March 1, 2006 - The Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown Denver will become the city's first Ritz-Carlton, developers announced today.

Hotelier Charlie Biederman and his partners plan to spend more than $75 million to convert the 367-room hotel, located at 1881 Curtis St., into 202 luxury rooms and suites. The top five stories of the building will be revamped into 23 private Ritz-Carlton Residences, ranging in size from 2,300 square feet to 4,400 square feet.

No pricing was announced, but Biederman, who developed the JW Marriott in Cherry Creek, guaranteed the Ritz-Carlton would command top-dollar for the market.

�We're going to offer beautiful rooms and a level of service that hasn't been here before,� he said.

The conversion will also include adding 13,000 square feet of meeting space and a restaurant.

Ritz-Carlton, based in Chevy Chase, Md., has 61 hotels worldwide, including two in Colorado: the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch, at Beaver Creek, and the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Aspen Highlands.

�We've been interested in Denver for a very long time,� said Christopher Rose, senior vice president of hotel development for Ritz-Carlton. �And this building is ideal because of its relative location to Denver's sports stadiums, LoDo and the 16th Street Mall. We think we'll be very successful here.�

The Ritz-Carlton, Denver is scheduled to open in spring 2007. Ritz-Carlton is also opening hotels in Beijing, Moscow and Dallas next year.

-----

To see more of The Denver Post, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.denverpost.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, The Denver Post

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail [email protected]. MAR, PEP, TAP,