Downtown Atlanta to gain new luxury hotel ahead of World Cup

A financially troubled hotel in downtown Atlanta expects a renovation — and a new name — will help attract future tourists and travelers.

The W Atlanta Downtown hotel, which recently went through a foreclosure sale, will rebrand under the JW Marriott flag under new ownership. The hotel off Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard will reopen in the spring after undergoing an overhaul to match the new name.

“Every space has been reimagined — from 237 serene guest rooms and suites to thoughtfully curated public areas — ushering in a new era of understated sophistication to downtown Atlanta,” the hotel’s operator, Denver-based Stonebridge Cos., said Tuesday in the rebranding announcement.

The JW Marriott Atlanta Downtown will be the brand’s second hotel in the Atlanta area, joining one in Buckhead. It will also join a roster of gigantic — and typically older — hotels in downtown.

Built in 2009, the hotel immediately became an Atlanta anomaly.

The W Atlanta-Downtown hotel and condos. (AJC file photo)

Its opening coincided with the Great Recession, thrusting the hotel into instant financial trouble. The hotel’s upper floors are condominiums, which are privately owned and were not included in subsequent foreclosure sales.

Real estate struggles and the property’s primary lender going through bankruptcy thrust the hotel into its first complicated foreclosure in October 2010.

Ashford Hospitality Trust acquired the hotel in 2015 for nearly $57 million, but the story repeated itself in 2023. It went through foreclosure again, resulting in a Stonebridge subsidiary acquiring the building for $24.8 million — a 56% decrease from what Ashford paid eight years earlier.

The 55 Allen Plaza building (left) and W hotel Atlanta Downtown in the Historic Westside district. (Phil Skinner/AJC)

The latest foreclosure, along with a similar foreclosure sale involving the 763-room Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, became two of the largest Atlanta properties to face loan distress following the COVID-19 pandemic. Allen Plaza, a glassy office tower built along with the W hotel, also went through a distressed sale at a steep discount last year.

The pandemic disrupted hospitality markets, which have unevenly recovered in the years since. High interest rates and a wall of debt set to mature in the coming years also have some economists worried a wave of foreclosures could sweep through underperforming commercial properties.

Atlanta once had one of the country’s largest number of hotels under the W brand, boasting four such properties. But each of those hotels eventually rebranded.

The Midtown location is now The Starling. The Buckhead W is now Hotel Colee Atlanta Buckhead. The former Dunwoody location is now a Le Meridien. And now downtown’s W will be a JW Marriott, leaving the Atlanta area with no W hotels.

As part of the renovations, the JW Marriott will include its first “Mindful Floor,” a series of two dozen wellness-focused rooms, in the U.S. A new check-in lobby will also focus on providing a tranquil feel.

This is a rendering of the JW Marriott Atlanta Downtown, a rebrand of the former W Atlanta Downtown that will open in spring 2026. (Courtesy of Stonebridge Companies)

An Italian-inspired lobby restaurant will also be added in addition to upgrades to the hotel’s executive lounge, rooftop pool and other meeting spaces. Looney & Associates, a Texas-based design firm, is tasked with remaking the hotel’s feel, focusing on elements “inspired by Atlanta’s railway heritage, treelined urban landscape and diverse cultural identity.”