Holiday Inn Express rendering

WASHINGTON, DC—A 247-room Holiday Inn Express hotel will break ground this month in the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood. Birchington LLC, owned by Habte Sequar, closed on a construction loan from Atlanta-based Stonehill Strategic Capital for the $93 million project.

Projected to open in the fourth quarter of 2020, the 14-story hotel will be located at 317 K Street, NW on the northeast corner of 4th and K. BBGM Architects of Washington, DC, is the project architect. Urgo Hotels & Resorts of Bethesda, MD will operate the property. Kinsley Construction, Inc. is the general contractor.

Sequar announced plans for a hotel on the site, to be called Lima, in 2015. The original plan was for 200 hotel rooms with 30 apartments on the upper floors. A 2016 change in zoning regulations allowed 100% hotel use. A small commercial building and auto body shop on the site will be demolished to pave way for the construction.

The Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood now has over 4,500 residential units, 1.8 million square feet of office space, and 272,000 square feet of retail space. Another million square feet of office space, 574 apartments, and 127,438 square feet of retail are either under construction or in the development pipeline. The new Holiday Inn Express and other planned hospitality construction are slated to bring more than 1,000 hotel rooms to the neighborhood.