The father-and-son development team, which is planning a $217 million, 1,100-room Marriott Hotel across from an expanded Colorado Convention Center, has until Sept. 15 to secure a letter of intent from a hotel operator that is acceptable to the city. The Bergers have until Jan. 15, 2001, to secure a final and binding management contract with the hotel and until March 15 to close on a financing package.

The city can impose such demands because the Bergers will receive a $55 million subsidy in the form of a tax-increment financing package from the Denver Urban Renewal Authority. When Denver residents approved a $267 million plan last November to double the size of the convention center, city leaders also promised a new hotel would accompany the new convention center.

Mayor Wellington Webb says he now favors building a new hotel on top of the new convention center instead of on Bergers' tract at 15th and California Sts., site of the former Denver Post building. Building a hotel on top of the convention center is not only extremely expensive, but may not be structurally possible, according to Bruce Berger.