By Olivia Bell Buehl

Built next to the Denver Country Club, the stone-detailed brick façade of One Polo Creek, a “condotel,” opposite, references European country manor houses. “The idea was to create a sense of arrival,” says architect Curt Fentress. Expansive windows maximize natural light and magnificent views of both downtown and distant mountains. With its marble floors and walls and sweeping staircase, its lobby, above, suggests the grand foyer of a French chateau. As in a hotel, concierge services and valet parking optimize security. The basement garage boasts a car wash. The spacious bedroom in a ground floor unit, right, looks onto a private walled garden, offering the best of both worlds: country living in a dynamic urban center.

You arrive home from work to find your dry cleaning hanging in the closet and the fridge full of groceries. You jump into your exercise gear and take the elevator to the health club, scheduling a massage later in the week. After a workout and a shower, you relax until a gourmet dinner is delivered to your door.

Welcome to 21st-century style luxurious living. “The hottest trend today is condos in high rises with lots of amenities,” says Denver real estate agent Katie Everett of Classic New Home Sales. “People want dog walking, concierge services, an on-site health club—basically what you would get at a five-star hotel, but in a residential setting.” Perks often go far beyond a staff that arranges deliveries, makes reservations, and parks your car. Ownership of a “condotel” typically includes membership in an on-site health club and the options of maid service, room service, and catering from nearby restaurants.

“You expect to find such buildings on Manhattan’s Park Avenue,” says Curt Fentress, of Denver’s Fentress Bradburn Architects, “but when we completed One Polo Creek in 1997, it was unique.” Now at least eight other hotel-style condominiums are under construction in the Mile High City.

Downtown condotels offer convenient access to shopping, fine restaurants, and sports arenas. Developers are hiring top-notch architects to design these buildings. Daniel Libeskind, the architect of the new World Trade Center, has designed The Museum Residences that will overlook his bold expansion of the Denver Art Museum.

One Lincoln Park, designed by Denver’s Buchanan Yonushewski Group, will be another architectural feat. The five-sided, 30-story tower includes 188 luxurious residences, each boasting a terrace with dramatic mountain views. So important are the views, says Julie Gelford, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Devonshire, that “photographs were taken from a helicopter at each level and from every angle so that a prospective owner can experience the actual views from each unit.”

Demographics favor this lifestyle. “You reach a point where you don’t want to mow the lawn or worry about maintaining a house,” says Scott Menefee, senior director of real estate development for Opus Northwest, which is developing the Pinnacle at City Park South in Denver. But not all buyers are aging baby boomers. According to Menefee, nearly 20 percent of the Pinnacle buyers are 35 or under.

While these new buildings are high-rises, condominium living is not synonymous with skyscrapers, or even urban living. Witness the second-home condos with hotel amenities in Vail, Aspen, Sun Valley, and other resort towns. Busy professionals are increasingly looking for a lifestyle that allows for luxury in all its guises, and condotels offer the greatest luxury of all: time.