Yeah, that banner's not there anymore. (Lydia DePillis)

It's a frustrating phenomenon: A "groundbreaking" takes place, and the relevant local figures all stand around making speeches and patting themselves on the back. And then...nothing happens. Shaw saw a slew of groundbreakings last summer, and a several projects are under serious construction or renovation, including the Howard Theater, Progression Place, Gibson Plaza, and the Convention Center hotel.

Others, however, have languished. O Street Market, which did its song and dance last September, only closed on its HUD financing late last month, allowing work to commence. A mixed-use building on 9th and P Street, slated to contain a Burmese restaurant, is still a hole in the ground, having applied for its construction permit on April 14th (the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs says they still have some issues to sort out with the District Department of the Environment and DC Water).

The worst offender, though, is Shiloh Baptist Church, which closed down 9th Street on September 12th of last year to celebrate the start of construction on the $2.1 million Wallace Charles Smith Community Services building. They didn't have all their financing locked down, but it was supposed to be ready to start by the end of the year, and promised "suites available mid-2011." Nine months later, the banner has disappeared, no permits have been issued, Church officials haven't returned my calls, and community leaders don't know what's going on. That initial approbation, it seems, was premature.

The problem this creates is confusion, resentment, and cynicism on the part of people living in the area (and, in the case of O Street Market, a political event right before a hotly contested primary). I know that construction delays happen and it's hard to get lots of important people in the same place at the same time, but keeping groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings as close together as possible is better for everyone.

In the audience: Peter Nickles, who helped broker the whole deal. (Lydia DePillis)

In proof positive that long-running development projects make for nearly as long groundbreaking speeches, today's ceremony to mark the official start of construction on the $520 million Marriott Marquis hotel downtown was a doozy, with speakers thanking everyone from former mayor Marion Barry (seated proudly in the front row) to Washington Convention and Sports Authority development committee chairman Jim Abdo's wife ("probably on a run somewhere"). After all this project has been through, the day seemed almost miraculous; Quadrangle Development's Bob Gladstone called it a "reunion of the faithful." One of the oldest people on the dais, Bill Marriott himself, has presided over the construction of 16 hotels in D.C., but none as grand as this.

Beyond those conveying congratulations, the room was packed with people who are counting on something from the massive new development: Downtown tourist-oriented businesses hoping for a new source of customers, Shaw community activists looking to get neighborhood residents employed, and city development people just glad to get the project off their plate.

(And speaking of plates, if the spread afterwards is anything like hotel guests have to look forward to when the building finishes up in 2014, this reporter will be stopping by to crash receptions on a regular basis).

Mmmmm lunch.

A cross section: That's a big hole!

The massive Marriott Marquis hotel planned for 10th and Massachusetts Avenue N.W. has been working through legal issues for so long now that nearby residents have almost forgotten it's on the way. But now, with a financial closing expected for October 27th and construction ready to start 10 days after, the prospect is starting to become very real.

At Shaw Main Streets' development forum last night, Capstone Development's Norm Jenkins took questions from residents about the 1,165-room behemoth about to land in their community. Concerns fall roughly into two categories: Construction, and how the finished project will affect the surrounding neighborhoods.

Construction impact will be large, to put it mildly. Build-out is expected to take 42 months, 10 of which will be dedicated to digging a 110-foot-deep hole and building back up to the surface (because of height restrictions that kept the building to 15 stories, there's almost as much space below grade as above it). 

Nearby residents still remember the long, loud process of building the three-block-long Convention Center. One neighbor, who works a night shift at the Washington Post, said he would get off work at 5:00 a.m. and have to sleep at the YMCA because construction was so loud at his house. At a previous meeting, another community member recalled the rats that had been displaced into surrounding blocks (and last night, one woman wanted to know if there were plans to relocate the feral cat community living on the site of the other, smaller hotels to be developed on the north side of L Street). Finally, there's the inevitable question of parking: Jenkins says that while plans are still being figured out, the scores of workers who will be on the site every day will not take up spaces in the neighborhood.

The other set of concerns centers around how the completed hotel will fit into the neighborhood, and what it will do for the local economy. The hotel will be largely self-contained, with six food and beverage outlets (a coffee shop, three different bars, and two restaurants) and a few retail shops. Jenkins projected that he'll be able to choose retail outlets that will enliven lackluster stores across the street at the Convention Center, but conventioneers won't ever have to go outside to patronize them: A tunnel under 9th Street will seamlessly connect the two buildings.

"The reason Washington wants this hotel is so they can be competitive," Jenkins said, in response to a skeptical query. "Having that tunnel in place is a key differentiator when people decide to bring their conventions to Washington."

The view from L Street.

A view from 9th Street.

A familiar, long-running story is back in the news—and that's definitely a bad thing.

For years, D.C. officials have wanted to build a hotel to support big groups hosting events at the Washington Convention Center. That project—despite the economic downturn—was rejuvenated this summer when Councilmembers Kwame Brown (At-large) and Jack Evans (Ward 2) decided it could wait no longer.*

And so we got our convention center hotel after a new financing deal was inked! Two thousand jobs were on the way! An August 2009 press release from the city stated that "the development team expects to break ground on the hotel project this fall and it is expected to be complete in 2013."

Yet, fall has come and gone, and I recall no groundbreaking. Instead, D.C. was served with another roadblock, this time in the form of a lawsuit from a competing developer.  The Washington Post covers all the latest twists—"No construction bonds have been issued, and a D.C. Superior Court judge has twice refused to dismiss the case"—in a story published yesterday.

