Swanky new hotel at Point Ruston opens with soft launch following construction delays

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — June 3, 2021, has been a long time coming for the area’s newest hotel.

The Silver Cloud Hotel Tacoma at Point Ruston Waterfront marked Thursday as its opening day.

Consider this its soft grand opening. Reservations are being taken now, but the hotel is running at half capacity, with a bigger launch expected later this year, according to Justine Kunz, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing.

“The hotel will be fully open operating with all of our amenities offered by early to mid-fall this year,” Kunz told The News Tribune in a phone interview Thursday. “So we’re hoping to do more of a grand celebration and grand plans at that time.

“But in the meantime we’re very humbled and excited to be able to do a soft opening today.”

The hotel, 5125 Grand Loop in Ruston, overlooks Commencement Bay and the Olympic and Cascade ranges. Construction began in 2017 and has been in various forms of development since then.

The hotel’s 194 rooms offer an assortment of waterfront and “village views” of Point Ruston, according to its website.

Hotel amenities include a rooftop pool and its Spa Serein, which will open this fall. The spa will offer 4,700 square feet of “private massage rooms, saunas and an extensive relaxation lounge,” according to the hotel website.

“Our full service day spa will spoil you with natural botanicals, aromatherapy and Northwest inspired treatments,” it noted.

Conference facilities include a 5,400-square-foot grand ballroom and an outdoor terrace. There is also a 3,000-square-foot fitness center.

A restaurant and bar, Copper & Salt Northwest Kitchen, is set to open later this month. It will offer both indoor and outdoor seating.

The hotel itself was set to open in late winter 2019 or early spring 2020 but was pushed to this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and construction delays.

Representatives for the hotel a year ago told the weekly business roundtable call hosted by the Economic Development Board of Tacoma-Pierce County that the 2020 opening would be postponed for about six months because of construction supply constraints involving Southeast Asia and Europe.

“We’ve just been really humbled and encouraged and inspired by all the support within our local community and partners,” said Kunz during the 2020 update.

One year later, another factor adding to the delays is the current labor shortage hitting the hotel and hospitality industry.

“It wasn’t the absolute factor but I would say that that certainly was a contribution,” Kunz said Thursday. “We are in a fortunate position since we’re such a local company just in Western Washington and Portland, that we are able to pull from some of our team members. So, we’ve been fortunate to have some of our sister hotels dedicate some of their team members to assist us in the opening preparations.”

The Silver Cloud is the latest upscale hotel to come online in Tacoma. The Hotel Murano reopened at the end of April, and the Marriott Tacoma Downtown opened in November as the pandemic was still in full swing, giving the city vastly more rooms than pre-pandemic.

The new Silver Cloud is Tacoma’s second one, with the original at 2317 N. Ruston Way. The company has a total of 10 hotels in Washington state and one in Portland, Oregon.

This story was originally published by The News Tribune, and Drew Perine contributed to this report.

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