Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, the 1,501-room complex that rises mountainlike off Peña Boulevard on the way to Denver International Airport, booked 80% of its rooms and turned around $26 million a month in revenues last year, according to its owner’s SEC filings.

Gaylord Rockies’ good fortune has been helped along by Colorado taxpayers. Generous state and local incentives offered to the project early on have boosted the revenue side for its corporate owners — awards that by one estimate could top a billion dollars by 2043.

Now other Colorado hotels that compete for the same out-of-state visitor are wondering whether Gaylord’s owners are parleying with Colorado’s Economic Development Commission about adding more incentives, as the facility contemplates an expansion.

The Gaylord project had been controversial before it rose from the prairie more than a decade ago with help from state tourism funds. What became an $800 million venture eventually took flight with $300 million in tax-related incentives from the City of Aurora and the Aurora Economic Development Council, boosted by $81.4 million awarded under the Colorado Regional Tourism Act of 2009.

That had prompted a lawsuit in 2013 by several regional hotels, which questioned why an attraction that was created as a one-stop resort 12 minutes from the international airport would get dollars that were intended to nurture tourism around the state.

A judge ruled against the suit in 2014 and the project moved ahead.

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Coming into fall, the hotel and convention center have operated for eight years and recently completed an additional $22 million upgrade of their dining and its outdoor attractions that span the 85-acre site.

Meanwhile, Nashville-based owner Ryman Hospitality Properties is reportedly prepared to invest another $300-million-plus in an additional tower of hotel rooms, along with an addition to the resort’s water park. Those add-ons could carry the resort, already the state’s largest hotel, to more than 1,950 rooms.

Last Thursday, the Economic Development Commission reported that it had viewed an update on Gaylord and an annual planning session.

In reply to a query from The Denver Gazette, Alissa Johnson, communications director for the commission, said that the government body went into executive session regarding the Aurora RTA award and Gaylord Rockies.

“The EDC did not take formal action,” Johnson wrote. “The Aurora RTA award will be discussed again by the EDC during a public meeting likely in September.”

She added that any proposal to modify or extend a Regional Tourism Act project would be reviewed and approved by the EDC during a public meeting.

The development prompted questions from some hospitality industry insiders, who have long viewed the taxpayer incentives as giving an unfair competitive advantage to Gaylord.

One source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to freely express views, called the potential that the hotel would get a new or expanded round of incentives “concerning.”

Another source familiar with the work of the state economic commission told The Denver Gazette that no formal proposal had been submitted by Gaylord, but that there is an understanding one would be forthcoming.

“I don’t know what an application would look like. It’s just talk,” said this second source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

The source noted that there is an understanding among participants that any plans are related to the contemplated room expansion.

Two years ago, The Denver Gazette’s media partner 9NEWS reported that Gaylord Rockies had submitted plans to the city of Aurora to add 450 rooms to the hotel, along with a 47,000-square-foot indoor enhancement to its water park.

At that time, a spokesman on behalf of the resort had noted that such an expansion would “attract additional and larger convention groups to the area.”

The Denver Gazette reached out to Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center and Ryman Hospitality Properties but received no response by the time this story was published.

A $1.3 billion subsidy

Two years after it opened, Ryman Hospitality took full ownership of Gaylord Rockies with a $210 million deal that allowed the operator to purchase a remaining 35% ownership interest in the venture, including 130 acres of undeveloped adjacent land.

Subsequent to the acquisition, The Denver Gazette had reported in 2021 that although the initial incentives offered to the property were in excess of $300 million, the total benefit to the operation over the next two decades could exceed $1.3 billion.

According to records obtained by The Denver Gazette via Colorado’s Open Records Act, the property already showed strong bookings coming into the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought most hotel operations to a halt. At the height of the pandemic, governments at the state and local levels had shut down businesses, such as restaurants and gyms and curbed or prohibited gatherings.

