In the Media: L'Enfant Plaza Hotel Reopens

Photo Credit: Rebecca Cooper, Washington Business Journal

By Rebecca Cooper – Senior Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal

Apr 11, 2019, 1:51pm EDT Updated Apr 17, 2019, 4:16pm EDT

The long-shuttered hotel property on L’Enfant Plaza, now dubbed the Hilton Washington D.C. National Mall, has reopened after a closure of more than five years. 

The 367-room hotel has laid fallow since Stanford Hotels & Resorts bought it from then JBG Cos. in a court-ordered sale in 2013. Stanford shuttered the hotel to make way for the renovation, though there was little immediate movement at the time. 

Photo Credit: Rebecca Cooper, Washington Business Journal

The project features a complete renovation of the guest rooms, an opening up of the lobby and attached restaurant, and renovation of the meeting and event spaces. Still to finish is a revamp of the pool area on the hotel’s 12th floor; it may open later this summer. 

The $30 million renovation included brightening the lobby and restaurant space by removing walls that blocked the light from the windows on either side, adding a dramatic art piece to the entryway, installing a new Hilton (NYSE: HLT) executive lounge for diamond-level Hilton Honors members, and renovating the ample event spaces. In all, the Hilton at L’Enfant Plaza has 23,000 square feet of meeting and event space. 

In the guest rooms, which average more than 300 square feet, there are now hard-surface floors — and complimentary slippers to help keep noise down. A large art print of the cherry blossoms serves as the bed's headboard, and blossom-y colors provide the pop of color in the rooms. 

The rooms, 20 of which are suites, also include high-tech features such as a digital do-not-disturb system, digital doorbells and smart TVs. There are 13 different charging stations in each room, including one wireless, and keyless entry into rooms using the Hilton Honors app. 

Built in 1973, the hotel needed a major tech upgrade. The owner installed a complete fiber optic network and the entire hotel has a gigabyte per second speed Internet, according to General Manager Claudia Eggspuhler. 

Read original article here.