Lind may join hotel sweepstakes

LOVELAND — An investment group headed by Windsor developer Martin Lind is considering plans for a new hotel-conference center immediately south of the new Larimer County Fairgrounds complex.

Lind’s group, Raindance Aquatic Investments LLC, recently bought 60 acres between the fairgrounds and Crossroads Boulevard, on the east side of Interstate 25.

“We’re hoping for a significant user, like a large hotel-conference center,” Lind said.

If Lind pursues the hotel project, he’ll likely be in competition with Missouri-based hotel developer John Q. Hammons. Hammons has previously announced plans to build a 250-room Embassy Suites hotel in the same vicinity, but on the west side of I-25. Hammons has proposed an 80,000-square-foot convention center attached to his hotel.

“I think our location could be prime,” Lind said. “You can walk from the Budweiser Events Center and all the conferences and shows that are going to go on the east side of Interstate. I think it’s a superior site to having to get back in your car and drive all the way around to the other side of the interstate.”

Lind and his partners felt strongly enough to pay $6.4 million for the 60-acre site, or about $2.50 per square foot.

“I think we probably set a record for the highest land sale in Northern Colorado,” Lind said sheepishly.

By comparison, the city of Fort Collins has listed a 25-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Interstate 25 and Prospect Road for $1.84 per square foot.

Still, Lind thinks the investment will pay off handsomely with projected success of the Larimer County Fairgrounds and 7,200-seat Budweiser Events Center.

Upon the opening of the Budweiser Events Center on Sept. 20, Lind said, “People will have a whole different opinion of that intersection than they do today.”

The fairgrounds complex, called The Ranch, is ” going to be averaging a couple hundred thousand people a month going onto that site,” Lind said.

Lind’s move next door to the Budweiser Events Center seems poetic. He was a prime force in bringing the Colorado Eagles minor league hockey team, which will play its home games at the new arena, to Northern Colorado.

“I really do think for everybody in Northern Colorado ? Martin’s the right guy to own it,´ said Dan Stroh, the Loveland-based real estate broker who handled the land sale. “I think he’ll develop it on a real upscale, professional basis.”

Lind said the hotel would absorb about 15 acres. The balance of the 60-acre site would be a combination of retail and professional office use.

While Lind has not established a development timetable, Hammons has said he wants to start construction in 2005 and open in 2006.

Hammons could not be reached for comment on Lind’s announcement. Loveland City Manager Don Williams said Hammons was in Loveland last month and said he was still planning on developing the hotel. However, Hammons has not formally requested city assistance on the project, which is common for convention center projects.

“He had intended to get back with me about the financing for the project,” Williams said. “He has not done so.”

Hammons is a hotel industry veteran. His holdings include three other hotels in Colorado, including the University Park Holiday Inn in Fort Collins.

Lind is the third would-be developer of a hotel-conference center in east Loveland. McWhinney Enterprises, in partnership with Stonebridge Hospitality, announced in December of 2002 that it would build a 120-room hotel with an accompanying conference center in the Centerra development.

McWhinney has scaled back those plans.

“There’s only so much demand for that sort of thing,´ said Nick Christensen, vice president of real estate services for McWhinney. “For us, it’s acceptable and beneficial if somebody does something like that near us that our office clients and others can use. We don’t necessarily need to be the ones to do it.”

Christensen said it’s not likely that both Lind and Hammons would build hotel-conference centers.

“There hasn’t been a full-service hotel constructed in Larimer County since, I believe, 1985,” Christensen said. “So, I don’t see two or three going up at once. There will probably be just one major hotel. We don’t want to do anything to disrupt that.”

McWhinney could still pursue a limited-service hotel, which could be developed in conjunction with the proposed new regional hospital at Centerra, Christensen said.

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