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Barry Sternlicht

Even Sternlicht's 1 Hotel Seattle Has Difficulties

February 29, 2008 at 1:51 PM | 2 Comments

There has been alot of speculation over the past few months as to what exactly is going on with the 1 Hotel Seattle being built by Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital Group. Since late August 07 construction has stopped on the site, and now its nothing but a great big gaping hole in the ground.

What happened? Could Sternlicht, one of the most prolific hotel developers of this generation have gone in over his head? Fortunately, no. But Barry, with heavy hearts we officially welcome you to the world of building a condo-hotel in today's credit market

According to today's Seattle Times:

Construction of the luxury 1 Hotel & Residences is on hold until at least late summer while the $200 million downtown Seattle project undergoes a redesign to become more appealing to lenders, its developer says.

The proposed redesign will eliminate 132 of the project's 176 individually owned condo-hotel suites, Brenneke said. They will be replaced with 192 smaller, conventional hotel rooms.

Helping matters is the fact that the retail and commercial space in the building is already fully leased, and 20 of the 51 condos have already been sold. Looks like only a minor delay here folks! Occupancy will hopefully be early 2010.

Phew! We knew Barry still had it in him!

[Photo: SeattleST.com]