Best Real Estate Deals: Hotel Haya is a hospitality project of the year
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 17, 2021

Hotel Haya is a place that elevates Ybor City on multiple levels.

The design-forward hotel both honors Ybor’s history and is a nod to its future as a destination neighborhood within downtown Tampa. The development team preserved a 103-year-old piece of Ybor history by saving the facade of the Las Novedades building and constructing a new structure within.

Hotel Haya is a new, high-end hotel option for downtown Tampa, but it’s also much more: It joins the ranks of developments like Oxford Exchange and Armature Works as beautiful, photograph-worthy destinations that give Tampa a sense of place.

Key players

Architect: Albert Alfonso, Alfonso Architects

General contractor: EWI Construction, Casey Ellison

Engineer: ICT Engineering, Bennie Pandorf

Financier: Valley National Bank

Owner/developer(s): Alliant Partners, David Robinson; Walson Real Estate, Casey Ellison

Tenant: Aparium Hotel Group, Jordan Star

Other: Batson-Cook, Conn Crabtree

Big numbers

103: Age of the original Las Novedades building

55,000: The number of individual end-grain wooden blocks in the floor sourced from a historic lumber company then installed, stained, and sanded by hand on-site.

$31.7 million: The total project cost for the 140,000-square-foot property

Big challenge

In a historic district, the project must meet the Barrio Latino’s Design Guidelines and it did, leading to the delivery of a project “that blends seamlessly into the fabric of Historic Ybor City,” the honorees told the Business Journal. Beyond safety, Covid-19 created delays in production, shipping, and staffing. “The decision to source and produce many items locally helped avoid delays.”