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When Marion Oliver McCaw Hall opens next summer, it will do more than provide a new home for the Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Opera. The renovated performance hall also will compete with downtown hotels and other venues for corporate meetings and galas.
In addition to its 2,900-seat auditorium and a new 400-seat lecture hall, the overhauled 74-year-old building will have more than 40,000 square feet of meeting space that be easily configured into theater-style seating with stages for presentations or sitdown dinners for several hundred. Sound locks on the auditorium's doors will allow the performance hall to host other events even when the opera and ballet are in rehearsal.
As a result McCaw Hall will be able to host half again as many events, said Seattle Center Foundation director Tracy Robinson, who expects more than 400 bookings its first year.
That compares to an average of 270 events annually before its renovation and expansion. Additionally, McCaw Hall's immense auditorium will be available in the off-season, or about two months of the year.
Full catering service will be available through Westin Hotels & Resorts Co., the winning bidder for the $20 million, 10-year exclusive contract to provide food service for McCaw Hall's 160-seat cafe and four lobby-area concessions.
Westin, a subsidiary of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. in White Plains, N.Y., also operates the Westin Seattle Hotel downtown.
McCaw Hall's ability to host...