A 247-room Holiday Inn Express hotel will break ground in Washington, D.C.'s Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood. Birchington LLC, owned by Habte Sequar, closed on a construction loan from Atlanta-based Stonehill Strategic Capital to commence construction on the $93 million project.
Projected to open in the fourth quarter of 2020, the 14-story hotel will be located at 317 K St., NW on the northeast corner of 4th and K. This site is just three blocks east of the highly anticipated downtown Apple Store in the historic Carnegie Library, as well as the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
BBGM Architects of Washington, D.C., which designed the new Intercontinental Washington DC — The Wharf, is the project architect. Urgo Hotels & Resorts of Bethesda, Md., will operate the property, which will feature penthouse-level meeting rooms. Kinsley Construction Inc. is the general contractor.
Sequar announced plans for a hotel on the site, to be called Lima, in 2015. The original plan was for 200 hotel rooms with 30 apartments on the upper floors. A 2016 change in zoning regulations allowed 100 percent hotel use. A small commercial building and auto body shop on the site will be demolished shortly.
The Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood now has more than 4,500 residential units, 1.8 million sq. ft. of office space, and 272,000 sq. ft. of retail space. Another million sq. ft. of office space, 574 apartments, and 127,438 sq. ft. of retail are either under construction or in the development pipeline. The new Holiday Inn Express and other planned hospitality construction are slated to bring more than 1,000 hotel rooms to the neighborhood.
