The Allen Lee Getting Renovated in Foggy Bottom, Will Become New Hotel with Restaurant

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by Prince Of Petworth — September 27, 2012 at 10:30 am 13 Comments

2224 F Street, NW

Dear PoPville,

I wanted to share something I noticed in Foggy Bottom. The Allen Lee, a rather run-down hotel (really, a quasi-hostel) at 2224 F Street, has a notice posted on the door about a public hearing regarding changes to the building. It mentions the proposed changes including a high-end restaurant and 81 room hotel.

The notice posted is a liquor license application which says:

“A new hotel/restaurant serving upscale food and drinks, with 81 rooms.”

Will update as construction progresses.

Anonymous

What’s a quasi-hotel? You mean there are a lot of permanent residents?
- zero_sum
  
  It’s probably an SRO, which seem to be a lot more common in NYC or San Francisco than in DC.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_room_occupancy
- Anonymous
  
  It’s pretty much a brothel.
talula

First time I walked passed this place I thought it was abandoned. The building looks like something out of a horror movie. There are some interesting reviews on Trip Advisor:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g28970-d84033-Reviews-The_Allen_Lee-Washington_DC_District_of_Columbia.html
- textdoc
  
  Sheesh… sounds pretty bad from the reviews!
Anonymous

What? A building in Foggy Bottom that GWU didn’t annex into its collection?? Shocker.
- dchomeowner
  
  GW tried for years to buy it, but the owner asked for an exorbitant amount. Then he sold to Abdo Development in 2006, with an agreement that it would continue as the Allen Lee for a number of years before Abdo took control to do what it wanted with the building.
  
  http://www.gwhatchet.com/2006/02/02/developer-buys-allen-lee/
  
  I stayed overnight there while researching a story on the hotel in like 1996. Place was overwhelmingly creepy.
  - Anonymous
    
    Thanks for the back-story – very interesting.
  - Anonymous
    
    Stayed there a few nights in 2000 while looking for an apartment in DC when I first came to town. SOmetimes I still wake up in the middle of the night screaming from the PTSD…..
    - annonny
      
      Same for me in 1999. Can’t say it was overly traumatic, but definitely an experience I wouldn’t want to relive. Very dirty bathroom and a nasty bed with sheets that were not clean. Yuk, what a weird place.
Anonymous

And the sun cam crawling yellow out of a manhole cover at the foot of 23rd Street

And a Dracula moon in a black disguise crept back into his pre-paid room at the Allen Lee Hotel.

-T. Waits.

At any rate, that’s the way we sang (growled) along with Tom as the long nights in our basement apartment at 23rd and G wound down. Something of an icon for some of us.
- Lisa
  
  Alot of posts on PoP have me googling something or another and now a search of Tom Waits, reading his bio and watching Hell Broke Luce. Wow. What nights you must have had with him. Intense. Tell more.
z

this project was on the ANC’s agenda last month….but Abdo failed to show up.

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