By Eric Heinz
Plans to add a hotel on top of Lake Steam bath house in West Colfax will also preserve the longtime spa that has been enjoyed by Denver residents since the business opened nearly 100 years ago.
According to city documents that were recently submitted by owners Tyler Weston and Scott Kilkenny, a 58-room hotel would accompany the existing Lake Steam business. The historic exterior of Lake Steam will remain, with restoration efforts underway.
“We just thought it really fit well with the mix of having the steam baths, kind of a spa atmosphere,” Weston told The Denver North Star. “With the hotel above it, people can come, they can stay, they can use the spa facilities and we’ll make it a really nice facility.”
As part of the project, Weston and Kilkenny plan to renovate the interior of the bath house, but Weston said they will continue the membership program for people in the neighborhood and not just keep it exclusive to hotel guests.
“Our goal is just to make the facility better than it already is but offer all the same and have a beautiful hotel above it, adding even more facilities,” Weston said. “It’s just gonna be a beautiful little thing for the community to use.”
Weston said the improvements will include adding a hot tub, a cold plunge pool, massage rooms and various kinds of saunas. He said a gym is also planned for the second floor of the hotel as well as a yoga studio or similar facilities.
“We just think that it’s a really good upand- coming area with everything that’s going on and all the new development happening,” Weston said. “We tend to think that it’s a primo area that could really use a facility like this.”
Originally, there were plans to make the new development apartment buildings, but Weston said they decided to change directions to facilitate a clientele for the bath house. Weston and Kilkenny partered to buy the property at 3540 W. Colfax Ave. for $2 million last October.
Ethyl and Harry Hyman founded Lake Steam in 1927. Their youngest child, Joe Hyman, eventually took over, with his wife, Gertie, handling most day-to-day operations. Joe and Gertie’s son Hannon Hyman took his own turn running Lake Steam, together with wife, Amy.
When Hannon died in 2015, Amy Hyman was left to carry on the business. She was at the helm in 2019 when Lake Steam was awarded Westword’s “Best of Denver” honor for Best Service on Colfax. And she carried the storied, iconic business through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, its last years in the Hyman family.
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