Groups are developing plans for shops, offices and a hotel in the historic building that will be a transportation hub.

By Jeffrey Leib The Denver Post

Varying visions for revitalizing Union Station in Denver’s Lower Downtown have emerged as RTD maps out a competitive process for selecting a developer to renovate the historic structure.

That renovation is part of a broad array of transit improvements that will make the station, and the area surrounding it, a $488 million transit hub for the Regional Transportation District. The broader redevelopment includes a new light-rail platform, an underground regional bus terminal and a multitrack commuter-rail platform just outside the west doors of the station.

A private entity, Union Station Neighborhood Co., is the master developer for the entire 30-acre transit district that surrounds the station, the bus terminal and the rail platforms, which will serve RTD’s FasTracks trains, including the $1.1 billion line to Denver International Airport. The district includes more than 4 million square feet of planned mixed-use commercial and residential development, and last week, USNC unveiled its proposal for restoring commercial use of Union Station.

It calls for a major renovation of the large open train room, with a restaurant; new waiting-room amenities; new locations for Amtrak’s ticketing and baggage services; and an information kiosk to aid travelers and visitors.

USNC also is proposing to develop a walk-through food market in the building’s south wing, with stalls featuring the goods of local purveyors, much in the manner of Seattle’s Pike Place Market or Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market.

The group’s plan for Union Station includes about 8,800 square feet of separate restaurant space in the building’s north wing and about 25,000 square feet of leasable office space on the station’s upper floors. “It’s a relatively simple vision of what this place should be,” said USNC’s Frank Cannon. “It’s the tenants you procure and how you execute it. We believe we have the right vision and team to execute it.”

Earlier this year, a separate business group, led by Sage Hospitality’s Walter Isenberg and longtime LoDo developer Dana Crawford, proposed an alternate plan for redeveloping Union Station that calls for putting a 100-room boutique hotel in the building along with a restaurant and possibly other retail uses.

Their plan calls for affiliating the hotel in the train station with the Sage-owned Oxford Hotel on 17th Street, a block away.

In briefings last week to RTD’s board of directors and the Denver Union Station Project Authority (DUSPA), RTD’s Bill Sirois said the transit agency plans next month to begin a public process of soliciting formal proposals from any group that wants to redevelop the station.

While DUSPA is overseeing the nearly half-billion-dollar redevelopment of the entire Union Station area, RTD has retained the right to select the group that will redo the station itself. After an initial solicitation next month aimed at identifying groups with a serious interest and adequate financial capability for revitalizing Union Station, RTD plans to request more detailed proposals from them in August, and it will evaluate those submissions during the fourth quarter of this year, Sirois said.

The transit agency hopes to select a winning team to develop the station by next March, he said. “We’ve heard from stakeholders that they want to see creative, competitive ideas.”

Supervalu to open 160 new hard discount supermarkets by 2012

Supermarket conglomerate Supervalu plans to open 160 new Save-A-Lot discount grocery stores by March 2012. The company sees significant expansion potential in the brand, which caters to households with annual incomes of $45,000 or less and serves densely populated urban markets as well as rural communities, says president and CEO Craig Herkert.

Supervalu has opened 92 new Save-A-Lot stores in the past year, the most in the brand’s history. Approximately 50 percent of those stores are licensed to independent owner-operators, demonstrating an ownership model that Herkert says is unique in the discount grocery format and serves as a strong point of competitive differentiation.

Supervalu will spend between $700 and $750 million to open the new stores and renovate some existing locations, and will be looking particularly to Western states for new markets, he said. “We are also aggressively targeting food deserts, where there is a strong unmet need,” he said on the company’s earnings call.

For its fiscal year ended Feb. 28, Supervalu posted net sales of $37.5 billion and a net loss of $1.51 billion, compared to net sales of $40.6 billion and net earnings of $393 million in fiscal 2010. The decline in earnings was due in part to store closures and the sale of a logistics division that occurred in 2010, the company said. It closed about 80 underperforming stores during the period. Same-store sales fell 6 percent in 2011 and Supervalu expects them to range from negative 2.5 percent to negative 1.5 percent in 2012.

Supervalu operates 4,294 stores, including 1,114 traditional grocery stores including the Albertson’s banner; 1,280 discount Save-A-Lot stores of which 899 are operated by licensee owners; and 1,900 independent stores serviced primarily by the company's traditional food distribution business.

Compiled by the staff of Shopping Centers Today. © April 15, 2011 International Council of Shopping Centers.

