Boulder, CO

Aspen Hospitality and CU Boulder have announced that construction is beginning for the on-campus Limelight Hotel Boulder. The landmark conference center hotel property is slated to open in the summer of 2025. This groundbreaking is the culmination of years of collaboration among the city of Boulder, CU Boulder and numerous other stakeholders. Plans for a topping-off ceremony and celebration will be announced as construction progresses.

The project website includes renderings and FAQs, and will provide ongoing updates on construction.

As Boulder’s largest meeting and events facility of its kind, the conference center hotel has long been viewed as an important project for the community that will create economic vitality and play a key role in revitalization of the University Hill business district.

“This irreplaceable project, at the intersection of Broadway and University, will provide a cornerstone to the university’s campus and catalyze the University Hill neighborhood, becoming a landmark in the area,” Aspen Hospitality CEO Alinio Azevedo said.

“Our firm is focused on expanding the Limelight portfolio in the best locations within the best markets, and this project will reinforce the high-quality, sustainable approach to development for which the brand is known. We look forward to creating a focal point for the community, and are excited about our commitment to Boulder for generations to come.”

The Limelight Hotel Boulder will include 250 rooms, along with a ground-floor restaurant and an outdoor plaza that are both envisioned to be public gathering spots for the local community. The conference facilities offer a 15,000-square-foot ballroom, along with another 10,000 square feet of meeting space, capable of hosting everything from prominent academic and research conferences to small community gatherings, keeping local organizations from needing to leave town to host larger events.

Additionally, the city will create a fund out of the accommodations tax generated by the hotel to provide financial support for use of the conference facilities by local not-for-profit organizations and civic group uses.

“We are excited to see construction begin on a facility that has been anxiously anticipated by so many in our community for so long,” CU Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano said. “The innovation and leadership occurring in Boulder and on our campus are world-class, and the Limelight Hotel Boulder will provide a new stage for highlighting the groundbreaking work taking place in our community.”

The project will achieve a LEED Gold certification for green building construction, in line with all major construction projects on the CU Boulder campus and the aggressive, innovative sustainability goals of Aspen Hospitality. Further, the conference center hotel is designed to be powered only by electricity, reducing the carbon footprint of the facility over time as the utility grid incorporates a greater mix of renewable energy.

“The development of a conference center and hotel at CU Boulder is an important step in the revitalization of the University Hill business district in Boulder,” city of Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett said. “We appreciate our partnership with the university and Limelight Hotels in the effort. We look forward to the completion of this project and the increased vitality it will bring to the area, as well as the much needed meeting and conference space it will provide.”

Related: Limelight Hotels, CU Boulder partnering to develop on-campus conference center hotel

About Aspen Hospitality

Aspen Hospitality is a division of Aspen Skiing Company with a portfolio of owned and operated hotels and residences that currently consists of The Little Nell (Aspen’s only five-star, five-damond, ski-in/ski-out hotel) and its affiliated residences at The Little Nell, both of which are located at the base of Aspen Mountain; as well as the Limelight Hotel Aspen and Limelight Hotel Snowmass in Colorado; and the Limelight Hotel Ketchum near Sun Valley in Idaho.

Currently in development are two additional Limelight Hotels in Mammoth, California, and Boulder, Colorado, slated to open in 2024 and 2025, respectively. The company also owns and operates the ASPENX Mountain Club and the Snowmass Mountain Club.

About Limelight Hotels

Limelight Hotels are contemporary properties set in the heart of authentic mountain and urban communities. The Limelight Hotel Aspen, in downtown Aspen, Colorado, is just steps from the slopes and the downtown core. The Limelight Hotel Ketchum is situated in Ketchum, Idaho, near the base of Sun Valley’s famed ski area, Bald Mountain, and walking distance to the town’s shops and restaurants. The Limelight Hotel Snowmass in Snowmass, Colorado, is the only ski-in/ski-out property and is located adjacent to the Elk Camp Gondola with access to 3,362 acres of terrain. All Limelight properties are designed around the communities and activities where they are located.

More than 300 professors and historians on Thursday blasted University of Colorado administrators for last fall’s unceremonious firing of Patty Limerick from leadership of the Center of the American West, which she founded in 1986.

