By the end of April, a seven-story boutique hotel will debut on the northern edge of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, nine miles east of downtown Denver.
The Benson Hotel and Faculty Club will offer 106 total guest units that include 18 suites, as well as more than 9,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space. A nearly 3,000-square-foot ballroom is accompanied by seven breakout rooms that can hold from six to 24 attendees each. There’s also a 4,000-square-foot event lawn just beyond the ballroom’s doors that can be tented.
UC Anschutz Medical Campus is the largest academic center in the Rocky Mountain region. It’s home to the UC School of Medicine; UC Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; UC College of Nursing; UC School of Dental Medicine; UC School of Public Health; and UC’s graduate school for various fields in biological and biomedical sciences. The campus also includes the University of Colorado Hospital, Children's Hospital Colorado, and the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Hospital.
Interestingly, the new hotel will also be home to a faculty club meant “to provide an off-campus respite for members of the UC Anschutz faculty to enjoy quiet time or exchange ideas with colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere,” said Peter Walterspiel, the hotel’s general manager. This could make it easier for meeting groups to secure professors, researchers, and practitioners as speakers for meetings there.
The hotel includes a restaurant, The Common Good, serving three meals daily that will feature mostly locally sourced cuisine; it also has a wraparound patio that can be used for small receptions. And a deli-style restaurant named A Mondo Market is being built adjacent to the hotel.
Walterspiel said the initial response from UC Anschutz Medical Campus schools and departments “has been great because of the accommodations and meeting-space availability being steps away. It can make a huge difference rather than having to send [visitors and groups] to a hotel outside the campus.” The property has contracted with nearby parking garages for complimentary valet-parking service.
The Benson Hotel and Faculty Club is 14 miles from Denver International Airport, a 20-minute drive.
