The Marriott Key Bridge was condemned last year ‘in the interest of public safety’. It should have been condemned before I stayed there years ago.
This was the second Marriott hotel ever, and was the oldest Marriott hotel when it closed in July 2021. Arlington County approved plans in 2020 to partially renovate the hotel itself, while adding condos. No progress had been made on this.
Instead, homeless have been squatting in the property. Originally opened in 1959 as the Key Bridge Motor Inn, it was located in Rosslyn just across the river from Washington D.C. It featured a fantastic view, as a result, and in its history hosted both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
It has now been declared a public nuisance and Arlington County plans to demolish it, though in the interim they’ll board it up and add security.
[T]he property has seen the shooting of an intruder by a security guard, who was later charged, and a fire earlier this year. Nearby residents have noted a growing number of broken windows and occasional trespassers who can be seen on the former hotel’s roof and elsewhere on the property, despite the security guards.
As it happens, Marriott’s first hotel was also in Arlington, Virginia. The Twin Bridges Motor Hotel closed in 1988.
This was my most used Marriott in the country on regular paid rates and on Priceline NYOP bookings. It was never a great hotel but it could be quite the steal and was better than the nearby Holiday Inn.
The first time I met the Marriott family members for work was not in the Key Bridge Marriott hotel, but was in a different building in Rosslyn. And back then the hotel was already in questionable shape. Of course that didn’t stop some major European airlines from using it as a crew hotel, but it definitely was one of the things that tipped me over to Hyatt despite that Hyatt Arlington then being also long in need of renovating.
I used to stay at the HI just up the road. A dump the Marriott may be, but it has the best views.
@ Gary — Demolition is not a great idea. The Willard was once slated to be demolished. What a tragedy that would have been.
Stayed there every year for about 10 years on our family vacation in the 70’s. Trip included driving from Ohio to NYC, Ocean City, MD then about 2 days in DC. I loved this hotel as a kid. The pool was great….just great memories.
This is one of the challenges we have in america: abandoned building demo responsibility.
When a building goes up, escrow should be required for the cost of taking it down.
All too ofter these places become ruins until a govt entity decides that it has no choice but to take it down. And then we are stuck with the bill.
Plow a field, build a strip mall? Escrow the cost of demo. Sell the mall, and the responsibility of demo goes along with the title.
Abandoned? Back to a field it goes.
This should be part of the cost of doing business.
The views from this hotel are great. Someone should find away to save and restore it. Demolishing seems like a waste.
To maintain transparency, this article does not note that the hotel and land are not owned by Marriott. The owners who purchased both from a REIT had intended to renovate the hotel while developing residential and retail components prior to the pandemic. While the owners finances prevented them from accomplishing their goals, they should not escape the responsibility of demolition.
A few minutes walk from this hotel is a very strange residential condominium/cooperative complex where the residential buildings have the plant resting on leased land owned by a private company. So when the long-term lease ends, the residents living in their property on the leased land will have an asset whose value is at the whim of the landowner who owns the leased land under the buildings. River Place is the name of the complex and it’s in a prime location for redevelopment. If those resident owners are lucky, and don’t want to get displaced, maybe they want to see real interest rates rise a lot..