Last May the Marriott Marquis opened with $206 million in public subsidies and a promise that the majority of their staff would be residents of D.C. 10 months later they have a 77 percent retention rate among residents of D.C. who had been hired through their training program and a rate of 28 percent for hourly workers who were graduates of the training program.

The hotel’s retention rate “has been pretty stable and certainly better than at a lot of hotel openings,” said John Boardman, executive vice president of the labor union Unite Here Local 25, which counts 520 Marriott Marquis employees among its members. Boardman is also on the board of Events D.C.