A long-awaited hotel project is continuing to advance, with a public hearing before the Beaverton Planning Commission scheduled for Wednesday.

Commissioners will consider a request for design review for the proposed five-story, 121-room hotel on the Westgate property near Beaverton City Hall, at the southwest corner of the intersection of Southwest Rose Biggi Avenue and Crescent Street. The project’s designer is Arris Studio Architects.

The developer, Canterbury Hotel Group, previously told the city it hopes to ink an agreement with Hyatt to use the Hyatt House brand. The hotel will be managed by InterMountain Management.

The Beaverton City Council in December 2017 approved a with Canterbury. The city, which bought the property in 2005 for $4.9 million, gave it to Canterbury for no charge.

Design and construction are estimated to cost $23.5 million. Deacon Corp. will serve as general contractor.

According to the development agreement, the hotel will be a “five-story, high-quality, upscale lodging facility of approximately 120 rooms.” Amenities will include a “spacious lobby, lobby bar, fitness facility, business center, sundry shop, guest laundry facilities, boardroom, and an outdoor terrace with a swimming pool.”

A 3,000-square-foot restaurant space is planned on the ground floor, but a tenant has not been announced yet.

The city has been trying to develop the Westgate property, formerly home of the Westgate Theatre, for several years now as part of the Creekside District Master Plan. A 2015 development agreement with Rembold Properties to construct a two-building, 230-unit mixed-use development, a new hotel and a possible arts center on the property fizzled when Rembold backed out of the hotel portion in 2016. This forced the city to issue a second RFQ. Rembold, however, went on to develop the mixed-use project, The Rise Central; construction began in summer 2017 and is expected to finish this winter.

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After years of false starts and setbacks, Beaverton may finally get the downtown hotel that city officials have long sought to attract.

The Beaverton City Council has approved a development agreement with Portland developer Canterbury Hotel Group to build a five-story, 120-room hotel on the Westgate property near City Hall.

Beaverton is heavily subsidizing the deal. The city will hand over the property to Canterbury, even though the city paid $4.9 million for it in 2005. Beaverton also agreed to waive $150,000 in development fees.

Tyler Ryerson, Beaverton’s senior development project manager, defended the agreement, saying providing the property for free is necessary to get the hotel built.

“For what we’re requiring for the development, they need assistance,” he said. “There’s a (financial) gap there.”

A residual land value appraisal put the parcel’s worth at $0, Ryerson said.

The council approved the development agreement by a 4-1 vote on Dec. 12.

“The city is really carrying the burden of the financing,” said Councilor Betty Bode, who cast the sole dissenting vote.

The project is part of what Beaverton officials hope will be a wave of development downtown. Rembold Properties‘ The Rise Central – a mixed-use development featuring 230 apartments – is being built on a neighboring parcel.

“One of the processes that we’ve been going through is to figure out how downtown Beaverton is going to go and redevelop,” Ryerson said. “It’s been pretty difficult to get redevelopment to get started and we haven’t really had much before these last couple of years.”

Mayor Denny Doyle described the hotel project as a “dynamite shot in the arm” for downtown Beaverton.

“It’s just overwhelmingly cool to see this actually, most likely, almost positively going to happen,” he said.

Design and construction of the hotel are estimated to cost $23.5 million. Once operational, the hotel is projected to generate annual property tax revenues of $275,000, and $300,000 in lodgers’ tax, according to city estimates.

The hotel will be managed by InterMountain Management. Deacon Corp. will serve as general contractor. Construction is projected to begin in October 2018.

Canterbury is pursuing an agreement with Hyatt House to use the brand, city officials said.

Canterbury will also seek a $500,000 transit-oriented development grant from Metro, Ryerson said. The hotel parcel is close to MAX light-rail service.

Led by CEO Arvind Patel, Canterbury has at least nine hotels in Oregon, including five near Portland International Airport. The company did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Beaverton officials are eager to attract a local chef to open a high-end restaurant in the hotel. Bode criticized the deal because a restaurant tenant is not in place.

“If this is going to be such a hot deal, we should have a restaurateur who wants to participate,” she said.

Restaurant tenants often don’t want to commit until a building is closer to completion, Ryerson said.

The development agreement caps a long journey for Beaverton. City officials have sought to attract a hotel since a study found a need for more hotel rooms. In 2016, the city entered into negotiations with O’Reilly Hospitality Management of Springfield, Missouri, to develop a hotel on the parcel at The Round. O’Reilly opted not to move forward with the project after a six-month study period, prompting the city of Beaverton to again issue a request for qualifications.

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