The Biz Buzz - New design for Brewery District hotel

Get the most up-to-date news, insights and analysis of South Sound business.

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Posted by John Gillie @ 07:44:47 am

Seattle hotel developer Hotel Concepts has posted a new drawing for its proposed Holiday Inn Express hotel on the site of the former Heidelberg Brewery.

Hotel Concepts Principal Han Kim said the drawing is still a preliminary concept.

The hotel company is meeting with the city's Landmarks Preservation officer Reuben McKnight next week to test whether the new design concept is a step in the right direction.

The main difference between the present design and that of the original concept is that the building is now clad with brick. The windows have also been modified to
present a more historic appearance.

Kim said he doesn't expect to break ground in June as he had originally hoped because of the delays in the permitting process.

"We'll be lucky to have all of our permits by then," he said.

In the meanwhile, Hotel Concepts has applied for a demolition permit for the parts of the old brewery that it and its partners own. The brewery's sign has already been removed because of safety considerations.

The new design appears to be much more in the style of the brick warehouse buildings that are its immediate neighbors in the old warehouse district and at the University of Washington Tacoma.

Holiday Inn Express front elevation

Holiday Inn Express south elevation

Hotel Concepts wants to build a 160-room Holiday Inn Express on the Brewery site to serve both university and convention business.

A recent Dan Voelpel column in The News Tribune outlined the case for new hotels because of convention opportunities lost locally because of a shortage of hotel rooms.

The new drawing by an Oregon architect is a significant departure from the freeway-style motel drawing the developers initially vetted with Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Categories: Downtown Tacoma, Aerospace, Economic Development, Tourism • 5 comments

COMMENTS:

Comment by scottsch111 @ 10:02 - Friday, March 7th, 2008

Much better. That is real brick, isn't it? Kind of hard to tell for sure. I can just see us getting all excited about the new drawing, and then they build the thing and it turns out to be brick-look vinyl siding.

I don't suppose that given the well-stated need for more hotel rooms, the builders have considered adding another floor or two?

Comment by dbreneman @ 12:05 - Friday, March 7th, 2008

http://tildebang.com

It know most of the equipment was removed from the brewery. I wonder if the brew kettles are still there? It would be fun to have one in the lobby of the hotel, like a kind of fountain feature. It looks like nothing of the original brewery is going to be saved, doesn't it?

Comment by Jacob @ 14:26 - Friday, March 7th, 2008

http://www.jacobrosere.com/

I think the hotel is going to take up the space of half of the brewery. So a portion of the hotel will be where the brewery is and the other portion on the surface parking lot off of 21st Street.

Watch the local blogs for information on the future of another historic brewery in Downtown Tacoma.

Comment by dbreneman @ 15:57 - Friday, March 7th, 2008

http://tildebang.com

Another historic brewery? Well they tore down the Silver Springs brewery to build I-705, so that leaves the old pre-prohibition Tacoma Brewery near Pacific and South Tacoma Way, doesn't it?

Comment by Jacob @ 09:23 - Saturday, March 8th, 2008

http://www.jacobrosere.com/

The story today says brick cladding otherwise known as fake brick will be used on the hotel. Maybe they should call the owner of the Metropolitan Apartments in the St. Helens Neighborhood, they have been replacing all of their brick cladding and the building is less than 10 years old.

Comments are not allowed from anonymous visitors. Please login or register to comment.

The Biz Buzz

The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.

Talk to us
Got something to say? Here's the place to say it. We welcome your comments on what's going on in business in the South Sound that we should be discussing, reporting or analyzing here on our blog or in the pages of The News Tribune.

Contributors

Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.

C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.

John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.

Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.

Devona Wells has been a reporter for 10 years, starting in Silverdale (where she grew up) then east to the Yakima Valley, down to Bakersfield, Calif., and even further south to Riverside. She primarily covers real estate at the TNT, including housing trends, new projects and consumer-related issues. You can check out Open House, her real estate blog, here.