The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-05-25
HOTEL PROJECT COSTING S225,000
 REVEALED HERE.
R. l. Sommers Discusses Project with Business
 Men Who Endorse It
7-STORY APARTMENT
 HOTEL IS DESIGNED
Will Be Modern Fireproof Structure at Corner of
 Front and Seward

Plans for a seven-story apart ment hotel for Juneau were dis closed last night by R. J. Sommers to a group of business men who met with him at his invitation to hear of the project and to ex- press their individual opinions on it.
 The estimated cost of the build- ing was fixed at $225, 900. Of this sum, MT. Sommers said, $75,000 will be in capital stock and the re- mainder will be raised by the sale of six per cent bonds to local in- vestors. The stock subscription is assured and the money will be available whenever the bonds are placed, he declared.
 Fireproof Structure
 The structure will be first class and modern in every respect. It will be of reinforced concrete, have concrete floors, tile walls and abso- lutely be fireproof The ground floor, as planned will be given over to commercial uses, stores, shops, lobby and dining rooms, the next three floors will each have 20 rooms, and the upper three floors divided into apartments. There will be AS hotel rooms with baths and l2 without baths but each hav- ing toilet facilities. There will be 10 apartments on each of the upper floors.
 Detailed drawings of hotel rooms, the ground floor and an apartment floor and an architects drawing Of the building as it will appear when complete were exhibited. N. Lester Troast, Indian Service Archi- tect, designed the structure and worked out the details.
 Financial Estimates Made
 MT Sommers presented a finan- cial estimate of revenues to be ex- pected from the project, and after extended discussion of the figures. most of those present agreed it was a conservative setup. The es- innate showed sufficient earnings from the very outset to meet inter- est requirements from the start and to build up a retirement re- serve adequate to retire the bonds, beginning after the second years operations.
 The site of the proposed building is at the corner of Front and Seward Streets, the old First Na- tional Bank building site. It ex- tends from Front up Seward to the Goldstein Building, and along Front from the Seward Street corner to George M. Simpkinss Printery.
 It Outstanding Need
 Those attending last nights meet ing were unanimous in their agree ment that such an institution is the outstanding need of the com munity, and has been for several years. The approval of the plans exhibited was general.
 J. J. Meherin, H. I Lucas, w. s. George, Roy Rutherford, George B. Rice, John Jones, >C. T. Gardner. and others emphasized the need for modern hotel and apartment structure adequate to take care of both transient and home demands. The steady growth of Juneau's in- dustries, businesses and population in the past decade, it was pointed out, has not been paralleled by a growth in hotel facilities. Much business is now diverted to other points that ought to come here, and would do so if the community had such an establishment as that revealed in Mir. Sommers's planS," declared MT. Meherin.
 Local Investments Good
 Local enterprises that have been financed by bond issues floated in
 (COntiriled on Paoa Tw0l