Kodiak’s main public event space is rebranding and changing its focus. The Kodiak Harbor Convention Center building downtown at 211 W. Rezanof Drive is being renamed the Kodiak Harbor Center.
Susan Johnson is the owner of Island Hotels, LLC, which owns and manages the convention center, the nearby Best Western Kodiak Inn and the Kodiak Compass Suites hotel. She said one floor of the convention center’s meeting rooms are turning into bedrooms.
“And the top floor is going to be seven kitchenette rooms, the majority of them have a great view overlooking the harbor there," Johnson said. "And so we’ve been converting those over this past year and those should be opening up for this next summer.”
Those new rooms will replace what was the convention center’s biggest meeting room. According to the Kodiak Inn’s website, it accommodated nearly 500 people. Johnson said there will also be some retail space open on the first floor for businesses to use in the near future.
Johnson told KMXT there will be an open house held sometime this spring so Kodiak residents can see the newly renovated space downtown. Currently the center is closed to the public.
The convention center building was previously a car dealership, Southern Alaska auto. It reopened in 2009 as the convention center and hosted public events like the annual ComFish trade show.
Since the center has been closed, and renovations are underway, the owner has not been using the liquor license affiliated with that building. So Island Hotels LLC is asking state regulators to transfer its liquor license from the convention center location to its Kodiak Compass Suites property at 203 Alder Lane.
Johnson said she decided to transfer that license to a different hotel she owns so a new bar there can serve drinks within its third floor patio space.
“We didn’t want to give up our liquor license that was down at the convention center, which doesn’t do us any good anymore, so we’re working to transfer that up to the Compass Suites to open up the Piper Lounge, which will be a bar with light food," Johnson explained.
She said they are looking to open that hotel bar at some point this coming summer, too.
During its meeting Thursday night, Nov. 21, the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly decided to not protest the liquor license transfer to the Compass Suites. Now the application goes to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board for the final decision.
