The hotel brand that once defined “luxury lifestyle” hospitality is zeroing in on the city where it all began with a lot riding on its comeback.
W Hotels has unveiled the $100 million reinvention of W New York – Union Square, reopening the 256-room property as the global flagship for the brand’s evolution. Marriott is positioning the reboot as both a nod to W’s past and a marker for its future, after years when the label that once felt fresh, bold, and cultural started to look a little dated in the crowded lifestyle hotel space.
“W New York – Union Square holds a special place in our global portfolio. It is at the heart of our brand, powered by the pulse of our birthplace, New York City,” George Fleck, SVP and global brand leader for W Hotels, said in a statement. “With deeply layered interiors, dynamic programming, and an unapologetic point of view, this hotel captures everything W Hotels stands for: energy, edge, and our unmistakable signature sense of style, inspiring stories worth sharing.”
The stakes here are high. As I noted when covering the brand’s earlier refresh moves at The Points Guy, W was one of the first hotel brands to really capture the millennial-before-they-were-
At Union Square, Marriott International and Rockwell Group, the design firm that handled W’s original 2001 debut, dug into the building’s Beaux-Arts architecture while layering in Union Square–inspired seasonal palettes and maximalist design. The Living Room (W’s lobby concept) now doubles as a café by day and cocktail bar by night, while weekly cultural programming is designed to lure locals back through the doors. Upstairs, guestrooms mix nods to New York icons—taxicab-yellow faucets, subway-lamp lights—with velvet headboards and ombré walls. The penthouse suite delivers 1,215 square feet of full-throttle Manhattan views.
The relaunch also comes with new culinary muscle: Seahorse, a seafood brasserie from restaurateur John McDonald and chef John Villa, brings in a Union Square Greenmarket tie-in. A new rooftop bar from AvroKO channels the city’s art-meets-nightlife history, while a reimagined FIT gym includes W’s first in-hotel Peloton Studio.
This isn’t just about one hotel. Marriott says 80% of the global W portfolio will be reimagined by 2028, with flagships like W Hollywood, W Austin, and W Toronto already in the works. But the Union Square reopening is the centerpiece and a test of whether W can reclaim its place as a cultural cornerstone for a new generation of travelers.
If it works, W is back in the luxury-lifestyle conversation it once started.
If it doesn’t? Well, Union Square will have the best-looking cautionary tale in hospitality.
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