Blueprint plans $55M hotel on San Antonio River Walk

New details emerge about a 243-key hotel at the old CPS Energy headquarters

Blueprint Hospitality's Kunal Mod and 145 Navarro Street
Blueprint Hospitality's Kunal Mod and 145 Navarro Street (Google Maps, Crunchbase)

First you buy it — then you have to build it out.

Blueprint Hospitality plans to spend $55 million to convert the old CPS Energy headquarters at 145 Navarro Street in downtown San Antonio into a hotel, according to filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The developers plan to turn the building into a 243-key hotel called El Portal, an entry in Marriott’s Autograph brand.

Work is slated to begin on the 230,000-square-foot project in April and run through September 2024. The project is situated along the San Antonio River Walk.

Cleveland-based Sandvick Architects is listed as the design firm on the filing.

Blueprint purchased the 10-story building last month for $19 million. The sale also included CPS Energy’s piece of the Tower Life building’s garage. The San Antonio Express-News first reported the sale in January, but the new filings reveal the cost and branding of the new development.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

CPS Energy has been on a tear lately, selling several properties to subsidize the cost of its new headquarters at 500 McCullough Avenue. Last year, Los Angeles developer BH Properties bought a neighboring office building and garage at 146 Navarro Street for $22.3 million. In all, the utility has designated more than $50 million worth of properties for sale.

Blueprint specializes in converting historic properties into hotels. In Fort Worth, the firm is spending $98 million to convert part of the old Hotel Texas into a Le Meridien by Marriott.

Blueprint did not respond to a request for comment.

A 2022 report from Marcus & Millichap found that hotels in San Antonio were recovering from the pandemic faster than those in most other metro areas in the country. Occupancy, rates and revenue per available room all grew at faster clips in San Antonio, with RevPAR jumping 87 percent year over year. New hotel construction fell in that same period by more than 1,600 rooms but remained well above historic averages.