SEATTLE? The W Hotel here is facing some opposition. Seventh Avenue Associates, a Seattle Sheraton Hotel joint venture partner, is seeking to prevent the property from opening this month. The company filed a motion in U.S. District Court asking for a permanent injunction to prevent the opening and operation of the hotel by Starwood Hotels & Resorts. According to executives at Seventh Avenue Assoc., the motion was filed because Sheraton Corp. previously agreed not to own any hotels in Seattle other than the Sheraton Seattle Hotel, either directly or through an affiliate. Since the time the partnership was formed in 1980, Sheraton was purchased by Starwood, which also owns W Hotels. The new W Hotel Seattle, located at Fourth Avenue and Seneca Street, would be just a few blocks from the Seattle Sheraton. Executives at Seventh Avenue Associates fear that the hotel will compromise Starwood?s interests, particularly threatening the Seattle Sheraton?s market leader status. ?We have been a market leader for 18 years,? said Stuart Rolfe, president of Wright Hotels, which represents Seventh Avenue Associates. ?We know that we cannot prevent other hotels from coming into the area, but the problem here is that we don?t want to be in competition with our partner,? he said. Rolfe said that since Starwood bought Sheraton one year ago, Seventh Avenue Associates has tried to reach an agreement with the lodging giant that would resolve the conflict of interests. But the parties have been unable to reach an agreement as of yet on any proposed alternative. ?We thought we could sell our interest to Starwood or they could sell theirs to us, but an agreement just hasn?t been reached,? said Rolfe. ?We?re just asking for the opportunity to fairly compete in the market.? Seventh Avenue Associates is a partnership of Seattle investors and is the managing joint venture partner of the Seattle Sheraton Hotel, which owns approximately 25% of the property. Sheraton owns approximately 25% of the hotel and Metropolitan Life Insurance owns the other half of the facility. Investors at Seventh Avenue Associates are also upset because management from the Seattle Sheraton will likely be shared with the new W Hotel once open. According to Rolfe, the general manager of the Sheraton is responsible for overseeing other Starwood hotels in the region. Its controller and marketing director also have regional responsibilities, which would include time spent on the W following its opening. Starwood maintains that the W Hotel began construction even before it purchased Sheraton, and that it is the first new hotel built in downtown Seattle since 1984. On the Sheraton issue, a Starwood spokesperson said, ?We regret that to date we have been unable to reach a settlement with Seventh Avenue Associates, but believe our arrangement has been fair thus far to all partners.? Sheraton and Starwood?s response to the motion for summary judgement was due August 30. A reply was due Sept. 2 from Seventh Avenue Associates.A hearing was set for September 3 on the issue.
