The Swinerton Seattle Building Group recently completed a $33 million hotel connected to the 7 Cedars Casino. The five-story, 100-room hotel is the first of four phases in the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s Master Plan for their resort located in Sequim, WA. The 7 Cedars Hotel is the third negotiated project the Swinerton team has successfully completed for the tribe and is currently a finalist for the NAIOP Night of the Stars Hospitality Development of the Year award.

Unique weather conditions created a challenging work environment. There was two feet of snow when we broke ground, followed by record rainfall in the spring and summer months. To stabilize the poor soil conditions 1,056 Geopiers were drilled 32 feet down. The wood framed walls and sections of the floor corridors on levels 2-5 were framed on the ground, then flown into place and set on the concrete podium over the lobby and conference spaces. Once the framing was in place, the rough-in commenced and we were off to the races.

The hotel contains four corner suites, eight executive suites, and a mixture of king and double queen rooms. The main floor houses the lobby, conference spaces, administrative offices, reception, and a coffee and gift shop. The porte cochere and decorative Kebony siding sets the guest experience when first entering the hotel, whose décor and design was a focus. The finishes represent a sea to sky motif for the hotel through beautiful custom carpet, tile, and stone. The reception kiosks in the lobby are one-of-a-kind, custom made pieces.  All areas of the hotel feature unique artwork—no two pieces are the same throughout—including those by local artists. Exquisite landscaping enhances an outdoor patio designed for special events.

Besides mitigating weather challenges, the Swinerton Seattle team navigated this project through the COVID-19 pandemic. With changing work environments and standards, the team was able to adjust and still meet deadlines while keeping everyone’s health and safety at the forefront of operations. The pandemic caused delays in product delivery, rendering some products unavailable, which meant the team had to be quick to find solutions and substitutions. The determined 7 Cedars team made sure that no challenges got in the way of delivering the finished product to the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.

Swinerton turned over the finished project to an overjoyed client in July 2020. During Phase II of the 7 Cedars Resort Master Plan, there will be an additional 200-room hotel expansion connected to the current hotel. The current lobby is designed to transition into additional gaming space and to the ground floor of the new 200-room hotel. We are looking forward to the opportunity to work alongside the tribe in upcoming phases of the Master Plan.