Development mogul Milton Peterson and Prince George’s County officials on Monday revealed the five hotels that will join the extravagant National Harbor resort and will offer the Washington area a chance to lure conventions from Baltimore and Richmond.

The new additions bring 900 more hotel rooms to the $2 billion mixed-use resort, residential and retail development that has been in the making for more than a decade. The hotel chains will be Westin Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Residence Inn, Fairfield Resorts, Hampton Inn and Suites and Aloft.

Victoria Isley of the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation said the new properties could help the region attract meetings that now end up in Richmond or Baltimore because they are either too large or small for local facilities.

“It offers more choice,” she said.

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Besides National Harbor, new hotels are either planned or under construction near the Washington Nationals’ ballpark and near the Washington Convention Center. Those projects could add as many as 1,900 rooms to the region within five years, officials said.

The long-planned National Harbor is rising south of the Wilson Memorial Bridge along the Potomac River.

Aloft is a new hotel concept unveiled last year by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. Starwood says its Aloft hotels feature “urban-inspired, loft-like guest rooms” that offer sophisticated technology services and a lively social scene.

“We are very pleased that these hotels are coming to National Harbor. The investments they are making will provide Prince George’s County residents with quality hospitality and entertainment venues right in their own backyards,” County Executive Jack Johnson said in a statement.

Peterson, founder of The Peterson Companies, and county officials broke ground more than a year ago on the 300-acre development and its anchor hotel, Gaylord National. Gaylord National will have 2,000 rooms in addition to a 400,000-square-foot convention center and is scheduled to open in 2008.

Gaylord has been booking reservations since three weeks before its December 2004 groundbreaking and has reserved 600,000 room nights for convention business, county spokeswoman Denise Roberts said.

Project features

» 2,500 residential units

» 2,900 hotel rooms

» 1 million square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space

» 500,000 square feet of office space

abailey@dcexaminer.com