As of January 2023, the Aloft signage on the hotel at 800 15th St. in Denver had been covered with “Be Kind” banners. (BusinessDen file)
A downtown Denver hotel that served as a homeless shelter for about three years following the onset of the pandemic will reopen to the public next month.
The owner of the Aloft Denver Downtown Hotel at 800 15th St. said it’s spending over $3 million to renovate the property after the long-term residents moved out in April.
“We’re doing a complete renovation. Complete fumigation, and we stripped everything out,” said Jonathan Gandhi, part of hotel owner JBK Hotels.
The renovation is taking five months, Gandhi said. Three floors will reopen next month — the hotel’s website allows bookings starting Aug. 15 — with the rest coming on line later.
The city leased all 140 rooms of the six-story hotel starting in May 2020, and used them to house homeless people seen as high-risk due to age or a medical condition, providing an alternative to traditional shelters where the individuals would be in closer contact with others.
The city repeatedly extended the contract, although by 2022 some neighbors were publicly opposing the arrangement, saying the occupants were creating safety and sanitation problems for the surrounding area.
The final contract extension was approved by the Denver City Council earlier this year.
The city ultimately will have paid $16.24 million to lease the entire hotel from May 11, 2020, to July 31, 2023, according to city documents. That works out to about $13,500 per day — $95 per room per day for the majority of the contract, bumping up to $100 a day for the final months.
Gandhi estimated the city’s lease rate works out to about 50 or 55 percent of what the hotel would have pulled in had the pandemic not occurred.
The $16 million figure is not the full cost of the program. The city also paid JBK Hotels some $3.75 million to provide three meals a day to residents, records show. And it had separate contracts with other firms to provide security at the hotel and otherwise manage the program. The city also leased other hotels when the pandemic set in.
The city’s contract with JBK Hotels, which BusinessDen obtained through a public records request, specifies that the company can be reimbursed up to $300,000 for expenses.
Gandhi said the city is not paying for the $3 million renovation beyond that — “They’re covering 10 percent of the renovation” — although the contract also has the city paying for all the rooms through the end of this month, despite the fact that no one has been staying there since April. In other words, the city is paying about $1.26 million between May and July for rooms as they’re being renovated.
Gandhi said he’s glad the hotel was able to “step in and provide housing,” but now “was a good time for everyone to transition out.”
“We’re not trying to hide the fact that we housed the homeless, but we’re going through a very extensive renovation to make sure the property is brand new,” Gandhi said.
The Aloft, which is a Marriott brand, is just a block from the Colorado Convention Center.
“I would say business is not fully back in Denver, but we’re cautiously optimistic,” Gandhi said.
As of January 2023, the Aloft signage on the hotel at 800 15th St. in Denver had been covered with “Be Kind” banners. (BusinessDen file)
A downtown Denver hotel that served as a homeless shelter for about three years following the onset of the pandemic will reopen to the public next month.
The owner of the Aloft Denver Downtown Hotel at 800 15th St. said it’s spending over $3 million to renovate the property after the long-term residents moved out in April.
“We’re doing a complete renovation. Complete fumigation, and we stripped everything out,” said Jonathan Gandhi, part of hotel owner JBK Hotels.
The renovation is taking five months, Gandhi said. Three floors will reopen next month — the hotel’s website allows bookings starting Aug. 15 — with the rest coming on line later.
The city leased all 140 rooms of the six-story hotel starting in May 2020, and used them to house homeless people seen as high-risk due to age or a medical condition, providing an alternative to traditional shelters where the individuals would be in closer contact with others.
The city repeatedly extended the contract, although by 2022 some neighbors were publicly opposing the arrangement, saying the occupants were creating safety and sanitation problems for the surrounding area.
The final contract extension was approved by the Denver City Council earlier this year.
The city ultimately will have paid $16.24 million to lease the entire hotel from May 11, 2020, to July 31, 2023, according to city documents. That works out to about $13,500 per day — $95 per room per day for the majority of the contract, bumping up to $100 a day for the final months.
Gandhi estimated the city’s lease rate works out to about 50 or 55 percent of what the hotel would have pulled in had the pandemic not occurred.
The $16 million figure is not the full cost of the program. The city also paid JBK Hotels some $3.75 million to provide three meals a day to residents, records show. And it had separate contracts with other firms to provide security at the hotel and otherwise manage the program. The city also leased other hotels when the pandemic set in.
The city’s contract with JBK Hotels, which BusinessDen obtained through a public records request, specifies that the company can be reimbursed up to $300,000 for expenses.
Gandhi said the city is not paying for the $3 million renovation beyond that — “They’re covering 10 percent of the renovation” — although the contract also has the city paying for all the rooms through the end of this month, despite the fact that no one has been staying there since April. In other words, the city is paying about $1.26 million between May and July for rooms as they’re being renovated.
Gandhi said he’s glad the hotel was able to “step in and provide housing,” but now “was a good time for everyone to transition out.”
“We’re not trying to hide the fact that we housed the homeless, but we’re going through a very extensive renovation to make sure the property is brand new,” Gandhi said.
The Aloft, which is a Marriott brand, is just a block from the Colorado Convention Center.
“I would say business is not fully back in Denver, but we’re cautiously optimistic,” Gandhi said.
