From todays DJC.
https://www.djc.com/news/re/12120932.html
April 18, 2019
On the Block: State Hotel at 2nd & Pike joins the crowd
Cherry trees and selfie seekers, the first cruise ship docking on the waterfront, visitors dragging their truculent spring-break schoolkids through the market — all signs that summer tourist season is nigh.
And the recently opened State Hotel, at 1501 Second Ave., is ready to welcome those tourists.
In fact, developer Pat Foley of Lake Union Partners tells me during a recent tour, the 91-room boutique hotel is already doing quite well. “Generally speaking, we've been full.”
Several guests are parked in the lobby while we chat, and the 75-seat Ben Paris restaurant and bar is doing a brisk early lunch trade.
“We're more of a lifestyle hotel. Everyone's welcome,” says Foley.
To the west, at First Avenue and Pike, Stellar Holdings is planning to build a 14-story hotel on the corner where the Green Tortoise building now stands. To the east, that old seven-story parking garage won't be there forever. (Its restaurant, Ludi's, was formerly The Turf, an icon of older, seedier times.)
Pat Foley of Lake Union Partners says the 1906 Eitel Building — purchased in 2015 for $5.3 million — wasn’t in bad shape. Exxel Pacific did a gut renovation for the 91-room hotel.
Columbia Hospitality operates and manages the hotel, which was designed by Weinstein AU.