The 1960s-era El Tropicano Hotel in downtown San Antonio is undergoing a $100 million makeover not expected to be complete until December.
But on Wednesday, invited guests were ushered from a dusty parking lot enclosed by construction fencing and scaffolding through a breezeway lush with palms and champagne into the hotel’s future Flamingo Bar.
The urban resort’s bar is an homage to the live flamboyance that once resided in the rotunda-like space, said a spokeswoman.
It’s one way the developer plans to preserve the 9-story hotel’s colorful history and mid-century modern design and bring the building — vacant four decades — back to life.
Despite ongoing construction, the boutique real estate investment firm Trestle Studio of Chicago and New York City, which acquired the hotel in 2024, opened the doors for an invite-only event this week, making two announcements.
In addition to a unique club membership model that will be offered at the hotel, it has also partnered with Emmer & Rye Hospitality of Austin to manage the hotel’s restaurants and bars.
For an annual fee, club members will have access to private entry and social spaces within the hotel, 24/7 use of the fitness facilities, a spa and massive pool deck along with other amenities and perks. The club will be limited to 300 members — local entreprenueurs, civic leaders, artists and others.
In addition, the hotel will feature three “culinary venues” with menus developed by Emmer & Rye’s Kevin Fink. In 2024, Fink opened Pullman Market in the former Samuels Glass Co. headquarters at Pearl.
While most of the building at 110 Lexington Ave. remains a construction zone, one completed and furnished guest room among the total 315 in the hotel offered a sneak peek of the remodel.
Inspired by the avant-garde design of Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994), a well-known Brazilian landscape architect, the room features curved lines, deep green hues and rich wood tones. Michael Hsu is the interior designer and the firm Studio8 of Austin is the architect.
Many of the guest rooms feature floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the 5,000-square-foot resort-style pool deck and bar.
Also motivated by Marx’s creativity is the new name given to the hotel — Sítio El Tropicano. In Spanish, Sitio translates to place. Marx called his garden in Rio de Janeiro, Sítio Roberto Burle Marx.
In fact, a tropical plant with large, glossy leaves growing in the midst of the dilapidated Tropicano is what initally inspired Trestle Studio CEO Jake Lamstein, a longtime developer and hotelier.
“Everything was rather decrepit and then there was this one beautiful growing Monstera plant in the middle of the lobby,” he said.
The stories of people who had once visited the hotel, a celebrity-favorite in its heyday, also moved Lamstein: “They worked there or they had a quinceañera, everyone had these stories.”
Still, the restoration and remodel has thrown some “curveballs,” he said, making it 100% more difficult than any other project he’s taken on.
“It’s been challenging that way, but with that has come all this discovery of all the really cool spaces that we didn’t even know existed when we bought it,” he said.
Trestle Studio also owns Lakeway Resort and Spa near Austin, and The Hotel Chalet in Chattanooga, Tenn.
El Tropicano is located steps from the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts and within a downtown neighborhood situated between the central tourist district and Pearl.
Opened in 1962, the swanky El Tropicano was the first riverfront hotel on the San Antonio River Walk, according to the tourist destination’s website.
Long vacant, plans for a major renovation kicked off in 2018 after Alamo Equity and Phoenix Hospitality Group acquired the property. The work was expected to be completed in 2022 but then the hotel closed abruptly in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.
In May 2023, investor and former broadcast executive Emilio Nicolas Jr. sued Alamo Equity principal Logan Anjaneyulu for mismanagement. The case was moved to arbitration.
Soon after, the property was headed to foreclosure after its owners defaulted on a loan from an affiliate of developer Weston Urban, which helped finance the acquisition. It was pulled from the auction block days later after an agreement had been reached to sell the hotel to its latest owners.
Tax records reveal the 185,000-square-foot property was most recently assessed at over $9 million.
Trestle Studio’s plans go beyond a refreshed hotel in downtown San Antonio already flush with a growing number of luxury lodgings and rooms that go unused during off seasons.
The membership club model it’s introducing is unique in the city’s hospitality landscape, but not necessarily in other places. A founding membership is priced at $12,500 as a one-time fee; other tiers of membership start at $3,500.
“We’ve seen hotels introducing membership clubs throughout the world as a way to really create community,” said Christine Moriarty, chief brand and marketing officer at Trestle Studio. “The whole point of the membership club is to create a vibrant home base for San Antonians that are going to work here, but also be able to have them utilize our amenities and be treated like a VIP.”
The Sitio El Tropicano Hotel is expected to open in late 2026 and is now accepting reservations for overnight stays starting in mid-December. Advertised room rates range from $216 nightly to $443 on New Year’s Eve.