On its face, the lawsuit by Wardman Investor, a company controlled by Chevy Chase-based JBG Companies, is a protest against the bidding process. The city selected Bethesda-based Marriott several years ago to develop the hotel, but when financing grew scarce, increased the public subsidy before the deal was finalized last summer.

Wardman Investor claims the D.C. Council acted illegally by negotiating exclusively with Marriott, granting the firm "extraordinarily favorable terms," including not only the subsidy but also a 99-year lease on a city-owned site, with no payments during construction or the first three years of operation. Marriott would run the hotel, which would be built by Quadrangle Development and Capstone Development.

The suit seeks to halt construction and require that the city solicit new bids for the project. When the city initially opened the competition, JBG did not bid, but managing partner Ben Jacobs said the developer "would have been an obvious contender" if the original bidding process had included the new terms negotiated with Marriott.

*After all, Disney had just purchased 15 acres near National Harbor, igniting new questions about whether P.G. county's own hotel mecca was eating up hospitality profits that could be going to D.C.

Image by Kjarrett, Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License

Recession be damned, D.C.'s  getting a convention center hotel.

Yesterday, Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the authorizing bill, which was approved by the DC Council last month. The legislation will set in place a plan to finance construction using public and private funds.

In a hearing about the convention center hotel earlier this summer, job creation came up repeatedly (as it usually does—with people wondering how much work will be promised to District residents).

Here's a snippet from yesterday's press release:

The project will produce more than 1,150 jobs during 40 months of construction. Marriott will hire about 1,000 people to work in the hotel permanently. The company has agreed to fill at least 51 percent of those new jobs with District residents and work closely with certified local, small and disadvantaged businesses. The development team expects to break ground on the hotel project this fall and it is expected to be complete in 2013.

Image by NCinDC, Flickr Creative Commons

The engine of capitalism churns forward! Today a bill authorizing the construction of the convention center hotel was passed by the D.C. Council.

The long-delayed project sat idly by as the National Harbor attracted convention business, and Disney acquired 15 acres of property in the area to build a resort.

In early June, At-large Councilmember Kwame Brown and Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans re-ignited the effort to devise a funding scheme for the project. The initial plan called for an extreme use of public funds.

But over the last few weeks, a new proposal was devised with much more private investment.

At a recent hearing, Evans invoked images of crumbling bureaucracy and decrepit school buildings to describe the value of big money projects to the city.  

“I want you to imagine a District of Columbia without a Verizon Center and a convention center," he stated. "It would probably look like Detroit."   

Plus, Shaw locals came out and said they really wanted some nice restaurants and stuff in their neighborhood.

So there you have it. 

“We went from a 100 percent publicly financed hotel to a deal that requires the developer to fund the majority of the costs," said Brown in a press release issued today. "While it’s not the ideal result, in these tough economic times we can now look forward to revitalizing the Shaw neighborhood and putting District residents to work.”

Image by NCinDC, Flickr Creative Commons

Yesterday, the DC Council passed, on first review, a bill allowing the city to contribute an additional $72 million in public funding to the construction of the convention center hotel.

Image by Cooper Cary

The Convention Center Hotel, located at 9th Street and Massachusetts Ave.

"I want you to imagine a District of Columbia without a Verizon Center and a Convention Center," stated Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans. "It would probably look like Detroit."

"We are now spending records amounts of money in our school system. We are spending record amounts in our human services system. Those record amounts of money are generated in economic development,” Evans stated.

These comments came midway through today's hearing on the convention center hotel, a long-stalled project which was kicked into gear again earlier this month.

The success of the convention center and the city's tourist industry, according to various DC officials and business leaders, rests on the completion of this 1,170-room Marriott, which would have 100,000 square feet of meeting space.  Shaw locals that testified about the project seemed pretty jazzed about the retail/restaurant possibilities for the neighborhood as well. 

The question, of course, is financing and just how much of it the District is willing to put forth (and then we're back to the whole Nats Park discussion again.)

When the hotel idea was first revived, the city was considering issuing $750 million in bonds to help fund the project,  breaking the city’s bond cap,  and possibly pulling subsidies from some other projects. Then, last week, the Washington Business Journal reported that the developers had found a way to possibly raise their equity participation.

Here's the latest plan, according to Chief Financial Officer Nat Gandhi's testimony:

"The proposed financing plan includes funding for $537 million project costs. About $331 million, or 62 percent of the funding will come from private sources and $206 million or 38 percent from the [Washington Convention Center Authority]" That 206 million is a combination of 50 million in WCCA investment, 22 million in District/WCCA lease secured debt, and 134 million in TIF-secured debt."

The discussion—the parts I saw earlier on—about the hotel mainly centered around all its benefits to Shaw, to boosting tax dollars, and how it would augment convention business, in general. And then, there was Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, who wondered several times if a big designated convention center hotel was really all that necessary. After all, San Francisco doesn't have one, he stated.

Plus, said Wells, "Some of the areas with large convention centers and hotels, when they’re not busy, they’re the 'deadest parts' of town."

Next up for the convention center hotel bill: This Friday, Kwame Brown's Committee on Economic Development will convene a special meeting and mark-up of certain bills and proposed resolutions at 4:00 p.m., Room 120.

Renderings by Cooper Carry