Holiday Inn work to start

A new downtown Yakima hotel that is expected to bring 50 to 75 jobs to the area has reached another milestone.

The city of Yakima has issued a building permit to Allpro for construction of a five-story, 114-room Holiday Inn at the site of the former La Bodega Yakimex grocery store at 802 E. Yakima Ave.

Construction of the new hotel, which is expected to cost $11 million, should be complete by next fall, said Wanda Riel, general manager for the Holiday Inn Express, another Yakima hotel owned by the Richland-based firm. Riel will serve as general manager for both the Holiday Inn and the Holiday Inn Express.

"You should really start to see some things happen now," she said.

Allpro, which is doing business here as Yakima Hospitality LLC, has already started some work on the property, but a building permit will also allow them
to move forward on the proj-ect, said Bill Cook, director of the city of Yakima's Community and Economic Development Department.

Cook said he is eager for the hotel to be built.

"These projects are very important for the economy and jobs (they bring) into the community," he said.

Yakima is no stranger to a full-service Holiday Inn.

In 1997, Jim and Rand Elliott sold the Holiday Inn they ran on property that now houses the Howard Johnson Plaza.

But this Holiday Inn will not be like the one familiar to many Yakima Valley residents. This one will be built with a new design prototype, Riel said.

"It's not the old roadside hotel you remember," she said.

And she should know. Riel worked at Holiday Inn when it was in Yakima.

Riel said the economy should not deter the project as Allpro has constructed and operated hotels under
both good and bad econ-omic conditions. And the hotel's location right off the freeway and near the Yakima Convention Center will be a plus.

"I already have groups committed to coming when we move in October," she said.

* Mai Hoang can be reached at 577-7685 or mhoang@yakimaherald.com.