By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Hyatt Regency Seattle

Seattle—A 45-story, 1,264-key hotel under construction in downtown Seattle will rise under the Hyatt Regency brand, according to an announcement made this week by Hyatt Hotels Corp., an affiliate of which has entered into a management agreement with R.C. Hedreen Co., the hotel’s owner.

The hotel, at 8th and 9th avenues between Stewart and Howell streets in the Denny Triangle neighborhood, is expected to open in mid-2018. Construction began in July of last year.

The Hyatt Regency Seattle reportedly will be the largest hotel in the Pacific Northwest and will feature more than 100,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event facilities, multiple food and beverage outlets and a Regency Club lounge. The location is two blocks from the Washington State Convention Center and adjacent to a proposed $1.6 billion convention center expansion, as well as proximate to Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, Seattle Aquarium, and the Capitol Hill and Lake Union neighborhoods.

The site was previously occupied by the old Greyhound Bus station, an apartment building and a six-story office building, along with surface parking, David Thyer, president of R.C Hedreen Co., told Commercial Property Executive. That puts the total development cost at more than $650 million.

“Developing a Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Seattle is consistent with our company’s objective to grow strategically in gateway destinations where our guests want us to be, and to do so with great owners and developers like R.C. Hedreen Company,” David Tarr, Hyatt’s senior vice president of real estate and development, said in a prepared statement.

R.C. Hedreen Co. already owns the 450-plus-key Grand Hyatt Seattle and the 346-key Hyatt at Olive 8 in downtown Seattle.

The Seattle Times reported that the city is in the middle of a hotel building boom that will see nearly 3,000 rooms opening downtown in the next two years, versus only 700 new rooms in the previous five years.