Plans for the Regent Partners project are in the initial stages, with design endeavors still in progress. A decision on the hotel brand has not yet been decided upon, but the hospitality facility will provide more than 300 rooms, as well as 18,000 sf of meeting space. The 100,000-sf residential portion of the project will sit atop the hotel. "The proposal seems extra positive for us," Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association president JoAnne Mitchell shares with GlobeSt.com. "We always need additional upscale hotel properties because Alexandria is becoming more and more of a tourist destination. It's an interesting concept for that region where there are a lot of new things coming, so it will be extremely valuable."

The Carlyle Development, which is expected to be home to 9,500 residents by 2020, and will include the new 2.4 million-sf US Patent and Trademark Office headquarters campus, as well as about five million sf of additional office, retail and residential space. "And the Upper King Street area is developing into quite a unique shopping area, so the it will be all the more important," Mitchell adds. The decision to locate the project in Alexandria was a no-brainer for Regent Partners. "The marketplace in Alexandria and the fundamentals in place and coming were the strongest we've seen in a number of years--in any market," company hospitality and mixed-use executive vice president Reid Freeman tells GlobeSt.com. "It is a strong hotel market with a good occupancy rating, and while it saw a small setback after Sept. 11, it has since recovered nicely." Freeman says the hotel and condominiums should be ready for visitors and occupants in early 2006.