The towering W and Element hotel project on Chestnut Street has come with a towering price tag for its builder. A Philadelphia judge has ordered Tutor Perini to pay Chestlen Development roughly $174.6 million over construction defects and prolonged delays at the dual-branded Center City high-rise, wrapping up a yearslong legal brawl that dates back to a 2015 construction contract and months of remediation on uneven concrete slabs.
According to a press release from Chestlen’s lawyers at Glaser Weil, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas issued an order on April 13, 2026, awarding Chestlen $174,681,212 in compensatory damages. The court also ruled that liquidated damages and pre-judgment interest will continue to rack up until a final judgment is entered.
Judge Found Slab Work Out Of Spec From Floor 3 Up
Common Pleas Judge James Crumlish III previously concluded that concrete slabs installed under Tutor Perini were out of specification from the third floor all the way to the top of the tower, delaying both curtain-wall installation and interior finishes, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. In a 2025 memo, the judge wrote that the project effectively “went off the rails” as the contractor denied problems and tried piecemeal fixes instead of fully disclosing and remediating them. The 51-story, 755-room W and Element hotel, marketed as a dual-branded property, ultimately did not open until 2021, after years of remediation and litigation.
Timeline And Price Tag
Tutor Perini landed the job in 2015 under a roughly $239 million construction contract, according to the company’s announcement at the time. Chestlen has maintained that defects and remedial work added more than 890 days of delay and tens of millions of dollars in repair costs, according to coverage of the developer’s court filings and lawyer statements. Those schedule overruns in turn spawned nearly 30 related lawsuits and dozens of liens tied to the project.
Legal Fallout And Next Steps
The damages award follows an October 2025 liability ruling that found Tutor Perini breached its contract and rejected the contractor’s counterclaims. The court then held a damages phase in January 2026, followed by post-trial submissions in February, according to Glaser Weil. Chestlen’s lawyers say the order vindicates the developer and that interest and any remaining lien disputes will be sorted out as the case moves toward final judgment and any potential post-judgment proceedings.
What It Means For Tutor Perini
Tutor Perini did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The company has previously said that resolving legacy disputes helped it return to profitability in 2025. On its February 26, 2026 earnings call, management told investors that the firm has been narrowing its portfolio of legacy cases and expects lower legal expenses to support profit margins going forward, according to the earnings transcript.
Chestlen’s counsel welcomed the ruling. “This award confirms what Chestlen has maintained from the start: accountability matters, regardless of the size of the contractor,” the developer’s lawyers said in statements reported by Construction Dive. For now, the decision closes a major chapter in a dispute that reshaped one of Center City’s biggest hotel projects, though appeals and enforcement battles could still be on the horizon.
