A new hotel has been proposed to replace a surface parking lot on Blake Street in the heart of Lower Downtown Denver.

California-based T2 Hospitality submitted a Project Concept Review Plan to the Denver planning office in February for an 8-story hotel development at 1637 Blake, a 0.36-acre site with 125 feet of street frontage located across from RTD headquarters and the under-construction Market Station development. The project location is outlined on the Google Earth aerial below:

Site location for the proposed 1637 Blake Hotel, aerial image courtesy of Google Earth

In addition to the city’s regular approval process, the project must also be reviewed and approved by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board. The first step in the LDDRB process is a review and approval for building mass, form, and context. The development’s initial submittal to the LDDRB for mass, form, and context will be reviewed at the board’s meeting on April 11.

Based on the application materials submitted to the LDDRB, the preliminary building program is as follows: A basement level will contain back-of-house and administrative functions along with the hotel’s fitness center. The ground-floor will include the main entry/lobby, a 1,625 square foot restaurant fronting Blake Street, a 2,230 square foot bar/pre-function space, about 1,500 square feet of meeting rooms, and more back-of-house functions. A total of 177 guest rooms will be located on Floors 2 through 8. No on-site parking will be provided, but some off-site parking spaces will be leased for hotel guests.

The following images were taken from the project’s April 11 submittal package to the LDDRB and were prepared by Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects. These initial renderings are subject to further modifications and refinement over the coming months as the project works its way through the LDDRB and city development review processes.

Preliminary rendering of 1637 Blake Hotel, courtesy of Shears Adkins Rockmore

Here’s what the site looks today. The building on the right is the Barth Hotel.

If T2 Hospitality sounds familiar, that’s because they are the developers of another proposed hotel nearby at 16th and Market, which has been in the works for several years and appears to be very close to the start of construction. That project’s building permit has been under review with the city since last fall, and just a few weeks ago, a commercial construction permit application for excavation and shoring was submitted to the city. Also, T2 Hospitality has recently updated its webpage on their 16th and Market development to reflect that it will be part of the Thompson Hotels group and will be known as the Thompson Denver.

It’s always exciting to learn that another ugly surface parking lot may soon be eradicated from Denver’s urban core!