AdMo Hotel Reaches for Ground Level

Construction continues on the new Adams Morgan hotel, "The Line."

Work continues on The Line Hotel in Adams Morgan. Excavation is complete, and the construction of the lower floors of the hotel has commenced. The below-grade levels will be comprised of parking and a concourse level which could contain the gym and spa, among other amenities. The 227 room Line Hotel is being constructed on the corner of Champlain Street NW & Euclid St NW. The hotel will be comprised of the existing First Church of Christ, Scientist building on Euclid and a newly constructed tower along Champlain St. [Here's a look at The Line Hotel : Los Angeles for a possible peek at the aesthetic.]

*     *     *     *     *

Just around the corner from the new hotel, Czars 11 looks to be opening (or perhaps has already opened?) on 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan. The self-described international restaurant promises a wide ranging menu, including "American (New), American (Traditional), Barbeque, Brunch, Caribbean, French, German, Greek and Mediterranean, Irish, Italian, Latin American, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Pizza, Russian, Seafood, Soul Food, Southern, Spanish/Basque, Tapas Bars and Vegetarian." 

Czars 11's FB page indicates that they are now open daily from 11:00 AM - 12:00 AM, but my calls to the business phone went unanswered. Czars 11 is located at 2309 18th St NW, which was previously home to Pi Pizzeria & Bottoms Up Bar.

Micro Units for New Chinatown Hotel

627 H Street NW will soon be home to a hotel.

Washington Business journal is reporting that the new hotel across the street from the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station has broken ground. 

The property, partially developed by by DC's Modus Hotels, will be a Pod Hotel brand. Pod Hotel currently has two locations in New York City.The rooms in the DC hotel (627 H Street NW) will be "micro units." Among other things, that means the rooms will be 150 square feet or less. Pretty small! There will be 245 total rooms over 11 floors.

The trade-off regarding space is supposedly cheaper rates. Choosing single pod room nights in New York, during weekdays in October in November, I got rates ranging form $135-$205. I'm guessing DC rates will be marginally cheaper. Interesting concept and a good location for visitors to the District who want to be able to wake up and get right to it without much travel time.

Rendering of Pod Hotel via http://www.thepodhotel.com/

Clearing Makes Way for Adams Morgan Hotel

Champlain St NW. Site cleared in preparation of new hotel tower.

Initial work began on the Adams Morgan hotel project almost two months ago. Lots of major changes have come since then. The building formerly housing the offices of Washington City Paper, 2390 Champlain St NW, has now been cleared. That clearing makes way for the majority of the new construction to begin.

The hotel brand is The Line. Here's the website for The Line in Los Angeles... yeah. Wondering if we'll get anything this cool looking or just another neutral color tone / modern wall sconce hotel. 

Standard (King) rooms in the Los Angeles Line hotel seem to run from around $225/night for a weeknight, to well over $350/night for choice weekend nights. Of course, it's too early to know room rates for the DC hotel, but there will be 227 total rooms total. The rooms and other amenities will be in the new 7 story addition (where the City Paper building was), and also incorporated into the old First Church of Christ, Scientist building facing Euclid St NW. I'll post more photos as the construction moves along.

Same view in June 2014 (via Google Maps)

Same  view with an early rendering of hotel.

Adams Morgan Hotel Work Begins, Chief Ike's Closing

Can only imagine what will open in its place.

Yesterday DCist and other outlets reported that Adams Morgan bar Chief Ike's Mambo Room will close this week. I mostly knew Chief Ike's as a weekend destination for packed, sweaty dance parties, the occasional live rock show, and a chill place to watch the game with hardly any hassle. Oh yeah, and the epic patio! But, all that is going the way of every other cool spot recently -- closed for good. The last day is Saturday. WOMP.

Construction fencing and equipment. Get used to it.

