St. Charles to Host a Hilton Hotel

More Upscale Garden Inn Part of Developing Lakeside Restaurant Park

The developer of the O'Donnell Lake restaurant park near Waldorf's St. Charles Towne Center mall has sold part of the land to a hotel company planning to build a 130-room Hilton Garden Inn.

Shamin Hotels, one of Virginia's largest hotel operators, finalized the purchase last week for an undisclosed sum. The Hilton Garden Inn will join five restaurants and a 10,000-square-foot office building in the development near Smallwood and St. Patrick's drives in the St. Charles area of Waldorf.

"We're very excited to see the enthusiasm for the restaurant park," said Craig Renner, spokesman for American Community Properties Trust, the developer of the park and the St. Charles planned community started in the late 1960s. "[The Hilton] is another indication of the successful slow build in St. Charles."

Officials involved in the deal said the Hilton will fill a need for a moderately upscale hotel with a full restaurant, room service and ample meeting space. Aside from a restaurant serving breakfast and dinner, the St. Charles hotel will include a small bar and meeting and banquet space for as many as 250 people. Waldorf's other hotels, including a Holiday Inn, a Hampton Inn and a Super 8 motel, are generally clustered along Route 301 and include fewer amenities.

"When we started looking around the market, we saw that there was no real good full-service option," said Jay Shah, vice president of development for the Richmond-based Shamin Hotels. "Waldorf is an emerging market, and this is a new and fresh concept there."

American Community Properties Trust has promised that the completed O'Donnell Lake park will be a prime destination for upscale dining and nightlife in Charles County. A restaurant mini-boom over the past year has brought eating establishments such as Carrabba's Italian Grill and Boston's Gourmet Pizza to an area that some residents said sorely needed more options.

In August, Boston's became the first of five restaurants to open at O'Donnell Lake. The Captain's Table, a Solomons Island-based seafood restaurant, has committed to fill another spot in the development. A pedestrian bridge will link the restaurant park to a multiplex cinema on St. Patrick's Drive, and a boardwalk will provide a walking course along the lakeshore.

Renner said his company is in talks with several other companies about buying the other three pieces of land in the development.

The first restaurant to open there reports good results so far.

"We've been very pleased with the performance of the restaurant financially," said Ben Hiatt, who oversees development and operations for the Waldorf Boston's, as well as three additional planned franchises in Maryland and Virginia. "Boston's to date has exceeded expectation, and the hotel should drive some food and beverage business our way."

Planners expect the cluster of five restaurants and the Hilton to draw diners off Route 301, where the large majority of Waldorf's existing restaurants are located. Hiatt said he initially was concerned about placing Boston's away from 301, but has become convinced that the restaurant is in a desirable location.

The Hilton "is right where it should be," said Donna Dudley, the county's new tourism director. "It's very well located with the theater, the mall and the office building right there. It will be very convenient for business and leisure travelers."

Shah said the concentration of relatively upscale dining options at O'Donnell Lake was the major factor attracting Shamin to Waldorf, which he said has historically been known more for strip malls and fast-food joints than sit-down restaurants.

"That site will be really pleasant," he said. "We wanted to align ourselves with the high quality of the other tenants in the park."