SAN ANTONIO – Long-anticipated plans to restore a historic hotel have been given a green light.
The development team behind the rehab of the El Tropicano hotel in downtown San Antonio received a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic and Design Review Commission Wednesday. The property at 110 Lexington Ave. — which has been sitting empty since shuttering at the start of the pandemic in 2020 — will receive a jolt of life in the form of interior renovations and exterior modifications to emphasize its connection to the River Walk.
Plans for the exterior include installing a staircase to give pedestrians access to the River Walk from Lexington Avenue, building a deck that overlooks the river and making landscape modifications at the river level. In approving the plans, HDRC stipulates that project leaders need to move several planned columns off of public property and that landscaping changes should be coordinated with the San Antonio River Authority.
Chicago-based hospitality investor Trestle Studio is helming the development, acquiring the property near the end of 2023 and pushing design plans forward with Studio8 Architects. In an interview with the Business Journal earlier this year, Trestle Studio Managing Partner Ryan Bean said the aim is to transform the property into an “urban resort” that stitches the downtown area together with the Tobin Hill and River North neighborhoods.
“Our hope is that we can create or bridge the activity of the River Walk that you find downtown with the Pearl since we’re in the midway there and can compete with four-star, full-service offerings,” he said.
Prior to Trestle Studio’s ownership, the hotel was at the center of a legal dispute between its previous private equity owner Alamo Equity and an investor in its renovation fund, the latter of which claimed the fund manager was using clients’ money to shield himself from personal financial exposure. In a July judgment, the investor was awarded $5.27 million in damages, though Alamo Equity is currently appealing that decision.
Read more of this story, and other stories like it, in the San Antonio Business Journal.
Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.