Just minutes from Denver International Airport is the largest hotel project under construction in the United States.

When it is finished, the $800M Gaylord Rockies hotel in Aurora will have 2M SF, with 1,501 guest rooms and 485K SF of meeting space, including a 50K SF column-free ballroom that will hold as many as 4,000 people.

About 1,300 workers show up every day to work on the project. General contractor Mortenson has 79 subcontractors working on the project, including companies doing framing and drywall and two electrical contractors. Developer Rida’s average payout to its subs is $20M a month.

Like Gaylord's other four hotels, the Gaylord Rockies will highlight characteristics that define the local region. The Grand Lodge will be front and center upon entering the hotel. It will have the feel of a ski village with rock work, waterways and landscaping representative of what is found throughout Colorado. There may be an elk hiding in the corner, and a Santa Fe Caboose that was a workhorse in the Rockies in its past life is being restored. The fireplace will have a 16-foot-long faux wood beam that is about four feet in diameter for the mantle piece. A rock grotto that holds about 50 people will be available for events.

“The subcontractor that did the theming did a weeklong tour of the state,” said Rida Development Corp. Vice President of Architecture and Construction David Bray, noting that the hotel and conference center took about a year and a half to design.

The property will have eight restaurants and bars with a total of 1,344 seats and a 60K SF kitchen to service them.

The 24K SF Mountain Pass sports bar will seat 460 people and will have about 25 TVs, including a 75-foot-long, 14-foot-high LED screen — the largest indoor LED screen in the state. The men’s room will have urinals made from beer kegs.

The Gaylord Rockies will have seven pools and water features, including an outdoor pool and lazy river that will be open year-round. The resort also will have tennis courts and a basketball court, as well as a spa.

Though it is still a year from completion, Gaylord Rockies already has more than 600,000 room nights booked between February 2019 and 2028. The resort is projected to draw more than 450,000 net new visitors a year and will create 1,550 permanent, direct jobs.

Gaylord is getting $84.1M under the state’s Regional Tourism Act, which gives large-scale projects funding if they can provide reliable economic data demonstrating that they will result in a substantial increase in out-of-state tourism and generate a significant portion of their sales tax revenue by transactions with nonresidents. The project also is receiving about $300M from Aurora.

The massive project also is driving other development in the area near DIA. In addition to developing the Gaylord, Rida has acquired 130 acres around the resort that is planned for a mixed-use project. Bray said construction on that site is expected to start by the middle of 2019.