D.C.’s first Moxy Hotel, a new micro-hotel brand Marriott International Inc. is launching in the U.S., could open at 11th and K streets NW.
We’d heard earlier this year that this site was going to be Greater Washington’s first Moxy. This week, the proposed plan the property’s owner, Douglas Development Corp., submitted to the D.C.’s Board of Zoning Adjustment seems to back that up: The hotel in the rendering, though branded with a generic “hotel” name, utilizes the same entryway design and scrawled signage as Marriott’s new chic hotel brand.
The 13-story hotel would incorporate the former historic mansion that sits on that corner, as well as another four-story building there.
See images at right for a comparison between the rendering in the zoning application and an actual Moxy hotel.
Marriott (NASDAQ: MAR) declined to comment on the property. We’ve reached out to Douglas Development and will update this post if we hear back.
A Washington Moxy fits with Marriott’s own growth plan, which it released last month. The Bethesda-based hospitality giant referenced eight new Moxys in the U.S. but identified only seven locations: three in New York and one each in San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans and Chicago.
The plans Douglas submitted to D.C. zoning officials show the high-rise portion of a proposed hotel being built next door to the existing buildings, which would be restored as part of the plan.
The first two stories of the existing buildings — which observers may remember as being wrapped in various iPhone and automobile ads in recent years — would be devoted to restaurants and retail, with guest rooms built on the top two floors, according to the proposal.
The 13-story tower would have 200 guest rooms, a lobby, a bar, a lounge, an exercise room and two conference rooms. Douglas Development is seeking several zoning variances to build the hotel.
Moxy launched in Milan in 2013 as part of Marriott’s ongoing effort to appeal to younger travelers. Moxy rooms are small — less than 200 square feet apiece — but the hotels come with millennial-friendly amenities galore: free Wi-Fi, a 24-hour cafe, a “third space”-style lobby and a digital wall of changing Instagram posts from its guests around the world.
It’s an economy brand meant to feel less stodgy than Marriott’s other low-cost brands. The Moxy is design-forward, with a sleek, mod-looking, curved entry canopy and a neon-lit, scrawled logo. Marriott worked with stylish European furniture giant Ikea to design modular pieces to make room assembly more efficient.
Douglas Development is asking the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment for variances with regard to loading and rear yard requirements “because the site is exceptionally narrow and oddly configured,” according to the filing.
