The cost of a hotel room at National Harbor is likely to get more expensive with Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson backing a County Council bill that would double the hotel room tax for the $2 billion development’s 4,000 hotel rooms.
Jackson met with council members Monday morning, encouraging them to pass a bill adding a 5 percent tax to hotel rooms in National Harbor on top of the 5 percent tax already paid by county hotel guests.
The tax would cover the cost of a $35 million bond being considered by the County Council for infrastructure improvements to National Harbor, said John Erzen, Johnson’s spokesman.
Once the bond is paid off, 75 percent of the cash raised by the tax would go to the county and 25 percent to National Harbor developer The Peterson Cos., but all of the funds would have to be spent on National Harbor projects, Erzen said.
The harbor’s largest hotel, Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, is already required to pay the extra tax, so the latest bill would apply to the five other hotels — Hampton Inn and Suites, Residence Inn by Marriott, Aloft, Westin, and Wyndham Vacation Resorts Timeshare. With 2,000 hotel rooms, Gaylord comprises half the development’s hotel rooms.
“This shouldn’t come as a surprise to them,” Erzen said. “We knew all along this was something that could be enacted.”
Calls tothe five hotels were not returned.
The County Council has already approved more than $160 million in bonds for roads, sewer and other infrastructure for the site, of which the state will provide about $140 million. Estimates by the county auditor predict National Harbor will raise $785 million for the county over the next 30 years.
Gaylord National Resort will officially open its doors April 25, with a soft opening early in the month, spokesman Nicholas Miller said. When it does, it will be the largest convention center on the East Coast with 470,000 square feet.
Last month, more than 15,000 people showed up for Gaylord’s four-day hiring event to fill 1,400 jobs, at least 30 percent of which must be for Prince George’s County residents.
