In the largest real estate deal in the Estes Valley since Lord Dunraven acquired more than 7,000 acres in 1874 and then sold the land in 1908 to F.O. Stanley for $80,000, the Stanley Hotel was sold today for $400 million.
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The new owner is the Stanley Partnership for Art Culture and Education, LLC – which will be known as SPACE – a public-private partnership with the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority, private bond investors, John Cullen, who has owned the hotel for 30 years, and new manager Sage Hospitality Group.
Cullen sat down for an interview with the Estes Valley Voice Wednesday afternoon in front of the fireplace in the 217 Wine Bar to talk about the sale.
While Cullen will not be involved in day-to-day management, he will serve as the chair and CEO of SPACE, which is designed to be a regional economic and cultural engine that will amplify tourism in the Estes Park community and the State of Colorado.
What many people do not understand, said Cullen, is that the bond sale is funded entirely by private capital and not tax money. CECFA, founded in 1981 by the Colorado General Assembly, issues tax-exempt bonds that help educational and cultural organizations finance capital projects at lower interest rates than traditional bank financing.
The organization, which is not a state agency and receives no state appropriations, relies on loan fees for its operations.
Cullen said it is time to take the historic property to the next level to preserve it for the next 30 years and beyond, and he wants to be a part of shaping that future which will include more than $100 million in renovations and additions.
“We aren’t just building a new Stanley, which we are, we are building an entertainment universe that creates a reliable stream of income that can be counted on for years in advance. We will be big enough to actually be on the musical touring circuits,” said Cullen.
In six weeks, ground will be broken on what will be a 65,000 square-foot 1,000-seat performance art and film center that will include a horror film museum in partnership with Blumhouse Productions, one of Hollywood’s leading film and television production companies.
The facility will be integrated with the Concert Hall which can hold 500, the Pavillion Amphitheater which seats 300, and the underground theater located in the Carriage House which seats 80.
Since acquiring the landmark property for $3.14 million in 1995 in a bankruptcy liquidation auction, Cullen has had an intimate, hands-on relationship with the aging buildings which needed extensive maintenance.
“I have renovated every single board, wire, pipe. I replaced everything. And I mean every shingle, every tile, every toilet. Every single thing. I literally am the oldest thing in this building,” he said.
Two years ago, he renovated the Music Hall into the 217 Wine Bar, an upscale lounge with sweeping views of the Estes Valley and Longs Peak. The bar features wines from Spring Mountain Vineyard, his family’s Napa Valley winery.
In a nod to F.O. Stanley, who not only played but handmade violins, an art installation of violins hangs above the bar at intervals corresponding to the opening notes of the theme song to the movie, “The Shining,” which is set at the hotel.
Plans for the renovation of the dining room are equally grand. Set on the west side of the lobby, the dining room which had both indoor and outdoor seating, originally had a slate floor. With a passion for history and an eye for detail, the plans include restoring that feature.
Currently the hotel has 195 rooms. Plans call for an addition of 65 luxury hotel suites that will be built on the east side of the main building and will connect with The Lodge, originally called the Manor House, a 40-room boutique hotel with meeting space and Brunch and Co., a breakfast and lunch restaurant.
Nine years ago, Cullen built Aspire, another boutique hotel and spa with 40 studios and one- and two-bedroom suites outfitted with full kitchens and in-room washers and dryers, on the campus.
In all, fourteen buildings sit on the 41-acre property which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
When the hotel was built in 1909, F.O. Stanley essentially created a 10-week summer camp for his friends, said Cullen. The leisure class would arrive for a holiday with a steamer trunk packed for a four-to-six-week holiday. At the end of the season, the hotel would close for the year.
When Cullen bought the property in 1995, the hotel would be half booked for the summer season by Memorial Day weekend. Things have changed in the hotel industry as bookings rarely take place months out, and the stays are not as long.
Over the past three decades, Cullen has seen the hotel grow to be a year-round facility. During peak season, the hotel employs more than 400 people, generates $44 million in revenue, and provides the Town with $3 million in sales taxes.
Cullen was instrumental in positioning the state to attract the Sundance Film Festival to choose Colorado as its new home. The economic impact of that alone for the Centennial State is expected to be $2.4 billion over the next decade.
While the festival, which showcases independent films and emerging filmmakers, will take place in Boulder beginning in 2027, The Stanley Hotel will again host the Sundance Institute’s 2025 Directors Lab this summer with the prospect of other Sundance collaborations in the future.
The builder of The Stanley Hotel was an inventor and visionary. He came to Estes Park and built a legacy that has been an iconic part of the Town’s history.
Over the course of his career, Cullen, who was raised in Europe and grew up speaking English and Dutch, has owned 51 hotels in 17 countries. He considered pursuing architecture and physics in college, but after the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in 1979, he pivoted instead to earn a business degree with a concentration in macroeconomics.
He has applied his acumen for business and a passion for applied physics in caring for The Stanley and securing its future as a premier destination hotel.
Speaking about tourism and what was historically a 5-month tourist season, Cullen says Estes Park has to be forward thinking to develop a sustainable, year-round economy.
In about six weeks, The Stanley Chocolate Factory will open on West Elk Horn Avenue, a multi-million-dollar investment in downtown that he hopes will provide visitors with a fun, immersive experience for “children of all ages.”
In a recent interview and cook’s tour of the facility, Cullen exuded an expectant excitement for the unique venue where visitors can make their own chocolate bar under the tutelage of a chocolate chef.
The facility will also include a mercantile, a rooftop barbecue restaurant, a whiskey tasting room, a chocolate tasting room, an event space, and next year, a pavilion that will house an antique French carousel.
Like Stanley, Cullen is a big-picture visionary. And like Stanley, Cullen does not have children but sees the hotel and securing its future as his legacy.
In listening to him talk about what he has planned, he sounds like a blend of Walt Disney, Willy Wonka, and Buzz Lightyear – “to infinity and beyond.”
Between the $400 million bond sale, plus a $46 million grant for the film and performance art center from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and the Colorado Economic Development Commission’s Regional Tourism Act program, today’s half-billion-dollar transaction lays a major cornerstone for the town’s economy for the next 30 years.
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