Just a block away form Chief Ike's, work has finally begun converting the old First Church of Christ, Scientist into a 227 room hotel called "The Line." The property, at 1770 Euclid St NW, was just placed on the National Register of Historic Places in February, and construction began on March 3. The church part of the hotel will be converted into restaurants, retail, gym, and other hotel amenities. The majority of guest rooms will be included in a new structure being built on the south front of the church building. See older renderings here.

Songbyrd is hiring.

The folks behind the semi-mysterious music house / record cafe concept, named Songbyrd, are hiring baristas and servers. Brown construction paper went up in the windows of never-opened Z Kabob and former restaurant Federal last fall. Since then, whatever has happened inside has happened in private. Songbyrd does have a pretty active Twitter account, but so far there aren't any photos of the physical space. I'm super interested to see how this place looks when built out. Looks like we're getting closer to that day. Very cool!

370 Room Hotel Opening at CityCenter

A parking lot currently occupies the new hotel site.

Phase II of the 10-acre CityCenter project will kick off next year with construction of a new hotel. Hilton will operate the 370 room hotel under its Conrad Hotel & Resorts brand. The hotel will be the first for CityCenter, which already boasts offices, condominiums, apartments, retail and restaurants. There is also an open air plaza and a public/private park. The hotel will cover about half of the block bound by New York Ave NW, 9th Street, I (Eye) Street, and 10th Street. 

Plans call for 70,000 square feet of retail to accompany the hotel, adding to the 188,000 sq ft of existing retail. The Conrad timeline includes a mid-2015 start to construction, retail openings in fall 2017, and hotel grand opening in early 2018.

In other CityCenter news, upcoming retail and restaurant openings include:

Dolcezza: Local gelato and coffee shop.
Arc'teryx: Outdoor exploration and sporting wear.
CH Carolina Herrera: Private men's and women's luxury clothing label.
momofuku: Huge (4,500 sq ft) iteration of this popular Chef David Chang series.
milk bar: momofuku sister shop with cookies, pies, ice cream, and other sweets.
Caudalie Boutique Spa: NYC based luxury spa and boutique.
mango tree: Bangkok based Thai restaurant with over 70 worldwide locations.
Centrolina: 4,000 sq ft Italian restaurant and market from Chef Amy Brandwein.
Louis Vuitton: French bags and ready-to-wear.
Dior: French haute-couture and luxury goods. 

Hotel rendering via Hines.

Site plan via CityCenter DC.

New Residential Tower for Columbia Road?

It's looking more and more like a new residential project will rise above the 1700 block of Columbia Road NW in Adams Morgan. With the recent and abrupt closures of T-Mobile (1775 Columbia Rd NW) and Radio Shack (1767), only Burger King and Pho 14 remain of the six adjacent properties. Old City Cafe and Payless Shoesource were the other two properties, since closed.

Back in June, Washington Business Journal noted that four of the properties had been sold to a Michigan Developer, hoping to consolidate and build residential units above the first floor retail spaces. Indeed, the District government lists "1777 Bond St Equities LLC" as the owners of the 1777, 1775, 1773, and 1767 Columbia Rd addresses. (Bond St Equities lists the same home address as Beztak Properties, the Michigan property developer.) The owners of 1771 (Burger King) and 1769 (Pho 14) are listed as "Laskin Properties LLC."

When I checked with Pho 14, they were only saying so much, but it appears that Burger King will soon vacate the storefront at 1771 Columbia Rd NW, leaving Pho 14 as the only operating tenant. No word of the final fate of Pho 14, but I assume they signed a long term lease with no intentions to move anytime soon.

Surely the owners of these properties are trading on the eventual build out of The Line Hotel across the road at 1770 Euclid St NW.

Streetsense property brokers are already listing ground floor retail for the space formerly occupied by Payless. And the full brochure counts The Line Hotel as a major asset to this location. The hotel is not yet built.

An older property listing (below) contains a rendering that depicts a 65 unit residential building rising above the retail spaces. The current listing does not include this aspect.

