Major hotels moving to Colorado Springs; what does it mean for the city?

Downtown Colorado Springs continues to evolve with the southside seeing much of the growth. Two new hotels are among some new developments coming to the City of Champions.

At the intersection of Tejon and Costilla streets sits an empty lot with a bright future.

It’s going to be an eight-story Marriott hotel set to open by spring of 2021. The good news for business owners in the area is that it’s supposed to bring them some extra foot traffic.

Downtown Colorado Springs is quickly becoming the place to do business or just enjoy a meal at one of the many new restaurants.

Among some of the newest and most popular places is Denver Biscuit Company, Fat Sully’s New York Pizza, and The Atomic Cowboy. Over the past few years, owner Drew Shader has invested thousands of dollars into the location.

“South Tejon is a vibrant happening area and it’s only going to get busier with apartments, hotels and the stadium that’s moving down here so it’s a great area of Colorado Springs,” Shader said.

For a while, many believed we were in Denver’s shadow, but now Colorado Springs has become an area full of excitement.

Bob Cope with the city of Colorado Springs says a lot of the new projects will not only cater to tourists, but will also benefit residents by generating jobs.

“All of that investment is really positive, it generates a lot of return in investment for our citizens in form of jobs and economic growth by creating local tax revenue,” he said.

So what’s bringing developers to this area? Cope tells us it’s the Olympic Museum.

“The Olympic Museum is really the catalyst for most of this investment, especially in downtown Colorado Springs. It helps us on several fronts, one is tourism, which is one of our top industries,” Cope said.

The two new hotels — Hilton at Bijou and Cascade and the Marriott at Tejon and Costilla — are meant to cater to the tourists visiting our city. In return, Shader hopes to see more customers.

“Tourists are huge, the stadium is going to be big, just all the influx of traffic down here so people walking around the area, people hanging out, all of it’s just really exciting,” he said.

The city says all the upcoming projects are expected to bring about 10,000 jobs over the next 20 years.