Bringing Back Old Glory -- Kennedy Hotel To Be Renovated As Luxury Hotel

The 70-year-old Kennedy Hotel in downtown Seattle is being transformed from a cut-rate stopover to a luxury hotel that will rival the Alexis, Sorrento and Four Seasons Olympic.

A San Francisco hotel operator, Bill Kimpton, bought the building at Fifth Avenue and Spring Street late last year for about $7 million. He closed the hotel in January, and workers began gutting it two months ago.

The business is scheduled to reopen in August as the Vintage Park Hotel, with 130 rooms and a new 100-seat Italian restaurant.

"We love the character of the old buildings," Kimpton said. "We look for downtown, historic-type hotels, then we renovate them to bring back the old glory."

Rates will start at about $130 a night, roughly the same as the Alexis, Four Seasons and Sorrento, Kimpton said.

Reaction among competitors and analysts is mixed.

Most said the extra rooms will come on line during a particularly slow market. After a few good years, hotel owners are expecting slumps until 1994 because no large gatherings such as last year's Alcoholics Anonymous convention are scheduled.

But Seattle can support more hotel rooms over the long term, analysts said.

"In that location, it's a good bet," said Andrew Olsen of The Chambers Group consultants.

Kimpton said his company, which manages the Alexis under contract, often turns people away from that hotel because its 56 rooms fill up.

Up First Hill at the Sorrento Hotel, the grand reopening is awaited with a mixture of support and apprehension.

The 76-room Sorrento sometimes turns customers away but also benefits now from occasional referrals from the Alexis, said Alexander de Toth, managing director.

Developers of a future 28-story Hyatt Regency hotel at Fourth Avenue and Seneca Street, directly across from the Four Seasons, have postponed construction after originally planning to start last fall. The developers couldn't be reached to explain their plans.