Late Monday night, John Cullen, president of the Grand Heritage Hotel Group and owner of the Stanley Hotel, and Morgan Mulch, owner of Marys Lake Lodge, announced an innovative partnership in which the two resorts will “now, basically start operating together as one,” Cullen said.

The Stanley Strategic Partnership Initiative is designed “to start reaching out to businesses in town that have a like mind and like businesses,” said Cullen. “We can help each other. Marys Lake Lodge is a terrific ownership group, a terrific opportunity for the Stanley to start expanding.”

Under the initiative, Marys Lake Lodge will retain its ownership and management team, but will now be able to utilize the Stanley’s (Grand Heritage) corporate resources, including, “technology, marketing, infrastructure, reservation systems, global distribution systems, engineering,” Cullen said,. “They are essentially part of our internal family and will be treated as such.”

The idea is to start sharing customers back and forth, and in doing so offer additional venues as part of either property’s offerings in amenities. For example, not everyone who stays at the Stanley wants to eat there every night, Cullen said.

And many people who stay at Marys Lake Lodge are wanting to participate in the Stanley ghost tours, said Mulch.

As part of the partnership, several levels of shuttle services are being planned, Cullen said, and guests at either resort will be able to book events and reservations at the other property seamlessly.

“This will make for a better overall resort experience,” said Mulch; for example, guests “will have the ability to charge their room at either resort from either restaurant.”

Mulch believes that this initiative is a very positive move for his business, and for the entire town.

“Strategic partnerships are necessary and we don’t see them a lot in Estes Park,” Mulch noted.

Mulch purchased Marys Lake Lodge, a historic property originally built in 1913, in September of 2012. He immediately began implementing improvements on the property, which includes the original lodge and a suite of luxury condos. The lodge was greatly affected by the flood of 2013, and was forced to close for several months, waiting for a sewer line repair.

After it reopened this spring, Marys Lake Lodge added the Big Beaver Brewing Company with its wide variety of craft beers and cider to the offerings in its tavern.

Cullen purchased the Stanley Hotel nearly 20 years ago and has continued to improve the historic property each year. In April of 2014, Estes Park voters gave Cullen permission to purchase Lot 4 from the Town of Estes Park to establish, in partnership with Estes Park Medical Center, a University of Colorado powered Wellness Center and ancillary buildings on the site. This development is projected to inject millions of dollars annually into the town through providing jobs, sales tax revenue, and offshoot business activity.

While both Marys Lake Lodge and the Stanley were built at the very beginning of the 20th century and have been restored to reflect much of their original flavor, they are very different venues.

The lodge is more rustic and is located on the outskirts of Estes Park, while the Stanley is a more luxurious experience, situated near the center of town. This partnership is especially beneficial to the one major source of revenue both resorts have in common – weddings.

Ashley Mulch, who is responsible for booking events at the lodge, is excited about the ability to offer a variety of wedding experiences to her guests through this initiative.

“We can offer multiple events for the same group of people, and have additional lodging opportunities by utilizing both properties,” she said. Currently, Marys Lake Lodge is able to do just one event per day. With this new opportunity, the lodge can have a wedding at Marys Lake and the reception at The Stanley, for example.

Another big opportunity is being able to co-host major events, such as the Stanley Film Festival, Cullen said. From the first year to the second, the film festival has grown three-fold; almost 4,000 people attended this year’s festival in late April.

“Quite frankly, I’m running out of rooms and venues,” Cullen said. It could be said that the 2014 festival was a pilot program in business strategic partnerships with the Stanley. Those local businesses willing to participate by offering discounts and/or specials to festival attendees were included in the marketing materials and trolley route for the event.

“The strategic partnership is really part of a larger outreach, where the Stanley can be the hub and spoke of a lot more in this town,” said Cullen. “We have extra business to share, and we all win by this.

“I am not going to be able to handle a couple of thousand (extra) people. I am thrilled to have them do a zombie crawl to the Wheel. I’m thrilled for them to go down to Marys Lake Lodge and have a secret function. I want them to have that type of experience (like Park City, Utah, does with the Sundance Film Festival) where the entire town becomes the Stanley Film Festival,” Cullen said.

The 2015 Stanley Film Festival will be held on May 1, which marks the 20-year anniversary of Cullen’s ownership of the property.

To celebrate this milestone, the Stanley is creating the Stanley Maze – a hedge maze consisting of 1,800 Colorado spruce bushes on the hotel’s front lawn. “So many people from around the world come to the Stanley and ask where the maze is,” Cullen said. The hedge maze, a feature included in the movie, “The Shining (1975),” was a major plot point in the film, but never existed at the hotel on which the movie was based. The maze will be permanent feature at the Stanley Hotel and will be open to its first guest on the festival’s opening day.

Cullen hopes that other local businesses will consider being a part of this initiative to help bolster each individual property by sharing resources and offering enhancements to their guests through this type of cooperation.

Mulch is thrilled at what he sees as an important step to creating a viable year-round economy.

“The first business owner I met (when I bought the lodge) was John Cullen, and our friendship has grown,” Mulch said. “We have a similar vision of the growth of Estes Park. By working together, we can achieve that. Estes Park can be a four-season destination, not just a five-month destination.”

Both properties are going to be announcing additional improvements and resort offerings through this partnership at the official launch of the initiative in January, Cullen said.

“This is a win/win for both of us,” he said.