General Manager
Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

By This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it | Corridor Inc. Staff Writer
Originally published April 2008

Photo by Christopher Myers.

 “It’s a well designed facility that accommodates the needs of meetings and conventions but on the other hand [it’s] about guests having an experience on the property,” said Suga.
 The 2,000-room resort, with an 18-story glass atrium, has 470,000 square feet of convention, meeting and exhibit space, seven restaurants, five shops, a spa
and a nightclub.
 The 41-acre property overlooks Old Town Alexandria and Washington, D.C. Construction began in December 2004 using more than 3,700 tons of steel and 10 million square feet of drywall.
 The resort’s debut will open doors of opportunity for the county, its hospitality workers and the meetings industry.
 Since 2004, resort officials have pre-sold 1 million room nights for events at the property through 2018.
 The resort has caught the attention of groups that haven’t entered the Baltimore-Washington Corridor in years such as the Army Aviation Association of America.
     The group hasn’t been to the region in 25 years but now has found a large enough facility to return to the area, Suga said.
 State of the art meeting rooms have enough power to service the average home.
 “There’s nothing like it in this whole region,” said Suga, who was the former vice president and hotel manager at Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention
Center in Orlando. “The design and service levels coming out of this property are of a level no one’s experienced here.”
 Suga sat down with Corridor Inc. to discuss Gaylord’s presence in
the market.

How will Gaylord fit into this market?
The significance is for Maryland which now has an entire state that offers everything. We’ve got two convention cities as well as an additional tourist destination that is on the doorstep of the nation’s capital which is so significant. We hope to attract a lot more people to the state and to the region.
Certainly the biggest lift is to the county. I really believe there is so much potential in this county and we’re seeing it in the people we are hiring here. A lot of them have to go out of the county to work in this business so it really is a huge opportunity.

Why Prince George’s County?
The reason we looked at the region was because it’s where meeting planners desired to have their meetings and this is one of the top areas in the country … Las Vegas is No. 1 and Orlando is No. 2 and Washington, D.C. is definitely in the top 10 so there was a market for it here.

What differentiates Gaylord?
We have an outstanding meeting facility, a magnificent hotel product and entertainment all rolled under one roof. And then we add the exterior with the pier and the whole outside feel we have here with all of National Harbor and it’s truly a unique experience … It’s visual and all sensory.

Who is your competition?
I look at the bigger guys in the District but I also look beyond that. I look at Orlando, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, New York — major destinations. Those are our real competitors. Baltimore’s a different market altogether. I don’t believe the majority of our customers would look at Baltimore.
We’ve had very healthy conversations with the District and Baltimore has reached out. The key will be to figure out how we collaborate together. To me it’s not about dividing up what’s to come, it’s about reaching out. You have to look at opportunity together.

Are slots a future possibility for Gaylord?
No, we are not a gambling company. This property has no space and no design for gambling. We are tapped out and that’s not our core business and not where our successes are or where we want them to be.

How is Gaylord changing the face of Prince George’s County?
It’s all National Harbor not just Gaylord. There’s no other convention center in Prince George’s County and for the state to have two offerings is huge. Again we may be attractive to people but we may also not be so I think Baltimore should capitalize on that.

Why did this project create so much controversy?
People were afraid of the unknown. If this hotel was being built in Chicago I think you would have had the same reaction. But we can’t let our guard down. This is business so you can’t rest on your laurels. Someone is always going to be inventive.

Will the worker shortage in the hospitality industry affect you?
I don’t believe it applies to us now. As a company, we’ve seeded the Prince George’s Community College hospitality program and you’ll see us as we grow here reach out into high schools and middle schools to start creating that interest in the industry. So we don’t look at anything we do as short-term. We’re looking for a long-term career path and we also want to start planting the seed early. It’s an exciting industry and I don’t believe enough people know what it is.