Las Vegas firm to transform Phoenix office tower into 340-room JW Marriott
By Brandon Brown – Senior Reporter, Phoenix Business Journal
Aug 11, 2026
Las Vegas-based LaPour Partners is behind the reimagining of the office tower at the Arizona Center at 400 E. Van Buren St. that will become a 340-room hotel – along with new restaurants, a resort style pool, fitness center, ballroom, meeting spaces and a club lounge on the upper levels of the property.
This will mark the fourth new hotel project LaPour has done in the Phoenix area since the early 2020s. The company’s portfolio includes the AC Hotel Phoenix Downtown, which is also located in the Arizona Center.
The $200 million JW Marriott project signifies a major step forward for downtown Phoenix’s hospitality industry, adding an urban luxury resort to a submarket that has not seen a lot of new hotels in a while.
“As the downtown market continues to grow and evolve, the hotel market hasn't kept up,” Jeff LaPour, founder and president of LaPour Partners, told the Business Journal. “We knew there was opportunity for an upper scale luxury business hotel.”
Currently the Arizona Center office building is vacant, and the project is in the design and pre-development phase. Interior demolition is expected to start in early 2027 LaPour said, with construction commencing later that year. The JW Marriott is expected to open in 2029.
LaPour has brought on LJC as architect for the project and Lonney and Associates as interior designers.
Arizona Center's overhaul
Hotels are not always candidates for adaptive reuse projects, but LaPour said there are several things about the Arizona Center tower that made the building right for the JW brand, including 13-foot floor-to-floor heights, as well as floor-to-ceiling glass windows across the entire building.
“When the office building came available, we started evaluating it. If you look at 100 buildings for conversion, and you might find one that suits,” LaPour said. “We got lucky on this one because this building is not very old – it was built in 1990. The quality, layout, windows and ceiling heights – it all hits perfectly for a hotel conversion.”
The JW is the latest addition and upgrade to the Arizona Center, which is a mixed-use development that was built in the early 1990s, but fell into a state of decline over the past 10 to 15 years.
In 2023, the center was acquired by longtime Valley real estate investor Daryl Burton’s Reliance Management for $27 million.
Since the acquisition, Burton has refocused the leasing strategy to include a majority of local tenants. The second and third levels devoted to retail are now 100% leased, Burton told the Business Journal. He has also brought on new anchor tenants including Pretty Decent Concept’s Cleaverman Steakhouse and Chula Seafood.
“I didn't think there's a future for an office building at that site, so I wanted to change the use and Jeff LaPour wanted to do a hotel, and he's somebody I really respect in the marketplace,” Burton said. “I'm hoping he's gonna have phenomenal success, and I'm looking forward to the hotel opening, and he's put a lot of time and money into it, and we have been doing the same.”
LaPour is a big supporter of Burton and said what he has accomplished at the Arizona Center is reshaping downtown Phoenix.
Indeed, Burton’s efforts at the Arizona Center have been applauded by the city of Phoenix and many business leaders across the Valley.
Proximity to Convention Center a big draw
Similarly, LaPour expects the JW to quickly become part of the Phoenix business community and play a major role in downtown’s tourism and convention business.
“We're a half a block from the Phoenix Convention Center, and convention is going to be an important part of the hotel,” LaPour said. “The JW brand bridges nicely between affordable luxury and business hotels. With our designs, the project can serve both needs.”
The JW Marriott will include approximately 15,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space on the upper floors of the tower. There will also be 2,542 square feet of outdoor meeting space.
The Arizona Center features a heavily shaded park area that Burton and LaPour both said will be integrated into the JW Marriott’s grounds, making it more of a community asset.
Once complete, this will mark the third JW Marriott-branded hotel in the Valley. The JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa is one of the largest hotels in the Valley with 950 rooms and located on nearly 400 acres in north Phoenix near Loop 101. The JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn in Paradise Valley is a favorite property among the Marriott family and features 453 rooms. It underwent a massive renovation of its spa this past year.
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