With the Maven hotel opening in March, the historic Dairy Block is poised to become LoDo’s next go-to destination for shopping and dining.

The 172-room hotel at 18th and Wazee streets will become the fourth independent hotel in Sage Hospitality’s Denver portfolio, joining the Crawford Hotel at Union Station, the Oxford Hotel and Halcyon, which opened in Cherry Creek earlier this year.

“The Maven is very different from our other independent hotels,” says Sage spokeswoman Kate Davis. “The Maven is more lofty and industrial. It reflects a more down-to-earth vibe.”

Sage Restaurant Group will open the Kachina Southwestern Grill restaurant in the hotel, featuring dishes like New Mexican chicken enchiladas, chipotle shrimp and waffles, and boneless Texas quail. The Poka Lola Social Club, the lobby bar, will combine an on-tap experience of ready-to-serve beverages and craft cocktails.

“We learned a lot from Denver Union Station about creating places for locals to go,” Davis says.

The development team, which includes Sage, McWhinney and Grand American, also will turn over the office space to tenants in January. Industrial real-estate firm Prologis will occupy the top two floors of the newly built six-story office building, and Italian fast-casual chain Romano’s Macaroni Grill is leasing 9,000 square feet for its national headquarters. McWhinney also will set up shop in the building.

There also will be about 66,000 square feet of street-level retail split between the new building and the existing historical buildings, as well as 393 below-grade parking spaces.

“We’re looking for the makers — people who make real, authentic goods,” Davis says.

Built in 1918 for $30,000, the Windsor Farm Dairy building was designed by Denver architectural firm Fisher & Fisher. The dairy herd grazed on a farm near the site of Windsor Gardens in southeast Denver, but the milk, butter and cheese were processed in the red-brick structure in LoDo. In 1928, Meadow Gold bought Windsor Farm Dairy. Grand American has owned the block for more than thirty years.

Project: Dairy Block
Address: 1855 Blake Street
Developer: Sage Hospitality Group

This is the tenth in a series of stories about building projects around town. Read more about development in Denver on our Construction Watch page.