Notable New Hotels Being Added in the Western US This Year

Article originally posted on CoStar on March 22, 2024

In the Western U.S., more new hotels and rooms are expected to open this year than last year.

The region includes Montana through New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska. If all hotels open on time, there will be nearly 200 new hotels, compared to nearly 145 last year, a 37% increase. By room count, about 24,116 rooms will enter the hotel space, representing a 28% year-over-year increase.

Some of the most-anticipated openings of this year include new brands, high room counts or offer something new to the area. The hotels are listed in descending order based on the room count, and some have already opened.

The 1,100-room VAI Resort in Glendale, Arizona, is the second-largest hotel under construction in the U.S., and the largest hotel under construction set to open in 2024. The hotel is projected to open in phases starting in late 2024.

The $1 billion, 60-acre resort and lagoon entertainment complex will be the largest hotel in the state upon opening. It will feature four hotel towers, a $40 million 360-degree concert stage, a 52,000-square-foot man-made party island, a 6-acre lagoon with white sandy beaches, retail and 12 themed restaurants. The resort will have a Las Vegas resort feel and could attract Phoenicians that would generally travel to Las Vegas for a weekend trip. The resort could also draw families, as it is across from Mattel Adventure Park, which is also set to open in 2024.

The 442-room Grand Hyatt Deer Valley is expected to open at the end of 2024 in Park City, Utah. The hotel is part of the planned expansion of Deer Valley Resort that will more than double the resort’s skiable terrain with 16 new ski lifts and a 10-passenger gondola that will offer access to over 235 ski runs across 10 mountain peaks.

The luxury hotel is the largest hotel under construction in the state. It began construction in 2020 and is owned by Alterra Mountain Co. Real Estate Development Inc. The hotel will also feature 55 private residences, nearly 40,000 square feet of meeting space, numerous dining options, a pool and a fitness center.

Owned by the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, the 18-story, 401-room Muckleshoot Casino Resort opened in January 2024. It is the largest new hotel to open in the Seattle region since 2018 when the 1,260 Hyatt Regency opened. This will be the largest opening in the region for the foreseeable future as there are no hotels in the active hotel construction pipeline with a room count above 300.

The hotel is an addition to the Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, Washington. Hotel amenities include an indoor pool, spa and a fine-dining rooftop restaurant. Currently, lower-tier class hotels are near the casino, and this full-service hotel will offer an underrepresented product type in the immediate surroundings.

The 375-room Hotel Polaris is the largest hotel under construction in Colorado. Opening in the fourth quarter this year, it will be the largest hotel to open in Colorado since the 1,501-room Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center in 2018.

While the size makes the project intriguing, so do the amenities. The hotel will feature numerous dining options, a spa, a pool and 26,000 square feet of meeting space. It will also uniquely offer three flight simulators, paying homage to its location at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s North Gate in Colorado Springs. The flight simulators will mimic two F-16 fighter jets and a Boeing 737 Next Gen aircraft that will reproduce the flight deck experience of real aircrafts.

“We’ve given careful consideration to designing an immersive guest experience that leans into our U.S. Air Force Academy backdrop,” said Curtis Bova, general manager of Hotel Polaris. “Hotel Polaris and the new Visitor Center connected via a walking bridge will serve as a new, interactive front door to the Academy experience.”

The hotel is part of the $345 million 51-acre TrueNorth Commons project, which also includes a 200,000-square-foot office complex, 30,000 square feet of retail space, and a new $40 million U.S. Airforce Academy visitor center, The Hosmer Visitor Center. The number of visitors to the previous visitor center fell after Sept. 11, 2001, due to difficult security access as it was within the gates.

The hotel and conference center is owned by Provident Resources Group, Inc., and will be operated by Colorado-based CoralTree Hospitality.

In late February, the Renaissance Honolulu Hotel & Spa and Renaissance Residences debuted in Oahu with a combined room count of 299. There are 112 residences and 187 hotel rooms in the 39-story property. The building is the first Renaissance Residences property in the world. According to the local owner, JL Capital, the Renaissance residences sold out quickly for about $2,500 per square foot, which helped with the capital debt. The same owner developed the 390-unit Sky Ala Moana residential tower that opened in 2023 and shares an amenity deck with the property. The Sky Ala condos sold out two years before completion.

Construction on the $505 million hybrid Renaissance development project in the Ala Moana district began in mid-2020 on a demolished flex building site, representing the first full-service hotel built from the ground up in three decades. The hotel portion starts on the 15th floor. The rooms and suites offer floor-to-ceiling glass windows. The hotel features multiple dining options, an eighth-floor sky deck with a spa, a fitness center, meditation gardens and two pools.

The property is managed by Highgate Hotels, which also manages Pagoda Hotel, a few blocks away, and the AC Hotel Honolulu, which opened in December 2023 after being converted from the old Remington College building.

Very few newly built hotels open in Hawaii, a high-barrier-to-entry market. In Oahu, only two new hotels have opened since 2019, before the Renaissance. Now, there is only one hotel under construction on Oahu, the 125-room Mandarin Oriental, which is not projected to open until 2027.

