WhyHotel Closes $10M Series A Funding Round, Signs 3 More NoVa Deals
D.C.-based pop-up hospitality provider WhyHotel is continuing its expansion throughout the region and has some new financial backers.
The company announced Tuesday it closed a $10M Series A funding round led by Highland Capital Partners, and it announced three new deals at properties in Northern Virginia.
WhyHotel plans to open at Ballston Quarter, The Boro and Centro Arlington. Ballston Quarter, the mixed-use redevelopment of the Ballston Common mall into a mixed-use project, will feature WhyHotel rooms in 175 of its 406 units at 700 North Randolph St. The development was led by Forest City, which Brookfield acquired last week.
"WhyHotel at Ballston Quarter will greatly accelerate the activation of our luxury residential and retail spaces," Brookfield Executive Vice President Greg Meyer said in a release.
The Boro, a 15-acre Tysons development from The Meridian Group and Kettler, will house 150 WhyHotel units in its 27-story Rise apartment building at 8305 Greensboro Drive. Orr Partners' Centro Arlington project on Columbia Pike, as Bisnow first reported in October, will use 150 of its 366 units for the pop-up hotel.
WhyHotel, which spun off from Vornado, operates a temporary hotel in vacant apartment units during the lease-up phase of a new project. It launched its first pop-up hotel at The Bartlett in Pentagon City in early 2017, and in October it opened its first D.C. location at NoMa's 100 K project.
In addition to Highland Capital Partners, WhyHotel's Series A round also included funding from Camber Creek, Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Mendacre, MetaProp and Geolo Capital.
WhyHotel CEO Jason Fudin told Bisnow in September he was working on at least six other D.C.-area deals he expects to open next year and then aims to expand to other U.S. hotel markets.
"You're going to see stuff in D.C., the Northern Virginia suburbs and the Maryland suburbs, all the major development pockets," Fudin said. "About 400,000 multifamily units delivered last year in the U.S., so you can get a sense of the volume of potential inventory for what we do."
