San Juan Hotel renovations delayed

SAN JUAN — Gus Acevedo wants to spend $2 million to renovate the long-vacant San Juan Hotel.

The city of San Juan, meanwhile, has a loan fund — filled with state money — that is intended to be used for helping local businesses.

Seems like a match made in heaven? It’s not — at least for now. The city denied Acevedo his loan last month, after sitting on his application for seven months.

The development is the latest of setbacks for the renovated hotel Acevedo envisions, which he had originally hoped would be open for business months ago. But Acevedo said he intends to continue with his passion project whether the city wants to help him with a loan or not.

History

Acevedo, who bought the hotel in November 2006, is the most recent of more than a dozen people who have owned the hotel since it opened in 1920.

The hotel welcomed prospective land buyers to the region during San Juan’s early days and eventually became an important gathering point in the community.

But the hotel has been vacant since the late 1980s, and it’s been virtually a taboo subject in San Juan. Some citizens balked in March 2006, when the city considered buying the hotel outright from then Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school board member Roy Rodriguez, who has since resigned his seat and pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge.

“I’m not involved in the politics,” Acevedo said while sitting in his Pharr office “It’s my hotel and I just want to build my hotel.”

The refurbished hotel will have 23 rooms and a courtyard closed off with glass to create a large bar and restaurant complete with a wine cellar, Acevedo said. The restaurant would be casual in the afternoon and expensive and upscale at night, like McAllen’s Onyx or Lansky & Brats, and would cater to birders visiting the region from Europe and Asia.

Loan

Acevedo applied for a $300,000 loan from the city in July 2007 to get some funding for the renovations. Last month the City Commission unanimously denied him the loan because the application was incomplete.

“It’s like when you come to the bank,” said City Manager Willie Seguin. “You’ve got to come in ready.”

Acevedo admitted the application was incomplete, but he said that was because city officials called him last summer and asked him to put the packet together in less than a week. At the time, the state was considering taking some of the city’s loan funds back.

In December the city did, in fact, pay back about $162,000 to the state’s Office of Rural Community Affairs, since San Juan was not issuing the loan money. The last loan from that fund was issued in 2005. Seguin said that’s because the loans are subject to great scrutiny, and if someone defaults on a loan, the city can be held liable. The city now has almost $168,000 available to loan out.

“I wasn’t asking for a gift,” Acevedo said. “I was just asking for a loan.”

Acevedo noted in his application that anyone from the city could call him if more information was needed. He still hasn’t gotten that call, and even though the city denied his loan application last month, he has yet to be formally informed of the decision. He learned about the denial in a local newspaper.

Seguin said the lack of a follow-up was likely due to low staffing at City Hall, as San Juan has been dealing with high employee turnover in recent months.

The city manager said Acevedo could apply for the loan again.

Acevedo said he will do exactly that. But if the city denies him again, he will likely have to seek other sources of funding, which could delay the project even further, he said.

Future

In addition to the loan debacle, Acevedo said the renovations will be much more extensive than he originally had planned. The hotel will need electrical and plumbing work and he will have to install air conditioners.

“We’re almost having to start over without tearing it down,” Acevedo said.

The renovations will be done following careful guidelines from the Texas Historical Commission, Acevedo said, so as not to jeopardize the status of the hotel, which is a historical landmark.

Ideally, Acevedo said, he would like to begin work on the hotel this summer and complete the project eight to 10 months after that.

He beams as he speaks about the hotel and describes its future layout, imagining the renovations he has planned out.

“I’m going to have my own room there so I don’t have to go home.”

He bought the hotel upon realizing that, after nearly 19 years as a lawyer, he wants out of the law business.

“The problem with the legal profession is it’s about fighting,” Acevedo said. “I’m done with fighting.”

Acevedo has taken that creed to heart, maintaining that he is not angry with the city for denying the loan.

“I don’t take it personally,” he said. “I’ve got to look at it as a business deal.”

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Ryan Holeywell covers PSJA and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.