May 30, 2025

A rare new hotel plan ... in Port Townsend

Rendering by Haven Design Workshop [enlarge]

Fillmore Street, at left, is a quiet dead end.

Post-pandemic leisure travel has snapped back, and Seattle is teeming with summer tourists. Even so, among several local hotel plans that are slowly inching along, we aren't seeing shovels in the ground.

Yet there's a small but very plausible hotel plan up in Port Townsend, which is also thick with visitors in search of lodging. Doing business as Nirvair LLC, two experienced Anacortes hoteliers bought a small old office building eight years ago, then paying all of $870,000.

The little building at 1136 Water St. is a tear-down. It's right next to the downtown ferry terminal, and apparently now vacant. Under Haven Design Workshop, of Ferndale, a four-story, 50-room hotel plan emerged a few years ago.

The 23,648-square-foot proposal is now well detailed in city records, with BCJ Group attached as the builder. The city recently issued a SEPA determination of non-significance for the plan, and the public comment period ended last week. Water Street Hotel may be the working title or intended final name.

A small gym, cafe, meeting area, spa and parking are indicated. Behind the building, on its north side, would be about 10 parking stalls, some with EV charging.

Final permits appear to be near, and the design has been approved. The corner site, at Fillmore Street, offers about 12,000 square feet.

The team also includes Sound Development Group, civil engineer and surveyor; Stratum Group, geotechnical engineer; CG Engineering, structural; KCB Environmental Services, consultant; and Faber Construction, prior development consultant.

In Anacortes, the project owners run the Sunrise Inn Villas & Suites, on the east side of town, near the marina.