The Chambers Group

Speciality: Hotels
Managing director: Andy Olsen
Year founded: 1990
Largest current projects: Howard Johnson Plaza in Everett, Ramada Inn in Seattle

After the Sept. 11 attacks, developers weren’t looking at the hospitality market sector, but things are starting to change.

Until this year, interest in developing hotels was low, but “we see development coming back,” said Andy Olsen, who consults with Northwest hotels.

The hospitality market is strengthening because more people are visiting. Group travel is big now, and people are coming for conventions. Some business travel is starting to come back.

Olsen heads Seattle-based consulting company The Chambers Group, which helps hotels with development as well as market and financial analysis. It has worked with hotels, resorts and conference centers in Seattle, Portland and Anchorage, Alaska.

One of the company’s biggest projects is in Everett, where the owner of a Howard Johnson Plaza hotel is turning his property into a Holiday Inn. Renovations are set to be complete by summer 2005.

A hot sector is mixed-use development, in which hotels are combined with condos, retail stores or residential space. “That’s not necessarily a change,” said Olsen, “but it is a characteristic of what’s being done.”

These kinds of developments are more common in Chicago, New York or other major metropolitan areas, but are starting to be constructed here, he said.

They may be trendy, but unless something is happening over a long time, it’s hard to call it a trend, said Olsen. He said mixed-use developments like these are a “warm trend” in Seattle.