Keep an eye on this block. It looks like big changes are coming to Adams Morgan.

via streetsense.com

New Hotel for Chinatown

Location of proposed 245 room hotel in Chinatown.

District Source has a very detailed run down of the zoning adjustments made en route to approval of a 245-key hotel project in Chinatown. The article discusses the reasons the project was allowed to move forward despite planning for zero on-site car parking spaces, which is typically a no-no for a development of this size. 

The H Street Hotel would be built atop a long-empty lot on the 600 block of H St NW, between Vapiano and Panera restaurants. (The future of this lot, including its parking allotment, has been in question for seven years.) This space is directly across the street from the WMATA Metrorail Gallery Pl-Chinatown station and adjacent to stops for the busy 70s and X bus lines. Currently the closest hotels to this site are Kimpton's Hotel Monaco and Marriot's Fairfield Inn & Suites. 

The new hotel would be run by Modus Hotels, the company behind DC's One Washington Circle and George Washington University Inn hotels. With no current structures remaining on the lot to incorporate, the hotel would feature all-new construction. The 245 rooms would bring the hotel to 11 floors, including some form of ground level retail. Exciting development for this block, one of the busiest in the central business district.

Friday Fun Post: Marriott Marquis

The District's largest hotel opened yesterday. In a bid to redirect conventions and their blocks of hotel room bookings back into DC --from National Harbor-- the District worked a deal with Marriott to build a massive hotel next to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. DC ended up contributing $206,000,000 to this project, 40% of the budgeted cost; $520,000,000. So, if you live in DC, this hotel is almost half yours!

The Marriott Marquis is located at 901 Massachusetts Avenue NW. It's one of only five Marquis properties in the U.S. and has 1,175 rooms, including 49 suites. That makes it DC's largest hotel. It is also just plain BIG, with 14 above ground floors of guest rooms and 4 below ground floors of meeting space. It also has an underground, direct connection to the Convention Center. Here are a few photos. Have a great weekend!

901 Mass Ave NW

Walk to the Convention Center from the underground floors.

The Dignitary, a bourbon bar, is one of three bars on the first floor. 

Local neighborhood names for the meeting rooms...

Overlooking the first floor bar area.

"Birth of the American Flag," a sculpture by Rodney Carroll

Down, down, down...

Outside seating.

1,175 Key Convention Center Hotel Tops Off

Lots of construction near the Convention Center.

The long awaited Washington Convention Center Hotel is moving right along. The hotel, now known as the Washington Marriott Marquis, is located at 901 Massachusetts Ave NW. The hotel just topped out at 14 habitable floors and is slated to open on May 1, 2014. 

At 148.5 feet tall, it isn't the tallest modern building in DC (doesn't even crack the top 20), but its 14 above ground floors ties it in 2nd place with a few others. The Renaissance Washington Hotel has 15 floors.

One of the developers recently noted that at 130 feet below ground, the excavation depth for the Marquis nearly equaled the above ground height, which really is extraordinary for a building of this size. The below ground floors will contain meeting spaces, parking decks, and an underground walkway to the Convention Center. When finished, the Marquis will have 1,175 guest rooms.

There is a special job training program for this project happening right now: Washington Marriott Marquis Jobs Training Program. It's for DC residents only, and is free. Participants are not guaranteed a job at the hotel upon completion, but it looks like the training goes a long way towards that goal.

The front of the hotel on Massachusetts Ave NW

The back of the hotel at corner of 9th and L Streets NW. Above ground floors are labeled.

New Hotel Possible for Dupont Circle

A former mansion and social club is up for sale, and it could become the newest hotel in Dupont. The Patterson Mansion is a huge property --36,000 sq ft--  at 15 Dupont Circle NW. The mansion was built in 1901 and is listed as having 16 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. This prominent location originally served as a private residence for the Pattersons, a family of wealthy newspaper publishers.

