Published August 2004

Hotel chain to build
104-room Hilton
at NFIC site

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

Following recent announcements that Boeing and Seattle’s Museum of Flight have signed contracts to partner with Snohomish County in creating a $21.7 million National Flight Interpretive Center at Paine Field, a major hospitality chain has agreed to construct a 104-room hotel at the site.

Beechwood Development Co. of DeForest, Wis., will build a Hilton Garden Inn hotel and banquet facility adjacent to the aviation museum and conference center, which will also include a new Boeing Tour Center to serve the tens of thousands of people who visit the Everett 747-767-777-7E7 assembly plant each year. The present flow of 100,000 tour guests is expected to increase to 230,000 during the first year the new center is open.

The Hilton hotel, due to open one month prior to the museum’s completion next summer, will offer lodging for families, business travelers and tourists, as well as executive suites for corporate executives visiting the Boeing plant for aircraft deliveries and related production activities.

The hotel also will offer a 120-seat restaurant, an indoor swimming pool, an exercise room and additional space for conferences and special events for groups of up to 200 people, as well as providing food and catering for the museum conference center.

All of the major partners in the public-private venture have now made commitments to the project, including the Boeing Co., which plans a new, enlarged Tour Center for its visitors, and the Museum of Flight, which will manage the new museum and develop its exhibits. Some of the museum’s historic aircraft will be loaned to the NFIC, along with artifacts from its extensive collection.

The NFIC also will provide K-12 aviation education programs for area schools and accommodate special events and groups from 10 to 250 in “an exciting aviation venue,” Paine Field officials said.

Three outdoor aircraft displays also are planned, including a Boeing 747, 727 and B-52.

In related news, a nonprofit air museum foundation has been created by local community leaders. The growing organization will be developed by the NFIC air museum’s first executive director, Barry Smith. The founding board includes Ed Renouard of Edmonds, Erik Nelson of Lynnwood and Melanie Jordan Hecla of Arlington.

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