The project seems to be stirring other development, including a convention center hotel. Hotelier Walt Worthy, who, with his wife, Karen, owns downtown Spokane’s Davenport Hotel, Davenport Hotel Tower and Hotel Lusso, has filed environmental paperwork for a 15-story, 714-room hotel.
The hotel would have 70,000 square feet of meeting and event space, a restaurant and lounge, and an adjacent parking garage with 900 spaces. The proposed site is now a parking lot. A skywalk over a city street would link the convention center and the hotel.
Before an architect was chosen for the center several months ago, Visit Spokane invited a panel of meeting planners and decorators to review three finalists’ proposals. The panel’s favorite was the design by Garco, the firm ultimately chosen to design the center.
Panelist Michelle Horton, planner for the Ecological Society of America, said, “What really impressed me was their innovative design for the ballroom, where you could expand the walls and then go out into the green space. That was incredible, and I’d never seen it before. It was a beautiful, wonderful idea.”
With the coming expansion of the building came expansion in Visit Spokane’s sales efforts, including the addition of a Midwest sales representative. “We believe the growth of the convention center has already opened new doors in the crucial Washington, D.C., market,” said Keith Backsen, Visit Spokane vice president and director of sales.
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