Chris Chiari and the 420 Hotels: A Leader in Cannabis Hospitality

After being diagnosed with a life-threatening condition in his mid-20s, Chris Chiari was told by doctors to not make any long-term plans. Fortunately, 10 years after his prognosis, the cards shifted in his favor and he made a full recovery.

With a new lease on life, Chiari wanted to pursue something that he was truly passionate about. As a staunch advocate for cannabis, he founded The 420 Hotels, the nation’s first hotel chain where guests can consume cannabis on-site in a legally licensed lounge adding one of the most unique and exciting amenities in hospitality today. 

Its first property, also known as the keystone location is Denver’s very own Patterson Inn, a stately and distinguished national landmark situated on a quarter acre in the heart of the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Fittingly, it is located at 420 E. 11 Ave. 

Historically intriguing, yet complete with all the comforts of modern amenities, the Patterson Inn offers a luxurious reprieve from the stresses of everyday life. This unique boutique hotel features nine luxurious suites with furnishings reflecting the personality of each room, as well as the history and elegance of the building. From the decadence of the Antoinette, to the old world feel of the Prague, each distinctive room promises its own special experience.

Chiari took some time to talk more about The 420 Hotels, the burgeoning cannabis hospitality industry, and his journey from consumer to connoisseur with OFM. 

Can you begin by telling us what inspired you to create the 420 Hotels brand?

I was diagnosed with melanoma when I was 27 and was told not to make long-term plans. I was doing marketing and messaging for startup companies, had a pretty good run, but realized there were more important things in life. So, I helped a family member who had gotten themselves stuck in a bad business, ran for office unsuccessfully a couple of times, and got a clean bill of health 10 years later. This was January 2011, and the doctor said to go and make some long-term plans. I flew out to Denver a couple weeks later after hearing that with an intention.

I had always been a cannabis consumer, but it was the thing I hid, especially when I was engaged in politics in South Florida. So, I decided that I was going to focus this next chapter of my life on the thing that I hid. If I started a new business, did consulting, did politics or policy work, or tried to make a movie, it was going to be about cannabis. I was selling my house in Fort Lauderdale, and this Denver property, the Patterson Inn, caught my eye. It had a fortuitous address, 420, had presence and curb appeal, and it looked like a castle sitting on a hill. It had been abandoned for eight years.

I said, “One say, I want to turn you into a marijuana bed and breakfast. That was the intention. Unfortunately, I missed by two weeks, and someone else bought it. So, I ended up on a road trip wanting to learn more about cannabis. I had always been a consumer, but I didn’t know markets or culture communities, so I set out on this 115,000-mile trip crisscrossing the country. From one cannabis event to another, I had a chance to almost bodysurf that experience and build a practical knowledge based around something I had done for a long time but hadn’t truly learned about. 

You finally obtained the Patterson Inn in 2018?

Yes, the Patterson Inn went back on the market in January 2018, and I swooped in and purchased it. Thinking back to a couple things, cannabis wasn’t legal in 2011 when I first looked at it. When I bought it in 2018, cannabis hospitality still wasn’t legal. The legislature hadn’t even moved onto that topic yet. I caught the final mile of legalization for a reason because we’re still here waiting for this reality. We’re closer than ever before, but still not there.

The Patterson Inn is currently the only hotel part of the 420 Hotels brand?

Yes, it is the only hotel right now in our portfolio. I call it our keystone, and it’s our first space where we are starting to tell the story. The 420 Hotels is literally a separate company, but it’s designed to live and exist as a tenant of the property in a very small 950 square foot space. The Patterson Inn is a 10-year-old award winning boutique hotel, which also includes a tavern opened to the public called 12 Spirits. 

Can you talk more about how you are bringing cannabis hospitality to this property?

Well, it’s not about smoking in your room. Governor Polis took away the right to designate 25 percent of the rooms as smoking rooms when he first came into office. In Colorado, once cannabis was legalized, the Clean Indoor Air Act was amended to include tobacco, and they still use the derogatory word, marijuana, for cannabis in legal documents. In Colorado, the consumption of cannabis is considered the same as smoking a cigarette, where it’s then banned or barred indoors. That’s what opened this path for a license. 

Now that I’m working towards the license, I have to vacate the designated smoking area at 2:00 a.m and lock you out to make sure you’re not consuming after that hour. Doesn’t really work with overnight hospitality because if your room is a point of consumption, you can’t sleep in it then. The HVAC has proved to be one of the most onerous standards because we’re at 100 times over normal commercial space to create what is hoped to be a clean space and safe space, especially for employees. The last hurdle is the state mandates that a consumption area be stacked. 

None of that fits with my ultimate business, which is overnight hospitality. However, carving out a legal space, carving out a license space, and designing an HVAC system that creates a welcoming space, that’s my business. That’s what I’m building, and that’s where I’m trying to address a lot of uncertainty. There’s extraordinary uncertainty that exists around whether or not cannabis hospitality will work. Most people consume to relax. Many people aren’t engaging and making it a part of their lifestyle, though that number is growing through edibles or other discreet ways where you can consume without the odor.

To continue elevating the experience of staying at the Patterson Inn, you are hoping to offer something new to guests by opening a cannabis consumption lounge?

