Due to burst water pipe, historic Gunter Hotel has to close for $45 million renovation
During demolition work at the Gunter Hotel in the city center in early July, a water pipe was accidentally destroyed, which triggered the sprinkler system and caused water damage in half of the building.
“We had guests we had to move out and we had reservations on the books,” said Jiwon Choi, managing director of Axle Capital Group, which has owned the historic hotel since 2012.
Choi, who moved from Los Angeles to San Antonio last year to oversee the company’s ambitious $45 million renovation of the hotel, said they had hoped to keep the hotel open during the renovation by working on one floor at a time, leaving an empty floor in between to block out guest noise.
A water pipe accident put an end to that plan. Freight elevators used to transport materials to floors were damaged, Choi said, and the flooding meant cleaning up the water damage had to be added to an already long to-do list.
The hotel’s July 3 closure prompted the company that manages the hotel’s staff, Evolution Hospitality, to notify the Texas Workforce Commission that the hotel could be forced to lay off up to 75 employees by Oct. 1 if there were further “unforeseen delays in renovations.” Those layoffs would be temporary, the letter said.
Currently, all employees are still employed and will receive their wages and benefits until Sept. 30, the letter said. Choi said some employees are still actively working at the hotel and she hopes to bring the rest back “as soon as possible.”
The renovation, first announced last year as a $30 million project, will now likely cost even more than the recently revised $45 million investment, Choi said.
Modernizing the Gunter Hotel while preserving its long history in San Antonio is worth the cost and the surprises, she said.
“I learned so much about San Antonio in the process,” said Choi, who is working with Elizabeth Fauerso of EDF Development & Design Studio to connect the upscale renovation with the hotel’s storied past. “Everyone I meet has a story about the Gunter.”
She said that despite the water damage, she hopes the renovation will be completed by the end of this year. The upgraded hotel, which was once a Sheraton property, will now become part of Marriott’s Tribute portfolio of boutique hotels.
Choi was speaking from a section of the Sheraton Club Lounge on the hotel’s second floor that is being converted into a recording studio and will open to both a redesigned terrace and an indoor lounge area so guests can watch musicians or podcasters at work.
Blues legend Robert Johnson recorded at the Gunter in 1936, and Choi said each room will have its own record player and that they have already acquired Johnson’s records. There will be an album lending library in the lobby.
Beneath the future lounge next to the recording studio is Bar 414, which will also be modernized, and an old gift shop next door will become a Topgolf Swing Suite, Choi said. A “secret staircase” will be opened for events or when the recording studio is in use.
Korean bakery chain Paris Baguette will move into the corner space at the corner of East Houston and N. St. Mary’s streets, in an area currently used as a gathering space, Choi said, and a new restaurant will take the space along Houston formerly occupied by the Market on Houston.
Opened in 1909, the eight-story Gunter Hotel originally operated as a Frontier Inn in 1837. Its kerosene lamps welcomed “the influx of pioneering settlers from the East,” according to the history on the hotel’s website.
The hotel’s basement remains open to customers of the hair salon that has existed there since the hotel opened. Historic photos of the hotel and its guests, including Mae West, Joe “Flash” Gordon of the New York Yankees and Miss San Antonio 1939 Irene Hoffman, line the basement hallway.
Choi said these and other photos will be placed more prominently throughout the hotel as part of the renovation.
Barber Lee Bosmans said he was celebrating 50 years of cutting hair and beard this month. He pointed to a photo of the “17 barbers, five manicurists, two cashiers and five porters” who worked there during the barbershop’s heyday in the 1930s and ’40s.
He pointed to two men, brothers, who he said were related to the famous military aviator James Doolittle. “They hired me when I was in my twenties,” Bosmans said.
He said he was thrilled that Choi was renovating the hotel — and keeping the hair salon as it is. “Of course, I love it,” he said. “And I think she loves the hotel, I really do.”
