The JW Marriott Houston Downtown has revealed plans for a massive expansion that will add the adjacent Battelstein’s Building at 812 Main to the hotel's existing footprint.
With an eye to impress guests coming to Houston for the June 2026 FIFA World Cup, the revitalized Battelstein's Building will include a new ground floor restaurant, additional meeting and events spaces, and a rooftop bar and lounge with a pool overlooking the downtown skyline. It will offer easy access to the planned Main Street Promenade, also set to open next June.
“This initiative represents an exciting evolution for the JW Marriott Houston Downtown,” hotel general manager Jelle Vandenbroucke said in a statement. “We are not just adding rooms — we are redefining the guest experience by creating a hospitality destination that captures the energy, diversity and sophistication of Houston.”
When the expansion is complete, the Marriott will have a total of 384 guest rooms (an increase of 56), including 89 suites, touted in press materials as the largest inventory of luxury lodging in the city's core. The expansion also adds 10,000 square feet of meeting space to the Marriott, bringing the total to over 23,000 square feet. Rottet Studio designed the new space, and Los Angeles-based Cole Martinez Curtis & Associates is handling the renovation. Guests should still see plenty of the original materials used in these historic constructions as they explore the Marriott's modern services.
Built in 1924 to house the titular department store, and raised to 10 stories in 1950 by acclaimed architects Joseph Finger and George Rustay, the Battelstein’s Building is a beloved, if modest, part of the Houston skyline. Philip Battelstein opened his tailor and haberdashery in Houston in 1897 after arriving from Lithuania with almost no money. The store thrived through the post-war years, leading to its iconic expansion, but declined as the 1970s oil boom petered out and suburban shopping malls grew in popularity. The space was frequently vacant after 1980. Southwest Value Partners, the company that owns the hotel's current location, acquired the building in 2022.
Currently, the JW Marriott occupies another historic Houston location, the adjacent, 22-story Samuel F. Carter Building at 806 Main. When Samuel Fain Carter built it in 1910, it was the tallest building in Houston. Many doubted such a towering structure could actually stand on Houston's famously swampy ground, earning it the nickname Carter's Folly. More than a century later, it remains Houston's first skyscraper. The Marriott welcomed its first guests in 2014.
