City Council says no to adding hotel space at proposed Williams Village II

BOULDER>> A majority of City Council members are not interested in having a new hotel at the site of the proposed Williams Village II development.

Developers had pitched the idea of including more than 76,500 square feet of “hotel use” in the 10-acre development, which would turn the area between Baseline Road, 30th

Street and U.S. 36 into a mixeduse neighborhood with a blend of housing and commercial space. The plan would demolish the existing Boulder Broker Inn, so the proposed new hotel would help offset the hotel space that would be lost.

The Williams Village area is not the only area set to lose hotel space in the near future. Not far away, on 28th Street and just south of Arapahoe Avenue, the Millennium Harvest House hotel is expected to be bulldozed this year to make way for a new student housing project. But two new hotels are set to open in the near future. One, the Moxy hotel on University Hill, is scheduled to open this spring, while the Limelight Conference Center and Hotel is slated to launch in the same area in 2025.

At Thursday night’s council meeting, five of eight council members present said they do not see a need for a hotel in Williams Village II, while several said they would need to learn more information to decide whether they would be interested in a hotel there. At least one who spoke said they’d rather see the hotel space used in other ways.

“I think we can use more housing and more neighborhood-serving commercial

(space) rather than a hotel,” said Mayor Aaron Brockett.