A turn-of-the-century hotel spanning the length of four downtown lots, shuttered for nearly a decade, is once again open for guests.
The real estate firm Placemakr announced Tuesday that renovations to The Continental at 322 W. Commerce St. are complete and the hotel is open for bookings.
The apartment-style hotel offers 28 furnished studios and one- or two-bedroom units offered as extended-stay rentals. Placemakr declined to disclose rental rates, but its booking website lists a studio apartment at about $143 a night and a premium two-bedroom unit starting at $312 a night.
Placemakr is marketing the property in partnership with San Antonio developer Weston Urban, which rehabilitated the vacant hotel building in the Zona Cultural as part of a project to redevelop the entire 1.9-acre downtown block.
“With The Continental we’re looking to restore something special to our community that will feel like a natural fit,” said Randy Smith, CEO and co-founder at Weston Urban. “We’re excited to partner with Placemakr to bring this historic building back to life and offer a unique style of flexible living in downtown San Antonio.
Extended stays
The Washington, D.C.-based Placemakr, founded in 2017, works with developers, property operators and investors to market apartment-like spaces for periods extending beyond a typical hotel stay.
Placemakr properties, which the company says combine “the advantages of apartment living with the services and reliability of a hotel,” include new multi-family buildings and established apartments.
The company lists properties in Atlanta, Austin, Nashville, New York City and Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and Columbia, Md.
The Continental represents Placemakr’s second property in San Antonio.
The company also represents the 86-unit Maverick property at 606 N. Presa St., a 9-story brick structure built in 1922 that opened as a trendy new apartment building in 2017.
The Continental project allows Placemakr to bring an innovative concept into an iconic historic building, said Jason Fudin, CEO and co-founder of Placemakr.
“This launch is set to rejuvenate not just only the building itself, but the entire surrounding area, enabling guests and residents to get the most out of this super cool neighborhood in San Antonio,” he said.
Historic hotel
Cattlemen once preferred the hotel on West Commerce for its proximity to the stockyards and Military Plaza.
Around 1926, La Clede Hotel became known as the Continental. The hotel closed in the late 1970s and was used as office space for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District until 2016.
Weston Urban purchased the property from the City of San Antonio in 2020.
In 2022, the new owners revealed a plan to rehabilitate the hotel’s crumbling facade, demolish the back half, and remake the building into a residential or hotel property.
The Continental Block project also includes a new apartment tower with 290 mixed-income units adjacent to the San Pedro Creek Culture Park, and renovated commercial space in the 1928 Arana building on Dolorosa Street.
Affordable housing
The new apartment tower that’s still under construction is the first affordable housing project approved under the Bexar County Public Facility Corp., a nonprofit arm of the county that works to increase affordable housing and quality development.
The terms of the agreement with the county give the developer full property tax exemption for the duration of the 75-year lease in exchange for committing to rent half the units as affordable, not exceeding 30% of a renter’s income.
Smith, who is also an owner of the Missions baseball team, has pointed to the Continental block apartments as potential housing for Soap Factory apartment residents who could be displaced if a new stadium is built in the area.
The tower is expected to open in the fall.
For information about booking stays at The Continental, visit the Placemakr website.