PORT ANGELES — Best Western Olympic Lodge owner Tod McClaskey said Wednesday he will drop his lawsuit to halt the proposed $16.5 million Oak Street hotel and conference center.
“We just don’t believe that Mr. Ehm can get the money for this project, and we just thought that we were wasting our money,” McClaskey said, referring to Randal Jay Ehm, president of Ehm Architecture of Seattle and San Diego, Calif.
Ehm is trying to raise money to build a four-story, 150-room Marriott Hotel and conference center at the corner of Front and Oak streets.
The Port of Port Angeles plans to sell the parcel to Ehm for about $1 million.
The city would underwrite the cost of marketing the 11,000 square feet of convention space inside the hotel with $100,000 in bed tax revenues per year for 20 years.
Bed taxes are collected on overnight stays at hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, and other accommodations.
McClaskey filed his lawsuit in August against the Port of Port Angeles, state Board of Natural Resources, state Department of Natural Resources, Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland and Ehm.
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