It was the second time the eight-member board, which oversees the operation of the District's 2.3 million-square-foot convention center, postponed the vote. It had delayed action on Oct. 13 after Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) stepped in to ask for more time to read a Minneapolis consultant's report on the hotel.

Leaders of the board said that they now expect to take a vote at their December meeting and that in the meantime they are likely to meet with the mayor and City Council members, who ultimately will decide the issue.

A coalition led by City Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) want the new hotel to be part of a 10.5-acre complex of housing, parks, restaurants, shops and offices planned for the site of the old, vacant convention center at New York Avenue and 11th Street NW.

But the mayor wants to build the hotel on a site at Ninth Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW, next to the city's new, $850 million convention center at Mount Vernon Square.

The debate, which has been going on for two years, is about finances as well as location. The mayor wants to use tax-exempt bonds -- and some of the savings to be gained if the city refinances its convention center -- to pay for construction of the new hotel.

Cropp and some of the eight members on the convention center board argue that it would be less expensive to build it at the site of the old convention center because the city already owns the land.

The delay is holding up negotiations between developer Hines Interests LP and the city on what exactly it will build at the site of the old center.