Published December 2005

New 243-room Holiday Inn
open for business

Snohomish County Business Journal/JOHN WOLCOTT The new Holiday Inn in Everett opened in November, providing conference facilities for up to 800 people and 243 rooms for guests.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

It’s open.

Over the past year, Doug Bartells and John McCracken, two savvy hotel management executives from The Chambers Group in Seattle, have put millions of dollars into totally revamping Everett’s largest hotel, re-opening the former Howard Johnson facility as a Holiday Inn.

The new luxury hotel opened in November, providing conference facilities for up to 800 guests and 243 totally new rooms for guests. A grand opening will be held in January after the holidays, Bartells said.

“We have assembled a great team of managers for the Holiday Inn,” Bartells said. “Our first employee meeting on November 8 had 65 ... (a staff of) people eager to get started at the new hotel. We are excited to be ... serving the Everett community.”

Sporting new earth-tone colors, the seven-story hotel at Pacific Avenue and I-5 has a new restaurant, new meeting and conference rooms, a new lobby and refurbished pool, McCracken said. There’s also new air conditioning, a new kitchen, new entrances, new carpeting, a new exercise room, new lighting and new room furnishings.

He said interest from the community was evident even during the construction work, citing many contacts from groups and businesses interested in the progress and the opening.

The new multimillion-dollar hotel, bought by Bellevue businessman Tommy Lu in September 2004, is expected to once again be a focal point for chamber of commerce meetings, sales and investment seminars and association conferences. It offers one of the largest banquet and conference spaces north of Seattle, with nearly 12,000 square feet of flexible gathering space that includes a grand ballroom, multiple meeting rooms and an executive boardroom, complete with audio/video equipment, catering services and a full-service restaurant.

Along with high-speed Internet service in the rooms, including seven parlor suites with views of the Cascade Mountains, there will be wireless service in the meeting spaces and public areas. Other amenities include a lounge, fresh Northwest cuisine, an espresso bar and free parking, both on the street level and in the hotel’s garage.

For more information, contact Director of Sales Verna Harbaugh at 425-259-3805 or vernah@hieverett.com, or visit the new hotel’s Web site at www.hieverett.com.

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