The stillborn Foss Waterway hotel project could be getting new life soon from an experienced Tacoma hotel developer.

Hollander Properties LLC is strongly considering buying the hotel site on the west side of the near-downtown Thea Foss Waterway at South 15th Street.

Hollander is the owner of downtown Tacoma's newest hotel, the Marriott Courtyard Tacoma.

Hollander partner Mark Hollander this week told the Foss Waterway Development Authority the investment company's preliminary plans call for construction of a 200-room Marriott or Hilton hotel on the waterfront site.

He asked the development authority to begin the process of assigning the site's development agreement to his company. That development agreement sets the rules and deadlines for redevelopment of the site. The authority has scheduled a special meeting June 30 to consider the request.

If Hollander acquires the site between the Esplanade condominium project and the Foss Landing condominiums, it will be the third developer to take swing at making the hotel project happen.

The site's first hotel development company dropped out soon after the waterway authority picked a winner in a contest to earn the development rights to the site.

Seattle hotelier Robert Thurston then assumed the responsibility and worked for four years trying to find a building design that would be both profitable and financible.

Thurston's designs ranged from a boutique hotel project to various mixes of hotel rooms, luxury condos and retail spaces.

In the end, the recession killed Thurston's opportunity for financing, and he put the site on the market earlier this year.

Don Meyer, the waterway authority's director, said having Hollander as a developer for the site potentially is a "huge plus for the waterway."

Hollander owns five hotels in the Puget Sound region including a Best Western in Puyallup.

Bellingham-based Hollander has first-hand experience in the Tacoma market with its Marriott across the street from the Tacoma Convention and Trade Center. That hotel is less than three blocks from the Foss hotel site.

Meyer said the authority may rewrite the development agreement to ensure that whatever is built on the site conforms to the authority's updated standards. The authority may remove the requirements in the present development agreement to include retail uses in the project.

The waterway area is awash in vacant retail spaces built as part of earlier projects.

Hollander said he doesn't want to make promises yet about what could happen on the site and even whether his family's company will acquire it.

"This is a nice site with great potential, but it's an extremely complicated deal with the permits needed, the economic situation and the potential neighbor issues," he said.

"We're a very successful company, but a very cautious too," Hollander said.

John Gillie: 253-597-8663
john.gillie@thenewstribune.com

Boeing says it wasn't playing the orders game at this year's Paris Air Show, but even so, the final tally of results had to be painful for Boeing to view.

Boeing won just three commercial airplane orders last week during the air show, two from a Japanese aircraft leasing company, and one from an unnamed private customer who ordered an executive jet version of the 737.

In the meanwhile, Europe's Airbus chalked up 58 orders at its count including a 24-aircraft order from Qatar Airways, a 16-plane order for A321s from Vietnam Airlines, and a 10-plane order from Air Asia X for A350XEB-900s.

The new orders give Boeing a net order total for 2009 of 10 aircraft. Net orders are computed by taking the total number of orders for the year so far and subtracting the cancellations. Boeing has booked 61 new aircraft orders this year and 51 cancellations. Forty-five of those cancellations were for the much-delayed 787 Dreamliner.

Alaska Airlines today amped up the competition with Las Vegas-based discount carrier Allegiant Air.

Alaska, based in SeaTac, added a fourth weekly flight to its schedule from Bellingham to Las Vegas.

Three-times weekly service to Las Vegas from Bellingham to Las Vegas is scheduled to begin Thursday. The fourth weekly flight will commence on Aug. 3.

Allegiant has become successful in linking mid-sized communities such as Bellingham directly to Las Vegas and other vacation destinations often on a less-than-daily basis.

Allegiant now connects Bellingham with Las Vegas, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Calif., Los Angeles, San Diego and Oakland.

Alaska's regional sister airline, Horizon Air, provides service from Bellingham to Sea-Tac Airport for connections to Alaska flights.

Allegiant's non-stop service from Bellingham has cut into Horizon's business from the northern Washington city.

With the fourth weekly flight, Alaska will connect Bellingham to Las Vegas on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.