Development

OLMPIA, WA-Port of Olympia Commissioners gave a thumbs up this week to constructing the Port Plaza near Percival Landing. The controversial idea has been bouncing around the community for nearly a decade.

FAIRFAX, VA-A new Hilton Garden Inn opens, offering 149 rooms and about 6,000 sf of meeting room space. The endeavor cost just over $15 million, and takes the list of Hilton Garden Inn brand hotels in the US over the 125 mark.

ESCONDIDO, CA-A San Diego-based construction management and consulting firm has completed a project for a golf improvement center here. The golf facilities market has been especially strong, with golf manufacturing and practice facilities proving to be particularly popular among developers.

ATLANTA-The locally based American arm of British-based Six Continents PLC is putting the former Tishman Hotel Corp. executive in charge of Six Continents' growth and development of all company brands in the western states. Watkins will be based in Phoenix.

WHITE PLAINS-The Seltzer Group of New York City has paid $3.8 million for a small parcel of land in downtown White Plains and plans to build a $30-million rental housing development there.

NEW YORK CITY-With its first building here nearly complete, the developer works with a local development organization on the final design for the second phase of Avalon Riverview. At question is whether the completed complex should comprise two or three structures.

MIAMI-The Coral Gables, FL-based commercial and residential developer has named Tom Gillette regional manager to handle day-to-day operations and manage the company's 1,100-acre Bartram Springs residential project at Phillips Highway (U.S. 1) and Racetrack Road in Duval County.

TAVARES, FL-The six-story, $129 million, 450,000-sf Florida Hospital Waterman, going up in a city of 9,000 permanent residents 30 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando, is doubling land prices and forcing entrepreneurs to look hard for new developable land.