A number of years ago W Hotels were supposed to open an outpost in Providence Rhode Island, within the condo building named OneTen Westminster, located at (guess) 110 Westminster Street in Providence.

The history of what was to be developed at this site - which is currently vacant land, is long and changed often - this site even has its own Wikipedia page, which is odd for a building site that has no major historical background.

Not only that, but sites such as UrbanPlanet and Skyscraper Forums have message threads numbering into the hundreds on this one property.

In any case, the story starts in 2005, when Blue Chip Properties went for approval to build Providence's highest building - a condo tower reaching over 40 stories. The approval was granted, but then the condo market started to crash so the developer took the proposal off the table while it went through changes putting the condos on the top of the building and a hotel in the bottom 24 floors.

Throughout this entire time frame - nothing was officially stated by the developer or W Hotels, but the rumor of a W being placed there seemed to believed by everyone. Finally in May of 2007 the developer announced that a W Hotel would be built there.

Original Rendering of the W Hotel Providence

Yet by the end of the year - everyone had relegated the project to canceled status. Starwood & W Hotels had nothing to say about it and any activity seems to have just stopped.

A number of people on those forums mentioned above stated how the project was stopped, and as W's New Hotels page kept adding location after location - and releasing press release after press release, nothing was said about the Providence location all but confirming its death.

I know the town of Providence was very upset about this - it was their opportunity to shine, since when a W Hotel comes into town - alot of marketing and promotion come along with it - putting the town in the papers as having one of the hot new W Hotels (Look at the Dallas TX location)

Yesterday while looking through W's website I came across a page which listed all of their upcoming locations. This is different from their "View Hotels" drop down which is on the top of all pages, its only accessible via one of the three boxes at the bottom of the front page, and it rotates along with other W "ads".

Under: Coming in 2010" was "W Providence, RI".

Could it be that the W Providence has been brought back to life?
andrew@alconic-inc.com

Andrew Calvo is a 26 year old Commercial Real Estate Advisor in New Jersey. I live in Tinton Falls, NJ. This blog is about my passions - primarily hotels, commercial real estate, and development, etc.

Since I have been in High School I�fve had numerous jobs, but the field which has always interested me is Real Estate, Hotel Development and Construction. I consider myself a zealot in that area - I try to absorb as much as I possibly can, take the experiences that I learn, or read about and use them in my life.

http://www.passionsofazealot.com/2008/12/22/w-providence-resurrected-from-the-dead