BOTHELL — Brewpub chain and hotel developer McMenamins closed a deal Friday to buy more than five acres of property in downtown Bothell to build a 70-room hotel, pub, cinema, spa and restaurant.
The Oregon company, which brews beer and operates hotels and pubs around the Northwest, agreed to pay $7 million for the land in cash and non-monetary compensation, which consists of allowing Bothell residents to have access to a pool, community garden and meeting spaces at the campus for more than 15 years.
McMenamins submitted a proposal to the city in a competitive process in 2009, according to a news release from the city of Bothell.
The hotel in Bothell will be in the art deco Anderson School campus. The deal allows the preservation of the historic red brick building, which opened in 1931 and was remodeled in 1992.
It’s McMenamins first hotel in the Puget Sound region and will serve as a flagship of sorts. The company has a pub in Mill Creek.
The campus includes five buildings of 65,597 square feet. The buildings include a three-story school house, a careteria, a shop and classrooms and gym and locker areas and a pool building.
The agreement with McMenamins is the first project in a redevelopment plan for the heart of downtown known as “Bothell Landing.”
Over five years, Bothell’s downtown is expected to be transformed with expanded, tree-lined roads, a bigger, fancier riverside park, high-density housing and retail shops and a 50,000-square-foot City Hall. And private developers are planning about $207 million in construction in downtown including building more than 1,100 apartments.
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