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An elated Mayor Royce Pollard takes call on cell
phone from Steve Burdick that the bonds for the
Hilton Hotel and conference center were sold at 9:15
a.m. today. Pollard made the announcement during
ground breaking ceremonies at hotel-conference
center site. (Photo by Cliff Barbour)
City Manager Pat McDonnell gets hug from Mayor Royce
Pollard after a dozen dignitaries shoveled
ceremonial sand at groundbreaking ceremonies this
morning for $72 million hotel and conference center
at 6th and Columbia Streets. (Photo by Cliff
Barbour)
Vancouver’s downtown Hilton Hotel
and conference center is a done deal
Dignitaries
by the scores ignored sub-freezing temperature this
morning to help City Hall celebrate the final steps
in a years-long process leading to an upscale
downtown hotel and conference center.
An elated
Mayor Royce Pollard
declared he could sum up his feelings in
three words—“Whoohaaah! Congratulations, Vancouver.”
During his
part of a ground-breaking ceremony south of Esther
Short Park shortly after 10 a.m., the mayor accepted
a cell phone call from
Steve Burdick,
the city’s go-to person, who announced thatthe bonds
for the $72 million facility had been sold this
morning and that Hilton Hotels and the city have
agreed to a contract which will see Hilton operate
the hotel and conference center for the publicly
owned 226-room hotel.
Before a
dozen or more people symbolically shoveled sand, the
first conventions for the hotel were announced.
Scheduled for the spring of 2006 are the YWCA of
Clark County and Southwest Washington Independent
Forward Thrust dinners and auctions, a Washington
State Labor Council annual convention, a district
Rotary convention, the state Association of
Municipal Attorneys convention, an Washington-Oregon
Parks association convention, and a Vancouver
Historic Trust and Celebrate Freedom function.
A downtown
convention center has long been sought for
Vancouver, but it wasn’t until a group of business
and industrial activists formed Identity Clark
County nearly ten years ago that the idea caught
fire. It was championed by City Hall after the
business group put seed money into the project.
ED Lynch,
ICC’s only chair, this morning explained why the
project has gotten to the actual construction phase.
Pollard, the
champion and cheer leader, of the project has been
reelected four times since the center has been
before the city council. And every city
councilperson who has been behind the project has
also been reelected, said Lynch.
Thus Lynch
thanked the voters of Vancouver for their part in
boosting the project.
The
seven-story building was designed by Portland
architectureal firm Fletcher Farr Ayotte, who also
designed the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver and
Portland’s Westin Hotel.
Construction
is expected to be completed late in 2005.
Top Clark
county events of 2003
driven by center on growth
Clark County,
Wash., a community of more than a third of a
million, persons grew by some 4,000 families during
2003. At a near 3 percent growth rate, the county
has maintained its status as one of the fastest
growing counties in the United States for the past
dozen years. Even growing unemployment rates, which
only slackened during the last few months of the
year, did not deter growth.
The top story
of the year 2003 for Vancouver was reported today as
all the loose ends in the downtown hotel-conference
center were tied and a ceremony celebrated the
beginning of actual construction of the $72 million
facility.
This year saw
planning and financing for an $18 million
eastside community center when
Ed and
Mary Firstenburg
made a $3 million contribution.
Clark
County’s $40 million Community Service Center and
downtown campus redesign was substantially completed
this year, consolidating governmental offices,
including some city offices with state offices,
providing parking for jurors, and rehabilitating the
courthouse for district and superior court judges.
The state
legislature approved a five-cent gasoline tax that
earmarked nearly $200 million for Clark County road
projects, two of which began this fall: $34 million
to widen I-5 north to I-205, and $22 million for an
interchange on Highway 500 at NE 112th Avenue.
Southwest
Washington Medical Center, after hiring new hospital
CEO Joe Kortum,
began a $120 million expansion project at its Mill
Plain Boulevard campus that will upgrade and add
hospital patient beds and surgical facilities. In
Salmon Creek, Legacy Health System began
construction of a 330-bed acute care hospital.
Washington
State University Vancouver gained stature during the
year after being granted greater autonomy within the
state higher education system. With that change, WSU
Vancouver’s chief executive officer,
Hal Dengerink,
was named chancellor.
Other names
making news were
Elson Strahan, who was named executive
director of the Vancouver Historic Reserve Trust,
Jimmy Buffet,
who packed a full house in the new Amphitheater at
Clark County, and
Maya Lin, who agreed to oversee a pedestrian
overpass between the historic reserve and the
Columbia River waterfront.
Insider to
resume daily publication Monday, Jan. 5, following
respite for New Year celebration.
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