Breaking New Ground: The Story of Stonebridge Companies

BREAKING NEW GROUND THE STORY OF STONEBRIDGE COMPANIES

BREAKING NEW GROUND

THE STORY OF STONEBRIDGE COMPANIES

The Residence Inn Seattle is designed for extended stay with apartment-style suites, fully equipped kitchens, all in an urban downtown environment. In the lobby is cold craft beer and local cuisine.

OF STONEBRIDGE COMPANIES

BREAKING NEW GROUND THE STORY

Copyright ® 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Stonebridge Companies.

4949 S. Niagara Street • Suite 300 Denver, Colorado 80237 sbcos.com

Writer Stacy Moser

Editor

Rob Levin

Designer

Rick Korab

Project Manager Jason Gaede

Production

Renée Peyton

Copyediting Bob Land

The Moxy Seattle Downtown – South Lake Union Hotel is in the neighborhood of the same name. A great hotel and also a destination for locals for dining, meetings, and other activities. Want something to explore outside the hotel? The Center for Wooden Boats is nearby.

FOREWORD

Page IX

CHAPTER ONE

The Accidental Hotelier

1991–2010

Page 1

CHAPTER TWO

Embracing Opportunity

2011–2016

Page 17

CHAPTER THREE

Stonebridge Today—

Creating a Legacy

2017–2021

Page 31

STONEBRIDGE COMPANIES HONORS AND AWARDS

Page 43

TIMELINE Page 44

STONEBRIDGE PROPERTIES THROUGH THE YEARS

Page 46

At the Denver Tech Center is Stonebridge’s DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. Situated next to I-25, it is perfect for corporate functions (including twenty-one meeting rooms) and is near Merrill Lynch and PepsiCo. Indoor and outdoor pools are on the premises and the light rail station is only a few minutes away.

The journey from Colchester to Colorado was decades in the making, from the English town of the boarding school i attended to the mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountain West. To say it was a difficult climb would be an understatement, but every step of the way was a valuable learning experience, and every new property—from the humble Bronco inn to top-tier properties on both coasts and in Alaska—presented its own challenges.

You don’t hang a “Welcome” sign in front of over 15,000 hotel rooms across America without accumulating a wealth of real estate knowledge, especially as it pertains to the hospitality industry. And i learned hard lessons as well. As a college professor at the University of Denver once wrote, much of life is “learning that the perfect plan can fail, the unsinkable ship can go down.”

But mostly i learned that you can’t go it alone. if there were mistakes, i own them. But the victories—those glorious times when everything falls into place—are the results of a team effort, the combined work of some of the best hoteliers in the world who choose to be with Stonebridge Companies and i’m honored to call them friends and colleagues.

There is no better comfort than knowing that your name is well represented in every “hello” spoken to every new face that approaches hundreds of guest registration desks every day, that each impeccably clean room is a sign of appreciation, that every problem finds a quick solution because of our dedicated teams. Comfort for me is knowing that guests feel right at home each time they return to our lodging at the end of a day, whether it was a busy workday or a fun day with their families. That this is accomplished seamlessly, so much of it never seen but by a few people, is the mark of professionals.

but enhanced. The same can be said of the banks and individuals who, time and again, have put down cash to see brick and mortar go up. it’s more than a monetary return on investment—it’s knowing that the Stonebridge Companies team will perform beyond market expectations. They are all equally valuable members of the Stonebridge team. Without these investors, the banks, and the hotel companies, the nationwide footprint of our company would be infinitely smaller.

And of course, there would be nothing without our guests. As i say near the beginning of our story in this book, “Our guests who stay with us each night—without them, we have no purpose.” We are humbled and honored with each reservation and we hope we have served them all exceptionally well, from check-in to check-out, from a late-night dinner to morning coffee. At Stonebridge, guests are not just heads in beds—they are guests in our homes and our team strives to ensure they always feel that way.

