Eager for West Coast Expansion, WhyHotel to Pop Up in Seattle

SEATTLE—WhyHotel plans to launch a new pop-up hotel here, highlighting the company’s continued efforts to expand on the West Coast, after recently announcing an office opening in San Francisco. The hotel concept is an alternative lodging service that operates pop-up hotels in newly built luxury apartment buildings.

“We’re excited to work with WhyHotel to provide a luxury amenity package in an ideal urban location to those looking to live in or visit downtown Seattle,” said Karen Hollinger, senior vice president of Strategic Initiatives.

The pop-up, launching in partnership with AvalonBay Communities Inc., is scheduled to deliver next month. WhyHotel’s Seattle pop-up will be located in the Avalon Belltown Towers property on 210 Wall St. between Second and Third Avenues. The Belltown neighborhood provides access to both downtown Seattle and South Lake Union, as well as the waterfront, Pike Place Market and the Olympic Sculpture Park.

“Avalon Belltown Towers is positioned to attract both long-term residents as well as WhyHotel guests who want to want to be in the center of the energetic live, work and play community in downtown Seattle,” said Derek Bottles, vice president of development at AvalonBay.

WhyHotel will occupy 50 fully furnished apartments in the 24-story 275-unit residential high-rise. The property will provide both residents and hotel guests with access to a fitness center, and a variety of both indoor and outdoor common areas and cooking spaces.

“WhyHotel has been eager to expand its footprint to the West Coast,” said Jason Fudin, CEO and co-founder of WhyHotel. “Pairing the building’s location with a brand name development partner in AvalonBay enables WhyHotel to know it has the right project to launch its first West Coast pop-up venture.”

Founded in 2017, WhyHotel has expanded rapidly with pop-ups announced in DC, Baltimore, Virginia and Houston. In addition to pop-up expansions, the company recently launched a business unit dedicated to delivering its own ground-up flexible-use assets called Hospitality Living with a targeted launch in 2022. After expanding its executive team and opening a satellite office in San Francisco, the company is looking forward to announcing additional pop-up hotel locations throughout the remainder of 2019.

“Given the great hospitality market, strong residential development community, and the high quality relationship we have with Avalon Bay, it made all the sense in the world for us to open our next location in Seattle. The hotel will be in operation for a range of eight to 16 months, depending on the lease-up pace of the building upon opening,” Fudin tells GlobeSt.com. “Any given WhyHotel will remain open for a minimum of eight months, but the average pop-up hotel remains open between 12 and 16 months.”

During the past five years, hotels in downtown Seattle achieved high rates of occupancy and rapid increases in room prices, according to a second quarter report by Kidder Mathews. This positive performance sparked the interest of hotel developers and was the catalyst for several projects. With nearly 2,500 new rooms opened in Seattle in the past 18 months and 1,600 rooms under construction, conditions now appear to be softening. It’s safe to expect based on year-to-date results that occupancy rates in the downtown core will decline despite continued growth in demand, says the Kidder report.