Real estate firm to buy out partner
The Nashville, Tenn., real estate investment company that first conceived of the idea for the massive Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center in Aurora — then sold its development rights to another company, then bought back into the project and slowly increased its stake — is now poised to become the hotel’s sole owner.
It’s also purchasing roughly 129 acres of land immediately around the hotel with plans to bring in complementary development in the years ahead.
Ryman Hospitality Properties on Monday announced that it has a deal in place with partner RIDA Development to buy out RIDA’s 35% stake in the 1,501-room Gaylord Rockies for $188 million. Ryman will also pay RIDA $22 million for three parcels of land around the hotel.
The parcels — zoned for a mix of office, retail, hotel and multifamily residential — give Ryman control over development around the hotel the company already has aims to expand. The deal is expected to close this month with Ryman paying for it with cash and borrowing from a revolving credit facility.
“Despite having just one full year of results prior to COVID-19, we believe Gaylord Rockies is positioned to be a strong contributor to our future performance, and we are thrilled to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity,” Ryman’s chairman and CEO Colin Reed said in a news release accompanying the company’s firstquarter financial results.
Ryman has four other Gaylord resort properties, including the 2,888-room Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in its hometown.
The company first started working on bringing a Gaylord to the Denver area roughly a decade ago, but, after transitioning to a real estate investment trust, sold its development rights to Houston-based RIDA, executive vice president and chief operating officer Patrick Chaffin said.
RIDA brought Ryman back into the fold to manage the hotel’s partnership with operator Marriot and aid in the development of the project, Chaffin said. Last year, Ryman bought out the last of the project’s equity partners to take a 65% stake in the property. Now, it’s poised to own the whole kit and caboodle, including the on-site water park, 486,000 square feet of meeting and convention space and the surrounding land.
When it comes to the surrounding parcels, “having a stake in that allows us to make sure it is the right kind of development that meets the needs of the market and the needs of the hotel,” Chaffin said. “We also have skin in the game if those projects are successful.”
The Ryman and RIDA partnership was already eyeing expansion at the Gaylord, announcing
just seven months after opening that it had secured $80 million in financing to add 317 rooms to what is already the state’s largest hotel. That project was put on hold during the pandemic but Chaffin believed the work could begin next year.
In a slide presentation shared with investors this week, Ryman laid out statistics showing the Gaylord Rockies is “the clear leader in the clubhouse within our brand as far as forward opportunity for growth and recovery,” Chaffin said.
Those stats include 71% of all room nights canceled during the pandemic being rebooked at the Gaylord Rockies. That rate is 58% among the brand’s four other locations.
Wendy Mitchell, president and CEO of the Aurora Economic Development Council, said her organization is excited by the impending sale and views the 129 acres of surrounding land as an exceptional opportunity. She recognized RIDA and its CEO Ira Mitzner for their work.
“We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Ira and his family for having the courage to build this hotel for us,” she said. “Without him, it would have never happened.”