“Now, more than nine months have passed, no evidence has been revealed and it has become even clearer that the impact of the dean’s actions has been irreparable and far-reaching,” reads the letter from 306 academics, researchers and historians from across the country sent to CU leaders and Glen Krutz, who removed Limerick from her role as director of the Center of the American West soon after he was named dean of the Boulder campus’ College of Arts and Sciences. The firing led to the resignation of all five members of the center’s executive committee. “The Center of the American West is currently fading, and while it may yet be resuscitated, there will be lasting loss and damage to CU Boulder and the fields of Western history, applied history, and countless others.”

The letter comes two weeks after professor Joel Hartter announced he was stepping down as director of the Masters of the Environment graduate program, or MENV, that he developed and led at CU since 2016.

In Hartter’s letter to his advisory council, he said the MENV program has seen enrollment increase by 800%, generating $28 million in tuition. In 2021 Hartter launched the Outdoor Recreation Economy (or ORE) Program to focus on economic development, public lands policy and sustainable business. Both the MENV and ORE program have 100 professors and 15 staff members for 220 residential students and 100 online students.

“I exit the directorship with my head held high, and extremely proud of what we have accomplished together,” Hartter wrote, saying that the complexity of managing both the MENV and ORE programs “as well as the university’s expressed interest in my involvement in developing additional degree programs” led him to reject the school’s offer to continue as faculty director. “I could not in good conscience accept the contract.”

Luis Benitez, the first director of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office who served on Hartter’s advisory board and urged the creation of one of the country’s first graduate programs focused on the outdoor recreation industry, said he expects a response similar to Limerick’s sudden dismissal to swell as news of Hartter’s unexpected departure spreads.

“I am extremely disappointed in CU’s treatment of both Joel and Patty,” said Benitez, who will teach a graduate class for the MENV program this fall. “These are titans in our communities that CU has cut off at the knees. Our industry is one of family and this will not go unnoticed.”

“Limerick has navigated a workplace of toxic masculinity and rigid patriarchy”

A September 2022 report by internal auditors at CU Boulder could not find evidence to support claims that Limerick had mishandled finances at the Center of the American West, but did conclude the professor violated ethics around “prudence and integrity in the management of university resources.”

The investigation followed a complaint by a staffer of the center who took issue with Limerick’s treatment of center employees. Limerick, who remains a professor at CU Boulder, said the investigation was “clandestine” and “completely mysterious.”

“I’ve never seen such an un-transparent process,” she told The Sun in October last year. “Why take a successful program that had developed a level of trust between the university and a public that was often skeptical of the university and knock it off the rails? I have no idea why anyone would want to spend so much time and effort on derailing a successful organization.”

The letter to CU Boulder’s president, chancellor and provost said the staff complaints leveled against Limerick failed to consider that “the churn in the U.S. labor market that has been unprecedented in the midst of a global pandemic.”

The letter also pointed to “the long history of sexism” in academia.

“Many of the complaints brought against Limerick in released reports were complaints about performing tasks that men in power regularly ask staff to perform. Rightly or wrongly, Limerick’s removal as a woman in power for something men regularly do without recourse is notable,” reads the letter, which also says Limerick’s career “has been bookended by sexism and misogyny.”

“From the outset, Limerick has navigated a workplace of toxic masculinity and rigid patriarchy, one that many young women who followed her hoped she had conquered. The action of Krutz against Limerick, who is a pillar of the field, nullifies any idea of progress for women in the academy.”

The letter writers — mostly professors from schools in the West and Southwest — said the unraveling of the Center of the American West could have ramifications beyond CU “with the loss of a hub of intellectual and practical knowledge” limiting opportunities to train future leaders in applied history.

“Ultimately this story is much broader than Limerick, the Center of the American West, or CU Boulder,” the letter reads. “It reflects a dangerous national trend of rash administrative decision making that is hollowing academic and university programs.”

A modular home is a prefabricated building fully constructed and finished in a factory and then delivered to its location. The modules can be either a standalone unit or placed side-by-side, end-to-end, or stacked, allowing for a variety of configurations and styles. The Affordable Housing Modular Factory will be a 31,375 square foot metal building which houses assembly stations to construct modular homes. The purpose of the facility is to produce much needed affordable housing for Boulder Valley residents and workers while providing workforce training for BVSD students.

In 2017, the City of Boulder purchased the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park as part of the Ponderosa Community Stabilization Project which aims to minimize displacement, preserve long-term affordability, replace outdated infrastructure, reduce flood risk to the community and introduce new energy-efficient affordable housing options.

