March 30, 2006 - Springs Hotel LLC finalized its $2.8 million purchase of the Park Plaza on Thursday and immediately went to work on freshening up the Garden of the Gods hotel�s image. 

It will be rebranded the SilverWood Hotel and Conference Center � the sign goes up Tuesday � and will undergo a 45-day, $400,000 renovation that will replace all carpets, beds and banquet chairs in addition to fixing the roof. 

�Right now the emphasis is to refresh the look of the hotel and put it together again, make it presentable after years of a sort of tired look,� said Dawson Hubert, who heads the nine-person Springs Hotel LLC partnership group. 

The in-house Morgan Steakhouse will shortly be converted to a Western-themed restaurant and saloon. The public is being invited to suggest name changes through May 10 and the winning entry will receive $1,000. 

With 11,000-square-feet of meeting rooms available, there will be a heavy emphasis on group bookings at the SilverWood � whether corporate, tour or reunion. 

All guests will receive free Internet access, a cooked-to-order Western breakfast and a two-hour daily cocktail reception in that yet-to-be-named Western saloon as part of their room rate. 

�We�re looking to liven things up, create a high energy place for our guests and for people who want to come for dinner or drinks after work,� Hubert said. �We�re starting karaoke (tonight) and will have it every Friday and Saturday night through April. 

�The model we�re concentrating on is a hotel priced right. This hotel has gone through major (corporate) flags and it�s ready for independent operation. We want to be the hometown hotel, a center for activity on the Garden of the Gods corridor.� 

Room rates will be $10 to $20 less than other full-service hotels in the area to attract higher traffic. 

It is a model the Springs Hotel partnership hopes to export to other second-tier cities in the Western states in the years to come under the SilverWood brand, Hubert said. 

San Diego-based American Property Management paid $2.81 million to buy the hotel in 2004, taking it over from Holiday Inn. The hotel received national attention in 2001 when the last two at-large members of the Texas Seven gang were apprehended there. 

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