Navin Dimond Chairman Stonebridge Companies

But the greatest comfort over the last thirty years, the one steadying force that has been with me at each step, has been my wife, Rita. if i was hands-on, she was all in; if i had high expectations, hers were in another orbit. if i had knowledge, she had the greater value of wisdom. Stonebridge Companies success today is as much a tribute to her resolve, energy, dedication, and talents as any other factor in three decades. And now knowing that our two talented daughters, Ashley (who recently joined our team) and Sonja, are in the process of making their own marks in the industry is a tribute to us that we both cherish.

Welcome to our Stonebridge hotel. We hope you stay a while.

Equally valuable to Stonebridge’s success are the wonderful partners from the world’s marquis brand names in the hotel industry who trust us to ensure that their reputations are not only protected,

Navin Dimond Chairman and CEO

The Jaquard Hotel & Rooftop in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood redefined hospitality, not only in Denver but throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Located in a neighborhood known for fashion, art, and business, this Stonebridge property fit right in. On the top is the rooftop pool bar and below are rooms with custom-design furnishings and curated art.

The Accidental Hotelier

On a recent winter morning, Navin Dimond pulled his car into the parking garage of Stonebridge Companies’ Denver, Colorado, headquarters. He boarded the elevator to the building’s third floor and, as he made his way past the sleek, modern furnishings of the lobby, he entered his office, taking in the panoramic view of the snow-dusted Rocky Mountains. He felt a justifiable sense of pride for what he and his wife, Rita, had achieved, and he thought about the long journey to this place from his childhood home in London.

As the son of immigrant, blue-collar workers, Navin never imagined what now surrounded him—Stonebridge Companies—which owns and operates a broad portfolio of hotels throughout the United States.

Navin’s parents had emigrated to Britain from india, and he witnessed the value of their hard work from a young age. Navin acknowledges the examples his parents set for him, inspiring him to pursue his goals with passion, honesty, and integrity. “i never had a mentor per se. The people i looked up to—and it wasn’t even in an explicit way, but more of an intrinsic way—were my parents. i saw my father wake up really early every morning and go to bed late, working with his hands, working truly hard. That’s what inspired me. That has always been inside me.”

Recognizing the importance of proper education, Navin’s parents made great sacrifices to send him to a quality boarding school and it was at their insistence that Navin was the first in his family to pursue a higher education, confident that it was the key to realizing his potential.

“Our guests who stay with us each night—without them, we have no purpose.”

—Navin Dimond, CEO

Navin and Rita Dimond, with Gary Rohr, in 1997. Rohr worked with Navin at Simcore, which led to he and his wife, Beth, becoming early partners in Stonebridge.

WOW, thirty years! As a franchise rep for Marriott, I did one of my very first deals with Navin in the early 1990s and have been working with him ever since. Looking back over these years and the three lodging cycles in between, I can say that through Navin’s leadership, Stonebridge has emerged from each one a much stronger company. For any company to achieve thirty years of history is remarkable and I am proud to have been associated with Stonebridge since the beginning.

Bill Fortier Sr., VP of Development Americas Hilton Worldwide

Discovering Denver

After graduating from Copford College, a boarding school in Colchester, England, Navin enrolled at Washington State University, earning a bachelor’s degrees in both construction management and business administration in 1985. On a road trip afterward to visit his parents, then living in Texas, Navin stopped in Colorado to visit his close friend, Mark Sidell, a graduate student at the University of Denver. Explaining to Mark that he was eager to settle down and secure employment, his friend encouraged him to enroll in DU’s MBA program. As a bonus, Navin would earn a break on his tuition as a paid teaching assistant, a position he enjoyed and that enabled him to work with older Executive MBA students.

Fifteen months later, Navin graduated with an MBA with an emphasis in real estate and construction management. He was hired as an intern by the City and County of Denver to set up its office of asset management, his largest assignment being to help to acquire the land for Denver’s new Colorado Convention Center. A 1988 letter from Mayor Federico Peña thanked Navin for his tenacity and commitment in assisting with that accomplishment.