Big Lots Rolling Out More Stores in Higher-End Locations

Retail Watch: Big Lots Rolling Out More Stores in Higher-End Locations

By Mark Heschmeyer

March 9, 2011

Big Lots Inc. is boosting its plans for new store openings this year, looking to spend $50 million to cover opening 90 new stores. That would be 10 more new stores than opened last year. And more so than in the past couple of years, the discount retailer is looking at opening in higher-end locations.

Speaking on an investor call this past week, Charles W. Haubiel II, legal and real estate, general counsel and corporate secretary for the discount retailer, said: "The success of our new store programs for both 2010 and 2009 has let us to target a higher number of store openings for 2011. Our plans for 2011 call for 90 new stores and our expectation for 45 store closings equaling net store growth of approximately 45 stores or a little over 3%. We feel comfortable with the 90 store openings at this point, and are making a very concerted effort to open the best stores we can as early in the year as possible."

In 2010, Big Lots opened 80 stores and closed 43 stores for a net addition of 37 stores. Of the stores closed, 23 were relocations of older stores being relocated to higher traffic areas in better strip centers or stores too small for a full size furniture department that were relocated to a larger space to accommodate our full furniture assortment.

Looking at the breakout of types of stores for 2011, Haubiel said the retailer expects to open 60 to 65 traditional locations and 25 to 30 new 'A' type locations.

"In terms of traditional locations, the availability remains good, and we're certainly an attractive potential tenant as our overall credit profile and business model remains strong," Haubiel said. "Traditional locations opened in 2010 performed very well and are trending near company average sales productivity with forecasted cash flow in the neighborhood of $300,000 per store in their first full fiscal year."

"In terms of 'A' type locations, we see the potential for adding 25 to 30 stores in those locations this year, bringing the total to be in the range of 70 to 75 stores by the end of fiscal 2011," Haubiel said,

Big Lots defines 'A' locations as its highest volume stores; often power strip centers with strong co-tenants, strong population density or household income or all of the above.

Haubiel acknowledged that such 'A' spot locations are not as easy to come by as they were in the past two year.

"I'm not going to say the window is closing but what was available a year ago in the form of maybe (let-ins) or circuits are starting to dry up," Haubiel said. "Having said that there has been a couple of additional retailers that have either recently filed [for bankruptcy reorganization] or are pretty strong rumored to file that could open up some space in additional 'A' centers."

While Haubiel said that landlords are getting more aggressive about what they are asking for in terms of rents in such locations, "they are also getting more aggressive about thinking about adding some new square footage."

"We've got new relationships with the developers and as they are thinking about where they are going to be adding a footprint, they are also thinking about us being part of that," Haubiel added.

Franchise seeds planted in Denver grow success

Hometown restaurants build popularity in many regions around the country.
Denver Business Journal - by Dennis Huspeni , Special to the Business Journal
February 11, 2011

Some say it’s the energetic, welcoming small business community. Others cite a population willing to try new things.

Whatever the reason, the Denver area is like a greenhouse for franchise restaurant companies.

“Success begets success,” said Dave Prokupek, CEO and president of the growing Smashburger chain. “A lot of restaurant companies started here. There’s money here and a lot of talent. It’s like the Silicon Valley of the restaurant industry in that regard — it’s an easy place to get going.”

Smashburger’s founder, Tom Ryan, opened the first restaurant in Denver, in 2007. Last year, the upscale burger chain, owned by Consumer Capital Partners, opened its 100th restaurant.

In the past 15 years, the Denver area has watched the fast-casual concept for restaurants germinate, grow and mature.

In 1995, two successful fast-casual chains were born here: Qdoba, and Noodles and Company.

“I’d say we’re in the top five in terms of entrepreneurial hotbeds in the United States,” said J.B. Hewetson, Noodles’ director of franchise sales.

“Denver continues to be a wonderful place to live and a business-friendly environment,” he said. “We find the makeup is really diverse. When you’re rolling out something that needs consumer acceptance, particular places are better than others. … This is a good beta test, kind of a litmus test market. You know if it works here, it will work wherever you take it.”

Late last year, Broomfield-based Noodles was acquired by Catterton Partners, an investment group. That came after five straight years of double-digit unit growth and positive same-store sales.

“That really separated us from the pack,” Hewetson said. “For that kind of performance during a recession, few can say they had positive same-store sales and grew their margins.”

There are now 255 Noodles restaurants nationwide, with 30 more ready to open in 2011, Hewetson said. That’s quite a climb for a chain that began with Aaron Kennedy opening the first store in Cherry Creek.

