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The W BOSTON Hotel and Residences is a 301-feet-tall tower (92 m) located in the
Boston Theater District The Boston Theater District is the center of Boston's theater scene. Many of its theaters are on Washington Street, Tremont Street, Boylston Street, and Huntington Avenue. History Plays were banned in Boston by the Puritans until 1792. Bosto ...
of
Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
/Midtown neighborhood,
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Massachusetts (USA). The 26-story building, completed in 2009, is a
mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...
with hotel, condo, restaurant, spa, retail, and bar components. W BOSTON is located across the street from the Boston Transportation Building, with the official address of 100 Stuart Street. It is managed by
Marriott International Marriott International, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational company that operates, franchises, and licenses lodging including hotel, residential, and timeshare properties. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. T ...
as part of the
W Hotel W Hotels is an American upscale lifestyle hotel chain owned by Marriott International that is marketed towards a younger age group. History W Hotels was launched in 1998 with W New York, a conversion of the former Doral Inn hotel on Lexington ...
chain and was W Hotel's 35th hotel, opening in October 2009. The development comprises one restaurant, MARKET by Jean Georges (Closed), two bars, W Lounge and TUNNEL (formerly DESCENT, closed), the latter being the destination bar, a spa,
BLISS BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C b ...
, a retail store, W Hotels The Store (Closed), the 235-room hotel, on floors 3-13, and 123 branded luxury residential
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
s, on floors 14-26. The architecture firms that designed the W BOSTON Hotel and Residences are William Rawn Associates, Architects Inc. and TRO Jung Brannen Inc. The interiors are designed by Bentel and Bentel Architects. The building is developed by Sawyer Enterprises.


Development

In 2001, originally known as the Loews Project, the developer Sawyer Enterprises was set to construct the Loews Hotel on the site of the now W Boston. However, after 9/11 all projects were stalled. In 2007, the project was revived and W Hotels became the new hotel to be on site. The original plan for an all-hotel building was restructured into a mixed-use development. The fall of 2007, W Boston broke ground. The building was completed by early 2009. However, as the hotel was set to open in late summer/fall, developer lacked funding to furnish the remaining the hotel rooms, install fixtures for the residences, or complete the remaining public spaces of the hotel including the bar and restaurant spaces to the standards that people expected from the W Brand. If uncompleted, the hotel would not be allowed to open on time. As the City of Boston offered a program to revive stalled projects during the tough economic times, the W Boston project was granted an additional $10 million to finish the remaining spaces. W Boston finally opened October 29, 2009.


Hotel


W BOSTON

Opened in the fall of 2009, the 235-room hotel has seven room classes including two WOW Suites and one "Extreme WOW" Suite. These suites are the hotel's specialty suites.


W Hotels The Store

The hotel's gift shop which sold clothing, jewelry, toys, etc. After being open for just two years, due to slow business as well as a chain-wide decision, the store closed September 2011.


MARKET By Jean Georges

Three Michelin Star Chef, Jean Georges Vongerichten's fine dining restaurant in W Boston. Opened in November 2009. In December 2013, Market announced that it would close. The Last dinner service was December 21.


BLISS Spa

New York based spa, integral of the W Hotels Chain. Opened Spring/Summer 2010


W Lounge

Originally called 'The Living Room', the W Lounge is part W Boston's lobby area.


DESCENT

Underground Destination Bar/Lounge/Nightclub, Opened November 2011. Near the end of December 2012, Descent closed down for what the W Boston calls a "re-invigoration." Plans for a re-opening or a new bar took place during 2013.


James Joseph Salon

A Newbury Street salon opened October 2012 on Level 1 of where the Bliss retail space used to be.


The Boston Sun Glass Company

Opened November 2012, a sun glass retail store in the space of the original W Hotels The Store.


TUNNEL

Opened October 10, 2013, TUNNEL is a bar, located in the former DESCENT space. The owner is Brian Lesser of The Speakeasy Group who also runs Storyville, Tavern Road, Vine Brook Tavern, Alden and Harlow, Sweet Cheeks in the Boston area.


Condo


The Residences at W Boston

A branded, full service condominium building comprising 123 private residences. Located on the upper floors of the building, residents have access to all components of the hotel including the hotel gym, FIT. Residents have their own private, separate entrance, lobby, and elevators. Initial prices ranged from $400s to $4.55mm.


2013 HGTV Urban Oasis

For the location of the 2013 HGTV Urban Oasis, The Residences at the W Boston was chosen. The sweepstakes gave away a 1-bedroom, 1 ½-bath 1,000-square-foot residence located on the 24th floor of the Residences at W Boston and all-new 2014 Acura MDX, with the total prize package worth over 1 million.


April 2010 bankruptcy

Due to slow sales of the condos and weak hotel economy during the fall of 2009, the developer filed for Ch 11 Bankruptcy Protection April 2010. The developer came out of the bankruptcy the summer of 2011, after winning court battle with
Prudential Insurance Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both Investor#Retail_investor, retail and i ...
, which sought foreclosure on the development.


Sale of W Hotel Boston

The hotel component was sold in March 2011 to Pebblebrook Hotel Trust at the price of $89.5 million. The residential component is still owned by Sawyer Enterprises.


October 2012 bankruptcy reversal

Early October 2012, the appeals court reversed the previous ruling of the allowance of SW Boston to exit bankruptcy.


April 2014 bankruptcy case resolution

In April 2014, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals remained in favor of the bankruptcy judge who blocked efforts by the Prudential Insurance Co. of America to foreclose on the remaining condominiums owned by developer SW Boston at the W Boston Hotel & Residences, ending the legal back and forth over SW's post-bankruptcy reorganization plan.http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/real_estate/2014/04/sw-boston-wins-key-appeals-court-backing-for-w.html Boston Business Journal, Retrieved Junel 6, 2015


Awards and accolades

*Orlando Sentinel, January 2010: W Boston- Runner Up for Development of the Year *AAA Four Diamond Award: W Boston Hotel & Residences (2010) *Trip Advisor: Travelers' Choice 2012 Winner- Trendiest *Trip Advisor: Certificate of Excellence 2013 *Trip Advisor: GreenLeaders Platinum level


Notes


References




External links

*
Boston Herald: W Hotels The Store To CloseBoston.com: W Hotels Developer Says It Is Bankrupt
{{DEFAULTSORT:W Boston Hotel And Residences Residential skyscrapers in Boston Condo hotels in the United States Hotel buildings completed in 2009 Residential buildings completed in 2009 Luxury real estate W Hotels Skyscraper hotels in Boston