Davenport Renovation Ready To Start Owner Advertising For Construction Bids

The long-anticipated, often-frustrated renovation of Spokane’s Davenport Hotel will start early next year, Executive Director Jeffrey Ng said Friday.

The downtown landmark could be accepting its first guests by the end of 1999 - more than 14 years after the prior owner locked the doors, Ng said.

Advertisements have been placed in Spokane and Seattle newspapers asking contractors to submit their qualifications for undertaking $15 million to $20 million in work on the Davenport’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, as well as upgrades to more than 300 guest rooms.

Responses are due by Aug. 1.

Ng said a Seattle consultant has been retained to help negotiate a final contract.

The project’s fate, he stressed, does not depend upon those discussions.

“We are positive in going ahead,” Ng said. “The market is very ripe.”

A market study prepared in 1994 is being updated to satisfy the project’s bankers, who are committed to restoring what was once the Inland Northwest’s premier hotel.

The final configuration of the guest areas will depend on results of the study, Ng said.

He said the owners are discussing affiliation with national hotel chains. The Davenport could become a franchisee or simply tie into a chain’s reservation system, he said.

The hotel is also working with the city and Washington Water Power Co. on parking.

Construction on a site across First Avenue from the hotel may proceed in two phases, he said, depending on how a planned local improvement district can be structured to help pay for the project.

Ng said WWP, whose nearby steam plant was the source of an oil spill that held up renovation in 1994, has been very cooperative.

The hotel, utility and other property owners in the area will benefit from realization of a long-envisioned arts district anchored by the Davenport and steam plant, which is under going its own renovation, he said.

Ng said the hotel should be shielded from any potential harm from the oil spill once WWP completes the installation of several wells and a wall designed to intercept any residual flow.

“It is not a problem now,” he said.

Davenport Arts District supporter Karen Valvano said the renovation will be a positive development for downtown.

“I think it’s something the community has been anxiously awaiting,” she said. “It’s been so long.”

Valvano said observers started thinking construction was imminent when the hotel stopped taking reservations for weddings, proms and other functions after Jan. 1.

“Everybody’s hopeful but cautious,” she said. “It would add so much to what’s going on in the west end of downtown.”

Hong Kong-based Sun International Hotels Ltd. purchased the 83-year-old Davenport in 1990 for $5.5 million from Lomas Financial Corp., which had shuttered the property in July 1985 after years of losses.

Other potential buyers had either lacked the resources to acquire the 13-story property, or could not justify the millions in additional spending it will take to bring the structure up to code and provide the amenities of a modern hotel.

Ng said Sun has invested $8 million already in upgrades to the lobby, with its stained-glass ceiling, and other public areas, like the Marie Antoinette Room.

But the spill and difficulties with financing and parking have delayed overhaul of the hotel’s rooms, which could accommodate both residential and overnight guests.

Ng said the purchase of furniture, carpets and other supplies for the renovation’s final phase will take the total bill to about $25 million.

, DataTimes