“That [Catterton] transaction put us on solid financial ground and put a lot of capital into the company,” Hewetson said. “We moved from having a good investor base to an even better investor base.”

Noodles’ unique menu — which includes Bangkok curry, Pad Thai, spaghetti, Japanese pan noodles, soups and salads — drives much of that growth.

“We don’t have a direct menu-to-menu competitor,” Hewetson said.

“You don’t grow through marketing. You grow through reaching every guest with every bowl, every time.”

Qdoba also homegrown

Qdoba has grown from a single store in Denver founded by Anthony Miller to the fourth-largest Mexican food chain in the United States, said Todd Owen, vice president of franchise development.

“In general, Denver had large growth from the 1990s with the ‘big cowtown’ stereotype to a worldly, large city with the influence of people from so many other places. Just look at the demographic — the state added 1 million people in a decade. It grew 20 percent. … The population skews a little above the median average for education and above the median income level. That fits the Qdoba offering.”

The Wheat Ridge-based Qdoba, which serves “San Francisco’s mission-style burritos,” is owned by Jack in the Box Inc. There are 70 Qdobas in Colorado, most of which are company-owned. The chain has grown to more than 500 stores nationwide.

That growth should continue this year, Owen said.

“A number of restaurant chains were probably in survival mode,” Owen said. “They cut quality or cut portion size. That’s not a healthy long-term strategy and we didn’t go there.”

Another rising star in the fast casual concept, Garbanzos Mediterranean Grill, started in Denver three years ago. It just opened its 13th store in Boulder late last year, and 15 more sites are in the planning phase, said Alan Mor, president and co-founder.

“A lot of transplants came here from other places,” Mor said. “So you know that if the people of Denver accept a concept, other places will accept it too.”

Garbanzos offers a menu of hummus, pitas, laffas, shwarma and babaganoush, and last year expanded the menu to include soups and new salads.

“The brand is getting more and more recognized,” said Mor, who co-founded Garbanzos with Ken Rosenthal, founder of Panera Bread.

While the Denver area is a fertile ground for growing restaurant chains, Mor said it’s also highly competitive.

“The thing is, if you can make it here with such competition, you can make it anywhere,” he said.

Smashburger’s Ryan said the company’s success comes, in part, because it’s constantly evolving.

“What was working a year ago might not necessarily be working now,” Ryan said of trying to keep the company fluid. “For example, what it takes to do something for 10 stores doesn’t work for 100 stores.”

Smashburger grew to 22 markets in 17 states, and has a backlog of 450 committed franchise restaurants, Prokupek said. The executive team, made up of “highly creative and innovative people,” has been “crafty at anticipating these issues,” Ryan said.

“We’ve been doing it with thoughtful, sophisticated, multi-unit operators,” Prokupek said. “We’ve really attracted qualified, well-capitalized individuals.”

The chain creates unique offerings for each of its markets, like the “Sin City” burger for Las Vegas and “Lone Star” burger for those in Dallas/Fort Worth. Executives also research the local craft beers to offer customers.

“That’s the hallmark of our brand,” Ryan said.

Many of those interviewed said Colorado also weathered the recession storm better than most states, which in turn helped growing companies.

“Denver has been remarkably fertile ground for a number of companies, not just Qdoba,” Owen said. “I doubt that trend goes away anytime soon.”

Many In CRE Industry Embracing the Social Networking Phenomenon

But They're Still Searching for Ways To Integrate Into Day-to-Day Business
By Mark Heschmeyer
February 2, 2011

One of the year's hottest movies, The Social Network, has garnered eight Academy Award nominations including one for Best Picture, and while the Internet phenomenon known as social networking may not yet have garnered as much acclaim among commercial real estate professionals, the industry is widely adopting the technology, according to an informal poll.

Social networking in the CRE business is largely in fledgling state with the industry still trying to harness its reach. CRE companies and individual deal makers are all over the leading social network sites in hopes that one day it will become the next great sensation and lead to more deals and connections.

"I have a hunger to know more about social networking, but I haven't yet figured out how to use it in business," said Gil Daniel of Southeastern Realty Group Inc. in Orlando, FL. "I am a member of LinkedIn and Facebook. I would love to have this as a tool to help sell commercial real estate, but don't know how. I'm all ears."

