A local developer is betting on the recovering hospitality industry in New Braunfels.
Oldham Goodwin has proposed building a more than $40 million Springhill Suites by Marriott at River Village in the historic city, the San Antonio Business Journal reported.
The hotel will span 136,000 square feet across seven stories and include 140 rooms, costing about $285,000 per room. Construction is set to begin in the third or fourth quarter of this year and be complete by early 2025.
Plans call for the hotel to rise on a site south of Highway 46, between Interstate 35 and the Guadalupe River.
“It’s almost shocking how much optimism there is,” Hunter Goodwin, president and COO of Oldham Goodwin, told the outlet. “If you look at New Braunfels in particular, it was a market that really performed exceptionally well during Covid.”
The hospitality industry has been slowly recovering from the pandemic, which essentially shut down all non-essential travel and, therefore, hotel visits. A recent survey from the American Hotel & Lodging Association found that 60 percent of Americans said they would be more likely to stay in hotels this year than in 2022.
Goodwin said the new hotel will take advantage of the multiple rivers that flow through the city. “It will have waterfront access. It will have a resort-style feel,” Goodwin told the outlet. “It’s going to have quite a bit of meeting space. It’s going to have very robust food and beverage offerings.”
Oldham Goodwin, which also has brokerage and management services experience, has developed multiple other hospitality projects, including the Springhill Suites by Marriott Fort Worth Historic Stockyards.
The developer is working with noted chef and restaurateur Tim Love, who is known for Lonesome Dove Bistro, on the New Braunfels project.
— Victoria Pruitt