A groundbreaking ceremony marked the official start of construction on the Washington Marriott Marquis Hotel, a long-anticipated convention headquarters hotel adjacent to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Scheduled for completion in 2014, the $520 million, 1,175-room hotel will offer more than 100,000 square feet of function space, including a 30,000-square-foot ballroom and a rooftop event terrace. Plans include incorporating the historic Samuel Gompers AFL-CIO headquarters, known as the “Plumbers Building,” into the hotel.
The property is being built to earn Silver LEED certification.
Among those at the ceremony were Marriott International CEO J.W. Marriott Jr., who noted that “our company began here in Washington, D.C., more than 80 years ago with a restaurant my parents opened just up the street from the site of the new Washington Marriott Marquis.”
Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination DC, the city’s CVB, termed the groundbreaking “a big win for D.C.’s meeting and tourism industry. With a major new hotel attached to the convention center, meeting and event planners will find it easier to build large blocks of hotel rooms.”