In its two previous years, Gaylord Rockies had already booked some 1.1 million rooms through 2028.

A previous developer had begun receiving tax rebates in 2015, following on the 2011 incentive agreement. In addition to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the city of Aurora, its economic development council and its urban renewal authority were the providers.

Support also included rebates from state and city sales, incremental property taxes from Adams County and other lodging-related taxes and fees.

Original provisions of the award allowed the first $10 million in annual revenues from the operation to return to the city of Aurora, with the remainder returning to the ownership. According to reports Ryman filed with OEDIT, Aurora would refund 96.3% of sales tax collected there, 96.25% of its lodger’s tax and 93.3% of its use tax.

The developer was reportedly receiving from $2.4 to $4.5 million annually in rebates, but those revenues shot up to $30.4 million when the resort opened in 2019. Even during the pandemic shutdown of 2020, Gaylord did enough business to get $33.2 million in tax revenue rebates, documents showed.

A projection based on quarterly revenues during the pandemic suggested that even with COVID losses, Ryman would benefit by well over a billion dollars through the agreement period.

One site selection expert had noted that the package was deemed twice as generous as he advised client entities in similar circumstances.

Ryman’s report to OEDIT at the time had countered that, although the city of Aurora would see reduced tax returns during the agreement’s payout, the Gaylord project had spurred development in the city’s vast “Aerotropolis” site adjoining the airport.

Benefits to the area could include additional guest spending outside the property that neither Gaylord nor Marriott, which manages the hotel and convention center, could document.

A self-contained universe

The source close to potential opponents of the subsidies outlined several objections to the current and any possible future arrangements, beginning with the basic conception of Gaylord Rockies and other Gaylord hotel-conference center developments as self-contained visitor attractions.

“The Gaylord model as noted in their marketing is that everything is there. You meet, shop, eat and drink there and then you go to DIA and you go home,” the industry insider said. “That’s not a regional economic impact — those are two very different things.”

Also of concern to opponents is a question of whether an expansion of the Gaylord center would actually attract visitors that would not otherwise come to Colorado. Moving a convention from downtown Denver, Colorado Springs or a mountain hotel to Gaylord would not result in net-new tourism, the source suggested. Rather, it merely transfers revenue between Colorado properties.

The source familiar with the workings of the Economic Development Commission told The Denver Gazette that, indeed, there may be no way to prevent future taxpayer support under the RTA and that the devil is in the details.

“All I can say is if the application fits the statute, if what they’re asking for is authorized, I don’t know that (the commission has) a lot of wiggle room to say no,” the source said.

“The statute was really created to draw a NASCAR track,” the source added, noting that all applications reviewed had been awkward and poorly drafted with respect to the statute.

Developers and civic supporters have repeatedly advocated for public backing to build an international speedway track near DIA, initially in 2007, then in 2009 and again in 2015 and 2017. Various proposals stalled after financing issues and voter opposition to tax subsidies for motor sports.

In her email on the Gaylord Rockies presentation, EDC’s Johnson noted that the state body had approved the project in 2012 as “a unique and extraordinary Regional Tourism Act project, recognizing its potential to attract net new, out-of-state visitors to Colorado and generate new jobs and business growth.”

Ryman Resort Properties, on the NYSE at RHP, currently shows a 71% increase in its share value over the past five years. SEC filings reported that Gaylord Rockies alone generated $313.2 million in revenues last year, an 8% increase over 2024.

In addition to Gaylord Rockies, the company’s other luxury end-resort and conference center properties include Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, Florida, Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas and Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Maryland near Washington, D.C.

“The question is, does it continue to attract out-of-state visitors that would be justified under the statute?” the source familiar with the EDC said. “It’s messy, but I don’t know if (the commission) had a choice. If hoteliers say they don’t like it, they should get the statute repealed.”

Denver Gazette City Editor Dennis Huspeni contributed to this report, along with news partners 9NEWS.