Hotel Elegante in Colorado Springs could become 600-unit apartment complex
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Texas-based firm that specializes in converting hotels to apartment complexes has apparently targeted the Hotel Elegante as its next project.
The conference and event center is located on the south side of town near the junction of Interstate 25, Circle Drive and Lake Avenue, a short distance from The Broadmoor World Arena.
Indications are that the firm -- SHIR Capital, of Austin, Texas -- wants to purchase the hotel and get city approval for a three-year project. SHIR Capital declined to comment when contacted by KRDO NewsChannel 13 Wednesday.
The hotel currently has around 500 rooms, and the conversion to more than 600 apartments reportedly would be done in yearlong phases during which some rooms being rented weekly would become studio apartments, followed by converting remaining rooms and existing meeting space.
"I'd like to see what they do with the ballroom," said Steve Posey, the city's community development manager. "That's a huge space. How do you get windows in there?"
Construction could start before the end of the year if the project is approved, and the hotel could remain open during the first phase.
Posey said that he's excited in and curious about the plan.
"This project represents a really different and innovative approach in that it's taking a hotel and actually converting that into apartments," he said. "To my way of thinking, that's a really creative and innovative way to start increasing housing supply here in our region."
But Posey also said he wishes the planned apartment units were larger.
"We really have a need for more two- and three-bedroom apartments for some of our working families and households," he said.
The apartments are intended to be "attainable," which Posey explained could start as affordable -- below market rental prices -- unless rental costs in the city continue increasing.
Some of the hotel's amenities -- such as the swimming pool -- reportedly would continue to be used by the apartment residents, while other amenities would be converted into parking lots.
SHIR Capital is believed to own nearly 3,000 apartment units in three states and to have acquired seven hotels since 2015 for apartment conversion; it has become the real estate investment group's primary business since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
While many hotels have struggled financially during the pandemic and faced foreclosure, the Hotel Elegante is considered to be on solid financial footing and is thought to be target for apartment conversion because of the strong housing demand and growing economy in Colorado Springs.
Hotel Elegante did not return calls to KRDO-TV Wednesday for information about this report.
Posey said that converting hotels into apartments is a relatively new concept in Colorado Springs, but one that's catching on. A former hotel at the intersection of Interstate 25 and Bijou Street is being converted into condominiums.
