New hotels in Penn Quarter, Washington, D.C.

Penn Quarter runs along Pennsylvania Avenue from roughly 5th to 10th Street and reaches north to H Street, where it overlaps Chinatown. Downtown Washington's commercial grid starts here, a few blocks north of the National Mall. Five hotels we track sit in the neighborhood or on its edge: three open (Riggs Washington DC, Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, Arlo Washington DC) and two announced (AC Hotel Washington, DC, National Mall, and Chinatown DC Hotel).

The neighborhood is not old in the way Georgetown is. It was a run-down stretch of shuttered department stores until the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation set a mixed-use plan in motion, and serious cultural and residential building only began in the mid-1980s. The arena that now anchors it opened in 1997. What visitors find today is a grid of 19th-century commercial buildings, federal landmarks and newer towers, with a museum or theater on most blocks.

What to do in Penn Quarter

For a weekend

Start at 8th and F Streets, at the building that holds both the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It is the old Patent Office Building, built in stages between 1836 and 1867, with porticoes modeled on the Parthenon. The museums reopened on July 1, 2006 after a renovation that added a glass canopy over the central Kogod Courtyard, designed by Norman Foster. The Hall of Presidents upstairs holds a portrait of every president, with the Lansdowne portrait of George Washington as its centerpiece.

Two blocks away, on 10th Street, Ford's Theatre is where Lincoln was shot in 1865. It still stages plays, and the boarding house across the street where he died is part of the same visit.

For an evening, Capital One Arena sits at 601 F Street NW. It opened on December 2, 1997 as the MCI Center and seats 20,356 for basketball. The Capitals and the Wizards play there, as do the Georgetown Hoyas, and concerts fill the dates in between. A renovation estimated at $1 billion is under way in phases, with completion expected around the 2027-28 seasons, so construction may be visible from the street.

Two theaters are worth a look at the program: the Shakespeare Theatre Company, which runs the Lansburgh Theatre and Sidney Harman Hall, and Woolly Mammoth. On Thursday afternoons in the warmer months a farmers market sets up on the F Street sidewalk between 7th and 9th Streets.

For a longer stay

The Newseum closed at the end of December 2018 and its building was sold to Johns Hopkins University, so ignore older guidebooks that still send you there. The National Building Museum is the better use of a rainy afternoon: the Pension Building, finished in 1887, sits on the north side of Judiciary Square. Madame Tussauds and the Marian Koshland Science Museum are also in the neighborhood, as is the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Walk south across Pennsylvania Avenue and you reach the National Mall. Market Square Park holds the U.S. Navy Memorial, and Freedom Plaza and Pershing Park fill the stretch toward the White House.

Beyond the neighborhood, Washington, D.C. has other districts for a second or third day. Dupont Circle and Georgetown are the other districts we cover in the city, and The Wharf on the Southwest waterfront gives a different feel altogether.

Chinatown

The first Chinatown stood on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue in the 1880s. Federal Triangle construction pushed it north to the H Street area in the early 1930s. The Friendship Archway, completed in 1986 over H Street at 7th Street, was designed by Alfred H. Liu and built with Washington's sister city, Beijing.

The neighborhood has thinned out. Fewer than 300 Chinese Americans were counted among its residents by 2017, and about half of them lived in Wah Luck House, a 153-unit apartment building. A D.C. rule still requires businesses in the zone to display a name in Chinese characters, which is why national chains and the arena carry them. The Lunar New Year parade runs along 8th Street NW.

Getting around

Five Metro stations serve the area. Gallery Place-Chinatown (Red, Green and Yellow lines) sits beside the arena and the museums. Metro Center (Red, Blue, Orange and Silver) is the main interchange. Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter is on the Green and Yellow lines, Judiciary Square is on the Red Line, and Federal Triangle serves the Blue, Orange and Silver lines at the foot of the Old Post Office.

Union Station is a few blocks east of Judiciary Square, which makes the northeastern corner of the neighborhood the easiest to reach by Amtrak or MARC. Nearly everything else here can be done on foot.

Where to stay in Penn Quarter

F Street

At 900 F Street NW, Riggs Washington DC opened in February 2020. The group presents the building as the 1891 Riggs National Bank headquarters, and the hotel kept its Richardsonian Romanesque shell, including the original vault, which is now a subterranean cocktail bar. It has 181 rooms and is an Autograph Collection property from Marriott. It is Lore Group's first US property.

The stations at Gallery Place-Chinatown and Metro Center are each about a tenth of a mile away. From there the White House, the National Portrait Gallery and Capital One Arena are a few blocks off in different directions, and the Convention Center is within reach too. Rates start around $300 a night.

Pennsylvania Avenue

The Old Post Office Pavilion at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW went up between 1892 and 1899 to a design by Willoughby J. Edbrooke, the Treasury's supervising architect, in the Romanesque Revival manner. It served as the main post office until 1914, escaped demolition, and went onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

In 2013 the federal government leased it for 60 years to a group led by Donald Trump, and the Trump International Hotel opened there on September 12, 2016. It closed on May 11, 2022 after a sale to CGI Merchant Group, and it reopened on June 1, 2022 as Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, with 263 rooms under Hilton's flag. Beyer Blinder Belle did the conversion design, and rooms start around $420.

