Renovations are in the making for one of the most popular tourist attraction hotels in the West.
A public-private partnership has purchased the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, with plans to significantly upgrade the 116-year-old property.
The grand hotel, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is perhaps most known as the inspiration for the Stephen King novel The Shining and subsequent 1980 film of the same name starring Jack Nicholson.
Now a consortium that includes John Cullen, the former owner of the hotel, the company Sage Hospitality of Denver, and the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority, have purchased the Stanley with plans of adding 65 rooms to the hotel’s current 140 rooms.
Additional work will see the building a meeting and event space measuring just over 65,000 square feet, as well as a restaurant, bar, and live entertainment venue.
Funding for the Event Center is coming in part via a sales tax increment worth $46 million from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, as well as the Colorado Economic Development Commission.
In a statement, Jeff Kraft, deputy director of the economic development group, noted that the upgraded hotel project will be one that “boosts out-of-state tourism, contributes to the local economy, and creates jobs for Coloradoans.”
Opened in the summer of 1909 and designed in the Georgian Colonial Revival style, the three-story Stanley was built by Freelan Stanley, owner of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company, who was suffering from tuberculosis and regarded extended stays in the Rocky Mountain property as crucial to his recovery.
In its lifetime, the Stanley, which is clapboard exterior, red roof, and flag-topped tower, has hosted Theodore Roosevelt, Emperor Akihito of Japan, and Bob Dylan.
May 27, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Vintage postcard
