Exclusive: Construction on what will be Ballard’s largest hotel is slated to begin in about a month — but it won’t be the Silver Cloud Hotel, as originally planned. “The Point Hotel at Salmon Bay,” managed by The Hotel Group out of Edmonds, is now slated for the old Yankee Grill parking lot. Don Schwartz, one of the owners of the hotel, tells My Ballard that if everything goes as plan, they could break ground as early as November 1st.

Schwartz tells us that they want the 166-room hotel at 24th Ave & Shilshole Ave NW (map) to fit in with Ballard. The architecture won’t look like a brand new hotel, instead it will have an older look. (We’ll post the renderings as soon as we get them.) There will be old photos of Ballard around the hotel and a courtyard where they’ll host events like wine tastings. Construction will take a year and a half and the hotel is scheduled to open spring of 2010.

As for the old Yankee Grill right next door (above), Rick Osterhout, senior vice president of GVA Kidder Mathews, tells us that several parties are interested in the restaurant. The 18,500 square foot restaurant sits right on the water, at the end of 24th Ave., behind the planned hotel.