The existing manufactured homes at Ponderosa are old and in need of replacement. New modular homes produced through the Affordable Housing Modular Factory partnership would be healthy, are energy efficient, allow residents to build wealth and will be permanently affordable to extremely low-, low-, moderate-, and middle-income households. The factory is earmarked to build up to 73 new homes for Ponderosa residents in its first years.

The creation of a modular factory in Boulder is proposed through a partnership of the City of Boulder, Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) and Flatirons Habitat for Humanity (FHFH).

Environmental Assessment and Public Notice

The Environmental Assessment for the Modular Factory has been updated. A Combined Public Notice was published on April 28, 2023, in the Daily Camera.

This notice invited any individual, group, or agency wishing to comment on the project to submit written comments to the City of Boulder for a 30-day comment period.

The City’s response to comments received is available here.

Timeline

About the Affordable Housing Modular Factory

While the factory has the capacity to build up to 50 homes each year to help achieve city and regional housing goals, in the first years, the Affordable Housing Modular Factory is expected to produce 12 to 15 homes per year.

The modular homes will be built primarily by volunteers, similar to a traditional Habitat for Humanity build. The factory will be 250 long by 125 feet wide and 36 feet tall and will house nine assembly stations.

All construction materials will be stored along the periphery of the building and scaffolding will be placed strategically to provide ease of worker access.

Where will the Affordable Housing Modular Factory be located?

The proposed location of the factory is the Boulder Valley School District campus at 6500 Arapahoe Rd.

Nestled in a rustic and lush shopping center, a small coffee shop on Saturday celebrated its 21st anniversary. Its owner stood beside the counter, talking to patrons while baristas smiled and greeted customers by name. Customers bustled in and out of the cozy shop, grabbing their discounted drinks and standing outside to read signs posted on the windows.

For many, it was a bittersweet day. Logan’s Espresso Cafe, a staple in the north Boulder area, will be forced to leave its longtime location at the end of the year, perhaps closing for good.

Logan Patterson, who risked his savings to open the cafe in 2002, planned to retire this year and hand off ownership to a long-time employee, Emily Kryska. Patterson, 73, was ready for relaxation when his landlord told him in April that his lease would not be renewed.

“The first time he told me, I just turned around and walked away from him; I didn’t say a word,” Patterson said, recalling the first of multiple meetings with his landlords. “I am totally devastated; I have worked so hard, and I continue to work. It’s just the most bizarre thing.”

The cafe at 3980 Broadway sits at the end of a building in Hillside Shops, owned by John Konidaris, also known as John Conis. Patterson and other tenants said the landlord already had a notorious reputation before this year for not renewing the lease of the popular Mexican restaurant Cilantro in March and forcing it to relocate.

Tenants said Konidaris routinely contracts one-year leases, which he said introduces instability and generates chaos.

Additionally, Konidaris has had conflicts with his neighbor, the Nomad Playhouse, which is owned by Tara High School and shares a parking lot with the shopping center. In 2015, Konidaris booted multiple audience members’ cars in an apparent turf war, leading to community outrage.

“He’s always had a terrible reputation since I moved in. I just never thought it’d come back to haunt me,” Patterson said.

Konidaris did not comment when reached by phone.

Since the initial conversation in April, Patterson said he and Konidaris have had a few conversations and spats, but Patterson says he still has no idea why Konidaris is kicking him out now, especially after giving multiple conflicting reasons. Patterson said Konidaris told him that Patterson was no longer able to afford the rent. But later in the conversation, Konidaris told Patterson the cafe had been too successful and was filling up the parking spots shared with Lucky’s Market.

While Patterson said he offered to renegotiate the lease agreement and reported that most of his customers walk to his shop from the surrounding neighborhood, Konidaris stuck to his decision to terminate the lease in January 2024.

“A coffee shop is more than just coffee,” said Kryska, who was set to inherit the cafe after working there for 13 years. “Our neighborhood deserves us.”

Patterson is still fighting to keep the cafe alive. In July, he started a petition for community members to sign, hoping the public outrage would convince Konidaris to let him stay. Similar actions had worked in the past, with Konidaris reportedly abandoning his car booting habits shortly after the Nomad incidents gathered attention.

The petition, which currently has more than 3,000 signatures, is posted on the cafe’s windows, where customers can read what others have written about the beloved hotspot. At the cafe’s 21st anniversary event on Saturday, customers gathered and talked with Patterson and each other about the upcoming loss to the neighborhood. Some even traveled from outside of Boulder, having heard about the issue online.

