Grand Hotel Spokane to be part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection

More than nine months after starting construction, the new downtown Spokane convention center hotel has a new name and a formal franchise deal with Marriott International.

The hotel, across the street from the INB Performing Arts Center, will formally be called the Grand Hotel Spokane, an Autograph Collection Hotel.

For practical purposes, the simple name will be the Grand Hotel Spokane, said Matt Jensen, a spokesman for Walt Worthy’s Davenport Collection.

When Worthy first signed the deal to build the massive new downtown hotel, he said it would require a branding deal with a national or international company.

That deal was announced Thursday, indicating that the new hotel and Worthy’s three existing Spokane hotels will all become franchise operations with Marriott’s Autograph Collection group.

Those others are the historic Davenport Hotel, the Hotel Lusso and the Davenport Tower.

Terms of that franchise deal were not disclosed.

In exchange for a share of each guest room fee, Marriott will provide hotel marketing along with national group booking and promotion of the Spokane properties for conventions and corporate events, Jensen said.

Ownership of the hotels will remain with the Worthys, said Jensen.

All four hotels will carry “modest sized” signs on outside walls that will say “An Autograph Collection Hotel,” Jensen added. Owners Walt and Karen Worthy considered other franchise options, Jensen said, “but they felt that Marriott and the Autograph Collection, with its emphasis on independent hotels, was a good fit.”

Area officials and many civic leaders have said the new hotel will attract more conventions and corporate meetings to Spokane.

The cost of building the 15-story, 716-room hotel is expected to reach $134 million, Jensen said.

When completed it will include a 900-car parking garage and 62,500 square feet of meeting and exhibit space. A skywalk to be built by Spokane’s Public Facilities District will connect the Spokane Convention Center to the new hotel.

Marriott’s website says it has 62 Autograph Collection franchise hotels across the country and overseas. They’re described as “upscale luxury independent hotels … located in dynamic gateway cities and preferred destinations worldwide.”

During the past several weeks Marriott representatives have reviewed the Worthy hotel application, Jensen said. The review verified that the Spokane facilities maintain high levels of quality service, Jensen said.

The Grand Hotel Spokane will be Spokane’s largest hotel when it opens.