Ritz puts on finishing touches

First 5-star hotel in Denver opens week from today

By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 4, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photos By Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

Fresh flowers are one of the many perks in the new Ritz-Carlton scheduled to open Jan. 11 in downtown Denver.

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A bathtub awaits its first client in a guest room at the Ritz-Carlton. It is being called Denver's first five-star hotel.

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An elegant chandelier made from handblown glass hangs above the grand stairway near the Ritz-Carlton's main lobby.

It's the home stretch for the $75 million Ritz-Carlton Denver, which opens its doors a week from today.

There's art yet to be hung, flat-screen TVs to be wired, phones to be tested and beds to be made at 1881 Curtis St., in what's being proclaimed as Denver's first five-star hotel.

A trio of Denver businessmen, Charlie Biederman, Steve Roitman and Jim Cobb, unveiled plans for the hotel in March 2006, after buying the former Embassy Suites on the site.

The Ritz will have 202 hotel rooms, 47 of them suites. In addition, there will be about two dozen luxury condominiums - The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Denver - priced from about $800,000 to $4 million. The residences will be completed later this year.

On Thursday, about 50 trainers from Ritz-Carlton hotels from around the world were in the midst of an intensive 10-day training program for the 315 employees.

Another 30 people are still to be hired, many of them for the Elway's restaurant on the ground floor. John Elway, a former Broncos quarterback, is expected to be on hand for the opening of his namesake restaurant, the second after the popular Cherry Creek Elway's, which opened in 2004.

"We're not totally sold out for our opening on Jan. 11, but a large number of our rooms are spoken for," said general manager R. Michael King. "I would say about 50 percent of them are from the Denver area, while others are flying in from around the country."

King said the Ritz is booked solid for the Democratic National Convention this August. The hoteliers are in the dark about whom the guests will be, having been told only by the DNC that it will not house state delegates there.

Denver finally has arrived as a destination for business travelers who want a five-star experience, King said.

"Let's say you're bringing all of your middle managers together, and you've been to Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and Dallas," King said.

"Denver is now in the mix and is still affordable compared to a lot of other markets," he added.

During the past few days, about a half-dozen people have come in and tried to book a room, said Shannon Gilbert, director of sales and marketing for the hotel.

"We hope the visiting public enjoys the hotel as much as we did developing it," developer Biederman said Thursday. "We tried our best to bring a new level of luxury to Denver."

Typically, Gilbert said, Ritz likes its hotels to be built from the ground up, although some renovations have been spectacular.

"Our Georgetown hotel in Washington, D.C., was formerly an incinerator, and is now an amazing hotel," she said. "We liked this location. We love the market, and the timing was right."

Doug Jones of Jones Realty, who was a partner with Biederman, Roitman and Cobb on the J.W. Marriott in Cherry Creek, said he thinks the Ritz-Carlton will have a hold on the five-star market in downtown for "a couple of years," until the Four Seasons opens at 14th and Arapahoe streets.

By then, he thinks, the top-end luxury market in downtown will have grown, and there will be room for both.

Hotel consultant John Montgomery toured the Ritz-Carlton a few weeks ago with Biederman.

"Isn't it wonderful? It really offers something new and different in this marketplace," said Montgomery of Horwath Horizon Hospitality Advisors. He also is president of Montgomery & Associates.

"Anytime you do a conversion, you wonder if it is going to turn out," Montgomery said. "In this case, they did an extraordinary job of taking a good hotel, the Embassy Suites, and turning it into a true Ritz."

Montgomery he thinks the potential exists for the Ritz quickly to hit an average room rate that will "well-exceed $300 a night." By comparison, through November, the average hotel room rate in downtown was $125.

Montgomery said he thinks people used to traveling in other cities won't suffer sticker shock when booking a room at the Ritz, although local people may find the room rates unbelievably high.

"I remember, not too many years ago, when the average room rate topped $100," Montgomery said. "Some people said, 'What is this, the Ritz?' "

rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5207

What's in a five-star hotel

The Ritz-Carlton Denver opens Jan. 11.

* Address: 1881 Curtis St.

* Rooms: 155 plus 47 suites.

* Developers of the $75 million hotel, formerly an Embassy Suites: Charlie Biederman, Steve Roitman and Jim Cobb.

* Condo component: Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Denver, priced from about $800,000, will open later this year.

* Restaurant: Elway's, which seats 175 and has a raw bar. Banquets and special events will feature "synchronized service" where waiters put the plates down in front of diners with military precision.

* Weekday room rate price range: $349 average room rate to $3,000 for 3,000-square-foot Ritz-Carlton Suite. Rooms average 510 square feet, touted as the biggest in Denver.

* If you really want to spend money: A silver SL 650 and GL Mercedes-Benz are available to guests. Rates start at $449 a day, but you get unlimited mileage.

* Inflation hedge: Actual gold is put in the paint in the ballroom ceiling. The gold paint costs $200 a gallon.

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