CBRE Brokers Sale of Ownership Stake in Hotel Born Adjacent Union Station in Denver’s Lower Downtown District

CBRE announced that it arranged the sale of partial ownership of the Hotel Born in downtown Denver to Aspen Hospitality, the hospitality division of Aspen Skiing Company and owners of The Little Nell and Limelight hotel brands. The Hotel Born will be converted to Aspen Hospitality’s Limelight brand later this year.

Rick Rush and Carter Gradwell of CBRE Hotels’ Institutional Group represented Continuum Partners in the sale. The Denver-based company originally developed the hotel and will maintain an ownership interest.

First opened in 2017, the luxury hotel has 200 guestrooms, including 23 suites, 14,000 sq. ft. of Class-A meeting space and the Citizen Rail restaurant. All areas will be reimagined as part of the conversion to the Limelight brand.

The hotel is located at 1600 Wewatta Street, adjacent Union Station, which is downtown Denver’s primary transit hub providing light rail and bus service across the metro area in addition to direct service to and from Denver International Airport. The neighborhood surrounding Union Station is a vibrant mixed-use district home to some of Denver’s highest-quality office buildings, hotel demand generators, 23,000 residences, upscale shopping and restaurants.

Continuum Partners, co-master developer of Denver’s Union Station, has retained its exclusive ownership of the adjacent mixed-use property, Block A, which includes an office building, two leased retail spaces and two restaurants—Tavernetta and Sunday Vinyl.

In addition to Limelight Denver, Aspen Hospitality is planning to expand the Limelight brand to Boulder and Mammoth, California (both of which are under construction), joining existing Limelight-branded hotels in Aspen, Snowmass and Ketchum.

“Aspen Hospitality and their Limelight brand was an exceptional match for the Born. Both Continuum and Aspen Hospitality were fully aligned in the long-term vision for the asset, and the two groups were perfectly matched from a relationship perspective,” said Rush, executive vice president, CBRE.