A boutique hotel operated by the huge Marriott chain is coming to the Port of Vancouver’s Terminal 1 and will be a cornerstone of the port’s redevelopment of its prime waterfront property, the port disclosed Tuesday.
Marriott’s AC Hotels brand was chosen for the property near the former Red Lion at the Quay, which closed last fall. The hotel will be built by Vesta Hospitality, a Vancouver-based hotel developer and operator.
“It is really the vision the commission painted, a boutique hotel on the waterfront that can really accent what the city has done,” said outgoing Port of Vancouver CEO Todd Coleman on Tuesday in announcing the hotel, a major catch for the port.
In another nod to a local firm, port staff said it had selected Vancouver-based Holland Partner Group, a major housing and commercial developer with projects in large cities throughout the West, to oversee the development of an office, residential and retail space at the approximately 10-acre Terminal 1 property on Columbia Way west of the Interstate Bridge.
“Their proposal offered a number of options to build on the Terminal 1 property, emphasizing sustainable, high-quality facilities and a community vision,” according to a port press release.
The developers were chosen through a proposal process, and contracts with more in-depth proposals — and costs — will be presented to the commissioners for a vote at some point in the future.
AC Hotels is identified on its website as a company with “Spanish roots. European soul. Global mindset.” The chain has 10 hotels in the United States, mostly east of the Mississippi River, 81 in Europe and five in Latin America.
In a press release, the port said Vesta Hospitality’s proposal included “the desire for long-term ownership, strong financing, high-quality and sustainable building standards and a desire to build a community asset.”
Tuesday’s announcements capped Coleman’s four-year tenure as port CEO, which aside from the oil terminal controversy included a big push on the Terminal 1 property. A restaurant, Warehouse 23, is set to open in the former Red Lion restaurant this summer, and Portland biotech company AbSci will move its operations later this year to the newly renamed Columbia River Life Sciences Building, a portion of the old hotel building.
Meanwhile, construction on a city park and the first phase of buildings for the Columbia Waterfront LLC project is underway just downriver from Terminal 1. That $1.3 billion development by Gramor Development has secured a restaurant and office tenant and is also seeking a hotel.
