A very exciting new development is coming to Denver’s Uptown district that will not only eradicate an ugly surface parking lot, but will also restore two historic buildings!

Proposed by New York City-based GFI Development Company, the 19th and Grant Hotel project will restore and reuse both the historic Cathedral High School building at 1840 Grant and the Oscar Malo Memorial Hall building at 1835 Logan, while constructing a new 11-story tower at the corner of 19th Avenue and Logan Street. The new tower and the historic school on Grant will accommodate the hotel rooms and supporting uses while the historic Malo Hall on Logan (built as a gymnasium) will feature a unique amenity space. The number of hotel rooms has not been announced.

The Google Earth aerial photo below shows the location of the two historic buildings and the vacant lot.

19th and Grant Hotel site on aerial photo, courtesy of Google Earth

For an additional look at the site, here are six Google Street View images. The first set of three images covers the Grant Street half of the site, which includes the Spanish Renaissance Revival architecture of the historic Cathedral High School. The second set of images shows the Logan Street half of the site, which features the surface parking lot and the late Renaissance Revival architecture of the historic Oscar Malo Memorial Hall building.

19th & Grant Hotel existing site, courtesy Google Street View
19th & Grant Hotel existing site, courtesy Google Street View
19th & Grant Hotel existing site, courtesy Google Street View
19th & Grant Hotel existing site, courtesy Google Street View
19th & Grant Hotel existing site, courtesy Google Street View

For more on these historic properties, their history and architecture, and the previous attempts at their possible redevelopment, please read this excellent article by Historic Denver, which worked hard a few years ago to ensure these properties would be preserved as part of any redevelopment project.

Thanks to Rebecca Stone and her team at OZ Architecture, the lead architect on the hotel project, we have the following renderings to share with you. The first image is a bird’s-eye view looking looking southeast with the 19th and Grant corner at bottom center. The second image gives us another bird’s-eye view—this time looking northwest at the Logan Street side with the restored Malo Hall and the new tower. The final image is a street-view looking southwest at the corner of 19th and Logan. Thank you OZ!

19th and Grant Hotel rendering, courtesy of OZ Architecture

A site development plan review application has been filed with the City planning office for 1840 Grant with a project name of “Ace Hotel.” Several of the hotels developed by GFI Development are Ace Hotels. Therefore, it would appear that the 19th and Grant Hotel may become an Ace Hotel, but we have not received any official confirmation of that at this point.

Whatever the final name of the hotel may be, this project will significantly improve the quality of the urban environment in Uptown and restore two beautiful historic buildings in the process.