Rosewood to Annex Townhouses
By • January 10, 2018 0 1258
A design proposal by the Rosewood Hotel — next to the C&O Canal at 1050 31st St. NW — to convert six neighboring one-bedroom townhouses into luxury hotel suites was approved Jan. 3 by the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission.
The townhouse hotel suites would “fill a niche market,” according to Rosewood Managing Director Pascal Forotti. “They would provide the services of a hotel but with more independence.”
Each townhouse would offer a ground-floor living room, a kitchen area, a single bedroom and a bathroom, plus an outdoor garden patio with a bistrot table and chairs. Each is about 1,000 square feet and could be rented by the day, the week, the month or even the year. Rates have not yet been determined, but a night’s lodging in one of the hotel’s suites runs between $1,000 and $3,000.
The idea was met with mixed feelings by the neighborhood last month. On the one hand, the hotel has been a classy addition to the neighborhood, according to Citizens Association of Georgetown spokesperson
Elsa Santoyo. On the other hand, extending the hotel by buying and painting six adjoining townhouses all the same color and with the same décor (identical awnings, etc.) would take away from Georgetown’s character of individuality. “We want to be sure the individualization does not disappear,” Santoyo said.
“Generally, we welcome it, but want to have a conversation about the details,” said Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Lisa Palmer, in whose district the project lies. “We want to make sure they respect the history of the area, where multiple individual townhouses were built from the 1800s.”
At press time, the hotel had agreed not to install awnings and to allow each townhouse to retain different exterior paint colors. The ANC concurred with architect Michael Winstanley’s plans to renovate the townhouses and repair windows, fix the walkways and the like for the owner, 31st Street Townhouses LLC. The specific properties are located at 1026, 1032, 1040 and 1042 31st St. NW and 3103 and 3105 South St. NW.
