WhyHotel To Open 3 More Pop-Ups In NoVa
They will be located at Ballston Quarter, Centro Arlington, and The Boro in Tysons.
WASHINGTON, DC–WhyHotel, the lodging service that operates pop-up hotels in newly-built luxury apartments, has secured $10 million in Series A funding and has announced plans to open more pop-up hotels beginning with three locations in Virginia.
The funding round was led by Highland Capital Partners, with participation from Camber Creek, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Mendacre, MetaProp and Geolo Capital. It follows $3.9 million the start up secured in seed funding this summer, in a round led by Camber Creek.
Part of the proceeds of the latest round will be used to open locations at Ballston Quarter, Centro Arlington, and The Boro in Tysons. The Ballston Quarter pop-up will house up to 175 WhyHotel units and will be located at 700 N Randolph St. The Centro Arlington pop-up, launched with Orr Partners and Weingarten Realty, will house up to 150 units and will be located at 950 South George Mason Dr. The Boro pop-up, located at 8305 Greensboro Dr., in the future apartment building branded as “Rise” will house up to 150 units with The Meridian Group and KETTLER.
Jason Fudin, CEO of WhyHotel, tells GlobeSt.com that the company is also, besides doubling down on its hometown of Washington DC and the surrounding area, is looking at expanding nationally in 2019. “We are working on and looking into projects in all of the major gateway cities on the East and West Coasts,” he says. Fudin declined to give specifics, citing the ongoing discussions with local officials and regulatory agencies.
So far the reception has been favorable, he says. “Every jurisdiction we’ve spoken to, we’ve found a way under their existing regulatory framework to make our model work.” Cities like the model for several reasons, he says: it is putting otherwise vacant space to work creating jobs and the company pulls a hotel license, which brings in a hospitality tax. WhyHotel also can make it easier for an apartment developer to pencil in affordable housing units for a project.
WhyHotel takes units that have yet to be leased when a large high-rise apartment building delivers and adds a hospitality service to turn the building into a temporary, 24/7 on-site staffed hotel. WhyHotel gradually winds down its footprint as units are leased to long-term residents, exiting once all units are leased.