Hugh M. Woods Comes Down, Making Way for ‘Gunbarrel Gateway’
Boulder Hospitality LLC, led by developer Bill McDermid Longmont, Gunbarrel Gateway hopes to develop a 5.9-acre commercial project on 63rd Street and Lookout Road. The project includes a 100-room Hampton Inn & Suites and three separate buildings that can be used for retail, restaurants or offices. Boulder Hospitality operators pooled their own money to pay for the demolition as a means to the site more attractive to potential tenants and a statement – that the project is moved forward, he said.
McDermid and Boulder Hospitality hoped to demolish the building in 2009 and breaking ground that year. However, the company failed to get a loan amid frozen credit markets, he said. Elaine McLaughlin, a senior planner for the city of Boulder, said in a message to the camera Boulder Hospitality officials sent a letter to the city stating the group hopes to soon close a loan.
“If the financial crisis began, the FDIC hotels lumped into commercial real estate instead of owner-occupied farms,” he said. “That, in and of itself, made it difficult.” In addition, some banks was hesitate loans for a hotel-based project, because hotels were built in other markets in the United States. “They do not so much on the local reality of the project,” he said. “Boulder is a great market for a new hotel.”
