DENVER >> A state economic official and an RBC broker told the Colorado Economic Development Commission Wednesday that a bond transaction to facilitate the sale of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park could close within the next few weeks.

The complex and at times precarious deal, which would see Grand Heritage Hotel Group turn ownership of the iconic hotel over to the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority, is necessary, state officials and hotel management say, to complete development of the Stanley Film Center, a long-planned but notoriously stubborn-to-build facility that will celebrate the horror genre inside the lodge that inspired Stephen King’s “The Shining” novel.

But first, the state’s brokers must market and sell roughly $425 million in bonds.

Recently there have been “several promising developments related to the transaction,” which has been in the works for well over a year, Jeff Kraft, deputy director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, told the EDC.

“The transaction has never gotten this far in the past. The bond is being publicly marketed. (Brokers with RBC Capital Markets are) actively looking to sell various tranches of the bonds to the buyers, talking to many potential investors,” he said. “They’ve even been holding some in-person tours of the Stanley for investors, so they can really see what a special asset it is.”

Encouraging trends in the bond market “positively impact the ability to sell this project,” Kraft said. “So if that continues, it gives us a real chance to have this offering be priced as soon as tomorrow and move towards closing within a couple weeks.”

RBC Capital Markets director Michael Persichitte told the EDC that the brokerage is “feeling very good” about its ability to sell the bonds to “large qualified institutions and institutional credit investors.”

The roughly $70 million Stanley Film Center project began in 2015 with a jumpstart in the form of millions of dollars in Colorado Regional Tourism Act incentives. Development of the museum and interactive film center, which has received several more public-financing boosts over the years, has been hampered by construction delays, cost increases and the COVID-19 pandemic, which essentially shut down the hospitality industry for several months in 2020.

Once complete, the Stanley Film Center will be “a two-story building with approximately 64,735 square feet, to include an approximately 864-seat outdoor amphitheater with a fire capacity of 1,200 (including standing room), an event center, a film museum, a sound stage and related amenities, to be constructed adjacent to the main hotel building and connected to the concert hall,” according to state documents.

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