A $250 Million Luxury Hotel is Now Open in an Unexpected Place: Renton

Tourism became a much bigger part of Renton's economy this week with the opening of a high-end waterfront hotel, the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington.

The 12-story Hyatt Regency is part of the mixed-use Southport development. The hotel and a trio of nine-story office buildings that are now under construction are the latest additions to Southport, where around 400 apartment units were built previously.

The three office towers total 730,000 square feet of space. No leases have yet been announced for the office buildings, which are scheduled to open by the end of 2018.

About 6,000 people will live and work at Southport. Michael Christ, CEO of Renton-based Seco, the developer of Southport, envisions water taxis and CEOs’ yachts one day plying the water as choppers come and go from the helipad atop one office tower.

The 347-room Hyatt Regency Lake Washington at Seattle’s Southport, as the hotel is formally called, cost $250 million to build and opened Monday. Introductory room rates start at $279.

Based on room count, it’s the 15th-largest hotel in the region, according to Puget Sound Business Journal research. Designed by Seattle architecture firm MG2 with interiors by Seattle-based Zena Design Group, the hotel has 60,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space and a full-service restaurant and bar called Water’s Table.

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