The Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA) is floating $187 million in bonds to cover its cost for a public-private Marriott Marquis hotel due across the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in fourth-quarter 2012. Marriott International is responsible for the bulk of the hotel's $550 million price tag and is sourcing financing for its part.
The WCCA expects to secure its financing ahead of the 1,167-room hotel's scheduled summer groundbreaking.
The Marriott Marquis is slated to be a four-star property with atrium architecture and a 400-space underground garage. It will have 100,000 sf of meeting space, a full health club and pool, six retail and F&B outlets, and a boutique hotel-within-hotel. A concourse beneath 9th Street will connect the hotel to the convention center's lower exhibit hall level.
At the same time, DC Council approved a $10 million convention center retrofit to bump up the current 150,000 sf of meeting space by another 40,000 sf, by converting staff offices. Construction begins in June, and completion is expected by year end. The building has a 52,000-sf ballroom and 703,000 sf of exhibit area.
The retrofit was passed after a plan to expand group space by 75,000 sf—as recommended by a feasibility study—was abandoned due its $100 million cost.While an expansion would have been ideal, WCCA CEO and GM Gregory O'Dell said the retrofit will still improve the convention center's ability to host larger simultaneous or overlapping events.
The WCCA also will work with the Marriott Marquis to give the convention center additional, as-needed capacity. "We're going to have some flexibility, though Marriott will control that space," said O'Dell. The Marriott Marquis' 100,000 sf of group space will include a 30,000-sf ballroom and a 20,000-sf junior ballroom.
But more critical than that meeting space is the lodging support the hotel provides, said O'Dell: "Before we grow our customer base, we have to make sure we have the hotel inventory."
Originally published March 9, 2009