SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown at MSU Denver Named City's First Gold LEED Certified Hotel

Hotel offering special Green Urban Garden Getaway package

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. May 29, 2014

May 29, 2014 - SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown at MSU Denver is thrilled to announce that it has been certified LEED® Gold for New Construction by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit organization dedicated to sustainable building design and construction.

Owned by the Metropolitan State University of Denver and managed by Sage Hospitality, the $45 million SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown is metro Denver's first LEED® Gold hotel and the second in the SpringHill Suites by Marriott brand portfolio.

The public-private partnership between MSU Denver and Sage Hospitality created a vibrant hotel that opened in 2012, as well as the state-of-the-art Hotel and Hospitality Learning Center (HLC), the first of its kind in the Rocky Mountain region and one of only 11 in the United States. The partnership created a dynamic environment for education and on-the-job training for students, who work along-side well-seasoned hoteliers from Sage Hospitality.

"Sage Hospitality is dedicated to operating eco-friendly hotels, so we are extremely proud to receive Denver's first LEED® Gold certification," said Walter Isenberg, President & CEO of Sage Hospitality. "This property gives both business and leisure guests an amazing green lodging option in the heart of downtown Denver and we are using it as a model of sustainability for all future development projects.”

The 150-suite hotel and HLC earned a total of 62 LEED® points, including those for water efficiency, innovative design and sustainable site and materials selection.Unique green features include:

• More than 90 percent of regularly occupied areas offer natural day lighting, reducing the need for artificial lighting
• The use of only high efficiency plumbing fixtures and low VOC paints and flooring
• Secure bicycle storage plus lockers and changing rooms to encourage employees and students to use alternative transportation
• Both buildings offer full recycling in guestrooms, classrooms and offices
• Nearly 20 percent of the building was constructed using recycled materials and 25 percent of total building materials were locally sourced
• More than 78 percent of material waste from the construction was recycled
• All compostable food from the hotel's banquet and catering department, as well as from the student classes, is composted
• The Housekeeping and Food & Beverage departments in the hotel and HLC use only green, natural cleaning products, including vinegar

In celebration of its Gold LEED® certification, the SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown has planted an Aspen tree and an on-site Chef's Garden, where Executive Chef Daniel Hyman is growing vegetables and herbs to be used in food and beverage offerings through the hotel's banquet and catering department. Worm casting will be used in the Chef's Garden to allow for organic fertilizing. Coffee grounds are disposed of in the garden's soil to increase water retention and naturally repel insects.

The hotel is also launching a special Green Urban Garden Getaway package, starting at $159 per night. It includes:

• Overnight accommodations in a spacious suite
• $20 gift card to Denver's Urban Roots, which serves gardeners who have limited space and unlimited desire by finding horticultural solutions for city dwellers who toil in small plots of land, vertical spaces, balconies and containers.
• Complimentary Valet Parking for guests arriving in an Electric or Hybrid vehicle
• A packet of wildflower seeds to plant
• Two Denver microbrews

The SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown and the HLC were developed by Mortenson Development and Mortenson Construction's Denver office was the design-builder. Denver's RNL was the design architect and architect of record for the hotel; JG Johnson Architects was the associate architect and hotel interiors architect.

MSU Denver's 28,000-square-foot HLC is an educational facility that combines classrooms with interactive laboratories to provide an experiential curriculum for the university's more than 600 Hospitality, Tourism and Events students. State-of-the-art classrooms include a Sensory Analysis Laboratory for wine and food tastings and a Cellar Management Laboratory, which boasts a 3,100+ bottle wine storage cellar.

The hotel's 150 spacious and stylish guest suites each feature a flexible workspace, a separate sleeping area, a microwave, mini-fridge, a seating area with pull-out sofa bed and a spa-like bathroom. Amenities include complimentary hot breakfast served daily, a Market, a fitness center, complimentary area shuttle service and complimentary wireless Internet. The SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown offers 5,000 square feet of meeting and event space and can accommodate groups of up to 250 people.

For more information on the SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown, please call 303-705-7300 or visit www.marriott.com/densd.

For more information on MSU Denver, please visit www.msudenver.edu.