The Hill hotel project draws mixed reviews from Boulderites, planning officials 

BOULDER — The Hill hotel in Boulder, which has been contemplated for nearly a half-decade, could be closer than ever to becoming a reality. But locals and planning leaders are taking a hard look at the details as the project makes its way toward the Boulder City Council for consideration. 

Plans for the hotel, which call for the construction of 198 guest rooms and roughly 10,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space at 1313 Broadway in Boulder’s University Hill neighborhood, were reviewed Thursday night by Boulder’s Planning Board, the body tasked with vetting the proposal and offering feedback before a review by the full council later this year. No votes were taken Thursday. 

Concerns expressed at the meeting ranged from privacy of nearby residents, including a University of Colorado sorority house, to parking to the displacement of existing local businesses.
“The vision is to create a vibrant mixed-use development and integrate that development into the diverse community,” Chris Shears, a principal with Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects in Boulder who represents hotel developer Nichols Partnership, told the board.

Danica Powell, founder of local real estate development consultancy Trestle Strategy Group, broke down the project’s community benefits, which include: a tenant relocation fund to help existing businesses on the site find new spaces, public open space within the site boundaries, improved transportation networks that facilitate travelers getting to and from Denver International Airport and service workers to and from the hotel, preferred rates and other perks for University of Colorado faculty and visiting professors, and a hospitality career-training program for CU students.

“We are so ready for the hotel to catalyze the revitalization of the Hill,” University Hill Neighborhood Association president Nancy Blackwood said. “… It’s the right thing to do, and this is the right time.”

Despite the neighborhood-benefit claims, not all neighbors are convinced that the hotel is the right fit for the Hill, a district already poised to become the home of an on-campus 250-room hotel and 25,000-square-foot conference center.

“I wouldn’t consider this proposal for one minute without having a detailed analysis of the [CU hotel and convention center] proposal by the university itself,” resident Herb Fenster said. “Virtually nothing has been said about consultation with the university.”

Shears pushed back on the notion that Nichols has been planning the Hill hotel project without input from CU.

“They’re aware of what we’re doing, and we’re aware of what they’re doing,” he said. “We will work as companions.”

Nichols representatives and leaders of the CU hotel project are planning to hold joint meetings with neighborhood groups in the near future, he said. 

Boulder resident Jim Morris said he worries that redevelopment of the Hill will drive out existing small businesses and that beloved shops and restaurants will be replaced by banks and Starbucks. 

Planning-board member John Gerstle echoed these concerns and added a note about the danger of losing important providers of services for students such as Doozy Duds, a nearly 60-year-old laundromat on the Hill. 

“Make sure we still have room for businesses that are neighborhood- and student-oriented,” he urged the developers, and “make sure that those services don’t disappear.”

The Hill isn’t just home to businesses that serve CU students, it’s home to students themselves, including those who live in the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house directly adjacent to the hotel site on University Avenue. 

Kappa house director Jewel Brooks said she’s ““very concerned that this hotel project will affect many aspects of our day-to-day lives for many years to come.”

Specifically, she cited privacy concerns related to hotel guest rooms overlooking the sorority’s private patio and sunbathing area, construction noise and dust, and increased parking competition that will force sisters to walk farther at night from their cars to the front door of the house. 

Planning-board members were skeptical of the scope of the hotel project and how such a large building will impact the aesthetic quality of the Hill. 

“Please don’t make it look like a high school,” board member Peter Vitale said. Certain aspects of the preliminary sketches “make it look kind of institutional.”

Board member Sarah Silver offered a similar critique. 

“When you come up the Hill, you’re going to be seeing a massive wall of buildings,” she said. “Maybe the community will just swallow that pill, but I think it’s going to be a major source of conflict.”

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