Arvada’s first hotel opens doors
But not all of the business’ neighbors are welcoming the Hilton Garden Inn
Brittani Hildebrand has called Arvada home her entire life. Born at Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, she attended Shrine of St. Anne’s Catholic School and Arvada West High School and is now raising her family in her hometown. Even her grandparents have lived in the same neighborhood off 55th Avenue for more than 40 years. If there has been anybody in the city long enough to witness change, it’s Hildebrand.
The opening of the new Hilton Garden Inn last week is exactly the kind of change that Olde Town Arvada is seeing these days, and Hildebrand isn’t exactly thrilled. Neither are a lot of her neighbors.
“I’m not very happy with the location of it,” Hildebrand said. “It completely blocks the mountain view. Olde Town is growing at a rapid pace, and I’m just not sure there is space adequate for a huge hotel.”
A little more than two years ago, Arvada residents got a look at a proposition for the city’s first hotel. The project, which cost just less than $23 million, proposed to build a five-story Hilton Garden Inn at 5455 Olde Wadsworth Blvd. in Olde Town. The city had sought to bring a hotel to Arvada for more than a decade when plans officially began to take form five years ago. Construction started in February 2016, and now the doors are finally open.
The project was not entirely welcomed by city residents during the process. Many concerns were voiced at the debut of the proposal — the most prominent of which was the architectural style of a large franchise hotel.
“There was a lot of concern that the design would not fit with Olde Town,” said Scott Somerville, head of hotel development firm Renascent Hospitality, a codeveloper on the project.
So the developers came back with a design they hoped would better blend with the small-town feel that the residents hoped to preserve. While the majority of about 40 residents who attended the final community meeting on the hotel voted to approve the project design, some Arvadans are still displeased with the outcome.
“(My grandparents) are not pleased, and I know a few neighbors pretty upset with something that big going into such a small, local community. They don’t want all the traffic,” Hildebrand said.
But traffic is exactly what will benefit the city, Somerville said of the hotel’s placement next to the upcoming RTD Gold Line commuter rail.
“Revenue is going to other towns when there isn’t a hotel,” he said. “So besides offering a nice place to stay and being part of the community, we are going to keep a lot of the business that was otherwise leaving the city.”
Somerville also said the hotel has created 60 to 70 jobs that didn’t before exist, and that they have tried to do most of their hiring locally. And although residents such as Hildebrand recognize the benefits of local job opportunities, they don’t think that is enough to make up for the changes it’s bringing to the city.
For example, Mile High Vineyard Church was forced to leave its location to make room for the Hilton. But the church holds no resentment.
“It’s been clear for a long time that we have needed a nice hotel in Olde Town,” Jay Pathak, the church’s cofounder, said in an e-mail. “It wasn’t a surprise when we heard about the Hilton developers making an offer, and even though it was hard for us at the time, I think it’s all worked out for our good and the good of the city.”
The church has relocated to 5855 Wadsworth Bypass.
“We love our city, and we’re happy to see it prosper and grow. There’s no hard feelings,” Pathak said.
Despite the division over the project, Cindi Kreutzer, chairwoman of the board of adjustments for the city, thinks the tension will fade.
“It was a hot-button topic in the beginning,” Kreutzer said. But now she thinks that most residents are OK with the hotel.
“I don’t have a serious problem with the Hilton,” she said. “A lot of people do want a hotel for when family comes from out of town.”
And while she has doubts about the changes in Olde Town, she hopes the best for the business.
“Personally, I’m not real optimistic (about the hotel), but I do hope that it does great and creates a lot of business for Olde Town.”
After weeks of finishing touches, the hotel began welcoming the public Wednesday afternoon.