Downtown’s hip quotient could be getting a boost with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.’s W brand emerging as the leading contender for the hotel site in the Grand Avenue project.

Bill Witte, a principal at Related Cos., the real estate investment firm orchestrating the $1.8 billion development process, said “discussions are furthest along” with Starwood to put a W at Grand Avenue and Second Street. He said Related is not talking with the luxury hotel chain Four Seasons Hotels Inc., once rumored to be the choice for the site.

The W could spice up the downtown hotel scene dominated by more conservative properties, such as the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. For Related, the cool factor is largely about attracting locals to generate revenue at a downtown hotel property, as many of the others have had trouble keeping rooms full and raising room rates.

“Historically, hotels downtown haven’t done well. That seems to be changing,” said Witte. “There is an excellent opportunity for a new smaller hotel that is perhaps at a slightly higher quality level than the existing hotel properties downtown.”

The property is expected to have 225 rooms and an additional 200 condominiums on the top floors. Witte said that negotiations should be finished with the hotel operator in six months and construction should start in a year.

Jeff Cohen, senior vice president of acquisitions and development at Dallas-based Gatehouse Capital Corp., the largest third-party developer of W hotels, warned that downtown properties are challenging. “The downtown market is generally terrible. I am not sure how a W will do there,” Cohen said in an e-mail.

While downtown properties trail trendier locales in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, the W has had success locating hotels in dense urban areas and inviting third-party operators to run restaurants and bars that draw customers from the neighborhood. Related has experience in mixed-use projects, having developed the W New York in Union Square with Starwood.

In Los Angeles, the only W currently is in Westwood but the brand is expanding its reach, with a 300-room hotel in Hollywood and a 165-room hotel West Hollywood.

“It is a little different than your other traditional hotels,” said Antonia Fernandez, co-chairman of the Grand Avenue Committee, a public private entity formed to oversee the project.