New 600-room hotel in Detroit could become a JW Marriott

Marriott appears to be deepening its enthusiasm for Detroit.

The world’s largest hotel company has signed a deal to operate a luxury JW Marriott hotel in a 25-story, 600-room hotel building soon to be built next to the riverfront Huntington Place near the where the Joe Louis Arena once stood.

The new $397 million hotel project, first announced in December as “Hotel at Water Square,” is being developed by Detroit-based Sterling Group and won local and state approvals this spring for 142 million dollars in development incentives.

Although no official announcement has yet been made as to the specific brand of hotel that will be located, it recently emerged that Sterling Group CEO Elie Torgow has signed a management agreement with Marriott for a JW Marriott on site.

Those documents are dated last December, were filed by Wayne County in April and their existence was first reported Tuesday by Crain’s Detroit.

Neither Marriott nor The Sterling Group were available for comment for this article.

Marriott is already a major player in the downtown Detroit hotel market.

There’s the 1,328-room Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, the 453-room Westin Book Cadillac (a Marriott-owned brand), and the 160-room David Whitney Hotel, a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel.

And two other upscale Marriott-owned hotels are under construction: a 210-room Edition hotel in the Hudson Site skyscraper and a 154-room Marriott International AC hotel just outside downtown, the along Woodward.

The JW Marriott Water Square hotel is expected to open in 2027 and be connected to the Huntington Place Convention Center via an elevated pedestrian bridge.

It will neighbor the recently opened 25-story, 496-unit luxury glass apartment tower, The Residences at Water Square, which was also developed by The Sterling Group on the site of the demolished Joe Louis Arena.

More: New Detroit high-rise opens with $4,000 monthly rent for one-bedroom apartment

Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or [email protected]. Follow him on @jcreindl