JW Marriott Panama, Luxury hotel and condominium tower in Punta Pacifica, Panama City, Panama
The JW Marriott Panama is a 70-floor, 284.4-metre mixed-use tower in Punta Pacifica, Panama City, designed by Colombian firm Arias – Serna – Saravia S.A. Its 13-story base carries a sail-shaped tower with stepped white edges, vertical bands of tan stone and dark glass, and a horizontal lattice truss across the mid-section. It holds 369 hotel condominium units, 628 residential units, 36 retail shops and a 10-story office tower.
Construction began in May 2007 on a design by Colombian firm Arias – Serna – Saravia S.A., financed partly by a $230 million Bear Stearns bond offering. The hotel opened on July 6, 2011, about a year late, with President Ricardo Martinelli attending. The Trump Organization managed it until March 2018, when Orestes Fintiklis ousted them; it became a JW Marriott on September 26, 2018.
The tower's sail-like profile, compared to Dubai's Burj Al Arab, made it a reference point on the Punta Pacifica waterfront. Its name changed with its management: the Trump name came off the building in 2015 and off the hotel on March 5, 2018, after Orestes Fintiklis won control; it became a JW Marriott on September 26, 2018.
The tower stands on a beachfront plot in Punta Pacifica, in the San Francisco corregimiento, facing the Pacific and the Bay of Panama. The 13-story base holds 1,500 parking spaces, 36 retail shops and a 10-story office block, so shops and dining sit inside the complex itself. A pier and yacht club serve the waterfront, with a daily ferry to the Pearl Islands.
Before completion the developer sought a preemptive injunction against lawsuits by Dubai's Jumeirah Group, whose Burj Al Arab the tower resembles. The 13-story base carries the tower, and interiors were done by Hirsch Bedner Associates. The building opened about a year behind schedule, in July 2011.
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