Denver will see large influx of hotels over next couple years

Denver has a strong pipeline of rooms under construction and in final planning, occupying fourth place among the top 25 hotel markets tracked by CoStar.

The Denver region has roughly 1,800 rooms underway across 15 properties, or 3% of the existing supply of 58,000 rooms. An additional 4,650 rooms — or 8% of the existing inventory — across 28 hotels are in their final planning stages.

The majority of the rooms in the pipeline — roughly 4,500 rooms, or 70% of the existing inventory — are found in the two largest submarkets, eastern Denver and the downtown area. Conversely, the two submarkets of northern and southern Denver feature no hotels currently under construction.

Most of the hotels currently under construction are of the upscale or upper-midscale classes, and most offer extended-stay products. Marriott-branded hotels lead the pipeline, with over 50% of those under construction and more than 70% in final planning. Out of the 43 hotels in the pipeline, only six are full service, two are luxury class and four are upper-upscale class.

However, some market participants expect that rooms in final planning will most likely sit longer in that stage compared to historical standards. The number of rooms moving into the next phase will ultimately depend on the timing of lending confidence that could return in anticipation of additional rate cuts and improved underwriting metrics.

Notably, the largest hotel under construction is the 241-room, luxury-class Virgin Hotel in downtown Denver, which is expected to open by the third quarter of 2026. The hotel will feature an 8,000-square-foot spa and a 2,900-square-foot fitness center.

The Virgin Hotel will be part of Denver’s newest neighborhood, Fox Park, a planned 41-acre mixed-use community at the former Denver Post printing facility near interstates 70 and 25. The first four buildings of the Fox Park project broke ground in September 2024, marking a major project milestone.

At the development's centerpiece, the existing 320,000-square-foot former printing facility will be converted into what's been dubbed World Trade Center Denver, a 250,000-square-foot office complex. The first phase of the park will include 1 million square feet of office space, 100,000 square feet of retail space, the first Virgin-branded hotel in Colorado and 1,100 residential units. By Michael Stathokostopoulos, CoStar Analytic