Birchington will break ground on a 247-room Holiday Inn Express in Washington, D.C.’s, Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood later this month. The company, owned by Habte Sequar, plans on opening the $93 million project in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Urgo Hotels & Resorts of Bethesda, Md., will operate the 14-story hotel. BBGM Architects and Kinsley Construction have been brought on as project architect and general contractor.
Sequar first introduced plans for the site in 2015, with the expectation of having 200 hotel rooms and 30 apartments. A 2016 change in zoning regulations has since allowed for 100 percent hotel use. Now that Birchington has closed on a construction loan from Stonehill Strategic Capital, work is expected to officially begin this month. A small commercial building and an auto body shop located at the site will be demolished shortly.
Mount Vernon Triangle currently has more than 4,500 residential units, 1.8 million square feet of office space and 272,000 square feet of retail space. Another 574 apartments, 1 million square feet of office space and 127,438 square feet pf retail space are currently under construction or in the development pipeline. Including the new Holiday Inn Express, more than 1,000 hotel rooms are slated to be built in the neighborhood. The hotel will be located a half mile from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.