The Black Desert Resort is a $820 million, 580-acre project in Irvins, Utah. Located in the greater Zion and St. George area, the expansive resort will open in phases starting this fall through the first quarter of 2025. The first phase includes a 148-room hotel, 190,000 square feet of retail, restaurants, 25,000 square feet of event space, a spa, a full clubhouse and a 19-hole golf course. Upon completion, there will be 729 units between the hotel and condos.

The owner, Reef Capital Partners, closed on a $153 million C-PACE loan to fund part of the project, representing the largest C-PACE deal in history.

The 148-room hotel will feature an expansive swimming pool, a fitness center with a juice bar and a steakhouse restaurant. Each room includes a private terrace.

The resort will feature different villages. The Golf Village has a 19-hole golf course, a 36-hole putting course, a driving range and virtual golf. In the fall, the golf course will host a new PGA Tour Tournament named the Black Desert Championship. This is the first PGA Tour event in Utah in more than 60 years, and is under contract to occur for four years. The golf course will also host the LPGA Tour event in 2025.

The Family Village includes a lazy river with waterfall pools and slides, a surf wave pool, playgrounds, rope bridges, zip lines, rock climbing and obstacle courses.

The 265-room Populus Hotel is the largest hotel under construction in the Denver area. Owned and developed by Urban Villages and operated by Aparium Hotel Group, the hotel is across from Civic Center Park near the State Capitol in downtown Denver. The hotel features distinctive window shapes with characteristic patterns found on Aspen trees, Populus tremuloides. The 13-story hotel is expected to open in mid-2024. The hotel will be the first carbon-positive hotel in the U.S. due to its eco-conscious design and the commitment to plant trees that will offset a large carbon footprint. Due to the limited amount of independent hotels in the Denver area, the hotel will increase the independent hotel room inventory by approximately 5% upon completion.

Jon Buerge, president of Urban Villages, said: “We selected Denver for Populus’ location not only because it’s right in Urban Villages’ backyard, but because the city has been at the forefront of a major evolution. Denver is consistently ranked among the country’s best places to live, with people flocking from major metropolitan cities to enjoy its endless leisure activities, sports venues, art and culture, and vibrant food scene — and with that, it’s demanding more innovation from the built environment. We wanted to create a hotel that brings architectural diversity to the city, while honoring Denver’s love of nature and passion to protect our natural environment.”

Mario Tricoci, CEO and founder of Aparium Hotel Group, said “At Aparium, our mission is to create one-of-a-kind hotels that embody a trans-local hospitality experience unique to each of their locations. Rapidly growing cities like Denver are exactly where Aparium is building, opening and operating our dynamic hotel and restaurant experiences, so Populus is a natural fit and an exciting addition to our portfolio. The hotel’s design, guest experience and positive ecological impact reflect a sense of place that is distinctly Colorado, while appealing to the entire country, and we’re excited for everyone to experience it this summer.”

Caesars Republic Scottsdale is an 11-story, 265-room glass structure that opened in early March 2024. The new lifestyle hotel is Caesars Entertainment’s first non-gaming resort in the U.S. The hotel is located next to Scottsdale’s premier luxury retail destination, Scottsdale Fashion Square. The amenities include two restaurants by celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis, a rooftop pool deck with a bar and lounge, and 20,000 square feet of meeting and conference facilities.

This is the largest hotel to open in the Scottsdale area since 2019, when the 350-room Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale opened. Caesars Republic Scottsdale is owned, developed and operated by HCW Hospitality & Development.

Owned by Starwood Capital Group, the independent 254-room Treehouse Hotel Sunnyvale is the largest and only luxury class hotel under construction in the San Jose area. Treehouse Hotels is a new brand, with one open hotel in the United Kingdom and another under construction. In the U.S., this will be the first Treehouse brand. Another is under construction in Miami.

The opening of this hotel in late-2024 will add to the comparatively low inventory of luxury rooms in the destination. Approximately 5% of San Jose’s hotel room inventory is in the luxury class, slightly below the total in the U.S. and far below the San Francisco market, where nearly 15% of hotel rooms are in the luxury class. The hotel is walkable to the Google and Meta Sunnyvale campuses.

The luxury, 225-room The Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley, The Palmeraie is expected to open in late 2024. It is in the center of the $2 billion, 122-acre development of the Palmeraie. The hotel is on 20 acres that will include detached casitas, several dining options, a two-story spa, and a 400-foot pool, which will be America’s longest pool. The project also includes 80 residence villas and 32 single-family homes, which are whole-ownership and Ritz-Carlton branded, serviced and managed. Scottsdale-based Five Star Development is the owner and developer.

Upon opening, it will be the only Ritz Carlton in the Phoenix area and the second Ritz Carlton in the state. There is a 253-room Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain near Tucson. The Camby Hotel, Marriott Autograph Collection, adjacent to Biltmore Fashion Park, was previously a Ritz Carlton before being converted in 2015.

Note that InterContinental Bellevue at The Avenue is another highly anticipated hotel to open in 2024, but it was featured in the 2023 article and faced construction delays.