Chopra Opening Spa Next to Westin

Construction is slated to begin on the center next spring, with an opening in the summer of 2007. The center, on the second floor of the new building that will also include 60 condominium units, will be linked to the existing 14-story, 369 Westin. The spa will be part of the new center called Ananda Inspired Living Center. Ananda is defined as "joy" or "bliss" in Sanskrit.

Tim O'Byrne, president and CEO of the Westminster Promenade Development Co., lives in Portland, OR will own the Ananda. O'Byrne, who attended Colorado State University, also owns the Westin. The 60 condos will be priced around $200,000 to more than $1 million. Condos on two floors will be sold as condo-hotel units, which can be rented in the hotel pool when not being used by owners.

O'Byrne tells GlobeSt.com that while the mix of condo-hotel units and regular condos has been done in other cities, this is the first time it has been done in the Denver area to the best of his knowledge. He tells GlobeSt.com that the hotel has always needed more suites and it is possible that they will even expand the hotel-condo concept in the new building.

But what will really puts the development on the map, O'Byrne says, is the Chopra Center, which integrates Western medicine, typical spa services such as massages, with the 5,000-year-old Ayurvedic healing tradition from India. In addition, Chopra plans to give between two and four seminars annually at the center. "His seminars in Colorado sell out in about 10 minutes," O'Byrne tells GlobeSt.com. Also, Chopra plans to stop by when he is traveling west from New York City, where he is opening a spa in the Dream Hotel, according to O'Byrne.

The spa will not only draw people from the Denver area, but the entire Rocky Mountain region that includes Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska, O'Byrne says. "We think easily that it will draw people from a 1,000-mile radius," Susan Stiff, spokeswoman for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, parent of Westin, tells GlobeSt.com.

O'Byrne tells GlobeSt.com that he initially planed to build an office complex on the site in 2000, but seemingly overnight the office vacancy rate along the U.S. 36 corridor skyrocketed to about 40% from 3% during the high-tech crash. "When the office market collapsed, we started looking at residential," O'Byrne tells GlobeSt.com. "And we always wanted to do a spa." As part of his research, O'Byrne visited about 15 of the top spas in the country, including the CanyonRanch in Tucson, AZ, the Golden Door in Escondido, CA, as well as spas offered by Starwood, but found that the Chopra Center in La Costa, CA, was like no other.

The Westminster Westin already is a first-class hotel, and adding the Chopra Center will only increase its stature and appeal, said John Montgomery, president of Denver-based Horwath Horizon Hospitality Consulting/Montgomery Associates. "A spa is increasingly becoming one of the most sought after amenities at a hotel," Montgomery tells GlobeSt.com. "A lot of hotels will be envious they they're getting the Chopra Center. It truly is a one-of-a kind center."