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A group of investors is remaking Mirabeau Park Hotel into a trendy Spokane Valley centerpiece.

Last week the hotel unveiled Max at Mirabeau, a restaurant with stunning good looks and a big-city feel.

“We’re really happy with the way it turned out,” said hotel manager Lee Cameron.

Cameron, who lives part-time in Western Washington, is part of Spokane Hospitality LLC, which purchased the former DoubleTree Hotel in 2003.

Since then, he and partners Gordon, Arthur and Carmen Sombrowski, of Fernie, British Columbia, have spent more than $1 million making over the restaurant and another $1 million modernizing the hotel.

Red Lion Hotels owned the facility, located on Sullivan Road off Interstate 90, for about two decades and the dining room and brunches there drew people countywide.

The new owners hope to re-establish the hotel as “the place” for dining and lodging in Spokane Valley.

The kickoff is Max at Mirabeau — a restaurant that ties the hotel’s ‘70s-era roots with today’s fashionable eateries.

The eastern wall has floor- to-ceiling glass panels that open onto a hallway and tables there have a partial courtyard view. Custom retro lighting, bold upholstery fabrics and backlit prints of dahlias accent the dining room.

Carol Prophet, a hotel employee of 13 years, said regular customers are enthusiastic about the changes and the new menu, which includes entrees such as mahi mahi and lamb.

“They were just thrilled to death,” Prophet said.

The ownership group plans to spend another $2 million renovating the more informal Garden dining room into private banquet rooms, and updating the ballroom. Between landscaping and resurfacing the parking lot, no area of the hotel will be left untouched, Cameron said.

Cameron, who has 35 years of hotel experience and is current president of the Washington State Hotel and Lodging Association, said the owners are committed to lasting improvements.

All the 236 rooms in the hotel’s four wings have been refreshed. Half received major renovation.

One remodeled wing has suites with restrooms embellished in marble and granite. Spacious showers have multiple nozzles. Jetted tubs seat two.

Rooms are furnished with custom cherrywood furniture. Even the double pillow-top mattresses are signature.

“It’s the little things that the guest who stays here will subtly appreciate,” Cameron said. “We’ve tried to look at what we would like when we stay in a hotel.”

Cameron wants to make the facility a preferred place for local events, meetings and special nights out on the town.

“We really want the hotel to be a major player in the community,” he said.