A Denver-area development group says it expects to know within 30 days whether it will seek to proceed with its proposal to transform the historic Antlers hotel in downtown Colorado Springs into apartments.

Though the 273-room Antlers remains a prominent downtown property, its promenade area on the hotel’s east side near Cascade and Pikes Peak avenues, along with Antlers Park to the west of the building, need upgrades to make them a vibrant part of the central business district, said Nate Taylor, who describes himself as a veteran of the construction and development industries.

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Taylor, of Castle Rock, and partner Joseph Libkey Jr., who heads Blueprint Investment Group in Thornton, have formed BP Antlers OZ, a limited liability company that submitted a proposal to city government planners last week that envisions turning The Antlers into 166 apartments.

The repurposed hotel, at 4 S. Cascade Ave., would include indoor and outdoor pools, an exercise facility, restaurants, a coffee shop and collaborative workspaces, among other amenities, according to the proposal by Taylor and Libkey.

The Antlers building itself is in good shape, Taylor said this week. But the promenade area in front of the hotel is underutilized and could become home to farmers markets and other events that would draw more visitors downtown, he said.

At the same time, the hotel needs a better connection to Antlers Park on its west side to make the park a more attractive amenity, Taylor said.

“The hotel’s fine the way it is; it’s producing for Colorado Springs,” Taylor said. “It’s just not excitable for people to come and patronize.

“Downtown is growing,” he added. “People want to be downtown, they want to go the restaurants, they want a little bit more of a nightlife. We’re showing that with the amount of restaurants that are starting to come into downtown. … There’s a huge amount of potential with what The Antlers has to be able to be a cool, new vibe kind of place that’s going to attract people to downtown.”

The proposal to transform The Antlers comes at a time when thousands of apartments have opened, are under construction or in various stages of planning in downtown Colorado Springs by local, regional and national developers.

Taylor said he and Libkey will look at numerous factors over the next few weeks to determine whether their apartment concept could work or if The Antlers might be better off remaining a hotel. Among them: the direction of interest rates, acquisition costs, debt concerns, bond markets and the state of the apartment and hotel markets, he said.

At the end of their 30-day timetable, Taylor said he and Libkey expect to discuss their concept for The Antlers with current owners Perry Sanders Jr., a Colorado Springs attorney and businessman, and John Goede, also an attorney. Sanders and Goede have owned The Antlers since buying it for $21.7 million in 2015.

Taylor said he and Libkey don’t have The Antlers under contract for purchase.

Sanders, meanwhile, said he and Goede only gave the green light for Taylor and Libkey to submit their apartment proposal to city planners for review, and don’t yet know if they’re even interested in selling the hotel — or what else the future might hold for the historic property.

Sanders said he and Goede might want to keep The Antlers as a full-service hotel, whose 27,500 square feet of meeting space is the largest in downtown and a key venue that hosts luncheons, business conferences and other events. But Sanders said he and Goede also are interested in a concept of turning The Antlers’ upper floors into for-sale condo units while retaining hotel rooms on lower floors.

The Antlers is a well-known part of Colorado Springs’ history. It was built by city founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer in 1883. The hotel was destroyed by fire 15 years after it opened, rebuilt, and demolished and rebuilt again in the 1960s.

The Antlers is downtown’s only full-service hotel and is part of the Wyndham family of hotels and resorts.

A look at the developers

Taylor and Sanders have done business in the past.

Blue Spruce Constructors, a company operated by Taylor and his father, Richard, served as general contractor in 2011 and 2012 when Sanders purchased the Mining Exchange office building at 8 S. Nevada Ave. and remodeled it into a boutique hotel, Pikes Peak Regional Building Department records show.

Taylor also said he’s been involved in residential, apartment and commercial development in Colorado Springs and other parts of the Front Range over the last 25 years.

Libkey is described in online posts as a residential and commercial general contractor, real estate investor and real estate developer who’s been involved in school, hospital, single-family and apartment projects, among others.

He couldn’t be reached for comment, and Taylor said this week that Libkey was out of the country.

One of Libkey’s development entities, Blueprint Investment Fund, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection March 30 as a result of problems related to a 47-unit townhome project in Evergreen, according to filings in U.S Bankruptcy Court in Denver.

Blueprint Investment Fund, in which Libkey is listed as owner, president and CEO, sought to develop the project, court filings show.

But third-party disputes related to easement and access rights to the Evergreen property — which have since been resolved — “created a significant delay” in the townhome project’s development, according to the filings.

As a result, Blueprint Investment Fund filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors, court filings show.

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In its bankruptcy filing, Blueprint listed total liabilities of just over $1.8 million and assets of $4.9 million — though those assets represented the estimated value of the undeveloped townhome site. Blueprint also had $146.21 in a business checking account.

A subsequent monthly operating report filed by Blueprint Investment Fund showed it had just $400 in cash on hand at the beginning of July.

But Blueprint, which has retained control of the townhome site in Evergreen, since has received additional financing.

It obtained a $7.5 million debtor-in-possession loan from a California-based firm — later reduced to $5 million — of which $2.5 million went to pay off three secured creditors in full, according to court records. Those payments totaled more than $1.9 million.

Another portion of the loan was disbursed to Blueprint Investment Fund, which boosted its cash on hand at the end of July to $571,789, records show.  

Blueprint plans to use additional loan proceeds to complete the townhome project, according to court records.

Bankruptcy records also show Blueprint still owes money to three unsecured creditors, including $66,000 to RMG-Rocky Mountain Group, which has offices in Colorado Springs, Monument, Englewood and Windsor. 

Nate Dowden, RMG-Rocky Mountain Group’s CEO, said his firm provided land planning, architectural and civil engineering services for the planned Blueprint townhome project in Evergreen.

His company last communicated in May with Libkey, who has “repeatedly” assured RMG-Rocky Mountain Group that it would be paid in full, Dowden said.

“But we have seen zero funds forthcoming,” he said. 

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Sanders said this week that he was unaware of the bankruptcy filing by the Libkey-controlled Blueprint Investment Fund.

The bankruptcy wouldn’t impact any deal regarding the future of the hotel — should a deal ever happen, Sanders said. Bankruptcy protection is a tool used by many business people, corporations and the like for a variety of reasons, he said.

“If there’s no theft or fraud involved … I would not let it affect my decision one way or the other,” Sanders said. “I’ve just known too many people that I’ve known and liked and then seen come back from bankruptcy and be wildly, not kind of wildly, I mean wildly, wildly successful. I think it’s the wrong gauge for whether or not somebody should have something sold to them or not.”