National Harbor Developers Announce Hotel Plans

Developers at National Harbor announced today five new hotels that will occupy the 300-acre project on the Potomac: Residence by Marriott, Hampton Hotel, Westin, Fairfield Resorts, and Aloft. The site, in Prince George's County just south of the I-495 / I-95 intersection, will offer prime waterfront where the Potomac both widens and deepens, allowing waterfront vistas and a convenient marina and harbor that real estate developers say will be 15 minutes by boat from Washington DC. The project, which broke ground last year, will offer a strong southern pull for the area's large scale development long conspicuous in DC and across the river in Alexandria but comparatively rare in P.G. County. The impact could be stunning to a region with an industrial maritime history that now makes little use of its extended waterfront. While DC's own waterfront development takes shape near Nationals Stadium and, at a sloth's pace, in Southwest, developers at National Harbor had already announced plans for the regions largest hotel, a 1500 room Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center that will open in 2008. That great sucking sound is DC's tax base moving to P.G. County. DC hotels, with an occupancy rate currently below 70%, are projected to contribute $51m just in direct tax revenue in FY 2006 in the District, a fact not lost on planners in P.G. County. National Harbor has also been approved for 2500 residential units – all in the form of condos - with mixed residential and retail buildings slated to occupy prime waterfront and main street locations in 2009. 

Maryland, real estate development news