Build It and They Shall Come: D.C. Convention Center Needs Hotel by Christine CubÈ Every city in the country counts on the hospitality and meetings industries to keep the commerce engine revved up. In larger cities, this industry includes conventions, which require a top-notch convention center and sleeping rooms to match, mostly in the form of whatís called a headquarters hotel, which is oneóor manyólarge box hotels located near the convention center for the convenience of its meeting attendees. Headquarters hotels usually have about 1,000 rooms, and most of the major citiesóOrlando, Las Vegas, Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Philadelphiaóin the United States have at least one such hotel. Even Baltimore has one, but not so much in Washington, D.C. Hereís why: Once the city opened up its $850 million Washington Convention Center in March 2003, most meeting planners and conventioneers were itching to test out the new 2.3-million-square-foot convention facility. These planners also expected the rooms would be here, but that hasnít quite been the case. Washington is still waiting to build its headquarters hotel to match the new convention center. The hold-up stems from the financing planósu ch a hotel calls for one and in todayís market, there is no such thing as building a hotel without one. The plan thatís before the Washington Convention Center Authority, which is the board of directors for the convention center, involves a refinancing mechanism for the new center to get the headquarters hotel project off the ground. These decisions take time, say hoteliers in Washington. But the longer the city waits, the more meetings and convention groups become weary of bringing their meetings to Washington, which means theyíre likely to go elsewhere. ìWeíve had great success selling the city so far,î said William Hanbury, president and chief executive officer of the Washington, DC Convention & Tourism Corp., which is charged with selling the city to meeting planners and tourists. ìBut the real cream of the crop from a convention perspectiveóthe very large, high-end conventionsówe still donít have them locked up. We have tentatives if we build [the hotel]. If we donít build it, we will lose a significant amount of business.î District officials are moving as fast as they can on the process to build the massive hotel, which was announced to be a Marriott property by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams in October 2002. According to a request for proposals on the headquarters hotel, the structure that city officials are considering building includes upward of 1,500 hotel rooms and 90,000 square feet of meeting space. The future hotel is expected to generate 1,300 jobs and more than $19 million in annual tax revenue for Washington. ìWe have presented a proposed financing plan to the convention center board, which theyíre reviewing,î said Chris Bender, spokesman of the D.C. Office for Planning and Economic Development. ìWeíre working with them on the review process. At the same time, weíre moving ahead with design, layout, architectural rendering and programming, so that we have all that figured out once weíve decided upon a financing plan.î Bender noted that the opening of the hotel is scheduled for around late 2007. But the city doesnít want just any hotel. Last summer, the District announced that world-renowned architect Rafael ViÒoly was selected to lead the design team of the D.C. headquarters hotel project, working side by side with project developer Tishman Urban Development Corp. and hotel design specialist Nichols Brosch Sandoval & Associates. ViÒoly was selected from about a half-dozen designers from around the world. Bender said pulling together a sampling of worldwide professionals was very deliberate. ìWe really wanted to bring a sense of very interesting, world-class architecture to the convention center,î he said. Tishman Urban Development Corporation, an affiliate of the New York-based real estate firm Tishman Realty & Construction Co. Inc., will be in charge of managing the project, including programming, design, construction and startup of the hotel. Tishman has been responsible for the construction of more than 400 million square feet of space nationwide. In the last two decades, the company developed and currently owns and manages eight hotel properties, including six major meeting and convention hotels. These include the 2,300-room Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resort hotels in Orlando, the 1,200-room Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, the 600-room Westin Rio Mar Beach Resort & Golf Club in Puerto Rico, and the 863-room Westin New York at Times Square. Rafael ViÒoly Architects, which was founded in 1982, is an internationally recognized architectural firm with offices in New York and London. Its recently completed projects include the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh and the Tokyo International Forum. Current projects include a new jazz performance hall at the Lincoln Center in New York and the expansion and plaza renovation of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In recent months, the Washington Convention Center has pushed forward with some changes at the new center. Last fall, the center announced the hiring of a top-notch convention center general manager to take the reins of operating the massive building. Tom Mobley, former manager of Chicagoís McCormick Place convention complex, officially began his tenure in Washington in December. More recently, the convention center announced that its food-service provider team, Centerplate and National Business Services Enterprises Inc., unveiled an 18,000-square-foot casual dining pavilion in the convention center, featuring seven local and national brand food stations. In addition, the 400-plus-seat Executive Orders restaurant officially opened just after Christmas. As for the headquarters hotel, however, officials with the Washington Convention Center could not be reached for comment regarding the status of a decision for the hotelís financing plan. Hanbury of the Washington, DC Convention & Tourism Corp. said that although financing is not an easy thing to pull together, the pace of activity has been a concern for folks in the hospitality industry. ìThe hotel is just something we have to get done,î he said. ìWeíve had some great success in booking outstanding places. But at the end of the day, we still need this hotel to upgrade our game and take us to another level. We have a bunch of groups that will not come or will not return unless this hotel is constructed.î Christine CubÈ is a freelance writer in Alexandria, Va.