PORT ANGELES — The proposed Oak Street hotel/conference center could be successful but first it needs a stronger marketing plan and firmer financial commitments, according to an independent analysis conducted by a hotel industry consulting company.
The Chambers Group, based in Seattle, shared its report with the city’s Conference Center Review Committee by conference call during a private, closed-door session Tuesday afternoon.
Its analysis will be shared with project developer Randal Jay Ehm today.
The committee also heard from two Port Angeles hotel managers, the Red Lion’s Michael Luehrs and John Platt of Olympic Lodge Best Western, who shared proprietary information regarding running a hotel in the city, according to Deputy Mayor Orville Campbell.
Campbell, chairman of the conference center committee, said the group will use those analyses to further evaluate Ehm’s proposal.
“We’ve not reached any final conclusions,” Campbell said in a briefing after the committee’s meeting.
Ehm has proposed building a four-story, 150-room Crowne Plaza hotel and conference center on 3.75 waterfront acres at the foot of Oak Street.
The project is estimated by Ehm at between $15 million and $17 million
He wants to break ground for the hotel in July and open it in May 2003.
The city is considering whether to award Ehm a $2 million subsidy — paid out over 20-years at $100,000 annually — from the city’s hotel-motel bed taxes.
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