The project is the new construction of a 285 room Embassy Suites Hotel. The building will contain 16 floors above ground and 2 levels of parking, with 166 spaces, below ground. The hotel will feature a 7,000 square foot grand atrium, 2 restaurants and a 7,500 square foot ballroom. The subject property has been home to a variety of businesses and structures during the past 100 years. In the late 1880’s to the turn of the century it contained businesses such as a livery stable, carriage house and boarding house. After 1904 a large building containing a bowling alley and laundry was constructed at the corner of Houston Street and Soledad Street. In 1912, the White Star Laundry, which is still in business today in another location, had taken over the entire building. By the 1960’s, most of the original buildings had been demolished and replaced by a bank building on the north end of the property and parking on the south. The bank building was demolished in the late 1980’s and the entire site has been a parking lot since then. The surrounding neighborhood has suffered much the same fate. Numerous empty storefronts line the streets surround the property and office space in the area suffers from high vacancy rates. The Embassy Suites Riverwalk will be the anchor of a redevelopment of the Houston St. area which once hosted a thriving retail environment, but now is comprised of empty store fronts, parking lots, and graffiti.
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