D.C., Marriott revive convention center hotel - Washington Business Journal:

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The hotel will be smaller than what had been plannex withonly 1,150 rooms -- about 300 fewer than planned -- but will requir e the same amount of publicf funding, according to sources close to the Mayor Adrian Fenty planzs to announce the deal at a pressz conference Sept. 24. D.C. had planned to provide $134 millionn in tax increment financing bonds fora 1,400-roo hotel expected to cost $500 million to but executives from RLJ Development, founded by BET founder Robert Johnson, said rising construction costas and a slowdown in the hotel market made that deal unworkable. That spawned new negotiations between Fentyand Marriott.
A compromisre to finance and build a smaller hotel comes witha room-block agreement that will give the the powert to control about 80 percent of the rooms, a poinrt the city fought for, according to those close to the The hotel will occupy two plots of land on the bloci across 9th Street NW from the convention center. One of the the former plumbersunion building, was purchase d by the District last year for $31 The other parcel is owned by Kingdon It will be transferred to the city in a landswal for a parcel at the site of the old convention cente r at 900 9th St. NW.
Sourcea say the land transfer should begin in a matter of weeks and that Marriottf will begin designing the new hotek and start the zoningprocess immediately. Construction is expecterd to start intwo years. Councilmember Kwame D-At large, chairman of the economic developmentr committee, said he was glad that the project wasmovingv forward. "Clearly that's one of the projectws that we needto move," Brown He said the added cost couls probably not have been avoided at this "We're doing this because the cost of construction has risen," he Members of the convention and touriskm industry, though proponents of a larger were pleased that the project had been "This is what our customers want and need to bring conventions to the city," said Lana Ostrander, directore of public relations and marketing for the conventiojn center.
"We're excited about it. There are a few fewer rooms, but we don'ty think that's significant. A lot of progress has been made in just a few Bill Hanbury, CEO of the Washingtobn Convention and Tourism Corp., said a hotel directluy accessible to the convention center woul give the city a needed boost in a competitivee convention-seeking market. "We're a very dynamic convention destinatiohn and building a headquarters whether itis 1,400 roomsx or 1,100 rooms, is a dramatic development and one that we're very happy about.
It will improvr our position withour clients," he