The Royal Palace Motel is finally coming down, a year after being purchased by a developer.
On Monday, crews began demolishing the long-abandoned building just north of the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Colfax Avenue.
Thomas Gounley, BusinessDen
The Royal Palace Motel opened in 1969 and closed in 2013. (Thomas Gounley, BusinessDen)
The five-story structure on just over an acre at 1565 N. Colorado Blvd. was bought for $7.3 million in January 2024 by Chicago-based Laramar Group. The firm develops apartments and has submitted plans for a six-story building at the site with about 150 units.
A local executive with Laramar didn’t respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The five-story, yellow-and-turquoise Royal Palace Motel was built in 1969, at the tail end of the golden era of motels on Colfax. Interstate 70 through Denver was completed around the same time, diverting travelers.
Most Colfax motels have since been demolished or used as housing by the city’s poorest residents. The Royal Palace hung on for decades before closing in 2013. A 1998 homicide at the motel remains a cold case.
Laramar bought the property from Denver developer Jeff Oberg, who purchased it for $850,000 in 2004.