Eager for a new opportunity, Navin transitioned from government work to a position at Simcore Properties, brokering commercial real-estate deals and managing properties.

Major changes occurred in Navin’s personal life during this time, too, when family members introduced him to his future wife, Rita. They dated for a year and were married in Wichita, Kansas, in 1987.

A Dream Partnership

As Navin honed his abilities as a broker at Simcore, his business acumen impressed an important client, Wendell Lew, a Hawaii-based investor— and the two men became good friends. in 1991, during negotiations to purchase the Northridge Shopping Center in Arvada, Lew expressed confidence that Navin not only should participate as a broker of the deal, but also as a co-investor and manager of the property. Navin hesitated at first—putting money on the table was a giant step from simply brokering the transaction. But Lew was insistent, pointing out the many advantages to being an investor in real estate.

Navin and Rita warmed to the idea, scraping together the funds to join Lew as owners of the shopping center. Rita left her job at National

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in 1992, Rita and Navin took on a project that would prove pivotal to their careers. The purchase of the dilapidated Bronco inn required that the couple take on the hotel’s daily management in addition to their other responsibilities within Stonebridge.

Rita relied on her background helping her parents run motels while growing up in California and Kansas. “My sister and i learned everything about the hotel business then, because my dad had us do the housekeeping, the laundry, clean the pool three times a day, sweep the parking lot. That was before Excel software was around, so we had a ledger of expenses and another ledger with guests’ names—my dad liked ledgers. We learned our work ethic from my parents.” Years later, that hands-on experience paid off handsomely as Rita and Navin successfully navigated operations at the Bronco inn.

The Bronco inn’s existing restaurant was sold to Applebee’s, which demolished it and built a new store, providing funds for a significant refurbishment as the couple rebranded the property to a Ramada Limited hotel. Their learning curve was steep, but ultimately the venture proved successful. Rita looks back on those times fondly, saying, “i love working hard and seeing the rewards for people who count on us to make it a success. it’s a lot of responsibility, but it’s also fun.”

The Bronco Inn / Opened January 1993

THE ACCIDENTAL HOTEL

I started working with Navin in 1996 and while I have seen his company grow, I feel like I have grown right alongside him, professionally and personally. I think our back and forth, challenging each other to think bigger and broader, has made us both better business leaders.

Eric B. Jacobs, Chief Development Officer, International Growth Marriott

tions of strength and progress, appealed to the young entrepreneurs and they chose to do business as Stonebridge Companies.

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City Bank and took over management of the large property, working from a home office. Her former manager at National City, Anthony Pizzichini, recalls her departure: “One day, my very talented and highly efficient assistant informed me that she and her husband were going into the real estate business. i was sad but, little did i know, i would gain one of the highest-quality customers it has been my privilege to work with.”

Rita explains that while Navin kept up with his responsibilities at Simcore, the two of them worked together to master the intricacies of property management. After leaving National City Bank, Rita earned her real estate license and broker’s license. “Navin was right by my side. We were just beginning—it was a new venture for us. it was fun,” Rita remembers. The couple found the work not only profitable, but rewarding as well, and they incorporated under the name Stonebridge Realty Advisors, inc., in 1991. The name Stonebridge, with its connota-

in the following year, Navin and trusted colleague Gary Rohr left their positions at Simcore, allowing Gary and his wife, Beth, to formalize their partnership with the Dimonds in the newly formed Stonebridge Companies. Opportunity knocked again in the form of an investment in a modest 140-room hotel and restaurant that had been foreclosed upon in Northglenn, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. A longstanding local landmark, the Bronco inn, was badly in need of restoration, and Commercial Federal Bank, which then owned it (acquired via foreclosure), expressed confidence that the Stonebridge partners could take the asset over and breathe new life into it. Navin describes his attitude about possibly acquiring the hotel: “Our initial reaction was that it wasn’t really our thing. We were intrigued, but not really sure what we were dealing with.” The bank sweetened the deal by offering to finance 75 percent of the price—$1.55 million—asking that Stonebridge raise the rest. After Navin, Rita, and other family members invested in the project, the Bronco inn joined the small Stonebridge portfolio on January 8, 1993. No one could imagine then how the nondescript property, located far from Denver’s downtown, would become the launching pad for increasingly ambitious and worldclass hospitality projects across the United States.

