Historic Hotel In Spokane Being Renovated

SPOKANE - Sunlight once again filters through skylights over the Davenport Hotel lobby.

Darkened since World War II blackouts, the milky glass panes have been painstakingly restored in the ceiling as part of a multimillion-dollar renovation of the historic hotel.

"It was a shame it was covered for so long," said Patrick Wai Meng Ng, president of Sun International Hotels & Properties Inc., which bought the Davenport in 1990.

Since buying the hotel for $5.25 million, Ng's Hong Kong-based company has spent an additional $5 million on renovations. Sun International expects to spend another $20 million on the overhaul, to be completed by 1995.

Workers enforcing wartime blackout regulations covered the skylights with tar, which was never removed.

The city will start on a $4.2 million parking garage across the street when the renovation is 75 percent complete.