Sage Hospitality Salvages Denver History with $10-Mil Hotel Project

DENVER-Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources has opened a $10-million, 123-room TownePlace Suites by Marriott, salvaging a piece of Denver history with the undertaking.

The extended-stay hotel has been constructed within the framework of the landmark A.B. Hirschfeld Press Building, an undertaking that has spiked project costs by several hundreds of thousands of dollars, says Walter Isenberg, Sage executive vice president and COO. He says the extra six-digit investment has been worth it to salvage a piece of Denver’s history while holding onto such a unique property, situated at the edge of the CBD at 685 Speer Blvd.

The site once served as Denver’s first baseball field, home to the original Denver Bears until 1922. The press building was constructed in 1947. Denver-based Barry Hirschfeld is a limited partner in the project.

“No, we didn’t have to save a piece of the Hirschfeld building,” Isenberg tells GlobeSt.com. “It hadn’t been given historic designation. But that building, and its whimsical tribute to baseball, are a part of Denver history. We didn’t want to see it disappear. So we figured out a way to keep a wonderful old story alive in a new structure.”

John Montgomery, president of Denver-based Horwath Horizons Hospitality Consulting/Montgomery & Associates, says he thinks Sage has a home run with the new hotel. “I think this is the wave of the future,” says Montgomery. “A lot of developers are going to stop to drop in these little infill projects that at first might not be obvious sites for hotels. It will take a little bit of marketing to introduce people to the hotel, but I think it will do really well.”Sage is developing seven TownPlace Suites in the Denver metro area, with a total of 780 rooms.