Cobblestone Hotels broke ground Wednesday on its new property in Monte Vista at the Ski-Hi Stampede Complex – a four-story, 62-room hotel with an indoor pool, bar and patio.
Cobblestone calls it its “Main Street” model, which will feature historic photographs of the town for its inside art decor to give it a distinctive Monte Vista vibe.
An emotional Gigi Dennis, the Monte Vista city manager who made landing a new hotel one of her top priorities and steered the deal to get to a groundbreaking, said the $12 million hotel project is a game-changer for the community.
“It was a big goal. I really think that this will help anchor other businesses, and when they see this facility and some of the other building that’s going to go on within the next couple of years within Monte Vista, people are going to drive through and say, ‘Whoa, what’s happening in Monte?’”
What’s happening is Monte Vista hired a city manager in 2021 who is using all of her local clout and influence to make a lot of things happen in the Valley’s second-biggest town. A former state legislator and bureaucrat and the former county manager of Alamosa, Dennis returned to her hometown four years ago to do precisely what she’s doing – make things happen.
Construction of an AutoZone Store, a new small modular home factory that will employ 50 people, and a 25-unit apartment complex are all projects in development, said Dennis.
Monte Vista is also seeing a revival of small businesses with an entrepreneurial bent in the new Church Project Community Arts Center and the new Tumbleweed Bread bakery that will have its grand opening on July 26.
To get to the hotel groundbreaking, Dennis had to cobble together a group of local private investors who would put up the first $3.5 million. RG Bank then became the lead lender.
“They’re our ears and eyes in the community once it’s open and kind of help us connect dots. They’re our feet on the street, so to speak,” said Cobblestone President of Development Jeremy Griesbach of the local investment group.
He and Tim Shefchik, Cobblestone vice president of development, attended the groundbreaking. Cobblestone serves as its own general contractor and hires local subcontractors and laborers for its local projects.
“Really the local investors are so excited to be part of this because it’s something that they knew the community needed, was that next step up hotel, that boutique-style hotel, and especially next to this events center. They’re going to really work very well together,” said Shefchik.
Cobblestone went with its Main Street model in Monte Vista to help it compete with the national hotel chains that dot the edges of Alamosa. Alamosa is adding its own new hotel with the construction of a downtown SpringHill Suites by Marriott.
Building its hotel at the Ski-Hi Stampede Complex gives Cobblestone a natural market to draw from when major events like the annual Southern Rocky Mountain Ag Conference, Monte Vista Crane Festival, and Ski-Hi Stampede occur. Its challenge will be to draw from the selection of hotels in Alamosa to fill in the rest of the year.
Dennis hopes the new Outcalt Conference Center at the Ski-Hi Complex will continue to book more events and draw in new conventions now that Cobblestone will be on the grounds.
The city sold the land – 2.5 acres – to Cobblestone for $300,000 and will use that money to invest in new baseball fields for the local school district and community to use.
The Monte Vista City Council also passed a sales tax incentive package that kicks back a portion of sales tax collected from the hotel over the next 10 years to help the investment group market the hotel.
“The purpose behind that allows the investors to hopefully get their communications and their advertising going, and be able to get people here, and that we can recruit small conferences and things that will keep people here overnight instead of looking elsewhere,” said Dennis.