1680 S. Colorado Blvd
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation received a building permit in February 2026 to begin construction on Denver Veterans Village, a full gut renovation of a former 10-story Fairfield Inn at 1680 S. Colorado Blvd. into 117 units of permanent supportive housing for veterans. The permit, valued at $4,265,422, covers an occupancy change from hotel to R-2 residential, interior demolition, new partitions, kitchen installations in each unit, first-floor community and dining rooms, and full mechanical, electrical, and plumbing overhauls across all ten floors.
Tunnel to Towers paid $12.7 million for the property in September 2024, acquiring it from Maryland-based RLJ Lodging Trust, which had owned the hotel since 2006. The permit lists RLJII-F Cherry Creek LLC as the property owner of record, consistent with RLJ's holding entity structure. Global Construction, a firm specializing in hospitality and multifamily renovations, is the licensed contractor on the project. Denis Koval, CEO of Global Construction, holds the Class B contractor license on the permit. The project architect is Michael Rodebaugh, with plan approval issued by Denver's Community Planning and Development on December 30, 2025.
The Affordable Housing Plan, recorded with the City and County of Denver in October 2025, designates the project as a multi-unit dwelling with Single Room Occupancies under Denver's Mandatory Affordable Housing Ordinance. Of the 117 total rental units — 83 studios and 34 one-bedrooms — 9 units are designated income-restricted at 60% AMI, split between 6 studios and 3 one-bedrooms. Residents will pay 30% of their monthly income, with utilities and on-site services included.
The Denver Veterans Village will provide on-site comprehensive support services including job training, benefits assistance, education assistance, medical care access, mental health support, PTSD counseling, and addiction treatment. The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, based in Staten Island, New York, was founded in memory of FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller, who died in the September 11 attacks. The foundation launched its Homeless Veteran Program in 2023 with the goal of eradicating veteran homelessness nationwide and has since provided housing assistance to more than 6,500 veterans.
The Denver Veterans Village follows the foundation's Veterans Village model already operating in Houston, Riverside, West Los Angeles, and Phoenix, with additional projects under construction in Bradenton, Mableton, Island Park, Charleston, and Detroit. The Denver project adds a 10-story, 110-foot Type I-B building to the portfolio — among the larger conversions in the foundation's national pipeline. Suncor Energy U.S.A. donated over half a million dollars to support the Denver project.
The building sits along the Colorado Boulevard corridor in Virginia Village, roughly a mile south of Cherry Creek's core retail district, adjacent to a gas station and across from a Best Buy. The surrounding stretch of Colorado Boulevard has been a slow-burn redevelopment corridor, with several older commercial parcels in various stages of repositioning. The hotel-to-housing conversion model — faster and cheaper than ground-up construction — has gained traction nationally, and Denver Veterans Village puts one of the city's most visible older hotel buildings into permanent residential use with a mission anchor that is unlikely to be reversed.
Construction is expected to reach completion in 2027.