The clock tower rises about 315 feet, making it the third tallest structure in the city if you leave out radio towers. It holds the Bells of Congress. The National Park Service kept control of the tower and its observation deck, which reopened in 1984, and agreed to keep running tours under the hotel lease. The address sits roughly midway between the White House and the Capitol, next to Federal Triangle station.

Judiciary Square and Indiana Avenue

The northeast anchor is Arlo Washington DC at 333 G Street NW, on a full city block in Judiciary Square, four blocks from Union Station and under a mile from the Convention Center. It is the seventh hotel for the Arlo brand and the first in the capital. It opened in late 2024; the hotel's own record gives November 18.

The 445-room building wraps the 1888 Harrison Apartments, the city's oldest surviving apartment building, inside a new twelve-story addition. The old building is a Romanesque Revival landmark; the addition carries a restaurant, a rooftop bar and a pool. Rooms start around $140, the lowest entry price of the three open hotels here, and the surroundings are courthouses, law offices and federal buildings rather than shopping streets.

Next to open nearby is AC Hotel Washington, DC, National Mall, scheduled for November 2027 at 601 Indiana Avenue NW, directly across from the D.C. Superior Courthouse. Dauntless Capital Partners is converting a 1960s International Style office building into 122 rooms, with Fillat+ Architecture as designer and Calco Hospitality as operator. No new construction is involved. The Smithsonian museums, Ford's Theatre and Capital One Arena are all within walking distance, according to the project's description. The Judiciary Square Metro station on the Red Line is the closest.

Chinatown, H Street

The project to watch is Chinatown DC Hotel, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, with an opening currently listed as late 2028. It would stand on H Street NW, one block from Capital One Arena and Gallery Place-Chinatown station. The plan keeps seven historic Chinatown rowhouses behind a nine-story addition and calls for 90 rooms at a cost of roughly $75 million.

The developer is the Moy family, working with Rift Valley Capital. The family patriarch first sketched a hotel for this site in the 1970s. The property is one of the last significant holdings in the neighborhood still owned by Chinese Americans, and the project has drawn local pushback over the eviction of two longtime businesses. Rates are not published, and the schedule has room to move.

Which hotel in Penn Quarter for your trip

A first visit centered on the Mall and the museums

Both Riggs and the Waldorf Astoria sit within a few blocks of the Mall. Riggs is closer to the arena and the Portrait Gallery. The Waldorf Astoria is closer to the Capitol, with the Federal Triangle station at its door.

A night at a game or a concert

For the arena, Riggs is the nearest open hotel, with Gallery Place-Chinatown about a tenth of a mile away. The Chinatown hotel will be closer still, but not before 2028, and the arena renovation may change what that street looks like by then.

Conferences, courts and Union Station

Book Arlo, given the 445 rooms, the proximity to Union Station and the entry rate near $140. AC Hotel, when it opens, covers the same ground on the south side of the courthouse district.

A hotel with a story to tell

Two of the open hotels occupy buildings with a documented past: a bank vault turned cocktail bar in one, a post office with a clock tower and a hotel history that changed names in 2022 in the other. Arlo keeps a smaller piece of history in the Harrison Apartments.

Waiting on what is next

Two projects are in the pipeline. AC Hotel is dated November 2027, while Chinatown DC Hotel is a late 2028 target that depends on a long approval and construction path.

Frequently asked questions

What is the newest hotel to open in Penn Quarter?

Arlo Washington DC, which opened in late 2024 at 333 G Street NW with 445 rooms, is the most recent of the three open hotels we track here. It stands in Judiciary Square, on the edge of the neighborhood.

Which hotel is inside a former bank?

Riggs Washington DC, at 900 F Street NW. It opened in February 2020 in an 1891 bank building and kept the original vault as a cocktail bar.

Which hotels are confirmed or announced for Penn Quarter?

Two: AC Hotel Washington, DC, National Mall, scheduled for November 2027 at 601 Indiana Avenue NW, and Chinatown DC Hotel, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, listed for late 2028 on H Street.

Is Penn Quarter walkable to the National Mall?

Yes. The Mall is a few blocks south of Pennsylvania Avenue, and the Waldorf Astoria and Riggs are the two open hotels with the shortest walk to it.

Which hotel is closest to Capital One Arena?

Riggs Washington DC among the open hotels, with Gallery Place-Chinatown station about a tenth of a mile away. The planned Chinatown DC Hotel would be one block from the arena.

Which Metro station is best for Penn Quarter?

Gallery Place-Chinatown, served by the Red, Green and Yellow lines, for the arena, the museums and Chinatown. Metro Center is the main interchange for the Blue, Orange and Silver lines.