New Rooms in Courthouse by Marriott

Donohoe Construction, under the authority of Donohoe Hospitality, (who is in cahoots with Donohoe Development) has just started to pour the concrete footings for the 176-room Marriott Residence Inn at 1425 N. Adams St. in the Courthouse section of Arlington. The 10-story, all-suite hotel will be branded as one of Marriott's extended stay residences.

The visionaries behind the National World War II Memorial, international architectural firm Leo A. Daly, took the design role for Marriott. You might also know them for the project they did for KPMG in McLean, or for The Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville. Daly-architects had no trouble grasping the vision for Marriott's newest addition to Arlington, and have designed the simple 132,000-s.f. hotel with clad in brick and architectural precast concrete.

In addition to topping off the Courthouse Plaza section of Clarendon, the Residence Inn will bring a wealth of meeting space to the table as well as a "high-end" restaurant to the corner of Clarendon Blvd and N. Adams Street. In total, about 9,500 s.f. of retail are planned for the ground floor along that intersection, with the still unnamed restaurant having 5,500 s.f. at its disposal. The new hotel will further Smart Growth objectives by adding mixed-use development three blocks from the Courthouse Metro station. And as if being part of a "smart" urban plan weren't enough, Donohoe Development has also incorporated a "smart," environmentally conscious design for the building, including about 26 LEED points for features such as the increasingly popular green roof; hopefully just enough for LEED certification.

Donohoe (and its innumerable subsidiaries) will also provide streetscape improvements to the area, including a water feature and public art around the hotel, as well as myriad practical improvements to the crosswalks and sidewalks. The new Residence Inn should be dropping off pillow mints as early as the summer of 2009.

DC Announces New Convention Center Hotel

Washington DC Mayor Adrian Fenty announced today that the District has signed an agreement with Marriott International to build a new hotel at 9th and L Streets, on the west side of the new convention center. Marriott had been planning on as many as 1400 units at the site, and has been expected to begin the project since at least early this year, but will now scale the project back a notch, building approximately 1140 rooms and not begin construction for at least a year. The hotel is expected to open in 2011.

The two-acre site, combined from 2 parcels separately operated by the Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA) and Kingdon Gould III, is currently mostly vacant and is being used as a parking lot. Gould's portion of the site is being traded for a portion of the old Convention Center site that the District now controls. Gould was not part of the agreement today, but has agreed in principal to terms of the transfer. Marriott has agreed to begin the planning process immediately, incorporating the land south of L Street and north of Massachusetts Avenue, along 9th Street. Sean Madigan of DC's Office of Planning says the site plan will no longer include the parcels north of L Street, which Marriott previously acquired in expectation of building into the final designs, but will likely incorporate the historic office building at the southeastern corner of the lot into the hotel. The utility building at the northeastern corner of the block will remain. Madigan said the transaction has been signed and will be executed "shortly", but would not speculate on a timeframe.

The entire transaction is valued at about $540m, of which $134m will be contributed by the DC government through Tax Increment Financing (TIF) in the form of bonds issued by the WCCA and repaid by taxes generated through the hotel. The city will lease the site to Marriott for 99 years, on which Marriott will build and operate the hotel.

Furthering DC's new legislation for the construction of 'green' buildings, Marriott has agreed to meet the District's standards with a building that will be LEED certified, meeting the U.S. Green Building Council's "Silver" standard. The hotel will include 100,000 s.f. of meeting space and at least 400 new parking spaces, but it is unclear if retail will be included in the new design.

National Gateway Developer Sells Hotel Portion to Marriott

Meridian Group, which is developing the massive National Gateway project just west of Reagan National Airport with partner Archon Group, has decided to sell the 2-acre plot in the project zoned for hotel use to Marriott International, which is planning to place two hotels (a Residence Inn and a Renaissance) on the site with a total of 625 rooms. No sales price was disclosed, nor is there a known timetable for the hotels to be built. Progress is being made on the National Gateway project, a mixed-use development slated for the Potomac Yard area along Route 1 between Crystal City and Alexandria, with Meridian and Archon reportedly ready to break ground this Spring on one of the project's office buildings, with completion targeted for 2009. When finally built (no final completion date has yet been set), the overall National Gateway project - which also includes developers Comstock and Camden Realty – will cost over $1 billion and contain 2.2 million sf of office space, 1,550 apartments and condo units totaling 880,000 sf, the two aforementioned hotels, and retail space totaling 210,000 sf, including a Harris Teeter grocery store. Arlington Virginia real estate development news