Kimpton Claret boutique hotel in Belleview Station will open in 2024

BY FREDA MIKLIN STAFF WRITER

When the 19-story, 156,000 -square foot Kimpton Hotel in Belleview Station, featuring 190 guest rooms and 14 suites on floors five through 18, opens next year, it will be the first new boutique hotel in the area in over a decade.

A 203-room Westin Hotel was planned for Greenwood Village at Yosemite and Caley Streets but the GV City Council canceled it in 2019.

This property, which Kimpton Hotels CEO Mike DeFrino told The Villager will be called the Kimpton Claret Hotel, will feature a unique rooftop bar and restaurant on the 19th floor with live music and expansive mountain views.

The ground level will contain another restaurant and bar, along with the check-in area for hotel guests. The building will also house a fitness center and 7,000 square feet of meeting and event space. A parking garage on the fourth floor will connect to another garage in a separate building.

A topping off event held on March 1 at the property featured the team that made the Kimpton Claret Hotel possible. The investment group is headed by Jack and Mary McClurg, along with their son Ryan and his wife Maggie, of McClurg Century Investments. After several more local private investors were added, nearby Alpine Bank, led by visionary President Charlie Kercheval, provided the rest of the financing to complete the project. The team that is creating the hotel consists of its developer, Cypress 16, LLC, KGD Architecture of Washington, D.C., and general contractor Harvey Cleary, along with Front Range Land and Development, the master developer of Belleview Station. Interior design of hotel spaces and rooms will be handled by KARA MANN, whose prior projects include the Talbott Hotel, a boutique hotel in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.

DeFrino, who came in from

San Francisco for the March 1 event, said the company’s goal is for this to be “one of the greatest hotels in the Denver area, not just in Belleview

Station.” He said that Bill Kimpton founded the company over 40 years ago with a vision to create hotels “where people have fun, where they feel welcome, warm, safe, and entertained.” DeFrino told the group of 50 people gathered on the under-construction second floor that that the company has 80 hotels currently operating around the world and between 30 and 40 in some stage of development. He expects the Kimpton Claret will be the first to open in 2024. Kimpton places a special focus on hiring staff that is down-to-earth, warm, friendly, and welcoming to its guests.

Kercheval said, about Alpine Bank, “There are very few ground-up hotels of this magnitude that we are pursuing. In this location, with this Kimpton flag, there are only two spots, Cherry Creek and Belleview Station, that have this kind of vibrancy and energy in the market… It’s important for us as a bank to support economic development in our community. It’s an honor and a privilege to be a part of this.”

The Claret will be Kimpton’s third Denver hotel and its first outside of the downtown area, joining Kimpton Hotel Born at 1600 Wewatta Street and Kimpton Hotel Monaco at 1717 Champa Street.

Kimpton will join Belleview Station’s newest resident, Vectra Bank, which recently moved into its new nine-floor Corporate Center building at 7222 E. Layton Avenue.