Pacific Hotel To Be Renovated Into Low-Income Housing

Rehabilitation has begun on the historic Pacific Hotel at Fourth Avenue and Marion Street to turn it into 113 units of housing for low-income and homeless residents.

Plymouth Housing Group is coordinating the $8.5 million project, the largest undertaken by the nonprofit group, said Cheryl DeBoise, executive director.

Part of the building was operated as a hotel until about five years ago. The housing group purchased it in April from Seafirst Bank.

Stickney & Murphy, a Seattle architectural firm that specializes in renovation of historic properties, designed the latest renovation. Pacific Components Inc. is the general contractor.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the four-story building was built about 1916 and is near the prestigious Rainier Club and the YMCA.

When work is completed in August, one section will have studio and one-bedroom apartments, the other single-room occupancy units with full or half baths. One of the single-room floors will be for women only, and an interior courtyard will be landscaped for tenant use.

The hotel was occupied about two years ago by homeless advocates of Operation Homestead. Last April, Plymouth Housing Group purchased the building and allowed operation of an emergency shelter until financing was arranged for the conversion into housing units.

Low-interest loans for the work are from city and state agencies. A private loan has been provided by Washington Mutual Savings Bank, with its low interest subsidized by the Federal Home Loan Bank. The Local Initiatives Support Corp. provided a development loan.