DEVELOPER WANTS TO COVERT FORMER ORPHANAGE TO HOTEL

Seward Phoenix Log
Jun 25, 1998

by Roger Kane

The owners of the hulking skeletal remains of the Jesse Lee Home for Children, Frank Irick, has teamed up with Anchorage developer Dan Claugus to convert the old orphanage into a 60-room hotel and hospitality training center.

A floor plan is scheduled to be delivered to community development director Kerry martin, next week and a site plan will be complete and ready for city inspection July 15.

The ambitious plan to renovate the Jesse Lee Home by May 1999 will be presented to the Seward Planning and Zoning Commission at the regularly scheduled August 5 meeting.

Jim Garbeff, representing Prochaska and Associates, and architecture and engineering firm in Kansas City, will be creating the plans for the project.

Garbell said the 36,000 square foot building is in surprisingly good shape for its age.

He credits the solid condition of the structure to one o f the building’s former owners who stripped the building of all interior wall coverings, doors, and windows.

Garbell said that allowed air to circulate through the building and prevented moisture from building up in the walls and rotting the building’s frame.

Irick said the building will be stored as near as possible to its original condition, excepet for the roof.

When the orphanage was built, the roof was shingled with cedar shakes, but Irick said they will probably replace the cedar shingles with sheet metal to reduce the weight.

Claugus and Irick have established the Kueuit Foundation, a nonprofit corporation that will be governed by a seven-member board of directors. Kueuit will own the hotel when it is completed.

Claugus said the hotel will house convention facilities, a Native museum, library and consignment gift shop, as well as a restaurant.

Irick said he has contacted Alaska Vocational Technical Center director Fred Esposito about staffing the restaurant’s kitchen with students in the institutional-cooking course.

He said Esposito was very receptive to the idea, as students there are only trained to cook for large groups at AVTEC and receive no single-service training.

Esposito could not be reached for comment on the project.

Irick also hopes to develop other training programs to help educate hospitality-industry workers on a proper serving techniques and Alaska history. He said many servers he’s encountered have poor people skills and don’t know what to tell their tourist customers about Alaska.