Working on it. The biggest hurdle has been the HVAC, and I have a senior person with the city asking me to prove that there’s no second hand THC in the air. When you think about it, you realize there is, so to prove there isn’t may be a burden that can’t be satisfied. We’ve been meeting with an extraordinary HVAC MEP engineer working with an air filtration company that does clean rooms for technology, and they’ve signed up to tackle this challenge. My last hurdle is proving that we designed a HVAC system that satisfies international standards for a clean filled space, satisfies the request of senior members of the city bureaucracy in Denver, and then, most importantly for me, is sustainable to operate. 

Have you always been such a strong advocate for cannabis?

When I tell you that this has been my life’s work, I mean it. When I was diagnosed with melanoma, I smoked cannabis as opposed to cigarettes. Was there a benefit to it? I’d be another anecdote if I said there was, but it certainly played a role in my longevity because it kept me off of tobacco, nicotine, and cigarettes. Once I leaned into it, there was no holding back. Yes, I talked about it, especially when I was running for office, but it wasn’t my core issue. 

My thought, especially going back a dozen years, was that the strongest advocates for legalization at the time were people who didn’t smoke. Those who saw the rationale and we’re pushing it for good policy. Unfortunately, the stigma around cannabis consumption has not dissipated. It’s still there. People still roll their eyes if they’re not a consumer or hold an older viewpoint on what this product substance plant is. 

So, it wasn’t something that I leaned into as a consumer because we lacked credibility as consumers then, and even in some jurisdictions today, we still get burdened with this continued stigma. It’s what my goal is with the hotel. The normalization and destigmatization of cannabis possession and use. We figured out and legalized production and distribution, and we’re over cultivating with these indoor grows in many jurisdictions now because of the way we’ve set up these markets. 

What is the significant impact cannabis is having on the tourism and hospitality industry right now?

At this dawn of legalization, there was no question that Colorado was an appealing destination for many because of what was happening around cannabis. People would then make a choice to come here for the multitude of reasons they might travel here, like summer sports and hiking in the mountains or skiing and being in the mountains. So, Colorado has always had its appeal, but cannabis certainly added to the appeal. The industry was very loud in proclaiming that they were driving tourism to the state, and you can’t deny the increase in the numbers. 

Now, over half the U.S. population is in a legal environment, where if they purchase it somewhere else, their possession of it is no longer criminal. Their use may still be suspect, but I don’t believe it’s having the same impact on travel. Places like Las Vegas, Nevada may get the next wave of it. Las Vegas is a city that now goes beyond just gaming. Entertainment, food, and experience in hospitality makes up more revenue than gaming for the city, and cannabis is going to fit very well into that. Ultimately, it’s all about how people consume. 

I’m not certain that a novice consumer will likely go out to a big raucous place and experiment with cannabis if they’ve not tried it in years or never tried it before. That’s because many people find themselves feeling relaxed or even sleepy after consumption, and that’s not the kind of space that many people would find themselves comfortable in or would seek out. It’s one of the reasons why I’m looking to add this to my hotel. The more experienced consumer might know that different strains have more stimulating effects, and other strains have more anti-inflammatory and relaxing effects.

Some people can consume large volumes and have a fun time, while others can consume small amounts and find themselves anxious, uncomfortable, or too tired. From an industry point of view, we hope that people will find cannabis like a glass of wine, a nice nightcap. I do believe that carving out a space for people to indulge or enjoy will become more and more appealing. Most of that is being satisfied by cannabis friendly, but I’m not looking to be cannabis friendly because cannabis friendly does not plug into the normalization and destigmatization of cannabis.

Additionally, you are also an award-winning film producer who collaborated on a film with rapper and actor Ice-T called Public Enemy Number One. How did that project come to fruition?

Like all great ideas, they come to you in a flash, but then you have to think, do you have the capacity to unpack it? Do you have the tenacity to lean into it? Do you have the patience to deal with the ups and downs of high-risk projects? In this case, I was. I remember making a lot of phone calls, and it there were initially a lot of nos, but I remember when the yeses started to come. The original name of the film was 12 to 54 because the idea was to look and track the movement of public policy from 12 percent to 54 percent. See if the Federal Drug Policy moved in line with the people, and it didn’t. 

Ice T came on at the end, and I met him through another musician friend of mine, Busy Bee, who has been a close friend of mine for many years inside the cannabis community. Busy made the intro to Ice T, who certainly is a relevant voice on the topic. Like any film in Hollywood, it is important to bring that star appeal, and he was very kind to make himself available. We put the film together in very short order, and we were with Ice T for about four hours that day, and if you watch the film near the end, he makes a very poignant closing statement about his own association with cannabis and use. 

What are some future goals you hope to achieve with your career and cannabis advocacy?

I spent eight and a half years on the board of Colorado NORML, several of them as Deputy Director. I am still engaged in the topic, but now, I am trying to do it less from conversation and more from action. I strongly believe that navigating a bureaucracy like Denver’s is a good prerequisite for being ready and moving to larger jurisdictions and cities like Detroit, Chicago, New York, and Miami—places I’d like to move my brand. The Patterson Inn will always be our smallest, and it’s the crown jewel because it’s so unique. Through the execution of this business, my hope and goal is to expand to a dozen locations over the next 5-8 years. 

For more information and to stay up-to-date on the latest news, visit the420hotels.com.

Photos courtesy of 420 Hotels