ESTES PARK — Gov. Jared Polis has signed legislation that modifies a grant program for Colorado’s creative industries to allow the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority to buy the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.
Polis signed the legislation Tuesday at the Stanley Hotel. A lengthy amendment to House Bill 1295 — which extends incentives offered under the Colorado Community Revitalization Grant program and was approved by the Colorado House late April and the Colorado Senate earlier this month — allows the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority to create a nonprofit company to manage a facility and direct revenue from that facility toward the organization’s mission to support schools and art facilities in the state.
The legislation is a critical step in the authority’s plan to buy the historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park and issue bonds to support the construction of a new film center at the hotel. Once the bonds are repaid — the bonds could be for as much as $450 million — the authority will own the hotel and film center as a private revenue generator to support schools and cultural facilities.
The authority was created in 1981 to lend money to educational and art organizations for new and renovated schools, venues and museums, but the original legislation barred it from owning or operating those facilities. The new legislation changes the authority’s mission to include ownership and management of facilities and expands the definition of the facilities supported by the authority to include a film center, a hotel, eating and drinking establishments, gift shops and lodging.
Owning the Stanley Hotel would be a new role for the bonding authority that has issued $7.6 billion in low-interest, tax-exempt bonds that help pay for schools, student housing, performance halls, museums and Olympic training facilities across Colorado since the early 1980s.
The 140-room Stanley Hotel — the inspiration behind Stephen King’s “The Shining” — is owned by the Grand Heritage Hotel Group. The group’s CEO, John Cullen, bought the dilapidated historic hotel out of bankruptcy in 1996 and has invested millions in upgrades and maintenance.
Originally Cullen planned to sell the Stanley Hotel to Arizona-based nonprofit Community Finance Corp., which would use bonds backed by CECFA to develop the Stanley Film Center. When the deal with the Arizona group did not materialize, the Colorado bonding authority stepped in with the plan to acquire the hotel, which required legislation to adjust its mission and allow the purchase and management of a property.
The legislation does not approve the deal, but only empowers CECFA to own and manage property, John Cullen said Tuesday.
“That doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen, it just means it’s enabling it. So rather than having an Arizona group, we now have a Colorado group,” Cullen said. “And when I last checked, people in Colorado are more motivated by things in Colorado.”
Part of the original deal included the sale of Cullen’s 89-unit Fall River Village Resort. A new deal has emerged with the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, the Estes Park Housing Authority and Grand Heritage Hotel Group that would convert the Fall River Village property from vacation rentals to workforce housing.
The Fall River Village deal is not connected to CECFA’s plan with Cullen for the Stanley Hotel.
“It’s important to note that CHFA is not party to any agreements or arrangements pertaining to the sale of the Stanley Hotel, including whether that sale may be conditioned upon the sale of Fall River Village Resort,” said Matt Lynn, a spokesman for the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority.
The Colorado Economic Development Commission in 2015 designated the proposed Stanley Film Center a Regional Tourism Act project, qualifying it for $46.4 million in state sales tax incentives over 30 years. The commission last month approved an amendment to the Stanley Film Center plan that included listing both CECFA and the authority’s subsidiary “Stanley Partnership for Art Culture and Education, LLC” as owners of the film center.
Colorado Sun reporter Parker Yamasaki contributed to this report