A prime development site in downtown Seattle has been sold by developer Larry Benaroya for $20.6 million to an investment partnership that includes Firoz Lalji, chief executive of publicly traded Zones Inc. in Auburn.

A plan of 45-story hotel/condominium tower with a 140-room luxury boutique hotel, 180 condominiums and between 15,000 to 25,000 square feet of street-level retail space is now being planned by the new owners.

The hotel will operate as an independent hotel under management of sister company Executive Hotels & Resorts, also of Vancouver, B.C. The hotel company also owns the Executive Hotel Pacific at Fourth Avenue and Spring Street in downtown Seattle. The hotel property previously was operated as the Pacific Plaza Hotel.

Benaroya said that this project will be the best development site in downtown Seattle. For his part, Benaroya had planned a 377,000-square-foot mixed-use office tower with a 200-room hotel and retail space for the property as a build-to-suit for the prospective tenant.

By M. Sese
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