April 11, 2002 - Brick by brick, workers at the old Maverick Building at Houston and St. Mary's streets are carefully sanding off years of decay as they create a historic look for the city's newest inn, the Hotel Valencia Riverwalk San Antonio. 
                
The hotel, to open in late November, is part of the $200 million Houston Street redevelopment project. The 12-story hotel will feature 214 rooms with rates from $200 to $350. 

And it has even more lavish digs: Its presidential suite, located on the third floor, will cost as much as $1,800 a night. 

But travelers paying top dollar for a hotel room at the $16.5 million Valencia will get top-notch services. 

The hotel will lead the Texas industry by introducing remote curbside registration services so patrons can bypass the lobby on the hotel's second floor.

The first floor is leased to Maryland-based Federal Realty Investment Trust, the company coordinating the Houston Street redevelopment project. High-end stores will be housed on the first floor along with the Bamboo Club, an eatery featuring Pacific Rim and Asian cuisine. 
                
Arizona is the only other state with Bamboo restaurants, which are an offshoot of Main Street and Main Inc., the creator of the T.G.I. Friday's brand.
                
The lobby will consist of a bar with a rust-colored leather floor and a full-service restaurant offering terrace dining. Guests will have about 3,000 square feet of meeting space for conferences.
               
"This is going to be a little different," said Roy Kretschmer, Valencia's general manager. "It's going to be of higher quality, hip, classical with traditional styles and modernized to attract the next generation."
                
The prototype hotel is a product of Houston-based Valencia Hotels Corp., which has built and owned Hampton Inns and Homewood Suites hotels. The company also built the first Sheraton Hotel in Houston in the 1960s.
               
Valencia Hotels also is simultaneously building another Hotel Valencia in Federal Realty's Santana Row project in San Jose, Calif.
                
Dee Ellis, director of sales for the Valencia in San Antonio, said enthusiasm for the new hotel is already here. 
                
"We are getting so many calls (about the hotel)," Ellis said. "When selling a startup brand, it's different and very exciting. You can hear it in people's voices that they are happy about the new concept."
                
But Bruce H. Walker, president of hotel consulting firm Source Strategies Inc., said there are only a few hotels in Texas that can command rates above $150. He said the Hotel Valencia might have some luck, since out of the 10,000 hotel rooms downtown, only about 1,000 cater to high-end travelers. 
                
According to Source Strategies' Hotel Brand Report, only six independent hotels made the top 11 performing properties in Texas for 2001. Just three of the private hotels had average daily rates more than $200.
                
"I don't see them getting $200 to $350, but they can get $150," Walker said. "To get $180, you have to be pretty special."
                
Hotel Valencia officials are confident the property will have plenty of upscale amenities to keep guests coming back. Guest rooms will include items such as cordless, two-line speakerphones and bed and bath products from chic companies such as California-based Lather and Italy-based Italian Home Style.
                
Fancy linens and bath sundries are something the experienced traveler wants, according to last year's Luxury Hotels Monitor, a survey by members of Small Luxury Hotels of the World. 
                
The Monitor said hotels are reporting women are becoming the biggest tippers, and bedroom towels and sheets are increasingly popular take-home gifts among guests.
                
Hotel Valencia's pursuit of the high-end traveler also is backed by the fact that it's among only three Texas properties and is the only San Antonio hotel to be accepted into the exclusive Small Luxury Hotels group. To be a Small Luxury Hotels member, the property has to have 200 rooms or less and be independently owned. 

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(c) 2002, San Antonio Express-News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.