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Historic restoration of Ybor City\u2019s Sanchez y Haya building begins final phase (City of Tampa).<\/p>\nHistoric restoration of Ybor City\u2019s Sanchez y Haya building begins final phase (City of Tampa).<\/p>\n
Just a few years ago, the historic Sanchez y Haya building in Ybor City was an abandoned, dilapidated concrete and brick shell at risk of crumbling to the ground. Today, the historic building enters the final phase of a painstaking renovation to restore its former glory and its original use during Ybor\u2019s Cigar City heyday.<\/p>\n
In 1910, Ybor\u2019s first cigarmakers, Ignacio Haya and Serafin Sanchez, opened the building as a restaurant, hotel, and boarding house for cigar workers at their El Reloj factory across the street and out-of-town visitors. Now, El Reloj and Sanchez y Haya\u2019s current owner, family-operated J.C. Newman Cigar Co., plans to reopen the historically renovated building in late 2026 with a first-floor restaurant and bar and a small boutique hotel on the second floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During a Nov. 24th groundbreaking ceremony in a fenced-off construction staging area outside Sanchez y Haya, fourth-generation J.C. Newman owner Drew Newman says the family didn\u2019t plan to jump into another project after the historic restoration of El Reloj finished in 2020.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, the building was abandoned a few decades ago, and it was neglected,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great example of urban blight\u2026We saw it as observers from across the street. We saw it sit vacant and deteriorate for decades. Lots of people, including our wonderful architects, looked at the building, thought about redeveloping it and restoring it, went inside, and left. We saw this happen time and time again as the building continued to worsen. By 2020, the building was so bad, we thought it was just going to fall down.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sanchez y Haya restoration celebrates building\u2019s colorful history. (City of Tampa).<\/p>\n
Realizing there was no one else to save this piece of Tampa\u2019s cigar history, J.C. Newman purchased the ramshackle relic across Columbus Drive from El Reloj and started plotting another exhaustive historic renovation project. They were frequently reminded that they were taking on a doozy of a task.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we walked through the building with National Park Service staff about 18 months ago, one of them commented off-hand that this is the second-worst building in the state of Florida that they\u2019d ever seen anyone try to bring back,\u201d Newman says. \u201cI still don\u2019t know if that was meant to be a compliment or a statement that we\u2019re just crazy to do much effort it has taken to bring this building back to life.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says this 21st century revival adds a new chapter to Sanchez y Haya\u2019s \u201cvery colorful history.\u201d Over the decades, the building\u2019s been a Prohibition-era speakeasy, a grocery store, distillery, brewery, knitting shop, coffee mill, and a dive bar. With a restaurant, bar, cigar lounge, gift shop, and boutique hotel in a historically renovated building, Sanchez y Haya is also expected to be a boost for Tampa\u2019s heritage tourism economy, says Abbye Feeley, the city\u2019s Administrator of Development and Economic Opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Third-generation JC Newman owner Eric Newman and Tampa City Council member Charlie Miranda, who grew up in Ybor City. (City of Tampa).<\/p>\n
The $18.5 million renovation\u2019s funding mix includes $5 million from the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency, $2.3 million from the National Park, and a $600,000 grant from Hillsborough County. The Sinclair Group is the contractor manager.\u00a0 Rowe Architects is the design firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first phase of restoration work braced the building to keep it standing, and finished just before the 2024 hurricanes hit. In the second phase, Newman says workers went through the \u201cvery slow, laborious process\u201d of repairing all the concrete in the building. Work crews manually applied more than 1,400 bags of concrete as they repaired every beam, ceiling, and column one by one. The final phase will restore Sanchez y Haya\u2019s historic design and character.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Newman introduced Tampa city officials, Congresswoman Kathy Castor, members of the restoration project team, and other dignitaries during the Nov. 24 groundbreaking, he called attention to a special guest. Sanchez y Haya co-owner Serafin Sanchez\u2019s great-great-grandson, Christian Klein, was there to represent his family. Talking with a few reporters, Klein says the time and effort put into the restoration and the decision to return to the building\u2019s original use show the Newmans\u2019 commitment to preserving Ybor\u2019s heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really cool that this is going to tie these two families together\u2026You can see the labor of love that they\u2019ve put into it,\u201d Klein says.<\/p>\n
The Sanchez y Haya restoration also pays tribute to the Newman family\u2019s history. The planned cigar lounge, Stanford\u2019s, and restaurant, Elaine\u2019s, are named in honor of Stanford and Elaine Newman, who moved the family cigar business from Ohio to Tampa and El Reloj in 1954. The 11-room boutique hotel will be The Inn at El Reloj.<\/p>\n