Silver Spring Hotel Developer Not Flinching at Announcement of Discovery Departure

Residence Inn project is scheduled to break ground on Georgia Avenue in March

A rendering of the planned hotel in Silver Spring. BBGM

Plans to build a Residence Inn on Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring are still on track, despite the impending departure of the Fortune 500 company across the street.

Timothy Eden, whose company is building the hotel at the 8600 Georgia Ave., said this month’s announcement that Discovery Communications is moving its headquarters out of Silver Spring did come as a disappointment. But he’s hopeful that tenants will quickly move in to fill the 545,000-square-foot building when Discovery leaves next year. The building at One Discovery Place is a short walk from the Silver Spring Metro station and would work for government agencies and businesses alike, Eden said.

Eden, managing partner of Starr Capital, said construction on the 173-bedroom hotel is set to begin in March and wrap up by late 2019.

“We’re more enthusiastic than ever,” he said of the Residence Inn project.

Starr Capital, PMG Development Group and SV Hospitality are working together to build the hotel, which will feature 12,000 square feet of meeting space, a lounge and a rooftop gathering area. The building designs also call for installing a large seascape mural of diving penguins on one of the hotel’s exterior walls.

“Those are the penguins that Silver Spring has embraced as their very own,” Eden wrote in an email, referencing the community’s unofficial mascot and the penguin mural at the Metro station.

The 147,440-square-foot hotel will replace a gas station at the site.

Bethany Rodgers can be reached at bethany.rodgers@bethesdamagazine.com.

Illustrations of plan for the Residence Inn at 8600 Georgia Ave. in downtown Silver Spring. Credit: BBGM.