The mountain-town Limelight brand comes to the city, right on Union Station. Live-fire dining, floor-to-ceiling mountain views and 700 works of local art make it the most complete stay in LoDo.
Status update: This hotel reopened as Limelight Denver in early 2025, when Aspen Hospitality took over operations and rebranded it from the Kimpton Hotel Born. It is the same building at 1600 Wewatta Street beside Union Station, now the first urban outpost of the mountain-town Limelight brand. You may still find it listed under the old Born name on some booking sites.
The short answer: Limelight Denver is a 200-room hotel built into the western side of Denver Union Station, the rail hall that anchors LoDo. Formerly the Kimpton Hotel Born, it now carries Aspen Hospitality's mountain-modern style, an open live-fire kitchen, floor-to-ceiling views and a 700-piece local art collection, making it the most connected boutique-scale stay downtown.
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Stay here for the single best-connected address in downtown Denver, wrapped in a warmer, more design-led package since the rebrand. The hotel is built into the western concourse of Denver Union Station, the restored 1914 train hall that anchors LoDo's revival, so the neighbourhood's restaurants, bars and rail connections start at the front door. Since Aspen Hospitality reopened it as Limelight Denver in early 2025, the property has traded Kimpton's industrial-boutique identity for the mountain-modern warmth that defines Limelight's Aspen and Snowmass hotels, and Travel + Leisure has since ranked it the number one hotel in Denver.
The 200 rooms are defined by their floor-to-ceiling windows, which frame Union Station, the downtown skyline or the Rocky Mountains depending on where you land in the building. That means the view is a genuine decision rather than an afterthought, and it is worth stating a preference when you book. Public spaces carry a commissioned collection of roughly 700 works by 32 local Colorado artists, a real point of difference that turns the corridors and lobby into something closer to a gallery walk than hotel decor.
Request a mountain-facing or Union Station-facing room on a higher floor, because the floor-to-ceiling glass is the room's best feature and the outlook varies widely across the building. Rooms looking west toward the Rockies give the postcard Colorado view, while Union Station-facing rooms trade the mountains for the animated rail plaza and the skyline. Interior or lower-floor rooms are quieter and keener on price but lose the view that makes the design work.
Because the hotel sits directly on a working transit hub, light sleepers should ask for a room set back from the plaza. The mountain-modern refresh reads as calm and textural rather than flashy, so the rooms feel current without shouting; prioritise the orientation and the floor over square footage.
The in-house restaurant centres on an open, live-fire kitchen turning out locally sourced plates, and it anchors a wider LoDo dining scene that is walkable in every direction. Beyond dinner, Limelight leans into the small comforts that define the brand: complimentary house car service within one mile of the hotel, complimentary bicycles for exploring the Union Station neighbourhood, afternoon wine service in the lobby lounge, yoga at the health club, plus a firepit and a library. Together these make a rental car unnecessary for most stays.
The location is the amenity that does the heaviest lifting. The University of Colorado A Line to Denver International Airport departs from Union Station steps away and reaches the terminal in about 37 minutes, and Amtrak's California Zephyr calls at the same hall. For anyone arriving by rail or wanting frictionless airport access, no downtown hotel is better placed.
It is one of Denver's best choices for both, because the Union Station setting makes the hotel effectively self-contained. For business, the proximity to LoDo's tech and creative offices, the meeting spaces on site and the rail connections suit the newer Denver economy rather than the traditional convention-hotel market. For a solo retreat, the lobby lounge works as a daytime workspace, the complimentary bikes and car service remove the need to drive, and the whole neighbourhood is walkable, so a single traveller never feels stranded. It also earns a place among Denver's stronger picks for business travel.
Against Denver's other leading hotels, Limelight wins on location and connectivity but sits a notch below the city's grand and ultra-luxury options on formality and scale. The table below places it beside three strong alternatives.
| Hotel | Best for | Setting |
|---|---|---|
| Limelight Denver | Rail-connected, walkable downtown base | On Union Station, LoDo |
| Four Seasons Denver | Full-service luxury and mountain-view suites | 14th Street, downtown tower |
| The Brown Palace | Historic grandeur and afternoon tea | 1892 landmark, downtown |
| Halcyon Cherry Creek | Boutique calm and shopping | Cherry Creek North |
The trade-offs are the flip side of the location and the recent rebrand. None should surprise you on arrival.
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