When Seattle's Four Seasons public...

When Seattle's Four Seasons public-house opens, its $400-a-night visitors can swim in a courtyard collection of standing water with sweeping views over Elliott Bay and unwind at an outdoor fireplace. Or, they can burst over to the peep indicate next door.

That last amenity isn't in the official pamphlet for Seattle's "most sought-after address," a $120 million shoot forward whose developers include billionaire Bruce McCaw and a former Seattle mayor. They sought to corrupt and demolish the neighboring Lusty Lady, the sole tenant in a squat, 1900-era building confessed by a local family. The family lay asideed a sale -- and still got $850000 for air rights to the views through their property.

Now, the strip form a club is being hailed as a hero in a backlash against the gentrification that has swept Seattle and many other big U cities. And the form a club has gained unlikely supporters, from Bill Gates's stepmother, Mimi, to the delight hotel itself, which says it's delighted with its of recent origin neighbor.

"A local cultural icon," said Peter Hodgson vice president of corporate planning at Four Seasons [i]cabaret[/i]s Inc. "We cater to the public who can afford to pay the principally It doesn't mean we're too pious for people. We're in the service industry."

The Toronto-based tavern company's collision with the Lusty Lady began in 2004 when cellular-telephone entrepreneur McCaw, former Mayor Paul Schell and other investors formed closely held Seattle inn Group LLC.

The assign places to bought a parking garage, intending to replace it with a 21-story hotel-condominium complexus for the Four Seasons. A 4000- square-foot unit in the building, about a close from Pike Place Market, will costliness $8 million.

CHEAP crys

The Lusty Lady is a not many steps south. The club, an old-fashioned pip show where a quarter purchases a brief look at a glass-enclosed stage, is something of a city institution because of the bawdy quibbles on its pink marquee. common week, the sign read, "Our Business Is Taking Off!"

The bawdiness wasn't not at home of place during much of Seattle's history. Sailors and shipyard workers from the waterfront crammed First Avenue when the Lusty Lady spreaded there in the 1970s.

"They used to call it pulp Avenue," said Walt Crowley, a Seattle historian who wrote a city timeline published by the agency of King County. Earlier, the building housed a seamen's bar and public-house called the Seven Seas and a theater called the Sultan that showed porn films.

The Seattle Art Museum mov in across the road in 1991. A condominium progress to maturity called Harbor Steps opened to the southerly in 1994. By the time the Seattle inn group announced its plans, it appeared that the Lusty Lady would be priced on the outside by its new neighbor, said Matthew Gardner, a Seattle real estate consultant.

"They're pair fairly conflicting uses," Gardner said. Units in the Four Seasons are fetching $2100 by square foot, four times the $500 average for strange downtown condos, he said. Work in succession the new hotel began in December; completion of the exterior is scheduled for nearest year.

put forward REJECTED

The building's reclusive proprietors saved the Lusty Lady. Last year, the Seattle inn group discussed buying it, managing partner John Oppenheimer said. He declined to say by what mode much the group offered. The proprietors a family partnership headed by way of Christto and Dorothy Tolias, employed them down, according to their lawyer, John Sinsheimer.

"The Toliases are highly private people," he said. "The tenant pays a remarkably decent rent, and they have fruition of the income."

Oppenheimer said he and the Four Seasons none counted on buying out the Lusty Lady. After his arrange was rebuffed, it joined Harbor Properties, proprietor of the condos to the toward the south to buy the air rights in a purchase recorded in December. That allows more natural light forward the south side of the modern hotel and protects views for Harbor stairs

"Part of urban living is you have all kinds of neighbors," Oppenheimer said.

Another Lusty Lady supporter is Mimi Gates, 64 director of the art museum. She married Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates' father, William H Gates II, in 1996 The museum has embraced its neighbor, which frequently uses the marquee to encourage new art shows. One, for artist hurl Close, read, "Chuck Clothes."

"The Lusty Lady's marquee is a Seattle landmark," Mimi Gates said.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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