Turning The Tables Cavanaugh’s Stakes Its Claim To Thriving Seattle Lodging Market

So often it happens the other way around.

Companies from the West Side reach across the Cascades to cull Inland Northwest dollars and commerce.

But last week Spokane’s Goodale & Barbieri Cos. turned the tables by opening Cavanaugh’s Inn on Fifth Avenue.

The multimillion-dollar venture represents a good opportunity for G&B to capitalize on a hot hotel market, but perhaps more importantly, the 20-story tower introduces the Cavanaugh’s name to a broad new audience.

In the hotel business, two factors usually determine whether a new property will be a success of failure: location and timing.

Without question, the new Cavanaugh’s Inn on Fifth Avenue sits in the right place. Cozied next to Nordstrom - both the current and future flagship stores - and a half-skip from the convention center, the 297-room hotel lies within walking distance of the city’s main attractions.

G&B’s newest hotel also is the beneficiary of great timing, Seattle tourism observers believe.

The Emerald City’s hotel market enjoyed its best year in more than a decade in 1995, according to Wolfgang Rood of Gordon/Rood Hospitality Consulting in Bellevue.

In comparison to the Inland Northwest hotel market, Seattle remains substantially more international, more cosmopolitan and, lately, more lucrative.

“The market there has never been any stronger than it is now,” Rood said. “There are four or five very encouraging factors that make the outlook for Seattle very positive right now.”

The downtown Seattle hotel occupancy rate tipped 77.8 percent in 1995, the highest number Rood’s firm has tracked since beginning the service in the early 1980s. Only Nashville, Salt Lake City and resort behemoth Honolulu topped the Emerald City for occupancy in 1995.

“Most cities are quite envious of such a rate,” Rood said. For a city without a distinct winter season, as Salt Lake enjoys, or strong tourism year-round, like Honolulu, “it’s really quite an accomplishment.”

Has the new Cavanaugh’s arrived at the market peak? Rood and other say several factors point toward continued growth in the Seattle tourism economy that will benefit the new Cavanaugh’s:

Convention center expansion. The Washington State Convention and Trade Center wants to greatly expand its exhibitor space, said Ralph Goodman, vice president for convention marketing for the Seattle-King County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Seattle draws large medical conventions because it heralds its top medical research facilities. Those conventions are growing each year, Goodman said, and demand more exhibitor space.

An expansion of the center - still in the tentative permitting stage at this point - could keep those meetings coming back to Seattle and attract newer, larger groups, he said.

Seattle’s economy. The Boeing Co. continues to hire back its work force in anticipation of more aircraft orders. The area’s high-tech sector looks to continue its surge. Improvements at the Port of Seattle mean more attractions and improvements along the city’s waterfront, Rood said, enhancing its tourist appeal.

Downtown retail development. Nordstrom’s has announced detailed plans to renovate the old Frederick & Nelson’s building kitty-corner from its current flagship store. With several large retail projects such as NikeTown nearing completion, Seattle’s shopping district has entered into a mini-revitalization. The downtown core will continue to sharpen itself and attract shoppers from out-of-state.

All those factors mean more corporate and leisure travel through the city, and Cavanaugh’s will likely benefit, Rood said.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for Cavanaugh’s,” he said. “I think they’ll attract not only the people who know them around the state but also new travelers who aren’t familiar with the name.”

Cavanaugh’s Inn on Fifth Avenue joins the chorus of other successful hotels here, but sings a slightly different tune by pricing itself in the middle of the downtown pack.

“We’re not going after the Westin’s and the Four Seasons,” said Lori Main, general manager of the new hotel and 17-year veteran of Cavanaugh’s. “But we’ll match them in amenities.”

A downtown Seattle property could increase the statewide stature of G&B, a diversified Spokane company that also owns a dairy, winery, ticket service and has extensive real estate interests.

G&B drew on its diverse experiences in creating Inn on Fifth Avenue. Builders gutted the old U.S. Bank headquarters at Fifth Avenue between Pike and Union streets and designed the rooms to be larger than most older Seattle hotels. Frequent Seattle travelers have been delighted to find queen-sized beds in Cavanaugh’s rooms instead of the standard double or even twin-size found around the city, Main said.

“In a lot of these rooms you just can’t fit a queen, or even a double,” Main said. “A lot of our features kept the woman business traveler in mind as well like full-length mirrors and extra lights in the bathroom.”

The hotel also includes retail space, part of which will be occupied by The Moose Lake Co. - a clothing retailer 50 percent owned by G&B.

Corporate travelers will likely fill much of the new hotel, said Lori Farnell, vice president of sales and marketing. Cavanaugh’s has a well-established core of business clients who have looked for a Seattle connection in the seven-hotel chain, she said.

“A lot of times we’d have companies that wanted to do corporate accounts with us but couldn’t because we didn’t have a Seattle property,” Farnell said. “That will change.”

In G&B’s master plan, the Seattle hotel will help funnel guests to other Cavanaugh’s in Yakima, Kennewick, Spokane and eventually Kalispell, Mont.

“We’ve already had a tremendous response from tour operators,” Farnell said.

As in Spokane, G&B will reach out to top-name entertainment and become a ticket source for hard-to-get events, Farnell said. Though the hotel won’t serve as a ticketing service like G&B Select-A-Seat, it will be able to book Seattle tours with tickets to theater productions and concerts.

The competition between regional airlines at Spokane International Airport has drawn Seattle a lot closer to Spokanites and Idahoans looking for a weekend getaway, and G&B hopes to become the name travelers look to downtown.

Success here could lead to further expansion of the G&B empire in Portland, Farnell said. Some tourism observes have speculated an expansion to Vancouver, B.C.

The new hotel could also be a primary mover of international tourists through the Cavanaugh’s network. Manager Main said that though the lucrative Asian market won’t be a primary target to fill rooms, “we might grow into it.”

While occupancy has reached new heights in downtown Seattle, some factors could dampen the parade of tourism, Rood said. The convention center expansion must clear local, county and state hurdles and may not be open for several years.

West Coast Hotels, which owns and runs the Ridpath Hotel in Spokane, will open a new property adjacent to the convention center this year. It will add another 140 rooms to the mix, Rood said. Other major hotel chains are eyeing the Seattle market for possible expansion, he said.

“I hope we don’t have a situation in the early 1980s when we had a lot of new rooms and then the bottom fell out of the market,” Rood said. “Occupancy rates fell dramatically. I hope we don’t see that again.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo Graphic: Hotel occupancy rates