An Intriguing Business

When asked about his path to success as a hotel owner and developer, Navin explains this was never his intended pursuit. But with the

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L-R Jerry Arndt, Stonebridge Companies, project manager; Sonja Dimond (age 9); Gerry Zeek, owner, Ironwood Construction/General Contractor, project superintendent, Ironwood Construction.

in 1996, fresh off the success of many hotel openings, Navin’s mind turned to new markets that could provide Stonebridge with unique investment opportunities. Memories of an Alaskan vacation that he and Rita had enjoyed years before spurred his decision to explore building a hotel there. He remembers justifying the idea: “i said, ‘if we can do it in Alaska, we can do it anywhere.’”

Mark Lionberger, Stonebridge’s director of development at the time, led the effort to construct the brand-new Hampton inn Anchorage/ Midtown, which opened in 1997. The challenges of building this 101-room hotel in that remote location proved daunting, but Lionberger explains that the key to overcoming them was procuring supplies before they were needed. “in Alaska, there’s very little native production in terms of industry. So almost all materials come from elsewhere in one of three ways: slow boat, fast boat, and air. And each is increasingly expensive. if you order with plenty of lead time, you can go

the less-expensive route by boat. But if you’re in a time crunch, materials must come by air, which becomes expensive pretty quickly.”

The crew also contended with extremely porous soils on site, requiring that the hotel’s footprint be replaced with a solid-rock foundation. The cold weather and short days were expected, and so were the challenges. in all, though, the project went smoothly and was lucrative from the start. “That hotel has always done well, it was a rock star since the day we opened,” Lionberger says.

Hampton Inn Anchorage/Midtown / Opened October 1997

acquisition of the Bronco inn, Navin and Rita found themselves at a career-defining fork in the road. They embraced a hands-on management role at the property as they completely refurbished it, rebranding it as a Ramada Limited hotel.

Rita recalls the day they closed on the property. “i think there was a rumor going around that we were going to let go of some staff and a lot of the housekeepers had left, so i started making up the rooms myself. i grew up in the hotel business, so i knew about the very long days—it was tough work balancing housekeeping and the front desk—physically and mentally. Ashley was a newborn and it was hard to juggle everything. Those times make me look back and say, ‘That

challenge is what made me who i am today.’”

She describes the family’s first Christmas at the Bronco inn, when she brought in a take-out dinner from a local restaurant for the hotel staff, inviting their families to join the celebration. “it was just so cool being in our hotel, serving everyone dinner. We didn’t have much in the way of financial resources back then, so that was very satisfying.”

Also rewarding was their discovery that the venture was more profitable than they imagined it would be, and its potential as an income stream became apparent—a turning point in the life of the company.

As Stonebridge sought new opportunities, they became increasingly aware that a more strategic approach to finding properties and potential investors was necessary. Building on Stonebridge’s growing reputation in Denver’s business community, they began to seek out properties with unrealized potential, gaining investors’ confidence in their ability to find great properties that others had overlooked.

For years, the Rifkin family has considered Stonebridge to be a trusted partner. The COVID pandemic, though, brought into focus just how much we trust and value Navin and his company. We knew the hospitality industry was going to have its roughest time ever but we also had faith in our partner. Stonebridge was thinking ahead, they were ready to answer any question, and the regular information flow was excellent. But also, we already had confidence because we knew this group. The depth and discipline in the organization, starting with Navin, is best of class. Our hotel investments did very well in good times and they have come back, each and every one, intact and ready to perform.

