The historic Cliff House inn will be getting a big brother to the west after the Manitou Springs City Council on Tuesday approved a renovation of the Wheeler House that will add 79 rooms to the Cliff House’s current 54.The expansion, dubbed Cliff House West, will cost $15 million to $20 million and make the luxury hotel more attractive to groups and families, Cliff House General Manager Paul York said. The Wheeler House, at 36 Park Ave., was built in 1890 by department store and mining magnate Jerome Wheeler. It has served as a hotel for decades, but the renovation will vastly increase its size and add a pool and rooftop garden.The project has been in the works for more than three years, York said, and faced strong initial opposition from neighbors behind the Wheeler House on Grand Avenue.”For us to be at this point feels pretty good,” York told the council. “I feel the neighbors have made us make this project better in many ways.”A series of redesigns that lowered the addition’s height and broke up its facade mitigated neighborhood opposition, although some residents at Tuesday’s council meeting still questioned the project’s impact on traffic, the city’s water supply and possible damage caused by the blasting required to create a 170-space underground parking garage.”I think we’re gambling too much,” resident David Beers told the council. “Don’t cut corners on this.”York said the expansion would add 25 employees to the hotel’s current staff of 55, with the possibility of doubling that number over time. A start date for construction hasn’t been set yet, he said.-Call the writer at 636-0275.

Cliff House in Manitou Springs. Photo by THE GAZETTE FILE PHOTO