How the Marriott Marquis Will Change Our Nation's Capital

DC's big convention center hotel is almost done. Tons of visits will ensue, on top of DC already being the hotel investment capital of the world (you're guaranteed to go with a school group, protest, or clandestine spy ring). But will other hotels benefit? Does a rising tide lift all room service?

Savills hotel experts Tom Baker and Marc Magazine tell us that the huge convention crowds the Marriott Marquis will bring come May could radiate out to other submarkets and even to infill locations outside DC. (As long as William Shatner shows up, they don't care where they are.) The Marquis will benefit "everybody in the market," Tom says, and the guys add that an uptick for area hotel occupancy could be seen for the next few years, given the growing list of big conventions to be held there. 

But while suburban hotels might benefit from the massive Marquis in the short term, the long term is unknown. Since so many other hotels are under construction in DC—CityMarket at O's Cambria Suites, Hyatt Place on New York Avenue, Hilton Garden Inn in Foggy Bottom, to name a few—travelers will have more options downtown, leaving the suburban hotels in a tight spot, Marc and Tom say. However, they might be aided by government-related work that's been pushed out there.

It's been a busy start to 2014 for the Savills team, as they just brokered the off-market sale of The Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michael's for $39.7M, or $500k/key. (You might recognize it as a setting from Wedding Crashers.) Marc and Tom repped CAP Acquisitions, also the owner of the exclusive Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod, in the acquisition from London-based seller Orient-Express Hotels. Reached for comment this morning, actor Owen Wilson said he had no comment and that, no, he wouldn't introduce us to Wes Anderson.