homeWelcome, sign in or click here to subscribe.login
     


 

 

Real Estate


print  email to a friend  reprints add to mydjc  

December 13, 2016

Seven Seas hotel team eyes 2017 start for Lusty Lady's makeover

  • Revolve Development is designing a 43-room boutique hotel, restaurant and basement bar.
  • By BRIAN MILLER
    Journal staff reporter

    Photo by Jon Silver [enlarge]
    The Seven Seas Building in 2011, when it was newly vacant.

    After more than six years of sitting vacant, and over a year since new plans were announced for a hotel, the former Lusty Lady building at 1315 First Ave. is finally showing signs of activity.

    “We're about to turn in a building permit set. The plans are done,” said architect John Schack, a principal with Revolve Development.

    He is aiming to get permit approval next spring and start construction next summer on what should be a 12-month project.

    “It's fun. It's a blank canvas,” he said of the empty shell of the 126-year-old Seven Seas Building.

    In May of 2015, Revolve announced plans to turn the space into a 43-room boutique hotel, restaurant and basement bar. Revolve signed a 99-year ground lease with the building's longtime owners, the Tolias family.

    However, nothing much has happened since then, other than the October opening of Brainfreeze, a pop-up gallery and exhibition space.

    The Seven Seas Building is on the west side of First, between Union and University streets, squeezed between Harbor Steps and the Four Seasons (which together purchased the Seven Seas' air rights in 2005).

    The Seven Seas is only three stories tall on First, but it has three basement levels descending to Post Alley, where the bar will be located.

    Schack is working with DCI Engineers on structural reinforcement, and Venture is providing pre-construction services.

    “It's an unreinforced masonry building,” said Schack. “It's a lot of work. It's a total seismic upgrade.” Three sets of braces are planned to secure the 1890 structure.

    No SEPA review or design review is required, said Schack. “There's no preservation aspect,” since the First Avenue facade has been so heavily modified over the years.

    “It's going to be much more transparent,” with glazing and a conventional restaurant frontage. A decision whether to repaint or remove the old paint hasn't been made yet.

    1926 photo courtesy of MOHAI, PEMCO Webster & Stevens Collection [enlarge]
    Here is the building in 1926. It opened as the Hotel Vendome in 1890. The north half of the building was demolished in 1966.

    An elevator and fire stairs will be added, along with a five-story light well measuring about 10 by 35 feet, on the south side of the building.

    Smaller hotel rooms of about 190 square feet will be clustered around the light well. Larger rooms of about 275 square feet will face First and Post. The building will be slightly enlarged in total floor area, to 26,219 square feet.

    The restaurant on First will have a new mezzanine level. The rooftop deck will be accessed by stairs and elevator.

    There will be views of Elliott Bay from the deck, said Schack. “The roof is nice. It's exactly like the pool deck level at the Four Seasons.”

    Partners won't be named for the restaurant and bar spaces until next spring. But Schack said, “We're working with local people.”

    The hotel doesn't have a name yet, but it will be operated by Kirkland-based Q Hospitality Management, and marks a return to the building's original use as the Hotel Vendome. It remained a hotel into the 1950s under different names (including the Sultan).

    The building was once twice as wide, with 80 feet of frontage on First, but the north half of the building was demolished in 1966 to make way for the Heliparker Garage (now the Four Seasons).

    The Lusty Lady was the building's sole and final tenant from 1985-2010.


     


    Brian Miller can be reached by email at brian.miller@djc.com or by phone at (206) 219-6517.



    
    Email or user name:
    Password:
     
    Forgot password? Click here.