Cavanaugh's Crosses The Cascades -- Spokane-Based Hotel Chain Steps Into Seattle Market

So often it happens the other way around.

Companies from Western Washington reach across the Cascades to cull Inland Northwest dollars and commerce.

But earlier this month, Spokane's Goodale & Barbieri Cos. turned the tables by opening Cavanaugh's Inn on Fifth Avenue in Seattle.

The multimillion-dollar venture represents a good opportunity for G&B to capitalize on a hot hotel market, but perhaps more important, the 20-story tower introduces the Cavanaugh's name to a broad new audience.

In the hotel business, two factors usually determine whether a new property will be a success or a failure: location and timing.

The new, 297-room Cavanaugh's Inn is in the right place - next to Nordstrom and near the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

The timing also is right, Seattle tourism observers say. The city's hotel market enjoyed its best year in more than a decade in 1995, said Wolfgang Rood of Gordon/Rood Hospitality Consulting in Bellevue.

"The market there has never been any stronger than it is now," Rood said.

The downtown Seattle hotel occupancy rate reached 77.8 percent in 1995, the highest number that Rood's firm has recorded since the early 1980s. Only Nashville, Salt Lake City and Honolulu topped Seattle's occupancy rate in 1995.

"Most cities are quite envious of such a rate," Rood said. For a city without a distinct winter season, as Salt Lake City enjoys, or strong tourism year-round, like Honolulu, "it's really quite an accomplishment."

Has the new Cavanaugh's arrived at the market peak? Rood and others say that plans to expand the convention center, the area's strong economy and new downtown retail developments point toward continued growth in the Seattle tourism economy that will benefit Cavanaugh's.

"I think it's a great opportunity for Cavanaugh's," Rood said. "I think they'll attract not only the people who know them around the state but also new travelers who aren't familiar with the name."

The new hotel offers midrange prices. "We're not going after the Westins and the Four Seasons," said Lori Main, general manager of the Seattle hotel. "But we'll match them in amenities."

A downtown Seattle property could increase the statewide stature of G&B, a diversified Spokane company that also owns a dairy, a winery and a ticket service and has extensive real-estate interests.

G&B drew on its diverse experiences in creating the Seattle inn. Builders gutted the old U.S. Bank headquarters at Fifth Avenue between Pike and Union streets and designed the rooms to be larger than those in most older Seattle hotels. The hotel also includes retail space, part of which will be occupied by The Moose Lake Co. - a clothing retailer 50 percent owned by G&B.

Corporate travelers probably will fill much of the new hotel, said Lori Farnell, vice president of sales and marketing. Cavanaugh's has a well-established core of business clients who have looked for a Seattle connection in the seven-hotel chain, she said.