Like Gil Daniel, Jonathan McLaurin of Silverpeak Real Estate Partners in Atlanta also has his own personal pages on Facebook and LinkedIn and so do many others. Says McLaurin, "As social networking evolves and social networking technology starts to impact a larger percentage of people in the industry, social networking will be more a value-add phenomenon in the industry."

CoStar Group surveyed a random sample of 800 Watch List readers asking whether they or their companies are on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn networking and how they use them. We received 76 completed responses. Of that group, three out of every four respondents maintained a personal page on LinkedIn and half on Facebook. And about one-third of the CRE companies they represented had sites on all three networks. And while there was less widespread personal usage of Twitter, one of 10 companies identified that site a "primary" outlet for business communication.

Not There Yet

According to Michael E. Madziarek, senior advisor for Sperry Van Ness | Landmark Commercial Real Estate in Geneva, IL, social media in its present form and how people use it is not a source of information, rather a communication game that people enjoy.

"I do not care if you are attending the CCIM course 101 today and have to see for the next five days what you did in class," Madziarek said. "Because of the way people tag their tweets, you get all kinds of junk. I believe that it needs to be revamped in a way that people find it to be a source of information not a place to have a contest for the most followers and tweets for the day."

"I really don't have time to spend on the computer on social networks because I am busy actively marketing our properties, showing them, and also performing leasing and selling duties," agreed Angela Harwell, a broker / Realtor in Winter Haven, FL. "We have people come to us based on the press releases we issue about our activity - but I'm not sure we need to constantly put ourselves in people's faces."

It's All About The Future

The fact that social networking technology seemingly has widespread acceptance today has little to do with what industry professionals are doing right this instant, but rather is much more about where they see the industry heading.

"I think it is important as far as my business is concerned to stay up with the business networking sites, such as LinkedIn or Plaxo because they could become a real force in the future and I don't want to be starting from scratch at that time," responded R. Dabney Tompkins, Brokerage Services of CB Richard Ellis | Office Properties in Portland, OR.

"Or they may fade and never be much and I don't want to have devoted a huge amount of time to something that is going to end up irrelevant."

Some respondents compared social media adoption to the similar way the Internet was initially greeted with skepticism before being embraced by business. Katie Sherman of Commercial Defeasance LLC in Charlotte, NC, said: "It is incredibly important and crucial in today's day and age. If you don't [have a presence] you're not on the cutting edge and I believe in the years to come if you're not involved in social media then you will not be in business."

Larry J. Socia, director, retail division of Pyramid Brokerage Co. in Syracuse, NY, said: "Generally speaking, it's important to keep up with latest technology and trends to keep abreast of what's going on in the industry and worldwide. Right now, I'm more of an 'old school' person who uses these social networking resources as a means to keep pace with clients and competitors, rather than have a 'Challenger' moment trying to be first in space with cutting edge technology. It helps me look more modern."

Then Socia added: "I haven't used our fax machine in months."

"The jury is still out on the social networking," said Rebecca Horne, filing library museum evidence storage specialists with System Concepts Inc. in South San Francisco. "As the population ages and moves into management and powers of companies, it may well become the standard way of doing business…"

In fact, Horne added that we may be approaching that point: "Today is a very interesting time with Egypt and the Mideast erupting and the "normal" feeds of social networking as news sources have been cut. When the Internet does go down, how does business continue in the daily "new normal?"

It's All About Building Contacts, Promoting Buildings

Valerie Cothran of SunTrust Bank in Raleigh, NC, thinks she knows where it is heading in the future.

"I can use social networking through LinkedIn and Facebook to connect with professionals and basically build an address book of contacts that I can go to," Cothran said. "For example, if I meet someone in passing or have lunch with them at a conference, I may not have an immediate business prospect or connection, but by adding them to my network, I can contact them in the future. Considering I work in Special Assets now, building a network of future contacts is very important as I think about being on the origination side again in the future."

Marty Busekrus, CCIM, a senior associate investment sales with NAI Rauch Weaver Norfleet Kurtz & Co. in Fort Lauderdale, recently gave a presentation at NAI's national convention on the topic of Social Media. His theme was that social networking is all about personal and property promotion.

"I use social media as an extension of my resume," Busekrus said. "I think resumes are almost going by the wayside. Rather than sending an employer your resume, send them to your website. The personal website should be a really beefed up version of your resume. From your website you can link to LinkedIn, Twitter, I have podcasts, etc. These are all great not only for potential future employers, but also future potential clients. All of these "things" may not win you business, but it will get you in the door and you will absolutely be at the forefront of technology and your clients should see that."

