WASHINGTON — President Trump’s company is actively seeking to open a second Washington hotel as part of a planned nationwide expansion, potentially creating another venue where he stands to benefit financially from customers doing business in the nation’s capital.

Representatives of the Trump Organization, now run by the president’s adult sons, have inquired in recent months about converting one of several boutique, medium-sized hotels in upscale neighborhoods in and near downtown and reopening it under the company’s new Scion brand.

Unlike the luxurious Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, which Trump and his family own, the more affordable Scion hotels would be owned by other developers who would pay the Trumps’ company for licensing rights and management.

“They’re trying hard to do Scion in this market and they’re trying hard in other markets also,” said developer Brian Friedman, who owns the Carlyle Hotel in Dupont Circle and Kimpton Glover Park.

Friedman, managing partner of D.C.-based Foxhall Partners, said Trump representatives had toured both properties in recent months and had previously inquired about a hotel that Foxhall is developing in Adams Morgan.

Friedman said he also occasionally receives inquiries from buyers who say they have a licensing agreement with Trump for a Scion and wanted to buy one of his hotels and convert it.

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“Definitely there are groups that say they are going to do a Trump Scion hotel,” he said. “These are just people running around saying, ‘I have money and the brand is Scion.’ ”

While some of the inquiries predate the election, the company has continued to look for a Washington partner.

Eric Danziger, chief executive of the Trump Organization’s hotel division, more recently toured the 199-room Beacon Hotel, at 1615 Rhode Island Ave. NW, with an interest in converting the property to a Scion, according to a real estate executive who was not authorized to discuss the Trump Organization’s interest and spoke on the condition of anonymity. No agreement was reached.

“I think he liked it,” the executive said. “He said it was perfect. It just didn’t work out.”

Danziger said in a statement issued by the company that he wouldn’t disclose new properties until he has firm agreements in place, but that he has signed “over 30” letters of intent – preliminary agreements – with developers to open Scions in cities across the country.

The Trump International Hotel, which opened last fall, has become a touchstone in the controversy over the president’s decision to retain ownership of his business.

By hosting political groups and foreign embassies as clients, the luxury property has prompted protests, lawsuits and criticism from ethics experts who think Trump has the potential to profit from the prestige and power of the presidency. Trump has dined there multiple times with family and administration officials, including this past Saturday night when he was joined there by his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, who both work in the White House.

The addition of a more informal Scion Hotel in the District would provide a chance for less well-heeled groups to do business with the president’s company – albeit at a property that would not bear his name.


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