The demolition, to be completed by week's end, marks the beginning of the long-awaited conference center/hotel development. Opus Northwest and LMN Architects plan a 15,000-sf conference center, which will occupy the first floor of a three-story office building that is to include a retail area facing the ferry terminal and a pedestrian access to the waterfront. Kitsap Transit will occupy a similar amount of space on the second floor, and the third floor remains available.

Adjacent that office building will be a $10-million, 110-room hotel by Marriott that will reportedly include a $1.5-million eating establishment by Anthony's Restaurants. Other retail space in the project remains available. A 58-unit apartment building and a three-floor parking garage for 600 vehicles are also part of the multi-phase project. Construction is scheduled to start in March 2003 and end in mid-2004.

Project subcontractors include: Rice Fergus Architects, civil engineers Parametrix, landscape architect MacLeod Reckord, heating contractor Stirrett Johnson and hotel consultants Colliers International.