"Most people start researching a person with whom they are planning to do business BEFORE they do business with them," said Nicholas L. Miner, CCIM, vice president - investments for Commercial Properties Inc. a CORFAC International Firm in Scottsdale, AZ. "If you make it difficult for them to find you, they will use your competition."

Paula Greer of Black & Associates in Portland, OR, said: "LinkedIn has been good for wider realm of industry information. And for finding potential contacts for my own business. I have also used it for referrals to business associates that are not on LinkedIn when I see requests that I know would be of interest to them."

It's A Generational Thing

"Some is much ado about nothing," said Steven R. Miller, brokerage vice president Industrial Services Group of Colliers International in Greater Cincinnati. "I also think it is "generational" I am in my fifties and find that my age group or older are still very much "old school:" phone calls, faxes and snail mail. My contacts and clients of a younger grouping are IMers, texters, Facebook-, LinkedIn-, iPad-types and certainly Twitter. I do not twitter, I do feel it a necessary function to employ some social networking sites and technology but like most things I believe there is a point of diminishing return with some of this."

Joseph Scarpa of Green Paradigm Realty in Pennsville, NJ, said: "The millennial generation is growing up with this technology… naturally adapting to collaboration, research, and communications… business soon - if not now - will have a social networking presence to accommodate the next maturing generation."

Kevin Peixoto, principal of KP & Associates in San Jose, said: "I don't see social networking as a primary tool for business communication in the commercial real estate industry at this point. It may be a useful tool in the future. I believe as communication evolves with younger generations that use Facebook and other social networking websites for business communication, that this form of networking and communication may become more popular with younger generations and it may find its place in the commercial real estate industry."

Keeping It Professional

One of the stumbling blocks some see blocking wider adaptation of social networking in business is the cross-pollination of what information professionals are willing to share and don't want shared.

"I use it primarily for branding and so clients can find out a little about me. I think it will become more important overtime," said Tim M. Noonan of the National Multi Housing Group for Marcus & Millichap in San Diego." But, at the same time, I think it is good to keep as much about your personal life personal. I like the fact that people can find me if they needed to but they don't know about my family and what I do away from the office."

Steve Basurto, an investment sales broker with CLB Real Estate Services Inc. in Temecula, CA, said: "The social networking sites I believe are still in its infancy regarding commercial real estate. I'm sure there is some value in having a presence on any one of these sites. As time goes on the information obtained from the sites will grow to be what they are, however in this business, certain information is deemed proprietary and I can't envision it being shared that way."

"I think in the brokerage business those sites are tough to use because the dissemination of information is impossible to control once posted via reposting and re-tweeting," said Nate Oleson, vice president of ARA ? Pacific in San Francisco. "In addition, investors are very particular on the type and quality they want to purchase. Also, most of my clients (private clients) don't use or have Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. The use of it may expand in our space but it is a ways out."

Email and Face-To-Face Are Still King

In the survey, we did not include the choice of email as a preferred option for personal or business communication. If we did, it likely would have gone home with the Oscar. We did ask if any of the three social networking sites had trumped email as a preferred method for communicating with friends and business. More than half answered a resounding "No!" while almost one in four also said "Yes" or "Not yet."

"Email is still king," said J. Francis Mahoney, SIOR, Cushman and Wakefield of Pennsylvania Inc. in Philadelphia. "Business owners and/or company executives charged with large real estate decisions are too mature/aged/busy to devote a huge amount of time to searching the social sites. They still seem to be the province of the young."

"Personally, I do not see what the fuss is about," said Karen Van Hamme of Principal Life Insurance Co. in Des Moines, IA. "I prefer to get my business communication by reading newspapers and journals (online) and emails that push the news to me rather than social networking sites. I see little value in my business of CRE research. I need more than 120 characters to get the info I need, and I want it from reputable sources, not random "twitterers."

Fred B. Cordova III, senior vice president / CART Western regional director for Colliers International in Los Angeles, and author of the firm's The Aggregate, said: "I believe in spreading knowledge an insight and sharing it openly, but it needs to be thoughtful and worthwhile. Everything else is just noise that no one has much time for. With all of the email noise, picking up the phone is more important than ever! Trying to deliver a personal message to 5,000 of your closest friends via Twitter or Facebook, just does not seem to me to be the way to go in our business."

Still, Cordova offered the one pervasive caveat that seems to be out there about social networking in commercial real estate.

"That said," Cordova added, "we are looking into it to see if there is a way to do it and protect client privacy. It does seem to be the wave of the future and with iPhones and iPads… we feel it bears serious consideration."

