Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and the Washington Convention and Sports Authority (WCSA) have broken ground on the much-anticipated Washington Marriott Marquis. Joining them for this momentous occasion were Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), city officials, representatives from WCSA’s Board of Directors, Quadrangle Development, Capstone Development, Marriott International, Inc. and Destination DC. The ceremony took place on the construction site at Ninth Street and Massachusetts Avenue, directly adjacent to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The hotel is scheduled to open in spring 2014.“This is a monumental day for the District,” said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. “For some time, we have worked diligently to bring a world-class hotel to the Convention Center, and that will spur development and offer new jobs for District residents. Today’s groundbreaking for the new state-of-the-art Marriott Marquis brings approximately 1,600 construction jobs, and when the hotel opens, offers more than 1,000 jobs for District residents in the hospitality industry.”
The $520 million, four-star hotel, will be one of only four Marriott Marquis properties in the country. Plans for the hotel include incorporating the historic Samuel Gompers AFL-CIO headquarters, known as the “Plumbers Building,” into the property with its own boutique feel.
The 1,175-room, 46-suite Washington Marriott Marquis is designed to reflect its surroundings and compliment the Convention Center. With more than 100,000 square feet of meeting and assembly space, a grand lobby and five separate retail and restaurant outlets on the ground floor, the hotel is also set to be the next great social hub in the city.
Meeting space will include a 30,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom, two 10,800-square-foot junior ballrooms, more than 53,000 square feet of Meeting Rooms, an 18,800-square-foot indoor Event Terrace and a 5,200-square-foot Rooftop Terrace.
The Washington Marriott Marquis was designed to earn LEED ® Silver (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, registered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The hotel will be one of the largest hotels in the country to earn Silver certification, verifying that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
The hotel will be developed by Quadrangle Development Corporation and Capstone Development and will be operated by Marriott International. Of the $520 development cost, the District and the Authority are contributing $206 million. The Authority and the District will be paid for the use of their land through a 99-year ground lease.
Designed by Cooper Carry Architects, Atlanta, and TVS Architects, Atlanta, in a joint-venture collaboration, the building features an innovative top-down construction method, with 14 stories above ground and 94 feet below – nearly as deep as the hotel will be tall – with most meeting space below grade. To minimize traffic, bus arrival and taxi queuing is planned for the L Street entrance. The loading dock and the truck service are located below grade and off the street.
