Travel Agent - January 21, 2008 - (Page 57) DESTINATIONS PACIFIC NORTHWEST Hotels in Downtown PORTLAND Hotel Fifty, Starwood’s The Nines new to city’s inventory TWO UPSCALE HOTELS ARE BEING ADDED IN Portland, OR, as a result of big changes at two downtown properties. The former Four Points by Sheraton Downtown Portland, located at 50 SW Morrison Street, is being made over as the boutique Hotel Fifty (www. hotelfifty.com). Sonnenblick-Eichner Company, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm, arranged $19.3 million of financing to acquire and renovate the 140-room, five-story hotel, which will stay open during the refurbishment. The loan provides funds to complete a $7 million renovation of the hotel, which will include a redesign of the exterior, an upgrade of the restaurant and lounge, and a complete remodeling of guest rooms, bathrooms and common areas. Accompanying the refurbishment is a rebranding to create an upscale, independent full-service boutique hotel. The renovation will begin on February 4, proceeding one floor at a time to minimize disruption to guests, and is scheduled to conclude by June. Work on the fourth- and fifth-floor guest rooms and hallways is scheduled to be completed by March, while the third-floor guest rooms and hallway, lobby, bar and restaurant are expected to be redone by April. Renovations of the second-floor guest rooms and hallway should be finished by the end of May. Redesign of the building’s exterior will begin in March and should be completed by June. At Hotel Fifty, the best room to book is the 600-square-foot one-bedroom suite, which features a living room, full kitchen, king bed and city views. The other room categories are traditional and deluxe and have either river or city views. There are also balcony rooms overlooking the city. Travel agents can contact Terry Hanley, general manager, at 503-484-1401 or terry. hanley@hotelfifty.com. BY DAN BUTCHER Budget Grows for The Nines Meanwhile, cost of a property makeover for Portland’s The Nines hotel has ballooned from $118 million to $133 million. Denverbased Sage Hospitality Resources, the developer of The Nines, has overshot its budget by $15 million due to details to make the hotel more upscale and unexpected problems with construction. The design upgrades include a fancier atrium, local art, stone and glass in the grand staircase and nicer shower and plumbing fixtures. The Nines (www.starwoodhotels.com), a 331-room Starwood Luxury Collection hotel, is scheduled to open in Portland by late-August 2008, and Sage says that date will not have to be pushed back. The hotel will occupy the top nine floors of the landmark Meier & Frank building; a renovated Macy’s department store will fill the building’s lower five floors. A key component of the project is transforming the top floors from a solid box to a hollow square. Creating this atrium will give all of the hotel rooms, even those on the interior, access to a view and natural light. The interior rooms will overlook the glassroofed lobby area, while the exterior rooms will have city views. The hotel’s plans also call for a steakhouse on the lobby level, a rooftop restaurant called Departure with an adjoining lounge and a 7,000-square-foot ballroom, as well as an additional 7,000 square feet of conference and banquet facilities. The project is using sustainable practices with the goal of achieving LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Agents can contact Laura Van Daal, director of sales and marketing for The Nines, at 503504-3455 or laura.vandaal@thenines.com. I CONNECTING YOU For a calendar of events for Portland, OR, visit www.travelagentcentral.com/portland LEFT: The Nines will occupy the top nine floors of the Meier & Frank building in Portland, OR THIS PHOTO: Portland’s Riverplace at dusk January 21, 2008 TravelAgent | 57 http://www.hotelfifty.com http://www.hotelfifty.com http://www.starwoodhotels.com http://www.travelagentcentral.com/portland
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.