Washington D.C.
First Hispanic Owned Hotel
$37M, 218-room building slated to
open in 2009
WASHINGTON DC (By Steve Berberich, Gazette.net)
Clark Construction Group LLC of Bethesda has signed a contract to build a
$37 million, 218 room Marriott hotel in Washington, D.C.
The hotel will be the first Hispanic owned
hotel in the District, according to Clarks project executive Chris Manning.
The hotel, slated to open in 2009, will be
majority owned by Robert Finvarb of The Finvarb Group, a Hispanic owned family
business in Bay Harbor Islands, Fla. The company recently opened a 135 room
Marriott hotel in downtown Tallahassee, Fla.
The new, eight story hotel will be in the area
known as NoMA, or north of Massachusetts Avenue, at Florida Avenue and 2nd
Street NW, hear Howard University Hospital.
It is to include street level retail stores and
an exterior glass elevator connecting to a walkway overpass to the New York
Avenue Metrorail station. The design includes a faηade of precast concrete,
metal panels and a horizontal window system. It will also have a green roof
system.
Clark has built several hotels in the District,
including the Four Seasons and Park Hyatt, and renovated the Willard
Inter-Continental.
The Marriott project is part of the Districts
Local, Small and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises and First Source program.
Manning said, Clark construction is looking forward to continuing its
professional relationship with Marriott and working on this ground breaking
project.
Fewer than 1 percent of the roughly 47,000
hotels in the United States are owned by Hispanics, according to the Hispanic
Hotel Owners Association. Angela Gonzalez-Rowe, president and founder of the
association, said she expects Hispanic hotel ownership will rise dramatically
over the next decade.
One of our most difficult things was not that
enough people have financial means to do hotel, Gonzalez-Rowe said. There are
enough who have the $1.5 million net worth needed. What it is, is a lack of
education on the process.
Many Hispanic business people are well versed in
commercial real estate but are not familiar with the many additional variables
involved in hotel ownership, she said. Her nonprofit association is planning its
second in a series of three national hotel investment seminars for Hispanics
next week in San Diego.
Partnering with Clark on the new Marriott hotel
are Haynes Whaley Associates and Edwards and Kelcey, both of Reston, Va.; Eller
Group of Centreville, Va., GHT Ltd. of Columbia; Law Kingdon of Wichita, Kan.;
and Jackie Arena Interiors of Palm Harbor, Fla.
Marriott International, also of Bethesda,
introduced a diversity ownership initiative in 2005. Marriott spent a record
$400 million with minority suppliers in 2006, some $40 million alone with
Hispanic-owned businesses.
