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Overview

This masonry, five-story hotel opened as the Tropics Motor Hotel in 12/1959. It cost approximately $1,750,000 to erect.

Building History

Harry Oscar Delaloye (born 12/13/1913 in Seattle, WA-d. 07/26/2012 in Seattle, WA) married June Alice Mayo (born 03/15/1913 in Meadowdale, WA-d. 03/14/2007 in Seattle, WA) on 06/15/1935 in Seattle, WA, just out of Garfield High School. (See King County Marriage Records, 1855-2018 - Harry Oscer Delaloye - June Alice Mayo, King County Marriage Records, 1855-2018, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.wa.gov, accessed 08/20/2021.) Twenty-two years later, they commissioned the design and construction of the Tropics Motor Hotel.

In 1935, while Harry worked as a mechanic at the Heiser Body Company, an auto repair shop, and June as an elevator operator in the Vance Building, the couple began investing in real estate with a $500 down payment for a dwelling in West Seattle, selling it a year later for a profit of $600. The Delaloyes then put a down payment on an eight-unit apartment building in Madison Park, which they sold to buy a larger Seward Park house outright. Over the years, they bought and sold larger and larger residential properties, always living on site and improving their buildings before selling them at a profit. By the mid-1940s, they had accumulated $65,000 to put down on the $275,000 price of the Olive Tower Apartments, which they owned for about a decade before selling it for nearly double what they had paid. With this money they intially retired but then decided to build and live in a motel on a parcel of land on the north edge of Downtown Seattle, the Tropics Motor Hotel.

An article in the Seattle Sunday Times described their careers in real estate and the inspiration behind the hotel's tropical theme: “The Delaloyes, who met and began steady when they were only 15 years old, saved their money and had accumulated $500 by the time they were married shortly after their graduation from Garfield High School. The young newlyweds had a dream to own a plush motel with a large heated indoor swimming pool; to live in a penthouse atop the establishment, and to operate the place themselves. The Delaloyes could have retired a few years back when they sold the Olive Tower for $515,000--and they did for a while. But they soon grew tired of globe-trotting, so they decided to own and operate the best motel money could build. In their travels, the Delaloyes were attracted by the luxurious resort hotels in the Caribbean, and they wanted to bring this type of atmosphere to Seattle. They agree there should be tropical plants growing in and around the motel, a heated indoor pool alongside a waterfall, with pools of tropical fish, and a pair of kinkajous (Central American honey bears) romping in the lobby for atmosphere.” (See John J. Reddin, "Faces of the CIty: $500 Parlayed into $1,750,000 Motor Hotel," Seattle Sunday Times, part II, p. 1.)

Construction of the Tropics Motor Hotel occurred during 1958 and 1959. A brief note in the Seattle Daily Times reported that the Tropics Motor Hotel would have tropical inhabitants living in its lobby: “Mr. and Mrs. Harry Delaloye, owners of the new Tropics Motor Hotel under construction at 225 Aurora Av., own two pet honey bears, Sam and Lola. The bears will live in a cage in the lobby. They sleep all day, eat honey and peanut butter with spoons but eat no meat or fish. They consider everyone a friend. Sam and Lola are 2 years old and full grown. Sam came from Peru and Lola from Central America.” (See “Hotel to Have Honey Bears,” Seattle Daily Times, 05/29/1959, part II, p. 17.)

The hotel opened in 12/1959, with a tropical decorative motif on the interior. An ad in the Seattle Daily Times said of the new establishment: "A tropic decor has created a South Sea island atmosphere within the architectural design of the Tropics Motor Hotel (home of the Honey Bears). From the ornate lobby, with its large wall-sized fireplace; the tropic foliaged indoor swimming pool, with natural waterfall; the Polynesian Restaurant and 'Island Room'; to the restful guest rooms with private balconies." (See Tropics Motor Inn ad, Seattle Daily Times, 12/15/1959, p. 27.)

William S. Kelton Company, Structural Engineers, designed the hotel, while John Lindsay of Richmond Beach, WA, served as the general contractor. Beacon Hill Nursery provided the tropical plantings. (See "New Motel Being Planned on Regrade," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11/10/1957, p. S23 and "Hats Off to the Tropics Motor Hotel," Seattle Daily Times, 12/15/1959, p. 27.)

The Tropics Motor Hotel was ideally situated to profit from the Seattle World's Fair of 1962, as it was located within easy walking distance from its Civic Center site. Early planning for the fair began in the early 1950s, and by 1955 the state allocated $5,000 for the creation of a commission to study its financial prospects and risks. By 1957, this commission was deciding on three main sites for a potential fair, 74 acres of city-owned land in Lower Queen Anne comprising the Civic Center, an 800-acre parcel at Fort Lawton in Magnolia, and 350 acres at what had been the Sand Point Naval Air Station in NE Seattle. Both the Magnolia and NE Seattle Sand Point sites were very spacious expanses, but had the disadvantages of being distant from the city center and surrounded by residential areas limiting building in their immediate vicinities. The Queen Anne site offered more hotel rooms near by and the tantalizing economic benefits of tourists flooding Downtown Seattle stores and restaurants. By late 1957, investors, like the Delaloyes, were jockeying with one another to obtain land near the fair site. Many motels, like the Tropics Motor Hotel, opened on Aurora Avenue to serve this expected influx of tourists.

Harold and June Delaloye continued to own the Tropics Motor Hotel in 1973. (See “Construction,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/14/1973, p. E2.) At this time, they decided on building another apartment building at 610 Aloha Street in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood. They chose to live in a 3,500-square-foot apartment on this building's top floor. (See “Construction,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/14/1973, p. E2.)

The Delaloyes operated a used car lot at 8101 Aurora Avenue North called "Autos Limited," and also sold at least one piece of property in Spokane, WA, in 1980. (See "June Mayo Delaloye, obituary" Seattle Sunday Times, 03/25/2007, p. B5 and Spokane County Auditor, Recorded Land Records, 1960-Present - Delaloye, Harry - Evans, Bert C, Joyce E - Kinney, G Burman Estate, Spokane County Auditor, Recorded Land Records, 1960-Present, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.wa.gov, accessed 08/20/2021.)

The couple owned the Tropics Motor Hotel until about 1977 before selling it. The hotel operated as the "Tropics Motor Hotel" until at least 1990. In subsequent years, the property became a franchise in the Quality Inns and Suites chain.

On 06/01/2001, Business Plans and Strategies, Incorporated sold the hotel to Jae Cheon Choi and Ham Ok Sun. The deed was transferred to the latter partner on 10/29/2014. On 11/05/12014, Blackstone Seattle LLC bought the hotel for $19 million. Blackstone sold it on 02/25/2021 to 618 John Street LLC.

It contained 159 units in 2021. Land and improvement had a taxable value of $22,314,400, up from $5,716,900 in 2000 and $4,000,000 in 1983.

Building Notes

In 2021, the Quality Inns and Suites Seattle motel at 618 John Street occupied a 33,214-square-foot (0.76-acre) lot and contained 113,173 gross square feet, 70,627 net. It had a 27,360-square-foot basement parking garage and a 15,186-square-foot parking structure, according to the King County Assessor.

Alteration

The Quality Inn Hotel was reroofed in 2017.

In 2019, a temporary microwave antenna was placed on the hotel's roof.