Two warring developers are close to a deal that would resolve contentious litigation over the District of Columbia’s $537 million convention center hotel, the Washington Examiner has learned. Wardman Investor and Marriott International have filed papers asking Judge Natalia Combs Greene for 21 days while the two sides work out a final settlement over the Marriott’s 99-year lease with the District government to build a hotel at the city’s convention center. “The parties have been engaged in advanced settlement discussions and believe that it would be in the best interest of the parties and would promote judicial economy to stay all proceedings for this limited period of time so that they may concentrate their efforts on reaching a final settlement of the case,” the three-page pleading states. Wardman, a subsidiary of JBG Cos., sued last year to block the Marriott deal, saying it was an illegal, no-bid contract between the city and Marriott. Under the deal, D.C. taxpayers would pony up $273 million to finance the hotel and grant Marriott a 99-year lease on the land. Wardman’s suit dragged the city and the semi-public Washington Convention and Sports Authority into court. City Attorney General Peter Nickles unsuccessfully tried to get the suit dismissed last fall. Nickles couldn’t be reached for comment Monday. A source with intimate knowledge of the negotiations said the sides are working out the final language of a settlement. Under the proposed settlement, the city won’t pay any further money; instead, Wardman will be given some limited rights to develop condominiums or apartments on the property. Construction was supposed to have started in the fall. The litigation stalled development, and now city officials are hoping to break ground no later than July, the source said. The hotel deal was hastily brokered in a desperate effort to ward off competition from National Harbor in Oxon Hill and its anchor hotel, the Gaylord National.
