The development, which carried an original price tag of $2billion, will now offer approximately 3,000 guest suites. Theadditional cost for the new lodging facilities has not yet beenrevealed.

Sited on a 350-acre parcel along the Potomac River, NationalHarbor will feature 2,500 residential units, one million sf ofclass A retail space and 500,000 sf of office space in addition tothe hotel offerings. Originally, it was the Gaylord National HotelResort and Convention Center--currently under construction andscheduled to open in 2008--that was to provide the lodgingaccommodations, with 2,000 guestrooms. Now National Harbor willalso have a 246-unit Fairfield Resorts timeshare property, aHampton Inn, a Residence Inn by Marriott, a 195-room Westin Hoteland Resorts and a W aloft Hotel.

"This is an unprecedented, blockbuster project that we have inNational Harbor," Johnson says. "It is literally changing the faceof Prince George's County, the State of Maryland and the WashingtonRegion. It is going to change the way people from all over theworld visit the Nation's Capital."