The Thompson Seattle Hotel, conceived by Touchstone founders Douglas Howe and Shawn Parry, occupies what was the most well-known parking lot in town, at the intersection of Stewart Street and First Avenue. Designed by locally beloved and worldly renowned architect Tom Kundig, this twelve story, 158-guest room hotel also includes 93 apartments named SEQUEL. Following a complicated land acquisition and years of design and redesign to accomplish a financially viable project within the exquisitely designed exterior envelope, construction began in mid-2014. Designed to represent the modern northwest in both style and experience, Touchstone partnered with hotel investor John Pritzker's GEOLO Capital Group branding the hotel Thompson Seattle. The ground floor restaurant, SCOUT, as well as the rooftop lounge, NEST, which boasts unobstructed views of Elliott Bay, feature culinary partner Josh Henderson of the Huxley Wallace Collective. The hotel opened in June of 2016 with star-studded success.