All the exterior walls are standing for the 177-room Canopy by Hilton that will act as a pillar for the second phase of Pike & Rose in North Bethesda, and the hotel should be ready to welcome guests by fall.
Executives and officials converged on the seventh level of a North Bethesda parking garage on Wednesday to celebrate progress on the project, part of local efforts to turn Montgomery County into a lifestyle and leisure destination.
“We’d love to have you be at the hotel not just when … you have a meeting,” said Dave Pollin, co-founder of a real estate and development company that worked on the project. “As personified by Pike & Rose, there’s a really new breath of fresh air coming into the county with innovative environments like this.”
Pollin said food served at the hotel’s restaurant will come from local farms, and the space will host evening tastings presenting local wines and microbrews. The Canopy, located on North Trade Street a block away from the Metro station, will also boast 4,350 square feet of meeting space including a ballroom and boardroom and an outdoor courtyard. Guests will be able to check in using a mobile device and can take a spin around the neighborhood on one of the “Canopy bikes” offered by the hotel.
“This really represents our future,” County Executive Isiah Leggett said. “It represents what we have been talking about for many, many years.”
The hotel will also create about 100 new jobs, pay an estimated $1.6 million in taxes each year and accommodate about 65,000 guests annually, officials said.
The “topping off” event on Wednesday celebrated the project with a ceremonial drywall signing and took place under a pavilion pitched on an upper level of the parking deck, with views of the hotel construction underway next door.
Officials celebrated the Canopy by Hilton project on a parking garage that overlooked the hotel construction work. Credit: Bethany Rodgers
The completed hotel will sit above ground-level businesses including Nando’s Peri-Peri Chicken and Taylor Gourmet, which aren’t yet open, and below a complex of 99 condos, said Michael Papillon, vice president-general manager at Pike & Rose, Federal Realty Investment Trust’s mixed-use development off Old Georgetown Road. Canopy will stand out from other hotels for the innovative way it’s integrated into its surroundings, Papillon said.
“Generally, hotels will create an environment within their four walls to service their guests. The forward-looking vision by both PM Hotel Group and the Canopy brand is to expand out that view to say, ‘The neighborhood is the amenity,’ ” he said.
The hotel and condo complex should be finished and open in January or February of next year, he said.
Meanwhile, work is moving forward elsewhere in Pike & Rose, he said. The first retail opening of the development’s second phase will be the new REI building and is scheduled for late April, he said. A building that will hold 272 apartment units and businesses such as H&M, Sur La Table and Sephora will get its first residents in July, with shoppers arriving in the late summer and early fall, he said. Work is also ongoing on buildings for Pinstripes and an L.L. Bean store, he added.
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Rendering of Canopy hotel’s interior. Credit: PM Hotel Group and Buccini/Pollin Group