Monty Rifkin, Founder Rifkin & Associates

in 1994, Stonebridge was approached by city officials in Delta, Colorado, about building a hotel. in yet another turning point for the company, Stonebridge agreed to develop its hotel from the ground up, a Comfort inn in Delta, completing the work in the span of less than four months. “From a return standpoint,” Navin explains, “we did well. Our investors were very happy, and we thought: ‘Wow, this is interesting.’ We were gaining some traction. it felt intriguing, this hotel business.”

Rita hit the ground running with every hotel acquisition or development, often with Ashley in tow. “We bought a Super 8 in Longmont

An Investor nnn Insight

We have invested with Stonebridge both through our LLC and individually. It has been an exciting and gratifying experience. We have lived through the good times and a pandemic and cannot say enough about how Navin and his team have operated during both periods. Navin and his associates always live up to what they present to us. The good times have been somewhat easy and their performance during the pandemic has been outstanding. Our experience has been more than acceptable. Navin and his team have always been informative as to the operations and have done an admirable job in protecting the investments.

Dick and Eddie Robinson

in 1994, and i needed to learn their front desk check-in system, so i took her along. That’s just the way it was. Navin would build the hotel and i would go in a week or two before it was ready to open to make sure the rooms looked perfect and the staff was ready. Then i would leave,” she says. “i remember the day when i turned thirty, we were opening up our newest hotel [a Hampton inn in Louisville, CO] and we spent the day prepping rooms so we could open. The whole idea is to open as quickly as you can, so you can rent those rooms.”

Ashley Dimond says her mother’s birthday that year was one of her first memories of the Stonebridge office. “My dad brought a cake and the three of us and my dad’s assistant, Linda, celebrated with Gary and Beth. That’s definitely my first office memory. i played with Linda’s cat

all the time. From the time i was four or five, if i wasn’t at school, i was at the office—that was our family.”

After opening two more hotels in Fruita and Aurora, Colorado, Stonebridge achieved another milestone in 1995—the company was approved for ownership of its first Marriott-franchise hotel—the Fairfield i nn Highlands Ranch. The “accidental hotelier” was now poised to proactively grow the company in a way that was previously unimagined.

With ten hotels operating under the Stonebridge banner, Navin turned to Joan Kirk, a seasoned professional with broad experience in the hospitality industry, for assistance with navigating the company’s next steps. Kirk joined his corporate team in 1996 as senior vice president of hotel operations. Now there were six staff members employed at Stonebridge, including technical personnel and a director of human resources. A rapid transformation had taken place—Stonebridge was no longer simply a promising development and property-management company; it was becoming a larger full-service hotel company, forging its own unique culture and mission.

The Alaskan Frontier

A new business adventure was undertaken in 1997, when the company made a bold move to develop hotels in the far-away market of Alaska, building a brand-new Hampton inn in Anchorage. Less than a year before that, the company had opened six properties closer to home in Colorado. But Navin underscored the importance of Stonebridge’s

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Stonebridge broke ground on an exciting new hospitality concept in 2007—a large, multi-use development, dubbed CitySet, that combined two hotels, one a Marriott, the other a Hilton, and—nestled in between the two hotels—a number of restaurants and retail uses, all on the same block.

To start the project, the Stonebridge team acquired an aging hotel, along with the large parcel of land surrounding it, in Denver’s chic Cherry Creek neighborhood, transforming it into the Hilton Garden inn Cherry Creek, which opened its doors in 2009. Eric Hautzenrader, the general manager of the hotel, remarks, “Mr. Dimond is extremely strategic about what flag is flying on each hotel in Stonebridge’s portfolio. He does a very good job of deciding what’s needed in the market, working closely with hotel brands to find what’s going to work, given the market conditions.” in fact, this Hilton Garden inn won Hilton’s Best Conversion Award in 2010.

