Published September 2005

Hilton Inn expected
to add conference space

Snohomish County Business Journal/JOHN WOLCOTT This Hilton Garden Inn opens in early October in Everett, adjacent to the new Future of Flight Center and Boeing Tour facility at Paine Field.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

A new 102-room Hilton Garden Inn in Everett will join Snohomish County’s array of hotel and convention facilities in early October.

The luxury hotel is in a highly competitive lodging market, but it’s expected to be successful because it will have its own geographic market niche, enjoying a site adjacent to the new Future of Flight Center & Boeing Tour facility, which opens in late October.

More than 200,000 visitors are expected to visit the flight center each year and take tours of the Boeing Company’s nearby 747, 767, 777 and 787 airliner assembly plant, twice the number that now tour the aircraft plant, making it the most popular single tourism destination in the county.

Many vacationing visitors, Boeing executives and visiting airline dignitaries from around the world are expected to stay at the Hilton rather than seeking lodging elsewhere in the county or even in the Seattle area, as they have in the past.

Crowds coming to tour the popular Boeing tour facility and the assembly plant will also be drawn by attractions at the Future of Flight Center, due to open Oct. 28. That $21.7 million, 73,000-square-foot commercial aviation showcase is now being filled with commercial aviation exhibits of today’s modern airliner components as well as samplings of tomorrow’s newest innovations for worldwide air passengers.

But one of the most significant economic impacts of the opening of the flight and tour center and the adjacent Hilton Hotel will be the addition of major new conference and meeting spaces at the two sites.

At the Hilton Garden Inn, filled with HDTV screens, high-speed Internet and other high-tech attractions, there will be space for conferences for up to 250 people.

The Future of Flight will provide meeting space for 250 people, plus special event space for up to 700 people.

The Hilton’s kitchen staff will serve meeting meals not only at both sites but also in the hotel’s 120-seat restaurant.

Business and aviation events and conferences, tourists, business travelers and school groups coming to the new education, recreation and entertainment site are expected to generate an additional $3.5 million annually for the county’s tourism industry.

Back to the top/September 2005 Main Menu