Aztec Theater owners adding rooftop restaurant, boutique hotel to historic building

By Ben Olivo | @rbolivo | Heron editor

Editor’s note: Without discussion, the Historic and Design Review Commission granted conceptual approval to the Aztec Theater’s plan at its meeting on Wednesday.

The Aztec Theater’s ownership group is seeking approval from the city’s historic review board to add a rooftop restaurant and bar to the historic River Walk building, part of a plan to convert four floors of unused office space into upscale 77-room boutique hotel.

The group, Aztec Family Group LLC, has worked with Overland Partners on the project for four years, said Sam Panchevre, who leads the ownership group, but it’s been on pause since early 2020. Now that the downtown market has picked back up, the group, in partnership with Dallas-based Shreem Capital, is moving forward.

In an email, Panchevre said he hopes construction will start this summer, and to open the hotel in summer 2023.

The plan goes before the Historic and Design Review Commission on Wednesday. According to the agenda for the meeting, Shreem Capital, a privately-held real estate investment firm that “focuses on the acquisition, development and management of opportunistic and trend setting hotel properties,” has signed a 40-year lease on the project.

Panchevre said the group has proposals from hotel brands, but declined to name them at this time. He also declined to divulge the project’s total cost, adding that the partnership is not pursuing incentives from the city or county, nor historic tax credits.

The office space wraps the theater on two sides, and has been largely vacant for four decades, according to the agenda.

The rooftop restaurant and bar will total 5,310 square feet, and include a terrace above West Crockett Street, overlooking the River Walk. In recent years, an HDRC-approved steel-framed extension above West Crockett was added to the Aztec.

The partnership is seeking conceptual approval, which means it will have to return to the HDRC at a later date for final approval.

The Aztec Theater, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., was built in 1926 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Heron Editor Ben Olivo has been writing about downtown San Antonio since 2008, first for mySA.com, then for the San Antonio Express-News. He co-founded the Heron in 2018, and can be reached at 210-421-3932 | ben@saheron.com | @rbolivo on Twitter