Aug. 28, 2003 -  Despite being in the black after a year in business, Davenport Hotel owner Walt Worthy is seeing red.

On Tuesday, the Spokane Public Facilities District voted to expand the city's convention center around his largest competitor -- the downtown DoubleTree Hotel.

"It's the DoubleTree's convention center. It's not Spokane's convention center," Worthy said. "They'll fill up by default and the rest of us will get the scraps. It's a totally unfair competitive advantage."

Worthy said expanding to the east also forces conventiongoers to walk farther to access downtown's shops and restaurants.

"They're going to have to bring their jogging shoes. Do you think ladies with high-heeled shoes are going to want to walk that far?"

The Spokane Public Facilities District chose the site east of the current convention center because it is larger than one to the south and because it offers a link to Riverfront Park and the Centennial Trail.

PFD Executive Director Kevin Twohig could not be reached for comment.

DoubleTree General Manager Dean Feldmeier said his hotel is already next to the convention center and because of that, tends to be the headquarters hotel for most groups. The real benefit, he said, will be to other hotels in town as the expansion draws additional convention center business, he said.

"We still only have 375 rooms," Feldmeier said. "When we're full, we're full. The point is that it will be good for our hotel, but it will be good for every hotel in town. To the extent we're filling first, we've been filling first anyway."

Aside from the convention center decision, Worthy said business has been good in his first year as a hotelier. Worthy bought the 1914 hotel for $6.5 million then spent two years and $30 million upgrading it to its original splendor. The grand reopening was last September.

Worthy said sales are growing, but would not divulge the hotel's occupancy rate. In a March interview, he said it was "nowhere close" to the Spokane average of 60 percent. Since then, however, sales have drawn closer to that number. Sales for this month topped projections by 60 percent, and 2004 will be 20 percent more profitable than 2003, he said.

The hotel has several million dollars already on the books for next year, and about 70 rooms have been pre-booked for New Year's Eve.

When the hotel opened, revenue came equally from three places: rooms, banquets and restaurants. Now half comes from rooms and the other half comes from food and beverage proceeds.

Lynnelle Caudill, the hotel's managing director, said the biggest growth has been in the corporate business market.

Ultimately, the hotel projects half its business will be from business clientele, with the other half from leisure travelers.

Caudill said the hotel is booking as much corporate business for 2006 and 2007 as it is for next year.

Worthy acknowledges that the expanded convention center will bring more business travelers to Spokane, but said the DoubleTree is going to reap most of those profits.

"The pie is going to be bigger, there's no question about it.

It's just going to be three-quarters eaten by the time we get any of it," he said.

Worthy said 40 percent to 50 percent of the Davenport's business is from Spokane people who recommend the hotel to friends and family.

"We appreciate that, and we are working hard to get it. I don't want to forget to thank the local people in Spokane," Worthy said.

After initially hiring 406 people, the hotel's staff is now 306, with about 50 on-call staff who work during busy times, like the holidays.

"There wasn't an obvious change in service," Caudill said.

"Through attrition, we have not staffed positions. Now that people are well-trained and familiar with how to do things, it just doesn't take as many people. All that has just been a natural part of the process in opening."

Caudill said the 284-room hotel still has more than one staff person per room. Basic rooms start at $169. The most expensive room is the $1,950-a-night Presidential Suite, a 3,000-square-foot penthouse with an expansive view of Spokane, $5,000 alligator-skin armchairs and a grand piano.

After singer Neil Diamond stayed there in December, he just had to have a memento, Worthy said. "He liked the bed so much he bought one and took it with him," Worthy said.

Diamond is not the only one buying hotel memorabilia.

The Davenport recently opened a company store, selling items with the hotel's insignia. Sheets and towels are the most popular items.

Though business is good, Worthy is also dismayed by what he sees as a lack of civic pride in Spokane. He said every off-ramp from Interstate 90 into downtown Spokane showcases cracked streets and sidewalks with patches of weeds. He compares that with Coeur d'Alene's recently upgraded Northwest Boulevard exit, with its landscaped median, sculptures and welcoming signs. He has concluded that Spokane is "a city that's given up."

He said the city "better start taking care of the businesses that are already here."

But he's not giving up. He said he'll propose to the city a plan to put his own money into upgrading an I-90 exit into downtown Spokane. He said he'd improve both the exit and the surrounding landscaping. He also challenged others to do the same.

"Until we get all of them done. It looks like hell. They all need to be fixed and stay fixed. It doesn't matter who does it as long as somebody does it."

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(c) 2003, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. HLT,