One of Washington’s landmark hotels has been sold and moth balled prior to a multi-million dollar redevelopment. Details surrounding the sale by Stanford Hotels Corporation of its L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in downtown Washington D.C. are still sketchy with new owners L’Enfant DC Hotel LLC refusing to confirm the sale price or a start date for any planned upgrade.
And the deal comes just days after Stanford announced it intended to spend $30m on renovating the hotel’s public meeting areas and restaurant facilities. There was even rumour the company was preparing to lease the property to the Hilton, Marriott, or Starwood hotel chains.
The 372-bedroom hotel is located on the top of the iconic L’Enfant Plaza complex in the city’s flourishing south-west quadrant. Named after Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the engineer and architect who masterminded the layout of the US capital’s streets, the development also includes number of quality retailers and Grade A offices.
Opened in 1973, the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel is a long-time favourite with tourists because of its location less than a block from the majority of Washington attractions — The National Mall, The Washington Monument, The Smithsonian and the White House are all just a few minutes’ walk away — and its easy access to the L’Enfant Plaza metro station located beneath the hotel.
Will Gibbs, a senior vice-president at L’Enfant DC Hotel LLC, described his company’s latest acquisition as boasting a unique and exploitable location both for business and leisure guests. “Our plans include restoring the hotel to luxury status with an opening sometime in 2015,” he said.
At the moment the 41-year-old hotel features 21,000sq ft of conference and banqueting space, a 700-seat ballroom, two restaurants, two bars, a health club, a business centre and a rooftop swimming pool.
Gibbs also confirmed that the interior remodelling and rebranding of the hotel was part of a far larger upgrade of the entire L’Enfant Plaza complex, the first phase of which involves the addition of 58,000sq ft of retail space adjacent to the hotel.
The L’Enfant Plaza Hotel has troubled history with its building plagued by lawsuits, delays and financial uncertainty. Originally included in the 1955 plaza plans it was eventually opened almost two decades later at a cost of $23m. In 1975 the hotel was badly damaged in a fire which cost the lives of two people.
A recent report in the Washington Business Journal claimed that the hotel was suffering after many years of deferred maintenance and that only around $2m worth of maintenance had been undertaken since 2005. The Stanford Corporation itself admitted the property needed at least $28m in refurbishment.
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