On Monday, September 24th I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences in the Central Business District. It was awesome!

I have followed this project for a very long time and to see dirt where the parking lots were was very satisfying. Mayor John Hickenlooper, the developers and an executive from Four Seasons corporate all made remarks.

You can read more about it in this Rocky Mountain News article. This project will be one of the first major changes to our skyline along 14th street and will take 30 months to build. So in late 2009 or early 2010 we will have a new 5 star hotel and 102 more new residences in Downtown. I can’t wait to see it coming out of the ground. Also impressive is the number of jobs and economic impact this project will have on Downtown.

Congratulations to all of the staff at the Four Seasons Presentation Center who have worked tirelessly on this project for the past few years. Congratulations to the developers and investors as well. If you have a chance, their Presentation Center is really nice and features vignettes of kitchens, baths as well as closets.

On Friday, September 21st I attended the grand opening of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. I have written about Bubba Gump in a few earlier posts as I followed its development.

It was quite a party and they had not only a giant shrimp mascot but a real life Forrest Gump impersonator too. Both levels of the restaurant are really nice and surprisingly not over the top. The second floor was my favorite and they even have a Ping Pong Room for special events.

All of the food I sampled was really good. The coconut shrimp and crab hush puppies were my favorites. I expect this to become a draw for not only tourists but families from the suburbs as well. The folding windows on the second floor are a great feature and will ensure that their bar becomes a popular happy hour spot. I hope they do really well and think that they bring yet another unique element to our Downtown. On our way out the Forrest Gump impersonator gave us what else but a box of chocolates. Welcome to the neighborhood!

Sorry for the lack of entries as of late. Having just spent 6 days in Manhattan and a recent vacation in Las Vegas, there just has not been enough time in my day to post.

More on lessons from Manhattan will come soon. I did want to point out the progress made at a pivotal building site that I have followed for the last 3+ years. The Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences have finally closed the parking lot and began site work!

You can read about it at this post at Denver Infill. There also was an interesting article recently about the financing of the project in the Rocky Mountain News, which confirmed that the developer had secured construction financing. This parking lot closure would confirm that story and is almost sure sign that work on the 45 story, skyline transforming, tower will be well underway very soon.

This project is so important for this area of 14th Street and will be complimented by the 51 story 1401 Lawrence project across the street as well as the Denver Theater District in development right now. Between them 247 more households will be added to this part of Downtown. Congratulations to the developers on this huge milestone!

As I was out and about walking around LoDo last week I noticed another restaurant that is planning to open here in Downtown. Thunderbird Burgers & BBQ will open this fall at a location just down from the 16th Street mall on Blake Street.

Since Colorado has launched so many new restaurant concepts perhaps this is the next Chipotle? This will be the third location for this Boulder based company. The guy I talked to in front of their location said they are planning for a September opening date. Their menu looks like they will have pretty reasonable options and if they have a bar at this location you can bet it will be a popular gathering space.