Urban Villages Hotel Brings Rooftop Bar to Seattle’s Pioneer Square

Urban Villages is preparing to open a 120-room hotel in Seattle as part of a $180 million redevelopment across a historic block in Pioneer Square.

The Denver-based developer led by Grant McCargo expects to open the Hotel Westland this spring in the Westland Building at 100 South King Street, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.

The hotel is part of the firm’s RailSpur project, which includes the redevelopment of three historic warehouse buildings into the hotel, 77,000 square feet of offices, 26 short-term rental units, plus shops and restaurants.

The Hotel Westland, built in 1907, will emphasize elements of the Pacific Northwest and the historic neighborhood. Chicago-based Curioso is handling the interior design.

Inside its brick exterior, the hotel has been redesigned into an “independent lifestyle hotel” with modern rooms and a restaurant, in addition to the neighborhood’s first rooftop bar, according to its website.

Hotel Westland will showcase 328 Pacific Northwest-inspired art pieces from across the region.

The hotel will be managed by Aparium Hotel Group, based in Chicago. An opening date hasn’t been announced.

Plans for RailSpur include three restaurants from James Beard-winning chef Renee Erickson, filling 12,000 square feet in the former F.X. McRory’s storefront at 419 Occidental Avenue South. The building will also have a bar from New York City’s Death & Co.

A restaurant, coffee house, corner market and a bike shop operated at RailSpur’s third building at 115 South Jackson Street, before closing in May, according to the Business Journal.

Urban Villages, founded by Grant and Tom McCargo in 2004, has developed nearly $2 billion in mixed-use real estate in Colorado.

In October, Urban Villages opened a 13-story, $100 million hotel in downtown Denver designed to look like an aspen tree, which claims to be the “first carbon positive” hotel in the U.S. Populus, a 265-room hotel at 240 14th Street in Denver, is also run by Aparium Hotel Group.

— Dana Bartholomew