A boost for downtown?

EVERETT — A Seattle developer could break ground next year on an eight-story Courtyard by Marriott hotel in downtown Everett.

Touchstone Corporation intends to build the 156-room hotel at the southeast corner of Colby Avenue and Wall Street, behind the Everett Police Department.

While a few hurdles remain, the developer and city officials expect everything to move forward on the $1.6 million land sale.

“I think we are truly in the final stages of this,” Mayor Ray Stephanson said.

The construction of a new hotel on the nearly half-acre lot would help accomplish a long-standing goal in the city’s ongoing attempts to revitalize downtown.

In 2008, the city began trying to turn a municipal parking lot three blocks from Comcast Arena into a hotel. Officials saw it as a way to keep visitors from heading to Seattle or Tulalip after a night in Everett.

Touchstone stepped forward, offering to pay $1.6 million for the land. The company has developed several locations in the Puget Sound area, including a 150-room hotel in Kirkland and a six-story office-retail building in Seattle’s Belltown district.

The price was right. The city originally bought the site, known as the Allen-Buick property, in 1973 for $250,000. Officials said it was appraised at $1.2 million to $1.4 million.

The sale began to inch ahead as the developer pitched ideas for a hotel.

“What’s taken us quite a bit of time is just defining what the project needs to look like,” said Mike Palacios, Everett’s real property manager. “This is a premiere location in the city’s downtown.”

The current design calls for a pool, a restaurant and street-level retail space. An artist’s rendering of the hotel isn’t available yet.

“It’s not a convention hotel or anything like that, but it should work well for the location, and it should work well for us,” said Jim O’Hanlon, vice president of Touchstone.

The hotel also may include a three-level parking garage. As part of the land sale, the city will maintain 48 stalls in the garage, preserving parking space for its employees.

The city set aside $450,000 in capital improvement funds to help develop the property. That money may pay for the removal of a streetlight and help address soil issues on the property.

A few steps remain before bulldozers arrive. The city still needs to sign off on the look of the building, approve construction materials, issue permits and, yes, sell the property.

That sale needs to be approved by the City Council, which so far has supported the deal.

Council President Paul Roberts praised the overarching plan, noting it came together as the economy tumbled.

“I don’t know of anything that would turn me off it,” Roberts said. “It’s mostly a matter of trying to find the right fit for all the parties.”

Hotel update

The City Council may hear an update at 6:30 tonight on the plans to bring a Courtyard by Marriott to downtown Everett. The council meets in the City Council Chambers, 3002 Wetmore Ave. More info: www.everettwa.org.