British billionaire Richard Branson will soon bring his new Virgin Hotels brand to the nation's capital.
Virgin Hotels has signed on as the flag for the 178-room hotel planned near Union Market, at 411 New York Ave. NE, the company announced Monday morning.
The hotel will be built from the ground up by D.B. Lee Development and Construction and Brook Rose Development with an expected opening of fall 2019.
The hospitality arm of Branson's Virgin Group conglomerate, Virgin Hotels opened its first property in Chicago in 2015. The brand has a San Francisco location expected to open early next year and future properties planned in Nashville, Tennessee; Dallas; Palm Springs, California; New Orleans; New York; and Silicon Valley.
The D.C. hotel would feature multiple food and beverage options, including the brand's Commons Club Restaurant & Bar and a coffee shop. It will also have a rooftop lounge with a pool and multiple meeting and event spaces.
In Union Market, Virgin Hotels will enter a growing neighborhood with a popular retail anchor and more than 6,000 new units planned in the coming years. D.C. has pitched the NoMa-Union Market area as one of four potential sites for Amazon's $5B HQ2. But it is also a neighborhood with an organized resistance that has appealed the Zoning Commission approval of five major developments over the last 18 months, holding up more than 3,500 units in the process.
"We feel that Virgin Hotel will not only become a hub of activity in Union Market, but will also greatly enhance the cultural growth of the city, potentially becoming an epicenter of creative spirit," D.B. Lee Development and Construction President Dennis B. Lee said in a release.
Virgin Hotels is the second new boutique lifestyle brand in as many months to announce its entrance into the D.C. market. European "low-cost luxury" brand CitizenM announced in September it signed on as the flag for a 194-room hotel at 555 E St. SW, a development from CityPartners and Potomac Investment Properties.
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