Hunt Construction Group Inc. headed up the endeavor as general contractor. The project cost approximately $95 million to realize.

Carrying the address of 900 10th St. NW, the 300,000-sf Embassy Suites building sits just over a block from the 2.3-million-sf convention center. The 14-story structure was designed by Brennan Beer Gorman Monk and consists of 9,000 sf of meeting space, 9,000 sf of retail space and a four-level underground parking facility. The meeting facility is surrounded by other hotel properties, but the Convention Center Headquarters Hotel, which will add 1,000 rooms to the mix, has yet to be scheduled for development.

The demand for lodging in the city, and particularly around the convention center, has been on the upswing for the last few years. "A 420 basis point rise in hotel occupancy to 70.6% plus a 7% bump in ADR raised RevPAR at Washington, DC properties 13.7% in 2004, to $83.73," Marcus & Millichap reports in its Spring 2005 Hospitality Research Report. "Local convention business appears to be off to a fast start in 2005, helping to drive 11.2% and 10.7% year-over-year gains in ADR and RevPAR, respectively."