The Dupont Current (PDF) is reporting that an Atlanta company is interested in buying the property and converting it into a hotel. 15 Dupont Circle is being marketed as "Patterson Mansion" and is currently being offered for $26 million. The current tenants and owners are a private social club, the Washington Club.

French Quarter Holdings, if they actually purchase the property, would attempt to convert it into a hotel by removing an addition to the rear of the building added by the Washington Club and replacing it with a new structure containing more hotel rooms. The new hotel, number of rooms unknown, would be a small luxury boutique property and it would join The Dupont Circle Hotel as only hotels adjacent to the Circle itself. Don't look for changes anytime soon, the property has yet to be sold. And any significant additions or alterations to the mansion would face rounds of approval since it has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972. More news as it comes.

Marriott Marquis

9th and Massachusetts Ave NW

220 Key Adams Morgan Hotel Moving Forward

This former church will become part of a new 220 room hotel by 2015.

The contentious plans for a luxury hotel in Adams Morgan on the site of a former church look to be moving forward. The New York based co-developer Slydell Group plans to utilize the First Church of Christ, Scientist building at 1770 Euclid St NW along with new construction to bring  a 220 room hotel to the Adams Morgan neighborhood by mid-2015. The address of the hotel will be 1780 Columbia Rd NW.  The church selected the other co-developer, Friedman Capital, for this project in 2004. So, if the hotel is actually competed in 2015, this will have been an 11 year project. (Also, Friedman Capital is totally a candidate for 100percentmen).

Slydell Group has developed Ace Hotels in the past, however this hotel will be managed and operated by Bethesda-based Marriott International. They are using the language "boutique hotel," but there is no official name or branding, yet. Will it become part of Marriott's Edition brand? Possibly.

All 220 guest rooms will be in a new eight floor addition added to the southern edge of the property along Champlain Street NW. The new construction will replace the building formerly occupied by the Washington City Paper and WPFW Pacifica Radio station. In addition to the eight above ground floors, there will one concourse level and four underground parking levels with 132 spaces.

Not everyone is in favor of the development. Groups like No Adams Morgan Hotel oppose various aspects of the plan citing zoning oversight, economic impact, the controversial $46M tax abatement, traffic, noise, and pollution concerns. 

However, momentum seems to be with the developers. They plan to start construction this calendar year. They also have a promotional/informational website, oddly named Adams Morgan Historic Hotel. I suppose the church building is historic; it is over 100 years old. And FYI, the Christian Scientists who own and used this church in the past moved to a smaller place of worship at 1782 Columbia Rd NW years ago.

The old church structure will house part of the lobby, restaurants and meeting spaces. The main entrance and check-in area will be on the Champlain St side of the hotel, in the newer structure. Developers are seeking LEED Silver certification for this project.

For more architectural plans (PDF): Architectural Plans, Elevations and Renderings.

More renderings below courtesy of The Adams Morgan Historic Hotel website.

Building Section via Key Documents

via Key Documents

via Key Documents

via Key Documents

New Hotel Attempts to Boost Convention Center

Builders will incorporate the circa 1915 United Association building.

The Washington Marriott Marquis hotel is under construction at the corner of 9th and Massachusetts NW. Not just another DC hotel, this behemoth development is key the city's plan to stay competitive with convention bookings. The Walter E. Washington Convention Center is located across 9th street from the hotel site. It is competing with --and often losing out to-- the National Harbor's Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. The Gaylord is coincidentally operated by... Marriott. 

The main driving forces behind the building of this hotel are to give convention attendees and organizers an option to stay at the convention site and the option to stay together; as opposed to scattered around the District in various smaller hotels. The Marquis will have 1,175 rooms and suites, second to the Marriott Wardman Park with 1,300. The Omni Shoreham has 836 rooms. The Gaylord at National Harbor has 2,000. 

