''This is a national problem, not just in Denver,'' Webb says. "Like several other cities, we can't afford to just wait and see what happens. There is a public financing alternative that has successfully been used elsewhere that lowers the overall cost of funding and allows projects to proceed without an increased city risk. That's where we need to go and I believe this process will help us to deliver a hotel within a determinable time frame."

The process does not preclude Hyatt or the Bergers from being part of this new development process.

Webb says the development of the hotel is integral to the success of the $268-million Convention Center expansion that citizens approved in 1999. The expansion will more than double the size of the current 1-million-sf convention center to 2.4 million sf and will generate more than $542 million in direct, indirect and induced spending in the local economy and add $5.8 million to the $9.4 in revenues to the city from the convention center.

The mayor is asking city councilwoman Cathy Reynolds to help oversee the new process along with manager of revenue Cheryl Cohen-Vader, projects director Elizabeth Orr and deputy city attorney David Broadwell.

They will brief city council on the new financing structure next week and develop specific schedules and steps for the process by April 15.

One feature of the process that has been determined is that the city will separately select the operator and then the site and the development team.