retail. "[We are looking for a] high-end, luxury hotel operator," said David C. Stern, a principal with ICG. "There’s an opportunity for a fantastic restaurant presence on the Canal side of the building…In keeping with its location in the heart of Georgetown, it’s going to be a high-end project."
In its current incarnation, the five-story building hosts 50,000 square feet of space with two-levels of underground parking and views of the C&O Canal, the Potomac and the surrounding Georgetown area. According to Stern, the development will doing little to alter that – at least, externally.
“It won’t be a demolition. The hotel renovation would be primarily interior renovation work,” he said. “We haven’t selected a project architect yet…It’s very preliminary right now. Decisions like the operator, financing and the hotel architect haven’t yet fallen completely into place.”
That, however, hasn’t scared them from locking down a timeline on the project. Stern says his group is negotiating with an unnamed hotelier and is planning to begin construction by the end of the year. "They are not currently in the District, but, like many other groups, they are very interested in starting operations [here]," he said.
"Given the fact that it’s primarily an interior renovation project, it would be a 12 to 18 month period for construction,” said Stern. “Our goal would be to open in the first quarter of 2011." Presumably by then a hotel operator will have been selected.
Washington DC commercial real estate news
3 comments:
At least there's some development activity going on out there. They must be sitting on cash.
Nice, now if they could just help their neighbors by getting rid of the three very irritating and obnoxious drunks who have moved into the side entrance on the south side of the building we would sure appreciate it. Since the building is abandoned the bums have moved in lots of large cardboard boxes that they're living in, and they harass pedestrians in the alley, make unmentionable messes, and the police have been called at least once. Calls to Castleton Holdings have not generated any action to close off the entrance corridor where the vagrants are living, nor any other discernable action. What are the neighbors to do?
Well, nine months have gone by and the deal for a fancy hotel seems to have died without even a whimper. The building is vacant, there is nothing happening, and all talk about a hotel has gone quiet. Now we have an increasingly derelict building in the one of the best blocks in Georgetown. Wonder how long it will take for a new plan to emerge? DCMud? Any ideas?
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