The end of an era could be at hand for an iconic piece of Colorado Springs’ history.

Or, perhaps not.

The downtown Antlers hotel, built by city founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer nearly 140 years ago and which was destroyed by fire, rebuilt, and demolished and rebuilt again in the 1960s, would be converted into apartments, according to a proposal submitted to city government planners by a Denver-area investment and development group.

The 273-room hotel — a signature property in the heart of downtown at 4 S. Cascade Ave. and across from the Cascade-and-Pikes Peak-avenues intersection where a survey crew drove the first stake in 1871 to mark Colorado Springs’ founding — would become home to 166 apartments and renamed the XO Lofts@Antlers, the proposal submitted to the city shows.

But the hotel’s transformation into apartments is far from a done deal, cautioned current owner Perry Sanders Jr., the Colorado Springs attorney and businessman who, along with partner and attorney John Goede, purchased The Antlers in 2015 for $21.7 million.

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Sanders and Goede haven’t proposed changes to The Antlers; rather, they authorized a potential third-party buyer that’s interested in the hotel’s redevelopment to submit plans to the city that outline its conversion into apartments.

Sanders declined to say if the hotel is under contract to be sold to the third-party group. There are no plans to raze the structure, he added.

It’s unknown if the proposal to transform The Antlers into apartments will come to fruition and too early to say that its days as a downtown hotel are over, Sanders said.

“No. 1, if we sell it, and that’s a big if, what somebody ultimately does with it that owns it is going to be what they ultimately do with it, and it’s fully their decision,” Sanders said Friday. “If we keep it, the same thing applies to us. It’s just the nature of all of these buildings.

“In deals, people doing things and courting ideas and courting business arrangements are never completed until they actually are completed or until certain steps are taken to get things completed,” Sanders added. “It would be premature at this junction to say, guaranteed, this is what’s happening with The Antlers.”

The conversion of The Antlers has been proposed by a group headed by Joseph Libkey Jr. of the Blueprint Investment Group in Thornton, according to the submittal to city planners.

Libkey is described in online posts as a residential and commercial general contractor, real estate investor and real estate developer. He’s been involved with numerous residential and commercial projects, including public schools, specialty hospitals, universities, luxury homes, urban row-home redevelopment, condominiums and apartments, the online posts show.

Libkey could not be reached for comment Friday, but his representative texted The Gazette to say that nothing is final about the proposal to transform The Antlers.

“We are simply exploring options with ownership at this time,” the representative said. “Since we do not own or control the property, it would be inappropriate to give any sort of statement about it.”

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A sale of The Antlers would be the second major downtown hotel deal for Sanders and Goede. In June, they sold the 117-room, Mining Exchange hotel to the Kemmons Wilson Cos. of Memphis, Tenn. The sale price was $32.7 million, El Paso County land records show.

If they don’t sell The Antlers, Sanders said he and Goede haven’t ruled out changes of their own to the property.

They’re intrigued about the idea of converting The Antlers’ upper floors into for-sale condominiums, while retaining lower floor hotel rooms, Sanders said. Many prominent hotels — such as the Four Seasons in downtown Denver — have a mix of rooms and private residences.

Though the proposal to transform The Antlers into apartments is being labeled preliminary by Sanders and the potential buyer, rumors about the hotel’s sale and conversion have been flying for more than a year.

Several city officials, civic leaders and downtown businesspeople have acknowledged the talk and openly wondered about the hotel’s fate.

But for practical purposes, The Antlers isn’t just a part of city history; it’s a full-service hotel in downtown’s core and turning it into apartments could be a loss for the central business district.

The Antlers routinely hosts business conferences, luncheons and workshops in its 27,500 square feet of ballroom and meeting space — the largest hotel for such gatherings in downtown. Its restaurants and other amenities are frequented by out-of-town visitors, downtown businesspeople and local residents.

Since 2019, downtown Colorado Springs has seen the opening of the Hilton Garden Inn, Hyatt Place, Kinship Landing and, in May, a dual-branded Marriott that carries the SpringHill Suites and Element flags. Those properties have added almost 630 hotel rooms to downtown, but their meeting space is nothing as large as what The Antlers offers.

“If this were to go forward, it would be disheartening,” Susan Edmondson, president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership advocacy group said of the proposal to convert The Antlers into apartments. “I think it’s vital for our city to have a full-service hotel in the heart of downtown. My hope would be if this does happen, this would hasten plans to bring a new, modern, full-service hotel downtown. But for now, we’ll let the process play out and see what happens.”

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She added: “From an economic perspective, it is our only full-service hotel downtown. We’ve added wonderful new hotels. But needing a larger, flat floor ballroom space for conferences and very large community gatherings is really important to bring people together in the heart of the city. And that’s a really key component of this that would be really hard to lose.”

A timetable for The Antlers proposal and whether it goes forward isn’t clear.

In general, when developers and investors submit new construction and redevelopment proposals to city officials, they typically have contracted to buy a property. They then seek government regulatory approvals, conduct their due diligence and line up financing.

Those steps sometimes take months or even longer and, occasionally, some projects never go forward and are left on the cutting room floor.

According to the proposal submitted to city planners, a repurposed and remodeled Antlers would have indoor and outdoor pools and a hot tub, an exercise facility, a store and market, restaurants, coffee shop, collaborative workspace and meeting spaces for building residents and the public.

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Whether all 27,500 square feet of meeting space would be retained and in what form wasn’t clear from the proposal.

Other elements of the proposal to convert The Antlers include:

• An existing parking garage that serves the hotel and the First Bank Building and Wells Fargo Bank Tower — which flank the hotel and, combined, make up the Palmer Center complex — would accommodate apartment building residents.

• Building improvements would include painting the exterior, replacing exterior windows, adding “an exoskeleton framing” on the building’s north and south ends and on its west side, where service elevators are located.

• A roof deck would be added to the building’s second floor, along with a trellis, to accommodate gas grills, lounge seating and fire pits. The amenities would tie into an existing deck that serves the hotel pool and hot tub.

• A proposed connection from the building’s west side and coming off the second level of the parking structure would provide direct access to Antlers Park immediately west of the hotel. The park itself would receive “a major renovation.”

• Much of the hotel’s “existing feel and finishes” would be maintained, “with a new and updated concept in the main lobby and in all of the public spaces throughout the building.”