It’s official: Construction has started on the Red Hotel in downtown Morrison.
Representatives from Root Architecture, which is building the three-story, 22-room structure, hosted a groundbreaking ceremony on May 19 at the empty lot on Bear Creek Avenue that sits between the Morrison Mercantile and the now closed Café Prague.
To build the hotel, the new property owners razed the buildings that housed Blend and Morrison Glass. Construction is expected to be completed in summer 2026.
The hotel’s name is a nod to Red Rocks Amphitheatre, according to Zeke Freeman, owner of Evergreen-based Root Architecture.
“We started two-and-a-half years ago when the property came on the market,” Chad Wallace, Root Architecture’s COO, told about 50 contractors and staff during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “As locals, we are excited to be part of something in Morrison.”
Wallace lauded Morrison Mayor Chris Wolfe for his support of the project.
Wolfe called it a wonderful time for Root Architecture to bring the hotel to Morrison, adding, “We salute you.”
Freeman thanked the other businesses who worked with Root to bring the project to fruition, adding he expects the hotel to attract Red Rocks Amphitheatre patrons and people wanting to use the hotel as an anchor before going into the mountains.
The hotel will include a ground-level café serving high-end coffee and basic breakfast items in the morning, and local wines, beers and light food later in the day.
The Morrison Town Board approved the Red Hotel in April 2024 after often contentious hearings before the town’s planning commission and board. The hotel proposal revealed conflicts within the town’s code and prompted the board to enact a temporary development moratorium so it could rewrite the regulations.
In the end, developers gained approval on a scaled-back version of their original plan. The third floor of the redesigned Red Hotel plan is stepped back from Bear Creek Avenue behind the first two stories. That change is intended to diminish the visual mass from the front to better blend the building with adjacent one-story structures.
Freeman called building the structure on the 50-foot by 120-foot lot similar to filling a spot where there’s a missing tooth.
“Hopefully, this will be really great space that will add to the Morrison community,” he said.