With a small ribbon cutting this afternoon, the new
Homewood Suites hotel at Half and M Streets, SE, officially opened for business, directly across the street from the west entrance of the Navy Yard-Ballpark Metro station and one block north of Nats Park.
I hope to get in for a tour before too long, but I'm sure if you are wandering by you can poke your head into the public spaces.
As excited as denizens may be for the third hotel to open east of South Capitol (a mere 10 years after the first one, the
Courtyard Marriott at New Jersey and L, and about a year after the
Hampton Inn at Half and N), the real excitement will come sometime in 2017 when
Shake Shack opens in Homewood's ground floor.
The next hotel won't be another 10 years down the road, however; the Residence Inn that is part of the
F1rst development on 1st Street is expected to open early in 2017.