Report: Plans to turn Kenmore seminary into hotel approved

Update: The Seattle Times reports that plans to use turn a historic seminary into a lodge-style hotel were approved on Monday.

The Times notes that the 62-year lease has amendments that give park authorities the right to control building alterations and charge additional parking fees.

Original story

A Seattle real estate firm wants to turn a historic seminary into a lodge-style hotel.

It’s a move not unfamiliar to the firm, which has rehabilitated several well-known buildings in the city.

Daniels Real Estate is asking the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission to consider authorizing a lease of Saint Edward State Park in Kenmore. The commission will consider the authorization on Jan. 5.

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If approved, the firm would get a 62-year lease agreement and reopen the entire building for public use for the first time in its 90-year-history, KIRO 7 reports.

The seminary operated as a boys’ school and educational order for priests. The Seattle Archdiocese sold the building and park surrounding it to Washington state for $7 million.

The building is on the Heritage Register, but has been largely neglected. The building, according to a Seattle Times report, needs an estimated $15 million in repairs, which the parks commission said in 2014 it doesn’t have.

If the commission approves the lease, the firm would be rehabilitated to accommodate up to 100 guest rooms, meeting rooms, a spa, restaurant, and cafe, according to the plans.

Though Daniels Real Estate isn’t the first to approach the parks commission about renovating the building — McMenamins pitched a restaurant and pub in the past — this wouldn’t be the first restoration project the firm has tackled. Projects by Daniels include the Starbucks Center, Seattle’s Union Station, Merrill Place in Pioneer Square, and the Frye Art Museum. The firm renovated Seattle’s oldest remaining church in the central business district, turning it into a multi-purpose center. Daniels is also responsible for The Mark, a 48-story mixed-use tower expected to be complete by this summer.

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