improvement. Good looking project!