“We love this place. It’s the only place where kids can play; this is kinda a dream for parents,” said customer Ava Asher, who is among the many parents who drink coffee while their kids run around the patio and stairs next to the cafe.

Added customer Nadav Enbar, “This guy is the greatest thing that’s happened to this neighborhood,. I’ve been coming here for 10 years. He’s the glue to this community.”

Though the community outpour of support has been great, Konidaris has not retracted his decision. On Monday, customers and neighbors told Patterson they watched as Konidaris posted bright red “For Lease” signs on the windows of the cafe, even covering up the petition comments for a period of time.

For Patterson, this means there is little hope of keeping the cafe in the area. By his estimates, it would take around $300,000 to move to another location, something he says he is not willing to do at this point in his career.

“It’s a neighborhood treasure. People love me. They love my shop,” Patterson said. “I’m just heartbroken, I’ve watched so many kids grow up here.”

Barring any developments, the cafe plans to remain open until December. Patterson said he will take the remaining month on the lease to move his things out, leaving behind the handcrafted architecture that became the property of Konidaris the second it was installed into the walls.

Community members continue to reach out to Patterson and his staff with condolences and support as that time draws nearer.

“It’s become bigger than me,” Patterson said. “It’s kind of symbolic of what Boulder and what everyone in the country doesn’t want to see happening to this country where small businesses are just getting destroyed and taken away.”

Purchase represents significant step toward improved safety for first responders and a positive contribution to community climate goals.

The City of Boulder is excited to announce that Boulder Fire-Rescue has purchased a Rosenbauer RTX fire engine, the first electric vehicle of its kind in Colorado.

The new fire engine will have many state-of-the-art features that better support firefighters, our community, and the environment. The RTX is considered a Range Extended Electric Vehicle (REEV), meaning it has an all-electric drivetrain and pump with a diesel energy backup system. This new technology will allow the city to fight fires while safeguarding air quality and reducing climate-warming emissions.

The purchase also represents a broader movement to go electric that goes beyond personal vehicles to include larger, more powerful machines, including emergency vehicles that must be reliable and able to perform under challenging conditions.

“This is a tremendous step forward for our community and yet another example of Boulder’s leadership in addressing climate change,” said City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde. “We’re proud to be an early adopter of new technology that makes emergency response both safer and environmentally friendly. The collaboration among departments – Fire-Rescue, Fleet & Facilities, and Climate Initiatives – has been exceptional and is an example of how we can address today’s challenges when we work together.”

The electric engine not only helps advance Boulder's mission to address climate change, but also presents an opportunity to better serve the needs of an increasingly diverse firefighting workforce. The RTX engine was created with the primary goal of improving occupational safety for all firefighters. Improvements include an adjustable suspension that offers lower equipment and cab access heights, all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering for increased maneuverability on the road, an ergonomically designed cab space, reduced exposure to carcinogenic fumes, and a significant reduction in operational noise.

“Boulder Fire-Rescue has been very intentional and thorough in the process of researching and developing a plan for this engine,” said Travis Richen, administrative battalion chief. “We’ve ensured that the equipment will be dependable and capable while also developing a better understanding about all the safety benefits the engine offers. This purchase gives us an amazing chance to shape the next generation of fire apparatus.”

Boulder anticipates delivery of this engine late 2024 to early 2025, though the actual timeline may vary slightly, and will be determined as the build-out progresses. During this time, Boulder Fire-Rescue firefighters and Rosenbauer will work together closely to ensure that the new engine meets the needs of Boulder firefighters and the community they serve. The estimated cost of this engine is currently at approximately 1.78 million. The money has been saved up over time from the department’s budget to replace the fleet as necessary. Nearly all of Boulder Fire-Rescue’s budget is from the General Fund, made possible through sales and use tax collections.

“I care deeply about the safety and well-being of our firefighters, and I’m excited about the next steps we are taking to better support them, while also helping achieve several city goals,” said Boulder Fire-Rescue Chief Michael Calderazzo. “This option is a win-win.”

For more information about Rosenbauer's RTX, visit https://rosenbaueramerica.com/rosenbauer-revolutionary-technology/

About Rosenbauer America: Rosenbauer is the world's leading manufacturer of firefighting vehicles and equipment. Rosenbauer America incorporates global strengths and innovation to provide the largest and most technologically advanced line of custom and commercial pumpers, rescues, tankers, aerials, and the all-new Revolutionary Technology (RTX) electric fire truck. Visit the company's website for more information at www.rosenbaueramerica.com

Keep Reading