JW Marriott Detroit Opens in February: A 601-Room Hotel Where Joe Louis Arena Stood

The Joe went down in 2020. What is rising in its place says everything about where Detroit is headed. The JW Marriott Detroit Water Square is set to open in mid-February 2027. The 25-story, $396.5 million hotel stands on the exact riverfront ground where Joe Louis Arena stood. Moreover, groups are already booking blocks of rooms in a building that has not opened its doors, Crain’s reports. The timing is no accident. The NCAA Men’s Final Four lands at Ford Field weeks later. For the first time, Detroit will meet a moment like that with a luxury hotel wired directly into its convention center. Here is what is coming, floor by floor.

JW Marriott Detroit at a Glance

What You Will Find Inside

Every one of the 601 rooms gets floor-to-ceiling windows, and most of what they frame is water. Below them, the hotel stacks a 17,000-square-foot grand ballroom for more than 2,000 people. In addition, it holds 53,000 square feet of meeting space, a spa, and a 50-foot indoor lap pool. Four restaurants are on the way, led by an Andiamo Italian chophouse. Naturally, that keeps the flagship dining in the hands of a Detroit restaurant family rather than an imported brand.

The skybridge is the piece that changes the math. Detroit has never had a hotel attached to its convention center. Event planners notice things like walking to a keynote without a coat in January. As a result, the city expects the building to pull conventions that used to skip Detroit. Projections call for more than $100 million a year in new visitor spending and over 400 permanent jobs.

From the Joe to This

If you stood in line on that ground for a Wings game, you remember what the corner felt like. Joe Louis Arena closed in 2017 and came down in 2020. For years afterward, the site sat as a parking crater while the city argued about what deserved the ground. The answer turned out to be Water Square: the hotel first, with the surrounding district planned around it. Construction started in 2024. Sterling Group, a Detroit developer, has kept the schedule tight, and it expects to substantially finish the building before the end of 2026.

The city is building toward it, too. A $103.9 million extension of Second Avenue, funded by the convention authority, will carry traffic straight to the site. Meanwhile, crews are remodeling the nearby People Mover station to serve the district. In short, the corner that used to empty out after the third period is being rebuilt to run every day of the year.

Why February Matters

The opening lands weeks before the Final Four. That tournament brings the biggest crowd Detroit has hosted since the 2024 NFL Draft. That event made the case that Detroit could throw a national party. The JW Marriott is the infrastructure answer. Specifically, it is the hotel that lets the city bid for the next one, and the one after that. Bookings suggest the market agrees. People are reserving room blocks at a hotel that is still a construction site.

The riverfront around it keeps compounding. There is the RiverWalk, named the country’s best, the Michigan Central revival a mile west, and now a luxury flag on the water. For what else is changing downtown, see our Community coverage.

JW Marriott Detroit FAQ

When does the JW Marriott Detroit open?
Mid-February 2027, ahead of the Final Four at Ford Field that spring.

Where is it?
At Water Square on the Detroit River, the former Joe Louis Arena site, connected to Huntington Place by a skybridge.

How big is it?
25 stories, 601 rooms and suites, a 17,000-square-foot ballroom, 53,000 square feet of meeting space, a spa, and a 50-foot lap pool.

Can you book it yet?
Group blocks are already being reserved, Crain’s reports, and the hotel is listed on Marriott’s site.

Sources: Crain’s Detroit Business; Marriott; Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority.