Connection and Investment in the City of Normandy Park

Written by Mark Hoppen, City Manager of Normandy Park

With convenient access to downtown Seattle and SeaTac International Airport, the City of Normandy Park is a beautiful waterfront community with 4.5 miles of high and low bank waterfront along Puget Sound in South King County. This city—home to almost 7,000 residents—is a hidden gem covering an area of 2.5 square miles. The community places a priority on enhancing its quiet, pedestrian-friendly, park-like, forest setting and on providing a safe environment for families.

Normandy Park is currently among the best-connected public transit suburban communities in the Puget Sound region, thanks to its last-mile pilot program with King County Metro, Normandy Park Community Ride.

The community is committed to networking with businesses, city leaders, local non-profits and residents as well as to volunteerism and sponsoring traditional community-wide events, such as the 4th of July Parade to The Cove and the Music in the Park summer series.  The community also values its long-standing commitment to ecological improvement and stream health.

Normandy Park’s 4th of July Parade to The Cove

The City of Normandy Park is currently restructuring its comprehensive plan and zoning to further facilitate business investment opportunities along 1st Avenue, its primary north-south corridor between Burien and Des Moines. This includes the pursuit of lifestyle and boutique hotels, a fast-growing segment of the hotel industry.

Lifestyle and boutique hotels offer an opportunity for travelers to go beyond a typical hotel experience. These visitors to our city enjoy the chance to feel integrated into the fabric of a community, removed from tourist traps. The lifestyle and boutique hotel industry has outperformed the overall hotel/motel industry from 2013-2017, experiencing 8.6% growth between 2013-2018.

Demographic changes and the preferences of millennials are driving demand for such hotels. Smaller hotels, especially economy hotels with unique experiences, are expected to dominate markets. Innovative options such as www.welive.com, which offer flexible living spaces ranging from a day to a year, are also becoming increasingly popular.

Given these trends, a best practice for hoteliers in 2019 is to focus on niche markets (based on a fall 2018 survey of faculty at École hôtelière de Lausanne, a Swiss hospitality school). The City of Normandy Park offers just such a market, with one of the two highest per capita/per acre city green space densities in all King County, five minutes from SeaTac International Airport.

In addition to seeking smaller buildings and unique locations, many hotels are incorporating flexible spaces, including co-working spaces into their buildings. For example, the Virgin Hotel in Chicago has co-working space (the Virgin Commons Club) with a monthly membership. The Club includes a bar, private meeting areas, free drinks, a library, Wi-Fi, and wireless printing. Another example is the Ace Hotel chain, whose NYC location has turned the hotel lobby into a co-working space.

The City of Normandy Park is seeking business investments and innovations that enhance business connection.

Text “Tranquil” to 555888 to learn more

This blog article was written by Mark Hoppen, City Manager of Normandy Park