County inks new hotel deal for Embassy Suites

By JoAn Bjarko
Fossil Creek Current

Larimer County is back on track to get a hotel and convention center built at its fairgrounds east of Interstate 25 after renegotiating a contract with hotelier John Q. Hammons.

Fairgrounds director Jay Hardy said financial projections show the 55-year ground lease and related revenues will return $62.7 million to county coffers, about the same amount taxpayers anted up to build the 3-year-old fairgrounds and events center.

Earlier this year, Hammons backed out of his first lease with Larimer County after falling behind on his construction schedule and getting a chilly reception from county commissioners when he came to Fort Collins to renegotiate. Hammons owns land on the west side of the interstate, where he could also build a hotel and convention center.

The commissioners then directed Hardy to reopen discussions with Hammons, who signed a new ground lease on Aug. 29. He will build an eight-story Embassy Suites Hotel and Convention Center on 19.2 acres at the southwest corner of the fairgrounds. The hotel will have 263 rooms and 37,000 square feet of convention space. Both are smaller than what was originally planned, but the county has since built a 4-H and youth building that can accommodate overflow from the hotel's conventions.

John Q. Hammons Hotels operates 64 hotels, including Hilton Fort Collins, in 23 states. Hammons' construction costs for the Embassy Suites in Loveland is estimated at $60 million to $62 million, Hardy said. Building should start this coming summer, he said, and the hotel will open in late 2008 or early 2009.

"It's a super-star project," Hardy said. "Everything he does is high quality."

To complete the new deal, Larimer County rolled over a $100,000 escrow payment from the old lease into the new lease, and Hammons added another $100,000, Hardy said. Another $100,000 will go into escrow when the county approves the building design. The city of Loveland has oversight over all other aspects of the development.

With the hotel and convention center nearly checked off the list, Hardy and interested groups will be discussing other ideas for private development on county-owned property at the fairgrounds. "We still have 60-some acres to develop on the outer parts of our land," Hardy said, noting that projects could be anything from restaurants to agricultural support businesses.