The latest addition to Vancouver’s growing hotel lineup will host a grand opening tomorrow: the Best Western Premier Hotel at Fisher’s Landing.
The hotel has been open since Feb.12 as its operators worked out the kinks before the 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. grand opening Wednesday at the hotel’s Columbia Tech Center site, 1500 S.E. 167th Ave.
The four-story hotel is independently owned by Jim Pliska, and operates as a Best Western Premier — one of 13 hotel franchise brands owned by Phoenix-based Best Western Hotels and Resorts. The Premier brand is one of the more upscale franchises in Best Western’s lineup, a distinction reflected by the hotel’s amenities and surface finishes.
Interior features
The lobby area includes a full restaurant called the Bridge Bistro and Lounge, complete with a bar and a 60-person seating area, which can be further expanded onto an adjacent outdoor patio. The seating area offers a complimentary breakfast buffet in the mornings.
Sales director Kathryn Bahde and lead chef Ryan Hooper say the Bridge Bistro will be open to nonhotel guests and they intend it to be an institution in its own right, complete with a 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. weekday happy hour at the bar. The restaurant is open from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Hooper says, offering an “upscale American casual” dining experience, and the hotel plans to add a lunch offering in the future.
Making their way around the lobby, guests will also find entrances to a saltwater pool, fitness studio, a small convenience market, a business center and a 1,200-square-foot soundproof conference room.
The lobby and guest rooms give off a modern and high-tech feel, with copious power outlets and USB ports built into the walls and even some of the furniture. The rooms also feature a comprehensive lighting scheme with multiple lights by the beds and edge lighting panels around both the main bathroom mirrors and the smaller vanity mirrors.
Bahde says a big focus of the hotel is providing all-in-one services for visitors, such as the espresso machine at the breakfast bar and the upscale coffee machines in the guest rooms.
“They can have their high end coffee drink right here,” she says.
The hotel includes 132 standard rooms and 23 suites. Rooms range from $135 to $269 per night depending on the type of room, Bahde says.
The hotel’s location near the Columbia Tech Center will naturally lend itself to business guests. A press release announcing the hotel’s grand opening notes its proximity to the headquarters of PeaceHealth, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Banfield Pet Hospital.
But Bahde says it’s also proven to be a popular choice for families and sports teams — particularly since every room comes equipped with a couch with a pull-out bed for more sleeping space.
Best Western development
Pliska built his career as the co-founder of the Oregon gas station and convenience store chain Space Age Fuel, but he’s been gradually branching out into the hotel sector. The Vancouver Best Western is his third hotel venture.
The first was a Comfort Inn in Hermiston, Ore., which opened about 13 years ago. Space Age owned a parcel adjacent to one of the company’s gas stations, Pliska says, and he sought to sell the site to a developer who would build a hotel, but couldn’t find a buyer and eventually opted to do it himself.
Pliska followed up seven years later with another Comfort Inn in Creswell, Ore., and then began eyeing the Portland market for a third, eventually settling on Vancouver.
“This was a growth area, I thought,” he says. “The Vancouver area has just been expanding — exploding, in a sense.”
Pliska says he secured the site near the Columbia Tech Center and then began to look for a franchise partner, this time looking for something upscale that could cater to both business and leisure travelers.
The Best Western Premier franchise seemed like a good fit, he says, and his plans for the hotel matched the brand’s criteria, such as the inclusion of features like the fitness studio. Construction began in October 2017 and wrapped up just before the hotel opened in February.
Hotel growth
The Best Western Premier is one of several Vancouver hotel projects that have come online in recent years, with more in various stages of development.
The AC Hotel by Marriott, Hotel Indigo and Hyatt Place are slated to join the Hilton Vancouver Washington in downtown Vancouver, adding an estimated 400 rooms to the area. A hotel is also among the plans for the future of the ilani casino near Ridgefield.
Closer to the Best Western Premier site, the Fisher’s Landing area saw the addition of the Candlewood Suites hotel in 2016 and the Holiday Inn Express Suites in 2017, both of which are on Southeast 192nd Avenue, as well as the TownPlace Suites by Marriott, located off of Mill Plain Boulevard in the Columbia Tech Center.
Bahde and Pliska say the Best Western will compete by focusing on full-scale service in order to provide a better value proposition. The hotel also boasts more rooms than many of the nearby alternatives within the same market segment, Bahde says, which will give it an advantage on availability.
“There is a lot of competition in the area, so we’ve got to earn our business,” Pliska says. “We feel through our service and amenities, we can do that.”
Business has been growing steadily since the hotel opened, Pliska says. There was a bit of a slow start, he adds, but that’s to be expected when opening a new hotel, particularly in the winter.
“It’s been a little slower than I’d like, of course,” he says, “but we’re seeing a nice pickup in May and June.”