MarketWatch:Denver is nation's 6th-best city for business

Denver Business Journal - by Mark Harden | Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Denver is the nation's sixth-best city for business out of 102 major metro areas, MarketWatch declares in its annual ranking.

"[A] perennial top 10 city, Denver continues to attract businesses of all types looking for quality of life," the business-news-and-information website says.

It says Denver "seems to have no trouble attracting new companies," noting the recent decision by kidney-care giant DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) to locate its headquarters here.

MarketWatch, which has compiled its ranking for four years, evaluated 102 large cities, using a variety of measures that break down into two categories: "company score," the concentration of businesses within a metro area, and "economic score," which takes into account unemployment, job growth, population growth, personal income and local gross domestic product.

It said it used more metric categories this year than before, partly to better reflect tourism business and the economic impact of military bases.

Denver's total score is 980, its company score is 599, and its economic score is 381.

Denver's company score is second-highest of the 102 cities, after Minneapolis' 601. That may surprise some locals, since the common wisdom is that the Mile High City is home to fewer large company headquarters than other cities its size.

Nevertheless, "the region is among the top 20 in six of the seven metrics that measure concentration of companies," MarketWatch's Russ Britt writes.

But MarketWatch downgrades Denver on personal income and in change in employment. "Its jobless rate rose half a percentage point" from last year, Britt says.

Denver ranked seventh in MarketWatch's 2009 best-cities-for-business ranking, third in 2008 and second in 2007.

Denver has done well recently in business, economic and career rankings. In November, career search engine Juju.com rated it the ninth-best city for job seekers. In October, the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Index placed Denver ninth as a place to find a managerial position. Businessweek in July called Denver the nation's eighth-best city for college grads to find work. And Forbes in June ranked Denver America's eighth-best city for young professionals.

MarketWatch ranks Colorado Springs No. 54 overall, with a total score of 715, a company score of 312 and an economic score of 403.

The top city is Washington, D.C., with a total score of 1100, a company score of 585 and an economic score of 515.

"Washington has made the most out of having the U.S. government, a very large customer for any company, to keep it chugging during the tough times," Britt writes. "But the region also has seen massive expansion in suburban towns in Virginia and Maryland over the years that has boosted its economy."

Rounding out the top 10 after Washington are Omaha, Neb.; Boston; Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis; Denver; Richmond, Va.; New York; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Seattle.

Fresno, Calif. is at the bottom of the list at No. 102.


Read more: MarketWatch: Denver is nation's 6th-best city for business | Denver Business Journal

Lonely Planet rates Denver a top 10 U.S. place to go

Denver Business Journal
Date: Thursday, December 16, 2010, 5:44pm MST

Denver has been named one of the “Top 10 Places to Go in the U.S. for 2011” by travel-guide publisher Lonely Planet.

“It’s like Paris in the West,” Lonely Planet gushes.

The 10 destinations were chosen via a staff survey. In a press release, Lonely Planet praises Denver’s cultural attractions and shopping as well as its access to “some of the best skiing in the country.”

“Even though Boulder often gets all the love, we highly recommend Denver,” Lonely Planet says. “This sparkly-clean mile-high city is nestled amid beautiful mountains yet urban delights abound.

“The Denver Art Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind, is an architectural feat where you can see modern art as well as historical exhibitions. The shopping area near 16th Street features some fabulous stores including Tattered Cover – one of our favorite independent bookstores in the U.S. And I.M. Pei, who designed the Louvre pyramid, also designed several projects in Denver like the Mile High Center and Courthouse Square.”

It’s the first time Denver has appeared on the annual list.

Richard Scharf, president and CEO of the Visit Denver visitors and convention bureau, compared the Lonely Planet accolade to “winning an Oscar.”

Speaking at Thursday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Embassy Suites hotel downtown, he noted that several of the cities in Lonely Planet’s 2010 top 10 saw increases in visitors this year.

“It’s great news that the rest of the world is beginning to discover what we Coloradoans have known for a long time — that Denver is an exciting city and a wonderful travel destination,” Scharf said in a statement.

Denver appears at No. 6 on Lonely Planet’s 2011 list. Also included:

• 1. Southern Utah, including Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks.

• 2. New Orleans.

• 3. New York City.

• 4. Austin and west Texas.

• 5. Savannah, Ga.

• 7. Northern California.

• 8. Grand Canyon National Park.

• 9. Palm Springs, Calif.

• 10 Hawaii.