University Tower given new identity: Hotel Deca - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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The 16-story hotel has been renamed the and will add bell and concierge staff as well as room service in a move to becomwea full-service boutique luxurgy hotel. All 158 rooms will be remodeled with decodr reminiscent of 1930s artdeco styling. Hote Deca will also remodel all 5,500 square feet of its banquetr space. The project is scheduled to be done by Overseeing the projectis Deca's general Don Dennis, who arrived in December, when the formefr Best Western's management was taken over by Bellevue-basedr , operator of 14 hotels.
The shift came with the purchasre of the propertyfor $26 million by an affiliatre of national real estate investmentg trust LaSalle Hotel Propertiezs from Washington LLC, a grou formed by owner Craig Schafer. Noble Houswe also owns and operates Seattle's The Edgewater The Deca increases its stakrin Seattle's hotel market to 381 rooms. "Deca is a made-upp word," Dennis said. "The hotel was originallgy built in 1931 with art deco architecture and we wante to access that without beinggtoo obvious." Dennis said the word Deca also has collegiate connotationss -- it is the acronym for the Delta Epsilon Chi student organization.
"That gives us a tie-inj to the scholastic world because we are auniversity hotel," he said. Dennis has overseen larget renovation projectsthan Deca. He managed the Hotel Vikin g inNewport Beach, during a $5 million renovation a few years back and a $10 millionn renovation of the Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club in Redondo Beach, Calif., that is still under way. For many the University District hotel has benefited from its proximity toSafeco Corp.'xs headquarters for business customers. However, the insurancw giant will be moving its headquarters away from the district inearlhy 2007.
"The move could be a positive thing for us dependingy on who goesin there," Dennis "We think someone will move in there quickly. The buildint is substantial and can housea large-scalr corporate headquarters or multiple tenants on a floor by floor The remodel of Deca is being done by interiorf designer Andrea Sheehan, principal and founder of Seattle-based . Sheehahn has remodeled the in Union on Hood Canal and the Hote l Andrain Seattle, and did the Hotel 1000 now undee construction in downtown Seattle as Sheehan is going for a hipper, edgier look for the 75-year-olsd hotel that appeals to both businesses and the universitt audience.
Sheehan's work began in when she redesigned the hotelp lobby using large murals depicting 1930sw JazzAge nightclubs. "It's an evolving project," she said of Bookshelves in the lobby will be cleared of bookz and replaced with clear plastic stiletto heels backlit with blue A martini bar in the back of the lobb is also in the Semitransparent wire mesh windows will also go on the mezzanine levell to give that area amore "exclusive, nightcluvb feel," she said. Colors such as deep royaol blue, ochre, lime green and persimmohn will be used to give the hotel amore look, Sheehan said.
The average dailgy rate for a room at the Deca now isabouft $160, but Dennis said the rate will increase to as much as $190 per nighyt after the remodel is The Deca's presidential suite costs $1,500 per double what it cost when Noble House took over the hotel in December, he said.