Posted Apr 10, 2024, 7:07 PM
|
|
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 530
|
|
From SABJ
Exclusive: River Walk Dream Hotel not dead, developer says
More than four years after plans for a Dream Hotel in downtown San Antonio were first unveiled, work crews have yet to stick a shovel in the ground.
But the developer of that highly anticipated project has confirmed that plans for the River Walk tower are a go and there is a new timeline to begin construction.
“We're still on and we're still moving forward. We intend to break ground this year,” Universal Services Group’s Chuck Brehm said. “We just really backed down everything quite a bit for a couple of years. We're starting to ramp back up now.”
Development costs have not been disclosed, but the hotel is pegged for a site near Soledad and E. Martin streets. USG is developing the project and Dream Hotel Group will manage the 223-room property.
In February 2020, Dream Hotel Group CEO Jay Stein told me during an exclusive interview that the Alamo City project would “bring something that’s a little more sophisticated than typically what’s been in that market.”
At the time, the plan was to break ground in 2021 and complete construction by 2023.
Weeks later, the coronavirus was declared a pandemic. There have been other challenges, too, including inflation, that have pushed back the timeline.
“Everything in the world that can happen has happened between Covid and the economy. Then when the bounce back on hotels didn't happen quite as quickly as it should have, that caused us to slow down the process,” Brehm said.
There have also been some changes in Dream Hotel Group’s ownership. Early last year, Hyatt Hotels Corp. completed a deal to acquire the company.
“They feel just like we do about San Antonio and the opportunity here,” Brehm said.
Brehm and others tethered to the project could have walked away. But he insists that the hotel site and San Antonio’s growth trajectory were motivating factors to stay the course.
“We've got a lot going for us here. It's up to us to take advantage of that,” Brehm said. “I really believe in San Antonio. If you've been in this business long enough, you ride these waves. If you can't, you don't belong in this.”
|
Prev
Linear Mode