The company later broke ground on a brand-new hotel next door, the Marriott Residence inn Denver Cherry Creek, which opened in 2013, then it constructed the “gastronomic urban village” dining and retail spaces. Hautzenrader explains: “CitySet is a neat feature for us. its restaurants complement what we do here at the Hilton Garden inn, rather than being competition. We have that automatic relationship built in with these restaurants and the community. it’s been a fantastic advantage for us in what we’re able to offer our guests.” CitySet won the international Council of Shopping Centers’ US Design & Development: New Development Award in 2014.

CitySet / Hilton Garden Inn Cherry Creek / Opened December 2009

Residence Inn Denver Cherry Creek / Opened February 2013

GASTRONOMIC URBAN VILLAGE

When you go to the Colorado mountain town named by Rand McNally and USA Today as the Most Fun Town in America, Stonebridge decided to build a hotel to match it. The All Suite Residence Inn Glenwood Springs offers amazing views on the outside and fully equipped kitchen apartments (newly renovated) on the inside, along with meeting spaces. Nearby are the famous hot springs, caverns, and Sunlight Mountain Resort.

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success at the new Alaska property, saying, “We proved that geography was not a limit,” contrary to an article that had appeared about him in the Rocky Mountain News.

Years later, when Navin and Rita visited one of their Alaska properties, their young daughter Sonja, who was born in 1997, was along for the trip. “i was really young, but i do remember a moose walking through the automatic doors into the lobby. it was insane! My parents always wanted to expose me and my sister to unique places, to see how other people live, and to experience other cultures.”

Next, the company tackled its first new-build true full-service hotel, building the Radisson San Francisco Airport Hotel on a complicated piece of real estate in Brisbane, California, in 2000. As the decade progressed, geography no longer posed limitations and Stonebridge entered markets on both sides of the Continental Divide—Arizona, California, Utah, virginia, and New York City. Stonebridge’s corporate staff increased to forty-five people, outgrowing its offices, and necessitating the move to new and larger company headquarters in the Denver Tech Center area, a far cry from the humble office in Aurora they’d occupied less than a decade ago.

Along with additions to the company’s portfolio, staff, and office space, there were subtractions, too. in 2000, Gary Rohr moved out of Stonebridge management to oversee iSherpa Capital, an early-stage technology investment company that Navin, together with Gary and another partner, founded around that time. in 2005, Gary and Beth sold their interests in Stonebridge to Navin and Rita, who further refined the company’s brand by focusing on more-profitable selectand full-service hotel investments. in 2005, Kevin Mahoney joined the

FirstBank has enjoyed a strong relationship with Stonebridge over the last thirteen years, both from a lending and business banking standpoint. Over that time, Navin’s integrity, perseverance, and ability to deliver results has shown through on countless occasions. He continues to demonstrate why he is one of the nation’s best hoteliers. During what has been arguably the most difficult time in the history of hospitality, Navin and his team were communicative, moved quickly, and stepped up when necessary to weather the storm. With all the challenges that COVID-19 brought, there is not a hotel operator around that we would rather be partners with.

David Fisher, President First Bank, Treasury Management / Marketing

company as its first chief operating officer, allowing Navin to concentrate on what he clearly enjoyed most—development of new projects. Kevin took a hands-on approach to the management of each hotel in the portfolio, creating standard operating procedures to outline best practices at each property, saying, “We’re very proactive in terms of day-to-day issues at our hotels. Navin leads the charge and grows the company, but the hotel business isn’t only what we do in development, you have to be engaged 24/7 at the operating level.”

Randy Santulli came on board as senior vice president of operations in 2006, further solidifying the base of expertise in Stonebridge’s

core executive team. in 2008, the company opened six new hotels, proving that the core mission of the company—to create hotels that inspire—was a sustainable business model. Tommy Nigro, acquisitions and development manager at the time, theorizes about Navin’s ability to uncover investment deals that had superb potential, “He’s so prepared. He’s a ravenous reader of news and industry magazines—

he just always knows what’s going on. Through the channels of his network, he knows of opportunities that aren’t widely publicized.”

