New 12-Story Hotel Planned Downtown

WestCoast Hotels said today a 12-story hotel would be built at the northwest corner of Eighth Avenue and Pine Street on a vacant lot just east of the US West building in downtown Seattle.

Expected to open in March 1996, the $10 million development with 125 rooms would be the first new major hotel built in downtown Seattle since the Stouffer Madison opened in June 1983.

Steven Morris, president of the Seattle-King County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said today's announcement indicated strong demand for hotel space downtown.

"This will probably be the best year that downtown Seattle hotels have had," Morris said. He said occupancy rates are "up a little bit" from last year and would probably end the year at about 73 percent. "And at this point, 1995 looks even better," he said.

Morris said all three major demand factors are up this year: Seattle has more conventions than ever before, leisure travel is up and businesses are scheduling more meetings and loosening up on travel restrictions.

The new WestCoast hotel would add to the holdings of a company that is already the largest operator of hotel rooms in the Seattle area, with 942 rooms in six hotels.

The project is a signal of mounting confidence in downtown Seattle whose future has been on hold for more than a year pending development plans for the former Frederick & Nelson building two blocks west of the site of the new hotel.

The hotel is a joint venture between Alaska/Seattle Hotel Investment Inc., a subsidiary of Tanadgusix (TDX) Corp. of Anchorage, Alaska, owners of the WestCoast International Inn, and 8th & Pine Financial Inc.

The hotel will be on a site that until last year was occupied by three older apartment-style hotels, said Matthew Murphy, vice president of 8th & Pine Financial.

"The demand for high-quality, affordable hotel rooms in downtown Seattle is increasing at a rapid pace," said Murphy, a WestCoast Hotels executive. "Larger and more frequent conventions at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center and the overall revitalization of the downtown core all contribute to this trend."

He said the hotel, still to be named, is being designed by CDA Architects Inc.

Other 8th & Pine principals include Gordon Sondland, president of Dunson Equities; Roger McCracken, president of McCracken & Associates; and WestCoast Hotels' executives Rod Olson, president; Mike Bashaw, executive vice president, and David Thompson, vice president.

The hotel will include a health club, nearly 3,000 square feet of meeting space and a 50- to 75-car underground parking garage. The top floor will house two-bedroom suites.