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JW Marriott New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States · JW Marriott · Accessible Luxury
The JW Marriott New Orleans occupies the exact seam of the city's history: Canal Street, the line that once divided the French Quarter's Creole society from the American-built Central Business District. Built in 1984 to house visitors to that year's Louisiana World Exposition, the 30-story tower survived Hurricane Katrina's 2005 flooding of its basement and first floor and now anchors Canal Street between the Quarter, the Warehouse District, and Harrah's casino.
- 501 rooms
- Opened 1984
- Neighborhood: Central Business District
- Rooms from 350 sq ft (33 m²)
About JW Marriott New Orleans
- A legal battle between owner LaSalle Hotel Properties and its management company briefly forced a rename to the New Orleans Grande Hotel in December 2002, four months before the hotel sold for $92.5 million and became the JW Marriott in 2003.
- The tower opened in 1984 as the Hotel Meridien New Orleans, one of several Central Business District hotels built specifically to house crowds for that year's World's Fair.
History
The building at 614 Canal Street was designed by the New Orleans firm August Perez and Associates and completed in 1984 — the year New Orleans hosted the Louisiana World Exposition along the riverfront, an event that drove substantial new hotel construction in the Central Business District and brought the city into sharp focus as a major convention and tourism destination. The thirty-story tower was built to accommodate the visitor demand generated by the exposition and opened as the Hotel Meridien New Orleans, entering the city's luxury market as a contemporary high-rise standing on one of the most historically significant thoroughfares in the American South.
Canal Street marks the boundary between the French Quarter and the Central Business District, a line that in New Orleans's history separated Creole and American cultures, French and English languages, and the old city from the new. To stand at 614 Canal Street is to stand at the symbolic seam of New Orleans's defining cultural tension, and the building's position gives it an address that carries weight beyond its physical coordinates. The French Quarter begins steps away; Jackson Square lies a ten-minute walk through the Quarter; the Warehouse District's galleries and restaurants anchor the other direction.
The building's history through the late 1990s and early 2000s involved a series of ownership and branding transitions that reflected the turbulence of New Orleans's hotel market in that era. After a lengthy legal battle between ownership company LaSalle Hotel Properties and the Le Meridien management company, the property was briefly renamed the New Orleans Grande Hotel in December 2002. Four months later, in April 2003, LaSalle sold the hotel to CNL Hospitality Properties for $92.5 million. The new owners contracted Marriott to manage the hotel, and it was renamed the JW Marriott New Orleans in June 2003.
Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 forced evacuation of the hotel and caused some flooding in the basement and parts of the first floor. The hotel lost electricity along with most of downtown New Orleans, though generators maintained operations for a period. The property's recovery from Katrina was part of the broader, painstaking revival of New Orleans's hospitality economy, which required years to regain its pre-storm momentum. The JW Marriott emerged from that recovery with its AAA Four Diamond status intact and its position at the top of Canal Street — between Caesar's New Orleans Casino, the Warehouse District, and the French Quarter — as central to the city's visitor geography as ever. Its saltwater outdoor pool, full spa, and 19,000 square feet of meeting space make it the most comprehensively equipped luxury address on Canal Street's storied boulevard.
The setting
JW Marriott New Orleans stands at 614 Canal Street in the Central Business District, occupying a 30-story tower built in 1984 at the precise threshold of the French Quarter. Canal Street's 171-foot boulevard — historically the neutral ground dividing Creole and American New Orleans and one of the first streets in the world lit by electric lights — gives the hotel instant access to the city's cultural core. The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum is nine minutes on foot; Preservation Hall, a temple of traditional jazz, and St. Louis Cathedral are each thirteen minutes away, and Jackson Square thirteen minutes. The Shops at Canal Place, with Saks Fifth Avenue and Louis Vuitton, sit three blocks away. 13-minute walk to Bourbon Street.
Amenities
- Spa
- Pool
- Fitness center
Awards
- AAA Four Diamond (2026)
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