At the close of 2009, Navin laid the groundwork for an exciting project that would take the Stonebridge portfolio to a new level— adapting the vacant Colorado National Bank building, a former Denver architectural icon that was standing empty just blocks from the

The Glenwood Springs Residence Inn sits at the base of the Rockies, its earth-tone shades blending in with the landscape.

city’s popular 16th Street Mall, into a luxury hotel. He partnered with Marriott international and the City of Denver to carefully convert the building—bank vaults and original artwork included—into the Renaissance Denver Downtown City Center Hotel. After it opened, Sonja Dimond completed an internship rotation at the hotel during her freshman year at Cornell University. “One of my distinct memories, now that i’m honed in on the design aspects of properties, was how my dad was really innovative in transforming that historic property into a hotel, helping to revitalize the community and restore the glory of that building.”

But Navin’s vision for the company didn’t stop there. He and his executive team set their sights on major projects in Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Boston, amongst other locations.

Building Trusting Relationships

When asked what characteristic defines Stonebridge’s core values, Navin is quick to say that building a reputation as a trustworthy partner is the single most important step to achieving success as a hotelier. “We never gave people an opportunity not to trust us. We always delivered—or over-delivered—on what we said we would.”

Santulli recalls researching Stonebridge Companies before he was hired there. “i was impressed with Navin and Stonebridge because of what the company had achieved in their first years in business, the type of portfolio they built in terms of branding and asset quality. i realized the reputation of the company was very much a growth story, with a solid past and a growth-focused future. The company was well thought of by the major brands, especially Marriott and Hilton.”

Throughout these busy years, the Dimonds never lost sight of what was most important to them personally—time with family. There was often overlap between Navin and Rita’s business and parenting responsibilities and they were fortunate enough to occasionally combine work and pleasure on trips with their daughters. “We would go to other countries or locations and we’d check out hotels or restaurants,” says Sonja. She explains that the over-arching concept during each trip was an awareness of the hotel experience from both the guests’ and employees’ perspectives. “Ever since we were young, my parents ingrained in us a sense of hospitality—to treat others the way you want to be treated.”

Sonja testifies to her father’s impressive insight into the business of building hotels. “i liked to look at hotel rooms with my dad, learning his eye for detail. i realize now that i’m becoming like him in that sense. i traveled with him on a variety of business trips, but i remember one in particular when i was around twelve, we went to Marriott’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. He was on their advisory board for the Residence inn brand. He took me along and we toured these showrooms, mock hotel rooms with new features and designs, exactly the way a room was in a real hotel. i thought it was the coolest thing. There was a moment where i realized how much influence my dad had on the industry—i’d never really known that. You always look up to your parents, but i hadn’t realized what hard work it was, doing what he did.”

Providing a nurturing home for their daughters and fostering their empathy for others was always a top priority, even as Navin and Rita worked to foster a rewarding environment for the entire Stonebridge team in Denver and in its hotels around the country.

The Colorado National Bank was constructed in 1916 and withstood over ninety years of national and local booms and busts before finally closing its doors in 2007. But it found new life when Stonebridge Companies purchased it and transformed it into The Renaissance Denver Downtown City Center, opening in 2014. The magnificent, historical murals remained with the property for all to enjoy.

A short drive from Denver is Boulder, where Stonebridge has its Residence Inn by Marriott Boulder Canyon. With the famous Pearl Street Mall downtown for shopping, along with hundreds of restaurants, breweries, and gift shops, or the miles and miles of hiking and biking trails, guests don’t run out of things to do here.

The Zink Kitchen + Bar at the DoubleTree by Hilton (at the Denver Tech Center) has a wood fire oven where much of their famous food is prepared. From the brussell sprouts with shishito peppers for starters to the pecan crusted salmon and everything in between, this restaurant has become a destination favorite.