Renowned for their redevelopment projects and breweries throughout northwest America, McMenamins brothers Mike and Brian are redeveloping a Washington school into a mixed-use leisure facility.

Family-owned McMenamins Inc. – founded in 1983 – operates 52 pubs, restaurants and historic hotels in Oregon and Washington, with its latest plan involving the renewal of the vacant Anderson School in the heart of Bothwell, Washington – to become a community hub and travel destination.

The US$26m (€18.7m, £15.5m) six acre Anderson School development will involve the conversion of the 1930s art deco building into a 73-bedroom hotel with restaurants, bars, free live music, a cinema, an on-site brewery, plus a soaking pool and full-service day spa.

The six-massage-room spa has a salon with four pedicure stations and two manicure desks plus an open air saltwater spa soaking pool. In the sale of the school to McMenamins Inc, the city ensured the refashioned soaking pool and an additional community room will be open to the Bothell community members for 15 years.

Products in use at the spa come from Hungarian brand Eminence Organic, Jane Iredale cosmetics, The Balm cosmetics, Intraceuticals, Jack Black men’s grooming supplies and hair products by Kevin Murphy, Moroccanoil and Enjoy hair care.

The new Anderson School spa will be comparable in size and offerings to the McMenamins Ruby’s Spa at its Edgefield site – Troutdale, Oregon.

Edgefield spa saw more than 13,000 guest visits in 2013, which serves as a good gauge for what to expect at the Anderson School location.

“Anderson School will be a destination property,” Shannon McMenamin, daughter of co-founder Mike McMenamin and spa operations director for the company, told Spa Business.

“People will spend the whole weekend there, dining in the restaurants, exploring the gardens, touring the brewery, playing shuffleboard with friends – and the spa seals the deal.

“We will be able to accommodate a variety of interests, be it a wedding group looking for full beautification or those celebrating an anniversary with a couples massage, a quick lunchtime facial, or just because.”

The school’s old gymnasium will become a event centre for the film theatre while the former cafeteria will be repositioned as the main restaurant, lobby and gift shop. McMenamins estimates the facility will create 150 to 200 new full and part time jobs. Ankrom Moisan Architects will be in charge of the project.

Local officials approached McMenamins in the hope the company would agree to develop the school in line with its similar renovated facilities in Oregon – Kennedy School in Portland and Edgefield farm in Troutdale.

McMenamins converted Edgefield county poor farm into a destination resort with an outdoor concert venue, spa, soaking pool, brewery, winery, distillery, golf and gardens. The Kennedy School, a former primary school, was turned into a gathering place where guests now sleep now in former classrooms.

“Schools have good gravity, so they are a natural choice for McMenamins. They are already community centres and have rich histories from years of people passing through. Not to mention there’s something blissfully irreverent about sleeping in an old classroom or sipping whisky as you wander through the hallways,” Shannon concluded.

Bothell city plans to spend US$150m (€108.1m, £89.6m) on downtown infrastructure to unlock regional private commercial and residential investment opportunities as part of a larger revitalisation effort.

To finance the project, McMenamins established a separate company called Anderson School Properties LLC – directed by Mike McMenamin. This second company is hoping to attract private investors to make up US$8m (€5.8m, £4.8m) of the equity required for the US$26m (€18.7m, £15.5m) redevelopment – US$1m (€0.72m, £0.6m) of which is coming from McMenamins, which will act as managing partner. Anderson School Properties will lease the developed property to McMenamin’s BrewPubs – a Washington wholly owned subsidiary of McMenamins Inc. – which will operate the refashioned school.

This private investment strategy takes advantage of an amendment to regulations by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in September 2013 which widen the options for private companies to raise capital. Under the new rules, 34 per cent of projects costs must be generated before construction can begin.

Today, McMenamins is the fourth-largest producer of microbrewed beer in the pacific northwest – a region famed for crafting top quality ales. McMenamins' handmade ales are only sold in its pubs, restaurants, hotels and movie theatres.

The first McMenamins pub opened in 1983 in Portland, Oregon, followed two years later by the first McMenamins brewery in the same city.

http://www.mcmenamins.com