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SEATTLE | Hyatt Regency (808 Howell Street) | FT | 45 FLOORS

Construction of Pacific Northwest’s largest hotel can begin: city ruling

http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-co...-1560x2486.jpg

Quote:

A Seattle developer has won a fight against a powerful union to build the largest hotel north of San Francisco.

Officials at R.C. Hedreen Co. say a ruling this week by the city’s hearing examiner on an appeal filed by Unite Here Local 8 means they can finally begin construction on the $400 million, 45-story project on the Denny Triangle block between Stewart and Howell streets and Eighth and Ninth avenues.

“This has been a pretty bogus scenario from day one with the union using these delay tactics to force us to the table,” said David Thyer, president of Hedreen, on Thursday.

A representative for Local 8, which represents about 5,000 workers in the hospitality industry in Washington and Oregon, said it “will assess all the options” with its partner in the appeal, Alliance for a Livable Denny Triangle.

Hedreen’s project, known as 808 Howell St., is a 1,264-room hotel above a podium of meeting and retail space, covering three-quarters of the block. The Seattle Sheraton currently is the Pacific Northwest’s largest hotel, with 1,236 rooms.

After the city issued a master permit for the project last fall, Local 8 and the alliance appealed the planning department’s decision.

Attorney Peter Eglick, who represented the union and the alliance in the appeal, didn’t return calls seeking comment.

The appeal alleged the project didn’t provide adequate public benefits under the city’s land-use code and accused the planning department of “assuming the role of project advocate, apologist and process manipulator.”

In her decision, hearing examiner Sue Tanner wrote that opinions can differ on what is “a significant public benefit,” but the union and alliance failed to show the department director’s conclusions “are clearly erroneous.”

If demolition and excavation begin in a month, Thyer said, the hotel could open in early 2018. Sellen Construction is building the 45-story tower, which will anchor the corner of Eighth and Howell.

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http://www.seattletimes.com/business...l-can-proceed/

That is absolutely horrible and an utter blight. Seattle really needs to introduce design standards.

I quite like Seattle, yet is has missed the boat on improving the city with this relative sea of lousy new buildings. It's like Miami in that regard, though even Miami is doing a better job.

i actually like it,very neo-international. park ave-esque.

The snippet omits that the hotel was originally to be a full block (two acres) with 1,740 rooms.

They needed to vacate the alley to do that. The City played hardball and asked for too much in return. The developers were going to build 150 affordable housing units on top of the hotel's meeting podium, and also pay the standard millions in height bonus fees. (Some cities subsidize convention hotels, but we do the opposite.) But that wasn't enough. Rather than continue to negotiate and redesign, a process that's already been going on for years, they decided to go with the smaller package that didn't need to get through our horrible City Council.

The alley is a wierd "L" pattern through the block. Basically a 100x200' space on the corner will no longer be part of the project, and the hotel will be the outside L. The other site will be convenient during construction, then hopefully become something useful after. Another hotel would be nice. If done well it might expand the meeting space in the main hotel, but that would require bridging the alley, which would require lots of blood paid to the City Council, which would get political and take forever...

It'll be Seattle's largest hotel in terms of meeting space and room count. But the 1,740-room version would have had much larger meeting areas, and could have had a sizeable "convention" on its own (minus high-load space).

It's good that it's going forward, but a missed opportunity.

Our hotel market desparately needs rooms. Downtown (not sure what boundaries that encompasses) has 14,000 rooms. Last year we were over 80% occupied, and this year anecdotally it might be well over that. Equilibrium (the sweet spot) is different in every city but here it might be 75% or so. Current projects and proposals would have Downtown in the 18,000 range. Factor in growth year by year and it seems like we can use 18,000.

November 3, 2015

Demolition in progress on south end of block. Shoring work in progress on north end.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5757/...f7655dc1_b.jpg
DSC04120-1 by Marcus, on Flickr

With Amazon Block 14 & 19 in background.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5636/...5107ed86_b.jpg
DSC04122-1 by Marcus, on Flickr

Glad this is in the process of seeing steel down the line mSeattle. Design wise, its quite stunning even in its minimalist nature. Lots to look forward too, especially with that beauty "The Mark" rising. Hoping that super tall rises soon too. While I would of preferred the middle option with its curved facade, in the end, a super tall for Seattle is still great news regardless of nit picking a design preference. :cheers:

I'm okay with them building all three versions, just put the rounded one next to Columbia. The other two can go to middle (stacked box) and north downtown (BankoCh-esc). :D

Should be moved. Under Construction

From the compilation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vashon118 (Post 7436370)

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1485/...93cfe725_b.jpg
808 Howell St 2016-04-16 by LB Bryce, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1460/...c575f5f3_b.jpg
808 Howell St 2016-04-16 by LB Bryce, on Flickr

Was it really necessary to destroy those pre-war buildings?

There are plenty of parking lots in the city they could have developed instead. Not to mention the design of the new building looks awful.

This will be across the street from the convention center expansion that starts later this year. No other site would be appropriate.

Also the block has a wierd L-shaped alley, and they City's price for using the alley was too high. Avoiding both the alley and the old buildings would have meant a much smaller hotel. (The original plan was a much larger hotel on the full block, including 150 affordable housing units in the building, which is what the City screwed up.)

Recent update pictures from c33f @ SSP

Quote:

Originally Posted by c33f (Post 139186631)

The steel podium has been rising fast.... the main hotel tower... not so much.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2913/3...4e2f6f7b_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2865/3...10d122ab_h.jpg

April 24, 2017
808 Howel under construction in Denny Triangle. Background: Digging at the Onni site.

Quote:

Originally Posted by velciane (Post 139684256)

Updates from today:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...74753da6c1.jpg