The University of Colorado quietly scored a bargain on its own front door in February, shelling out $22.5 million to buy The Benson Hotel & Faculty Club on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. The three-year-old boutique property cost far more than that to build and now sits fully under university control, a few steps from UCHealth.
The seven-story hotel has 106 rooms, a public restaurant and a members-only faculty club that caters to faculty, staff and campus partners. CU says the deal keeps crucial hospitality space close to the hospitals and gives visiting scholars and patient families a ready-made home base instead of sending them hunting around Aurora for rooms.
In a campus news release, CU Anschutz confirmed the $22.5 million purchase and named Denver-based Sage Hospitality Group as the manager of the property. Chancellor Don Elliman called the Benson "truly part of our front door," arguing that owning the hotel lets the university make sure it continues to function as a tool for recruitment, events and patient care. The release also notes that CU expects to grow the hotel's role in supporting extended stays for patients and their loved ones.
Commercial real estate outlet BusinessDen reported that Aimco developed the Benson, opened it in 2023 and had originally bought the development site in 2020. BusinessDen highlighted the on-site restaurant, The Common Good, and cast the hotel as a campus-focused gathering place rather than a typical highway stopover.
Sale Tied To Aimco Liquidation
The timing of CU's bargain basement price is not an accident. Aimco’s fourth-quarter earnings release shows that shareholders approved a Plan of Sale and Liquidation in early February, and the company lists the Benson among the properties sold that month. Aimco said the moves are part of an orderly wind-down aimed at monetizing assets and returning proceeds to stockholders. Aimco lays out the shareholder vote and the wider set of transactions tied to the liquidation.
Price Gap Raises Questions
The $22.5 million CU paid is a steep markdown from the roughly $52 million it took to build the place, according to Engineering News-Record. That gap underscores how liquidation sales and shifting market conditions can squeeze values for boutique hospitality properties.
ENR's project profile adds that the Benson includes a 100-seat restaurant along with about 8,000 square feet of meeting and event space, giving CU not just rooms but a built-in venue for conferences, lectures and medical-campus functions.
Who Will Run It
CU has tapped Denver-based Sage Hospitality to operate the hotel, keeping a seasoned local player in charge of the day-to-day. Sage’s announcement casts the Benson as a hub for campus visitors, medical professionals and the broader Aurora community rather than a purely academic enclave. Daniel del Olmo, Sage’s president and co-CEO, said the hotel's tight connection to the medical campus made it a natural fit for the company. Nation’s Restaurant News published the Sage release.
Inside The Benson
The hotel leans heavily into its role as an academic and medical hangout. The Benson Hotel outlines the Faculty Club program, the Common Good restaurant and the perks that come with membership. The club’s FAQ lists annual dues of $600 and a $500 food-and-beverage minimum per membership year.
The property mixes standard guest rooms, extended-stay suites and flexible meeting space, a combination CU says will keep serving recruitment efforts and patient-family stays on the campus. The university now has direct control over a key anchor at a time when some nearby hotel owners have hit rough patches. For Aimco, the sale checked off one more box in a larger liquidation plan. For CU, it was a way to lock in a campus hospitality hub at a discount and tailor it to hospital-adjacent needs and university events while everyone else watches to see who builds next around Anschutz.
