Adaptive Reuse Planned for Historic Hangar 2 Site; Denver Area Hotels Part of Massive Package Deal

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

Hartman Ely Investments and Larimer Associates have come up with a great idea to revive one of Denver’s historic spots. Part of the redeveloped Lowry Air Force Base, Hangar 2 was left out of the plan that made Hangar 1 into the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. Now Hangar 2 will be transformed into a self-storage facility. H2P, the partnership between Hartman Ely Investments and Larimer Associates, drew inspiration from the property’s unique characteristics, namely the fact that the layout of the hangar will provide 100,000 sq. ft. of column-free space.

H2P also saw an advantage in using a historic site for this project. The company analyzed several possibilities before settling on self-storage combined with small-scale office and retail space. The first phase of the conversion will comprise 65,000 net sq. ft. of self-storage space, or 600 units. Phase 2 will add retail and office space as well as restaurants.

In other commercial real estate news, two Denver area hotels will participate in one of the largest package deals recorded in recent memory. A 159-room Residence Inn by Marriott in Denver as well as a 128-room hotel in Englewood are just two hospitality properties being traded in a 64-hotel package deal. The buyer, Cerberus Capital Management of New York, will raise $1.125 billion for the properties. And $37 million of the transaction total will be provided by Florida’s Chatham Lodging Trust through a joint venture that will give the company a 9.2 percent stake in the hotels.