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Word about who will redevelop the Old Post Office Pavilion (1100 Pennsylvania Avenue) is expected on Thursday. The General Services Administration (GSA) issued request for proposals (RFP) in March and received interest from an undisclosed but substantial number of developers, including many bigwigs, by the July 20 deadline. While the GSA isn’t talking, the developers haven’t been shy about publicizing their intent, if selected. So, who are they? Among those cited in media reports:
- The Trump Hotel Collection plans to transform the 112-year-old building into a nearly 300-room luxury hotel replete with a large ballroom or conference room, a spa, and a museum gallery dedicated to the building’s history.
- Hilton Worldwide proposes a 245-room Waldorf Astoria hotel with high-end retail stores and four restaurants, plus meeting and ballroom space, a spa and fitness center.
- Monument Realty favors creating an exclusive media center that would be shared by major networks and the DC offices of many overseas media outlets.
- National Museum of the Jewish People organizers prefers a Park Hyatt Hotel and an $80 million museum about Judaism and its followers.
- Carpenter & Co. proposes restoring the historic landmark into a 280-room hotel by Montage Hotels & Resorts.
- The JBG Companies is low key about its bid.
In the end, the GSA will select a private partner most capable of restoring the 400,000-square-foot (SF) property and the adjacent vacant pavilion. The development team will then be able to move the project forward under a 60-year ground lease beginning on June 20, 2013 and starting construction on March 1, 2014.
Several members of Congress, including DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton—a longtime champion of the project’s redevelopment—are anxious to push the project forward. The property reportedly loses more than $5 million annually due to underutilized space, low retail rents and high operating costs.
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