Luxury hotel brand picks uptown Charlotte office tower for first site in the city
A former office tower will now become uptown Charlotte’s newest luxury hotel.
Marriott Bonvoy’s W Hotel brand will take over the former Wachovia Center at 400 S. Tryon St., according to a news release Wednesday from New York-based developer Spandrel Development. In April, Spandrel filed a permit with the city noting its plans to convert the 52-year-old office tower into apartments and a hotel.
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Now, the building will be Charlotte’s first W Hotel. The project is expected to open in late 2029.
The hotel will have 173 rooms and 27 suites, with a signature penthouse. The project will be developed in partnership with 7G Group, a real estate investment and development firm.
The W will occupy floors one through nine and there will be an 18,000-square-foot rooftop venue on the 34th floor. It’ll be the city’s highest rooftop space, according to the release.
Other amenities include a ground-floor restaurant, coffee bar, 12,000 square feet of meeting space and a ballroom.
Total cost of the project was not disclosed.
Bringing the W Hotel brand to the city is indicative of Charlotte’s investments in entertainment, Emanuel Neuman, co-founder of Spandrel Development Partners said in the release. Those investments include the $1.3 billion renovation to Bank of America Stadium and improvements to the Spectrum Center.
And those investments are part of efforts to transform uptown into more than a place for office workers.
In January, Charlotte Center City Partners said its goal was to continue transforming uptown from business-centric to an entertainment district. And that would be aided by $4.4 billion in public and private investment.
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Part of that investment included converting older office buildings into new spaces.
The Charlotte metro’s office vacancy sits at 23.9%, according to a July report from Cushman & Wakefield. The real estate firm looks at office markets in Charlotte and the surrounding suburbs.
Charlotte’s overall economic and population growth is decreasing the office vacancy rate. Charlotte’s center city, which includes uptown, midtown and South End, has seen an influx of job announcements.
Capital Group, the Los Angeles-based financial services, and Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. have both announced moves to uptown. Combined they leased almost 400,000 square feet of office space in uptown and plan to bring over 2,600 jobs.
But a large portion of that office vacancy is in older buildings. To keep up with the market, older buildings need to renovate or convert.
Spandrel purchased the former Wachovia Center at an auction for $36 million last year, after the previous owners defaulted on the property’s loan and the building went into foreclosure. At the time it was about 23% occupied.
In April, Spandrel’s conversion plans for the tower became clear.
Besides the hotel, Spandrel is planning to add 399 apartments to the tower, a mix of studio through three-bedroom units. Amenities for residents include an indoor pool, spa, theater and golf simulator.
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This story was originally published September 9, 2026 at 11:50 AM.
