Design concepts for a hotel planned by the developer arm of the Pearl and a new bar to be built along the San Antonio River Walk now have a city panel’s approval.
The Historic and Design Review Commission granted conceptual approval to Oxbow on Wednesday for an eight-story hotel the developer first announced in April.
The Grove, as it’s being called in documents submitted to the city, will be built at 1210 E. Elmira St. next to the Museum Reach of the River Walk.
The hotel will go in where a surface parking lot is now used by visitors to the popular dining and entertainment destination. Two other structures are shown on the 1.1-acre site plan but were not described or included in the request to the commission.
Plans call for a 151-room hotel of brick masonry with 13,500 square feet of meeting space, and a rooftop pool, restaurant and bar.
Oxbow’s CEO Bill Shown previously said that the Grove will not be another luxury property like the Pearl’s Hotel Emma, and will be more affordable than that AAA-rated five-diamond hotel.
“This hotel will increase our appeal to a broader audience and build off the success of Hotel Emma … as its neighbor and operator,” Shown stated.
The hotel’s riverfront location will make it accessible for both San Antonio residents and visitors, said a statement from Oxbow, and the hotel design is oriented toward that objective.
“The landscape is designed in a way that it blends seamlessly in with the River Walk, and the development will be inviting for anyone who wants to walk up from the River,” states the documents submitted to the Office of Historic Preservation.
Oxbow expects to break ground on the project in early 2024 with construction to take at least two years.
As one division of Silver Ventures, Oxbow is behind such projects as the Cellars and Southline apartments at the Pearl, the Oxbow and Credit Human buildings on Broadway Street and The Lab multi-use building.
The developer recently purchased another parcel just west of the Pearl from Austin-based Sabot Development and is planning a mixed-use project with housing and parking for the hotel.
Under-bridge bar
In other River Walk news, commissioners granted approval for a new outdoor bar proposed by the people behind the distinctive Canopy by Hilton Hotel that opened in April 2021.
The Lumo Bar is planned for unused space beneath the North St. Mary’s Street bridge closest to the hotel and its riverside Domingo restaurant. Canopy Hotel developer Chris Hill plans to lease the space from the City of San Antonio.
The bar will not be located within the public pathway, according to documents from the architecture firm Lake Flato, but will provide both seating and space for standing and seating, plus two seating islands, seating walls and planters to direct people standing in line.
Hill described Lumo as a grab-and-go bar with drinks and prepared foods from Domingo.
“The idea is that we transform what heretofore has been a fairly dismal space into something exciting,” Hill said. “Under-bridge spaces, especially on the inner loop on the river, are under-utilized and we hope to do something exciting under there.”
Though six existing concrete stools will be removed from the site, other historic elements along the River Walk, including original sidewalk panels, a stone retaining wall and two catchment basins, will remain.
Hill said he hopes to see the bar open by September.
