July 17, 2015

Hedreen clears hurdle to start constructing its 45-story hotel

Courtesy LMN Architects [enlarge]

A Seattle hearing examiner has ruled in favor of R.C. Hedreen Co. in a union dispute over the 45-story convention hotel the developer is planning at 808 Howell St.

The decision means Hedreen is preparing to begin work on the complex, which will have 1,264 hotel rooms and 105,000 square feet of meeting space. David Thyer, president of Hedreen, said crews are already doing site work. Demolition of the old Greyhound bus terminal could begin late next month. Thyer said the complex will take about 30 months to build, and is set to open in early 2018.

LMN Architects is designing the project, and Sellen Construction Co. is the general contractor.

Original plans called for a 1,700-room hotel that included affordable housing units. Hedreen needed an alley vacation from the city to build the full-block project. Hedreen failed to get support for the plan from some city councilmembers, so it opted for a smaller project that covers about three quarters of the block.

“It will still be the biggest convention hotel in the city and north of San Francisco,” Thyer said.

There will be five levels of meeting space — including two 19,000-square-foot ballrooms — above two levels of lobby and restaurant space. The upper 38 floors will be hotel rooms.

Last fall, Unite Here Local 8, which represents approximately 5,000 hospitality workers in Washington and Oregon, and a group called Alliance for a Livable Denny Triangle appealed a decision on the project from the Department of Planning and Development. In the appeal, the union and alliance alleged that notices about the project were misleading, the design review process was flawed, and said that Hedreen's environmental analysis did not adequately address traffic issues.

The appeal asked the hearing examiner to send the project back through permitting and design review.

Hearing Examiner Sue A. Tanner found that the union failed to provide enough evidence of flaws in the city process. Other claims were not considered because they were not brought up in the original appeal or a supplemental document filed several months later.