5-star hotel planned on Pike - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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The new development, which also will featurd about 10,000 square feet of retail space, comes as a slew of new hotel-condos are cropping up in Seattle and the Greg Smith, a principal at Urban said the firm has hiref Seattle architects to design the building. Smith expects a finalk design to be finished withinn60 days. In the meantime, Urban Visions is talking to potentiaplhotel operators, and Smith said he is confident he will sign one that has achievec the Mobil Travel Guide five-star rating in the Brett Matteson, chief operating officer at Seattle-based , said there are only a handful of five-stae operators.
"When you talk about five he said, "you're talking abouyt Ritz Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, St. Four Seasons and Peninsula." Mobil Travel Guide'e five-star rating system is one of two that dominate thehotelk market, the other being AAA's five-diamond ratings. Seattle doesn't have any five-star hotels. However, the in Seattle has a five-diamonfd rating. Landing a five-stafr operator would bring instant cachert tothe city, accordingf to Columbia Hospitality's Matteson. "Ig helps to improve the perception that there aremultiple five-star options in the he said. "It helps the city comparwe itself to places likeSan Francisco, Chicagio and Dallas.
" Hotel-condo development has reaches a fever pitch in Seattle. Opened last year were the Hotekl 1000, which has 47 condo and the hotel, which has 261 Soon to come are the Hyatt atOliv 8, which has 231 condl units and is set to open in August and the Four Seasons Seattle, which has 36 condows and is set to open in the fall of 2008. Urbanm Vision's Smith acknowledged the increasinglycrowded "Oversupply is always a concern with any Smith said. "We'll be cautious." Mattesojn said the Seattle hotel-condo market is now at the pointof "There's a lot of hotel-condp projects in the he said.
"There's been a few that have already The ones that will be successfukl will be able to differentiatd themselves through service brand affiliatio nand location." Matteson said the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Pike Street is a prim e location for Urban Vision's new "That actually is a good location," he "It's close to the (Pike Place) Market, closs to shopping, and that wholde First Avenue and Second Avenue from Madison Streety to Pine Street is developinv nicely.
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