The sale of the former City Hall building goes through on Thursday, Oct. 9, and the new owner has big plans, which include a hotel and restaurant, as well as a partnership with Colorado Mesa University.

That developer, Alia Eyres, is former CEO and current senior advisor for Mother’s Choice, a charity based in Hong Kong that serves children without families and pregnant teenagers. Her parents Ranjan and Phyllis Marwah co-founded the charity in 1987 with Olathe locals Gary and Helen Stephens. Eyres said her family, who live in Hong Kong, have established their American home base here in Montrose for the past 37 years.

Eyres calls this new project a legacy project, to honor her mother and the work she has done here and abroad. Her mother spends about a quarter of the year in Montrose.

Eyres’ husband John co-founded Typhoon Farma, a local CBD farm and industrial hemp company. So Eyres’ ties to Montrose run deep.

“When we’re not at work, we’re here,” she said.

Because of those connections, Eyres has decided to invest more in Montrose. She estimates the hotel and restaurant project will cost in the $6-7 million range, and her project manager, Ryan Eakes, who also works as COO for Typhoon Farma, hopes the project will get underway soon.

“We have to go through the design process, but we’re hoping for late spring (2025) to get started,” he said. “The goal is to have it open for the centennial anniversary in 2026 (of the City Hall building).”

Eakes said it is a safe bet phase one of the project, whether that’s the hotel or the restaurant, will be complete some time in 2026. “If we start when we want to, we’re looking at spring or summer 2026.”

The project is split into two parts, a hotel, which will be housed in the former City Hall at 433 S. First St., and a restaurant, which will occupy the historic Montrose Fire Station No. 1 at 24 S. Uncompahgre Ave. Fire Station No. 1 overlooks Centennial Plaza.

Though the two have separate addresses, they are sold together, occupying the same parcel.

Eakes said he and Eyres plan to maintain the historic integrity of the buildings in construction. The City Hall building was added to the Montrose Register of Historic Places in 2019, and Fire Station No. 1 was added in 2021.

The former City Hall building, he said, was originally a library, and though Fire Station No. 1 (constructed in 1910), which now houses the Centennial Meeting Room, was once a firehouse, it hasn’t been used for that purpose in many years.

Ryan Eakes and Alia Eyres stand in front of the former Montrose Firehouse No. 1, which now houses the Centennial Meeting Room. Eyres is purchasing the old firehouse building, as well as the former City Hall building to turn them into a restaurant and hotel, respectively. Eyres, the CEO of Hong Kong-based charity Mother’s Choice, is calling it a legacy project, to honor her parents, who split their time between Montrose and elsewhere. Eakes, COO at Typhoon Farma is overseeing the project locally. (Justin Tubbs | Montrose Business Times)

While the project is still in the very early stages, the developers plan to make use of the abundance of local agriculture to bring fresh, local food to the community. They also plan to utilize the resource of Colorado Mesa University.

CMU-Montrose partnership

CMU President John Marshall told the Business Times the project would pave the way for hospitality management and culinary arts programs at CMU-Montrose.

The idea is that students in future programs will have the opportunity to work in Fire Station No. 1 restaurant and the City Hall hotel.

“These partnerships tend to be iterative and change and morph and grow as you figure out what works,” Marshall said. “But the vision is certainly that we’re in the business of providing an education and trying to prepare an outstanding workforce, and that’s clearly going to be necessary as you continue to grow the hotel-restaurant base there in Montrose.”

Marshall spoke generally about Montrose as a big part of Colorado Mesa University’s plans to grow and expand, and he said they’re always looking for new programs to benefit students.

“This one, I think, is just one of those with the stars aligning that came about as we have a desire to continue to grow programming and relevance for the community of Montrose,” he said.

Currently, CMU has similar programs at Hotel Maverick and Devil’s Kitchen in Grand Junction, so the blueprint for a project like this has already been established for the university.

Initially, Marshall was excited about the chance to grow CMU-Montrose’s footprint, but it all came together for him when City Manager Bill Bell showed him downtown.

“You see the renovation happening, and you can kind of see the vision for that plaza and Cascade and all that. And it’s like okay, now I get it.”

History of the project

Originally, Clay Bales and Jay Raible, developers of the Rathbone Hotel, planned to purchase the building and implement the hotel and restaurant project.

The city extended the time the group would have to come up with the funds and close on the deal. Eventually, Eyres came in after meeting Bales and Raible at the Rathbone. She saw an opportunity to invest in downtown Montrose.

“I have to give them all the credit because we really heard about the project through them and obviously they’re really focused on the Rathbone,” Eyres said. “So we realized that there was an opportunity for us to come in. We just love what they’ve done with Rathbone. I think they’ve done a wonderful job. It really shows the potential of downtown Montrose.”

Justin Tubbs is the Montrose Business Times editor. He can be reached by email at justin@montrosebusinesstimes.com or by phone at 970-765-0915 or mobile at 254-246-2260.

This story was corrected to clarify the centennial anniversary of the City Hall building is 2026. It was also corrected to show Alia Eyres is former CEO of Mother’s Choice.