Will the Marquis be able to save the District's convention business? That was the plan when Mayor Fenty, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Marriott company officials were on hand to break ground in November 2010. The hotel will be closely tied to the Convention Center. There will be an underground concourse between the two structures. Inside the hotel itself will be 128,000 square feet of meeting/ballroom space, six restaurant & bars, and 31,000 sq ft of retail. The building will be 14 stories tall. However, most of the new meeting space will be below street level, down to 94 feet. That's nearly 10 stories below ground. Delivery of the Marquis is expected in spring of 2014 and Marriott has already begun signing contracts for rooms and conventions.

Builders are seeking a LEED Silver rating. The entire development will cost $520,000,000. The District and the Washington Convention and Sports Authority are contributing $206,000,000 of the total. That's 39.6% of the total cost. That's less than the city contributed to Nationals Park (virtually 100% of $535 million), but more than any other entity so tied to a private company, that I know of. 

I'm really interested in this development. As a citizen, I'd like to see the District's convention center investment pay off, financially. On the other hand, I can't say I support helping one of the world's largest hoteliers build a hotel which will likely produce the same profits without city help.

I personally think too many medium and small sized cities built convention centers in the 1980s, 90s and 2000s. But DC ought to have a successful and vibrant space. I'm also really intrigued about the fate of National Harbor. Will it embrace its identity as a large resort that strives largely due to its proximity to nation's capital? With a planned casino, multiple hotels, and an over-curated collection of retail, restaurants and bars, it seems to be leaning towards resort town, not a true edge city or even bedroom community. Very interesting case(s). I'll be keeping an eye on both developments as each builds  towards completion. 

Looking west towards the Marquis from the convention center.

9th and L Streets NW

L Street

Will This Church Become a Hotel?

Not anytime soon, but the idea is out there.  And wheels are turning.  The owners of the Edition brand hotel have been eying this spot for almost three years.  Edition is a boutique hotel brand related to the Marriott behemoth.  

The hotel would occupy what is now the First Church of Christ Scientist building on Euclid Street NW at Columbia Rd.  A rebuild and additon would transform the building into 150 hotel rooms, six restaurants and a gym + spa.  It's unclear whether any of that would be accessible to the public at large.

Now Ward One council member Jim Graham wants to give the Edition developers a 15 year property tax abatement in order to tip their hand in favor of building the hotel on the site.  The tax relief would start in 2014 when the hotel is scheduled to open.  The abatement is just a proposal at this point.  It would have to be approved by the city to become reality.  I want a 15 year property tax break!  Wow.  

Anyway, I'm really curious how a major hotel would change Adams Morgan.  There are a few bed and breakfasts nearby, and of course the Hilton in Dupont, but this place is right in the heart of Adams Morgan.  Edition would be a ways away from any Metro stop (.7 miles from each the two closest) and would be in the thick of the Adams Morgan fray on a nightly basis.  I'm sure it'd be a draw for a certain type of visitor and might be one of the classiest places in the neighborhood after it's all said and done.  But I'm not sold on the tax abatement.  Will keep you updated on how this one unfolds.

Jury's Upgrades, Becomes The Dupont Hotel

My parents' hotel of choice when visiting DC was always Jury's Washington in Dupont. It's at 1500 New Hampshire Ave NW. They love the neighborhood and the hotel was well above average in accommodations. And Jury's didn't break the bank. Plus they had the homey Biddy Mulligan's on the first floor. Not my cup of tea, but better than a normal hotel bar. I never had a meal at the Dupont Grille (it closed, but it was on the 1st level of the hotel as well). However, my parents ate there and liked it. Both Biddy's and Dupont Grille have already been replaced with new iterations named Bar Dupont and Cafe Dupont. French inspiration for the cafe and more of a modern look for the bar.

The name of the hotel is changing, too; it now goes by The Dupont Hotel. Pretty simple. The rooms are in the process of being renovated and the biggest change is that a complete 9th floor is being added to the building. Right on top. The website promises $119 weekend rooms, subject to availability. Not bad, considering rates during Jury's last days were $99 on internet special. The new hotel is partially open now and should fully open by July.