Lawsuits delayGaylord

Aurora’s proposed conference center has five years to be built or funds might expire.

The proposed Gaylord Rockies Hotel and Conference Center is still mired in legal battles, and the clock is ticking on tourism money for the project. But the developer says he is confident crews will break ground sometime next year.

IraMitzner, president and CEO of the Houston-based RIDA Development Corp., was confident in the summer of 2013 that the hotel project in Aurora near Denver International Airport would break ground this fall.

That’s not happening because of litigation that could potentially threaten the fate of the massive hotel and conference center.

Alawsuit filed by a group of area hoteliers, another lawsuit filed by Aurora against the group and a third lawsuit from two residents of the city who say Aurora violated Colorado tax laws still are being fought in court.

“Litigation obviously al- ways creates clouds,” Mitzner said Friday. “We believe much of this litigation is motivated by people who don’t want to see fair competition in the market.”

The project — which includes a 1,500-room hotel, water park and convention center on 85 acres— will be funded in part by $81.4 million awarded to the city of Aurora under the Regional Tourism Act in 2012.

However, attached to that money is a five-year window in which “significant progress” must be made or the money can be yanked.

Attorneys for the group of 11 hotelierswho suedAurora and RIDA did not return phone calls for comment.

They are appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit they filed in Denver that claims the tourism money should have been pulled from the project because the developer changed after Aurora was awarded the money.

Those on the other side say the suit is financially motivated— that the hotels, mainly in downtown Denver, feel a convention center and hotel in Aurora would cut into their business.

The group has until the end of the year to file its first brief before the Colo- rado Court of Appeals.

Conversely, an Arapahoe CountyDistrictCourt judge this month dismissed Aurora’s lawsuit that claimed the hotel group had “interfered” with the process.

Aurora City Attorney Mike Hyman said the city plans to appeal that decision.

He said it is beneficial for the project to get started “sooner rather than later” because of rising interest rates and construction costs and that five-year window. The lawsuits and appeals are slowing the timeline, he said.

“We would certainly like to see a quick resolution,” Hyman said. “Each day this project isn’t built is a win for the other side.”

Officials for RIDA have said the company can’t build the conference center and hotel without the estimated $300 million thatAurora and other local governments are providing, aswell as the $81.4 million in state tourism incentives.

Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said nothing was writ- ten into the Regional Tourism Act that took into account how litigation would delay projects such as Gaylord Rockies.

He noted the size of the Gaylord conference center would be smaller than the Colorado Convention Center indowntownDenver, so their concerns aren’t valid because they would be dealing with clients who have different needs.

Hogan wouldn’t speculate what would happen if the city loses the $81 million in incentives or whether that could derail Gaylord Rockies permanently. But he is confident the project will come to fruition.

“We won on that question,” Hogan said of getting the lawsuit dismissed in Denver District Court. “It’s really on the losers to appeal it and figure out a way to get that court of first jurisdiction overturned.”