There are still bright spots in these dark days — many of them on the Mid-Atlantic Coast. With a new administration in place, excitement is infusing Washington, D.C., and the inauguration, a huge four-day party, filled many D.C. and outlying hotels in January.

Walter E. Washington Convention Center will add 40,000 square feet of meeting space in a reconfiguration project to be completed by the end of this year. And the Washington Convention Center Authority has selected a team of underwriters to manage financing for the 1,167-room Washington Marriott Convention Center hotel, set to open in 2012.

Baltimore's proximity to the inauguration festivities gave it a boost, but Charm City is doing well on its own. There has been a surge in convention bookings over the last year and a half as the new convention center Hilton hotel opened to serve larger meetings and trade shows.

In Philadelphia, the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center is finally under way. This is a horizontal addition — all bookings can go on as planned. The center will end up with a total of a million square feet of usable space and the ability to handle two simultaneous trade shows or conventions at one time.

Ninety minutes away in Pennsylvania Dutch country, the new Lancaster County Convention Center and adjoining 300-room Marriott at Penn Square hotel opened earlier this year. Together the buildings have 90,000 square feet of meeting space. The center incorporates a museum dedicated to Thaddeus Stevens and other leaders of the abolitionist movement. Lancaster has also polished its downtown streets and buildings for a complete revitalization of the entire downtown area.

Facilities Update

The District

• Maryland

  The 332-room Willard InterContinental, with its prime location on the inaugural parade route, made sure its countenance was shiny for the event. An expanded lobby and a new Scotch bar within the Round Robin, with an impressive collection of single malt whiskies, were in place.

• Pennsylvania

  The Connecticut Avenue Collection of the Hilton Washington, Marriott Wardman Park, and the Omni Shoreham are partnering to provide midsized conventions more than 3,600 guest rooms, 200,000 square feet of meeting space, 124 meeting rooms, 180,000 square feet of exhibit space, and eight restaurants. For the right sized groups, the Collection will run free shuttles between the hotels and offer complimentary meeting space and welcome receptions.

• Virginia

  The Georgetown University Hotel & Conference Center is around the corner from trendy stores and restaurants in the heart of Georgetown. It has 146 guest rooms, and meeting rooms range from boardroom size to a grand ballroom for events of 10 to 1,600 people.

• Trip Tips

  The 1,119-room Hilton Washington hotel is undergoing a top-to-bottom renovation in discrete stages and presents some unique opportunities this summer in the nation's capitol, where rooms are sometimes hard to come by. The Olympic-size pool is closed for the 2009 season and reopens in 2010. But, whenever your group goes, the 110,000 square feet of elegant meeting and event rooms near the Washington Convention Center offers plenty of room for almost any size gathering.

Ask the CVB

Pennsylvania

• Hilton Hotels recently opened a dual-branded development in Silver Spring that has 149 Hampton rooms on the lower eight floors and 90 Homewood Suites above them. Located on Colesville Road, the hotels share a lobby, with separate check-in desks and dining areas for each brand. Guests of both hotels use the meeting rooms, business center, pool, and workout room.

• Baltimore is in line to add 300 medium-price rooms a block from the Inner Harbor when a Hyatt Place and a Summerfield Suites come to town.

• ARCWheeler has unveiled plans to purchase, rehab, and add a 250-room Kimpton Monaco Hotel to the 80-year-old Boyd Theatre in downtown Philadelphia. The art deco theater can seat 2,500 but will also host smaller gatherings. A restaurant in the hotel and a cafe in the theater will keep attendees well fed.

• Washington, D.C.

  Starwood Hotels has announced plans for a 92-room Four Points by Sheraton hotel with meeting rooms and a penthouse ballroom just a block from Philadelphia's convention center.

• Maryland

  The 229-suite Embassy Suites Philadelphia/Valley Forge opened its doors in December 2008 following a $10 million transformation from Valley Forge Suites. The new hotel includes 5,000 square feet of meeting space just off Route 202 in the Chesterbrook business complex.

• The former Sheraton Reading Hotel, Wyomissing, has undergone a $10 million renovation and transition to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Reading. Meeting space accomodates up to 50 attendees.

• The Pittsburgh Penguins and a developer will build a new 135-room hotel adjacent to the Penguins' new arena on Centre Avenue. Plans include a restaurant and barista bar set to open with the arena in 2010.

• Virginia

  Hilton Pittsburgh is gutting, rebuilding, and refurnishing its 713 guest rooms to the tune of $30 million and adding a boardroom to its 10,000 square feet of meeting space. By December 2009, the hotel will also have a new restaurant, bar, and a Starbuck's.

• The $203 million Virginia Beach Convention Center, completed two years ago, has more than 500,000 square feet of flexible meeting space and is the largest meeting facility in the Hampton Roads region. Exhibit space includes a 150,000-square-foot, column-free exhibit hall.

• The 340-acre Salamander Resort & Spa is slated to open in spring 2010 in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. The 168-room Middleburg resort will have a total of 13 meeting rooms. Some special touches: a 22-stall equestrian stable, a spa with treehouse treatment rooms at the edge of the woods, a billiard room, and a cooking studio overseen by Todd Gray, owner and chef of the Equinox Restaurant in the nation's capital.

• Special Venues

  The 1924 George Washington Hotel in downtown Winchester, closed since the mid-1970s, reopened in April 2008. The 90-room GW has 6,600 square feet of conference space, including the grand ballroom that accommodates 300 people. The hotel has luxury accoutrements such as heated towel bars and fireplaces.

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