Seven years after selling DTC hotel, company says it’s still owed $11.5M

Seven years ago, a newly formed hotel investment company in Denver proudly touted its purchase of a Best Western Plus in the Denver Tech Center for $15 million.

“The property has all of the characteristics we are looking for in an acquisition — strong current yield, excellent location, superior branding and a variety of healthy demand generators,” Phillip Hutchins, co-founder of the company Rockies Lodging Capital, said in a news release.

But on April 28, Hutchins, fellow co-founder Stephen Mills and RLC were sued in Arapahoe County District Court by DTC Hotel LLC, which claims it hasn’t been paid about $11.5 million that it is still owed from the sale of the 149-room Best Western at 9231 E. Arapahoe Road.

According to DTC Hotel, which is based in Greenwood Village, RLC signed a promissory note for $11.5 million and took out a $200,000 loan for repairs at the hotel in April 2015. DTC says the firm owes it $11.3 million from the promissory note and the full $200,000 from the loan, along with interest, late fees and attorney fees.

“The pandemic had a large negative impact on our hotel property operations, with losses approaching $2 million over the last couple of years, resulting in the default,” Mills said in an email. “We are actively working with our lender towards a resolution which includes a payoff of their loan against the property.”

“We expect to close on the recapitalization of the property within the next 60 days, resulting in a dismissal of the (lawsuit) filing upon loan payoff,” Mills added.