The Dillon Town Council voted to push forward with the Hilton Homewood Suites project during their regular meeting last Tuesday evening, paving the way for a new extended-stay hotel in downtown Dillon. The vote passed 5-2, with Kyle Hendricks and Jennifer Barchers dissenting.

The hotel, located on the corner of Lake Dillon Drive and US Highway 6, will be a four-story structure with more than 120 units.

“The Homewood Suites that we’re doing is like a hotel on steroids,” said Danny Elits of Dillon Hotel Associates, LLC, a co-owner of the property. “With the restaurant and bar, we’re going to have amenities that most suites don’t have.”

The top floor of the hotel will be a full bar and 2,500-square-foot restaurant with a patio looking out toward Keystone. There is also an 850-square-foot conference room, an indoor pool and an amenities deck on the ground floor, which includes hot tubs, grills, fire pits and a rollout bar for parties. The hotel will be pet friendly.

The proposal will combine four separate lots on the corner, two of which are town owned, into one 1.5-acre plot. Dillon Hotel Associates—consisting of Elits, Frew Development out of Denver and the Kinseth Hospitality Group out of Iowa—will purchase the two lots from the town for approximately $549,000, Elits said.

The new hotel is meant to grow tourism in the town, increase foot-traffic in the area and entice new businesses to open in the Dillon core.

“I believe The Homewood Suites is a good project for Dillon,” said Kerstin Anderson, marketing director for Dillon. “It’s location at the corner of Highway 6 will act as a beacon and help to drive awareness of the town center and other amenities such as the marina and amphitheater that are currently out of view from Highway 6. It will also increase density in the core area thereby supporting existing restaurants and businesses.”

The first step in construction will be to tear down the existing structures on the property including the Conoco gas station, Rebekah Lodge and the old Town Hall. Demolition is expected to start by the end of June, with hopes of opening the hotel by fall 2019, in time for the 2019-20-ski season.

Once opened, the hotel will try to compete directly with the condo rental market, targeting people who want to stay as little as five days to as long as a month.

“We’re hoping this is the start of revitalizing the main Dillon Drive in the core area, get some new businesses in and build some new buildings,” said Elits. “I’m confident it will happen, and this will be the start of that process.”