Thompson Denver has 216 rooms and standard rates starting at $329 a night. (Courtesy T2 Hospitality)
The developer of the four-star Thompson Hotel downtown is suing that project’s architect for fraud and accusing it of delaying the hotel’s grand opening by two years.
The builder won’t put a price tag on the delays but previously said they cost it $10 million.
The Thompson, at 1616 Market St., opened in early 2022. It is a Hyatt hotel owned by T2 Hospitality out of California and it was designed by DLR Group, a national firm.
The Thompson was built atop a former parking lot just south of the Hitchings Building, a 19th-century property with a historic masonry wall, and T2 was legally obligated to protect that wall while building the Thompson, it said in an April 11 lawsuit. For that reason and others, “design of the project was an inherently complex undertaking,” T2 wrote last week.
DLR was hired first in 2015 to do some preliminary architecture work, then full time in spring 2018. The plan was to have the Thompson’s designs done by the end of July 2018, break ground the next month, and open the hotel in early 2020, according to T2’s lawsuit.
But DLR struggled from the onset, the developer alleges, “vacillating between proposed designs not only of the shoring system but the project as a whole,” proposing a small hotel basement at times, a large basement at other times, and pushing construction back to April 2019.
“The failure to begin excavation and shoring in a timely fashion led to a cascade of further delays and substantial cost increases,” according to the lawsuit in Denver District Court.
Thompson Denver, at 1616 Market St., opened in February 2022. (BusinessDen file)
DLR then continued tinkering with its designs throughout 2019 and into 2020, making changes to everything from the hotel’s structural steel and emergency generator to its windows and patios, T2 said. DLR also designed parapet walls and a grand staircase that were not code-compliant, among other costly mistakes, according to the Thompson’s owner.
“Defendant’s failure to provide proper guidance regarding a storm drain pipe’s location and design led to a 17-month conflict without proper resolution,” it said of DLR.
T2’s troubles did not end when the Thompson opened in February 2022. Three subcontractors sued it that year, trying to foreclose on a combined $1.4 million in mechanic’s liens that they filed on the Thompson. The cases were later dismissed but not before they cost T2 money in surety bonds and attorney fees. T2 blames DLR’s delays for those liens and lawsuits.
“At this time,” a DLR spokesman told BusinessDen, “we will not comment on issues in litigation.”
T2 initially sued DLR in June of last year and alleged then that the architect’s mistakes had caused damages “estimated to exceed $10 million.” The case was dropped the next day as the two sides tried to instead resolve their differences through mediation. That mediation “took place in February 2024 and was unsuccessful,” T2 wrote in last week’s lawsuit.
So, the developer is suing DLR for breach of contracts and fraud. It is represented by lawyers Ivan Sarkissian and David Taylor with McConaughy & Sarkissian, a Denver firm. They declined to discuss the case, including how much money their client is seeking from DLR.
Thompson Denver has 216 rooms and standard rates starting at $329 a night. (Courtesy T2 Hospitality)
The developer of the four-star Thompson Hotel downtown is suing that project’s architect for fraud and accusing it of delaying the hotel’s grand opening by two years.
The builder won’t put a price tag on the delays but previously said they cost it $10 million.
The Thompson, at 1616 Market St., opened in early 2022. It is a Hyatt hotel owned by T2 Hospitality out of California and it was designed by DLR Group, a national firm.
The Thompson was built atop a former parking lot just south of the Hitchings Building, a 19th-century property with a historic masonry wall, and T2 was legally obligated to protect that wall while building the Thompson, it said in an April 11 lawsuit. For that reason and others, “design of the project was an inherently complex undertaking,” T2 wrote last week.
DLR was hired first in 2015 to do some preliminary architecture work, then full time in spring 2018. The plan was to have the Thompson’s designs done by the end of July 2018, break ground the next month, and open the hotel in early 2020, according to T2’s lawsuit.
But DLR struggled from the onset, the developer alleges, “vacillating between proposed designs not only of the shoring system but the project as a whole,” proposing a small hotel basement at times, a large basement at other times, and pushing construction back to April 2019.
“The failure to begin excavation and shoring in a timely fashion led to a cascade of further delays and substantial cost increases,” according to the lawsuit in Denver District Court.
Thompson Denver, at 1616 Market St., opened in February 2022. (BusinessDen file)
DLR then continued tinkering with its designs throughout 2019 and into 2020, making changes to everything from the hotel’s structural steel and emergency generator to its windows and patios, T2 said. DLR also designed parapet walls and a grand staircase that were not code-compliant, among other costly mistakes, according to the Thompson’s owner.
“Defendant’s failure to provide proper guidance regarding a storm drain pipe’s location and design led to a 17-month conflict without proper resolution,” it said of DLR.
T2’s troubles did not end when the Thompson opened in February 2022. Three subcontractors sued it that year, trying to foreclose on a combined $1.4 million in mechanic’s liens that they filed on the Thompson. The cases were later dismissed but not before they cost T2 money in surety bonds and attorney fees. T2 blames DLR’s delays for those liens and lawsuits.
“At this time,” a DLR spokesman told BusinessDen, “we will not comment on issues in litigation.”
T2 initially sued DLR in June of last year and alleged then that the architect’s mistakes had caused damages “estimated to exceed $10 million.” The case was dropped the next day as the two sides tried to instead resolve their differences through mediation. That mediation “took place in February 2024 and was unsuccessful,” T2 wrote in last week’s lawsuit.
So, the developer is suing DLR for breach of contracts and fraud. It is represented by lawyers Ivan Sarkissian and David Taylor with McConaughy & Sarkissian, a Denver firm. They declined to discuss the case, including how much money their client is seeking from DLR.
