Greeley City Council to consider delaying collection of Hilton-DoubleTree redevelopment payment

Editor’s note: a previous version of this story incorrectly referred to the $212,242 payment as a property tax payment. The hotel has paid its property tax this year but is asking for a deferral to revenue that would be paid to the city generated by an increase in the property’s value. BizWest regrets the error.

GREELEY — The Greeley City Council will discuss whether to give the DoubleTree by Hilton-branded hotel near Lincoln Park a deferral on its $212,242 payment to the city as part of the hotel’s redevelopment agreement.

According to its agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, the 147-room hotel and conference center at 919 Seventh St. has had significantly lower revenue this year due to the ongoing pandemic and “severely limited” its ability to service its debt to the city.

The hotel’s conference center was partially financed by city dollars in a 2016 agreement, where the hotel’s ownership group would repay through 2033 via a combination of property-tax increments and other revenue sources.

The hotel is asking the city to defer collecting the $212,242 payment due in 2021, which would be repaid by the 2033 deadline under a different payment plan. The city already approved a request to defer the hotel’s redevelopment payment earlier this year.

Greeley Downtown Development Authority executive director Bianca Fisher told BizWest that the deferment will give the hotel all of the revenue generated from the tax-increment financing agreement for the property for the year rather than splitting those revenues between it and the city under normal circumstances. The idea is to grant additional time for the hotel to return to normal revenues before requiring it to pay back what’s owed.

The hotel is part-owned by an investment group of 13 local residents, including Mineral Resources Inc. president Arlo Richardson, Ghent Chevrolet owner Bob Ghent and Ehrlich Toyota owner Scott Ehrlich.

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